Spring Break

Peggy is enjoying her spring break while Ed, unfortunately, has work to do. The view from the room is fabulous, the weather is perfect, and the food is outstanding.

Yesterday's flight went very well and we landed ahead of schedule. The funny thing was the entire Arizona rattlesnakes arena football team was on the flight so not only was every seat taken but some of the seats were taken by men who were so incredibly huge they probably needed two seats.




The plan for today involves a lot of nothing. First thing was to spend some time at the pool with a nice book. Then, Peggy & Nacy headed to TJ Cooks for a fabulous chef's demonstration by Chef Lee Hillson. The menu paired several of his best dishes with wines. The event is held right at a bar in front of the grill, wood burning oven, and prep station where Chef Lee prepares evening meals.




Four courses started with watermelon and feta paired with a Prosecco. The salad took mere minutes to prepare and was fantastic, including edible orchids.


Then slow roasted pork belly on cauliflower puree paired with a Perrin Reserve Cotes du Rhone Rouge. The pork belly was prepared with a zatar rub and green harissa sauce.


The entree was pan roasted scallops with saffron gratin, sweet peppers & celery paired with a Bodegas Salentein Unoaked Chardonnay.



It all concluded with a dark chocolate hazelnut "candy bar" paired with a Vau Vintage Port.



Chef Hillson was truly entertaining, friendly and educational sharing great stories about his training, work with children's charities and even gave out his recipes. Pleep highly recommends participating in the chef's table events any time you get the chance.

Because most of this group hails in the Kansas City area there's a pitched fever about today's game with Kansas playing Ohio State. Pleep has seen Kansas choke on too many occasions so he doesn't hold out a lot hope that they're going to make it to the finals.

The evening ends with happy hour and a meal at Lon's at Hermosa Inn. hopefully Peggy and Nancy can recover sufficiently from lunch to enjoy at least a little something at Lon's.




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Location:E Camelback Rd,Phoenix,United States

On The Road Again

Pleepleus is ready for another road trip. It all starts tomorrow with the flight to Phoenix. First, he will be hooking up with one of his favorite couples - Nancy & Jay. Plans include poolside margaritas, a cooking demo at Cook's in the Royal Palm, and happy hour at Lons.

Then we head to Santa Fe where we hook-up with David & Patti. Pleep and Patti are fast friends, especially as they share a taste for Guinness. Plus, Patti crocheted Pleep's favorite hat for him to wear on St. Patrick's Day. David has tried to scare Pleep with threats about letting a relative's dog play with him but Pleep just gives David his patented monkeybutt maneuver.

After a few days in Santa Fe, the crowd will head north to Durango and the Strater Hotel. Ska Brewery, one of Pleep & Ed's favorite breweries, is having a Mexican Logger kegger.

Peggy has purchased the new iPad and the bloggerpress app so watch for a few posts from the road.

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