Arizona

For Thanksgiving, we visited Z's parents in Arizona. With the trip, came good times, good pictures, and good food.

Here, for example, would be an example of good times.

I know the white balance is off, but Z's mom is clearly cracking up over something (and the sky looks pretty cool too)

We took some pictures of an Arizona sunset, which came out fairly well. Keep in mind, these are my first sunset pictures. All-in-all, I'm pretty happy with them, but will happily take advice on how to make them better.

I think this one is my favorite.

While we were there, we came across some products of a local jam and sauce maker. I've been looking for a jalapeño jelly for Z for a while (ever since she had jalapeño jelly with brie at a wine bar in Lubbock), so when I saw that this vendor carried some, I pulled her over to try it out. She liked it, so I got some. I also grabbed a bottle of a raspberry chipotle sauce.


I used it as a pork marinade. In all honesty, I was disappointed, but that could be because I didn't have time to actually marinate the meat, and instead just put it on right before baking. The sauce was really good to dip the meat into, so it will definitely get another chance in my kitchen.

The Yard

This post definitely isn't food related, but ah well. One thing I like about the place we're renting in Lubbock, is the spacious back yard. It turns out that the dogs like it too.

Here's Nizhoni trying to scratch her back (or something)

this went on for quite some time

And here Nizhoni and Kodiak are playing with each other. This picture isn't great because it is through the window and there was a big light differential. However, I was really impressed that they were play fighting without one of us watching them directly.

Yes, Nizhoni looks a lot smaller, but she can definitely hold her own

New Camera

Now that I have a new camera, I've begun playing around with it. Mostly, I've been shooting mundane objects, such as my watch (on a table), or blurry objects like Nizhoni quickly approaching me. However, last night, when I was mowing my yard, I noticed something odd about a pine(ish) tree in the front yard. From a distance, it looked sorta like it had dew on it.



However, upon closer inspection (i.e., when I had to mow under the tree), I noticed that it has these little purple berry sort of things.



Now, I know this isn't food, but I was curious if anyone knew the variety of this tree?