West to East Caribbean on the Sun Princess

~ Spence's Girl ~ Leave a comment

I recently completed another cruise, this time two weeks on the newest ship in the Princess fleet, the Sun Princess. It’s a beautiful ship and is massive in size. Lots of walking onboard and off ship at several new ports plus revisiting St Thomas. Here are some of my favorite photos from sailing out of Ft Lauderdale to Mahogany Bay in Honduras, to Cozumel, Puerto Rico and St Thomas. More posts will follow, stay tuned.

Corn Soufflé

~ Spence's Girl ~ Leave a comment

This is a favorite recipe from a former work colleague I haven’t made it for a while but today is bitterly cold and very windy – cooking comfort food seemed like a good plan. I’ve always made this as a side dish but decided to made it my entree this time.

Corn Soufflé – serves 6-8 as a side dish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 stick of butter

1 small onion, diced

1/2 green and 1/2 red bell pepper – chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

Sauté in butter for 5-6 minutes, set aside to cool.

In a large bowl add:

1 box Jiffy Cornbread mix

1 can creamed corn

1 can sweet corn – drain only 1/2 the liquid

3 eggs – lightly beaten

1 c sour cream (not low-fat)

1/2 c Colby-Jack cheese, finely shredded

Salt and pepper to taste

Dash of cayenne pepper, optional

Stir together till mixed. Butter a soufflé dish. Add the sautéed veggies into the corn mixture, fold in gently. Transfer to the soufflé dish and bake for 70 to 80 minutes. Top with 1/2 c cheese and return it to the oven for 5 minutes or until just melted. Cool for 5-10 minutes and serve.

Candlelight: Día De Los Muertos: Celebrating the Day of the Dead

~ Spence's Girl ~ Leave a comment

While in Santa Fe we learned of a Candlelight concert to be held at the New Mexico Museum of Art.

We were already planning to tour the museum itself and decided to check out the venue while there. We came back that evening and thoroughly enjoyed the event.

Before it begins
The performance
The music

Box Studio – outside Santa Fe

~ Spence's Girl ~ 2 Comments

When traveling to Santa Fe from Albuquerque, my friend Cindy said “why don’t we take back roads?” as our rental wouldn’t be available until 4 p.m..

This was brilliant and reminiscent of the best road trips I took over many years with Spence. He preferred going off highways, discovering places we would otherwise miss. In taking the back roads we discovered Box Studio. We actually passed it, looked at each other – simultaneously and enthusiastically saying “turn around!” When we did we saw only some of this magical place – they had closed for the day ten minutes before. We took a few photos but noticed they were open Monday-Friday from 9:00-2:00 and done for the season on November 1st. It’s close to Santa Fe so we made a plan to come back.

It was so much more than we could’ve guessed from the roadside. Called Origami in the Garden, this place is a sculpture garden wonderland on private property where the owners live and create. The show travels (in part) to other venues around the country. Each sculpture is first created with paper in origami taking a year to bring it to completion in their studio. It was very zen when walking amongst these artistic and lovely pieces with the brilliant blue sky as a backdrop. I couldn’t stop smiling throughout our hike.

There is a well-received documentary about Box Studio called Origami in the Garden, it’s available on Netflix. Should you find yourself near Santa Fe, make stopping here a priority.