Fall is finally arriving in The Valley of the Sun and none too soon. This is the most pleasant time of the year to be here and the snowbirds are beginning to arrive before winter sets in .
Oak Creek
One of the really good things about the fall season is knowing that Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice is back. Never tried it? Check it out!
Pumpkin Spice Latte
Fall in Arizona is also the best time of the year to visit the many arts & crafts fairs throughout The Valley. One of the best floating arts & crafts fairs is Briar Patch Marketplace. You can visit their website at: www.briarpatchmarketplace.com
If you have ever considered creating art using the medium of watercolor, Kathy B. has written an article on Getting Started With Watercolor. You can also view some of her work at: www.Etsy.com
We have added a wonderful fall recipe forStuffed Peppers that has been handed down in our family over the years.
And as always there are a fewJokes & Storiesfrom readers and from around the web. Feel free to contribute by email at:
This takes some time and a little effort to prepare, but it is well worth it.
What you need
A nice sized stew pot and cover
4 well shaped, symmetrical peppers (green, red, yellow or a combination)
2 large eggs
1 cup of Progresso Italian Style breadcrumbs
2 Garlic cloves
1 cup of chopped spinach (frozen works great – thawed and drained)
2 cans of chicken broth
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp of salt
1tsp of black pepper
2tsp of parsley flakes
1tsp basil
Olive oil
Serves 4
First
Cut the tops off the peppers and core them. Be sure not to leave any seeds or white spines. Rinse thoroughly and set aside.
Second
Finely chop the garlic and combine with eggs, breadcrumbs, spinach, cheese, salt, pepper, parsley, parmesan and basil. Knead into a moist, well mixed mound.
Third
Stuff each pepper to about a 1/4 inch below the top. Insert a sliver of garlic in the center of each pepper and sprinkle some grated parmesan on top.
Fourth
Pour the broth into the stew pot and place the peppers upright in the pot and drizzle some olive oil over each one. Cook 30-40 minutes over medium heat until the peppers are soft but not mushy. The pot must be covered and the peppers basted frequently with the broth. Remove the peppers and let them settle for a few minutes.
This dish is very, very filling and need only be served with a salad, French or Italian bread and a nice Chianti
Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.
Divorced & Drunk
A man and his wife are at a restaurant, and the husband keeps staring at an old drunken lady swigging her gin at a nearby table.
His wife asks, “Do you know her?”
“Yes,” sighs the husband. “She’s my ex-wife. She took to drinking right after we divorced seven years ago, and I hear she hasn’t been sober since.”
“My God!” says the wife. “Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?”
My Dog Don’t Bite
A hound dog lays in the yard and an old man in overalls sits on the porch.
“Excuse me, sir, but does your dog bite?” a jogger asks.
The old man looks over his newspaper and replies, “Nope.”
As soon as the jogger enters the yard, the dog begins snarling and growling, and then attacks the jogger’s legs. As the jogger flails around in the yard, he yells, “I thought you said your dog didn’t bite!”
