Sunday Morning Musings and Mimosas on Monday!
More, More and More…
More baseball, more great food, and more time with best friends! It was so great to have Peder’s best friend, Todd (of 55 years!) and his wife Laura, join us in Phoenix for a week of baseball, incredible food and lots of reminiscing!
Disclaimer: I guess this should be titled Monday Morning Musings and Mimosas…I was unable to post yesterday as we were away from Coach Addy for the weekend visiting a friend in Prescott, Arizona and I wanted to include the experience in my weekly post. Not to mention, that it takes quite a bit of time to write and publish these posts, and that would have been rude! Sometimes you just have to be flexible and go with the flow.
Hot Tip #1: Coordinate your friends’ visits when their favorite baseball team is playing your favorite baseball team. Todd and Laura are from Colorado and they are big Rockies fans, which worked out great because we really wanted to see a game at their home field, Salt River Fields/Talking Stick, as it is highly rated as one of the best Spring Training fields in Arizona. Todd bought us all AMAZING seats 5 rows back from Home Plate. An ideal place to watch the Padres crush the Rockies! Have I mentioned how awesome the Padres look this year!
I would agree that Talking Stick is one of the best fields that we have seen so far, but a very close second would be Sloane Park, home of the Chicago Cubs. This field is so cool, as it is like a mini replica of Wrigley Field in Chicago! They even have the iconic red Wrigley sign. But what is even more cool is that you can stand in line and a nice man will personalize the sign and you can get your picture taken in front of the sign.
Hot Tip #2: Don’t wear your Padre gear to a Cubs game if you don’t want the man working the sign to mess with you! All in good fun, you gotta keep your sense of humor!
The only thing better than watching baseball games with Todd and Laura was sharing some amazing meals! We went to the #1 Voted Restaurant in the US by Yelp, Cocina Madrigal! OMG!! This is a casual local Oaxacan Mexican restaurant with the most incredible food! The Wild Mushroom Enchiladas were to die for! We all ate way too much food, but enjoyed every bite.
The following night we hosted Todd and Laura at Coach Addy and had so much fun making Peder’s famous Paella and savoring every bite along with his home baked bread. A huge thank you to Todd and Laura for making the trip to Arizona! We can’t wait to see you when we travel to Colorado later this year, and oh yeah, we look forward to seeing the Padres beat the Rockies at Coors Field while we are there!
We love doing Paella when we entertain. It is one of those meals that everyone enjoys watching (and smelling) the process. Each step allows your guests to savor the process, bringing its own set of aromas and bringing you one step closer to the finished product.
The RV Resort where we are staying has a very active social calendar: Bingo on Thursday nights, live music on Saturday nights, donuts on Sunday morning and a very hokey, but cute St. Patrick’s Day parade. Everybody sits out in front of their motor coach and waves as residents drive by in their decorated golf carts. I can only imagine what the 4th of July parade looks like! Yep, another slice of Americana and the opportunity to enjoy the simple things in life.
Hot Tip #3
Just because you are “on the road” doesn’t mean you can’t entertain with style. As most of you know, I love to entertain and attempt to make each experience personal and memorable for our guests. I am having a blast discovering ways to do this in Coach Addy. My new favorite thing is creating beautiful and delicious crostinis. There really is an art to this and Peder’s homemade baguettes are a perfect canvas.
We are also having fun creating baking videos featuring Baker Pedee. This past week, we filmed our most requested item: Pizza Dough. I know I am prejudiced, but I really think Peder is a natural. Here is a link to the Pizza Dough Video.
We paired the pizza with a beautiful Sangiovese wine from Altipiano winery in San Diego. Denise is a good friend of ours and an award winning winemaker. So happy that we brought some of her wine with us On the Great Open Road!
You can check out the other videos on our website On the Great Open Road.
This weekend, we left Coach Addy at the RV Resort and drove our car up to Prescott, Arizona for an overnight visit with our good friend Lee Ann. Although much colder than it was in Phoenix, it is a beautiful part of Arizona. Lee Ann was the most thoughtful hostess and even had a couple of surprises for us, including meeting her new friend who happened to be from Carlsbad and planning a brunch with a mutual friend, Lauren who moved from San Diego to Prescott a few years ago. Even Charlie had a great time and enjoyed getting to know his new friend Daisy. Prescott and Prescott Valley are beautiful! I can absolutely see why people leave California and retire here. Everything is so much more spread out and there is just an overall feeling of calm and goodness. Prescott has the most adorable old historic downtown with a traditional Courthouse Square and fun shops and saloons up and down Whiskey Road.
Thank You Lee Ann for inviting us to your home, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and had so much fun sharing stories of the past and dreams of the future!
We headed back to Phoenix Sunday afternoon, and entertained our good friends Jon and Jodi. Another batch of Paella and some homemade Sangria. We shared travel stories and reminisced about how both of us enjoyed Paella at a quaint restaurant on the boardwalk while staying at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona. This experience is what inspired us to return home, purchase a paella pan and begin our journey of perfecting this incredible dish.
Lesson Learned: There are some definite advantages to staying in one place for a length of time. I love seeing new places and experiencing new things, but I must admit it has been nice being settled at Desert Shadows RV Resort and getting to know your neighbors and the neighborhood.
Bummer of the Week: This is our last week in Phoenix-We head to the Grand Canyon this next weekend. We have really enjoyed our time here and experiencing all that the greater area has to offer. It’s been a great month!
Highlight(s) of the Week: Hearing so many stories about Peder and Todd’s friendship and all of the fun they had growing up together. A lifetime of memories! We are both truly blessed to have such great lifelong friends.
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