Himalayan Salt Lights

JWise Photo of the Day

Himalayan rock salt lights

Did some shopping at our one and only Eco store in Phoenix – it is appropriately named Eco-Clean. Nope, didn’t buy any of these salt lights, I don’t need any more negative ions as I am already too fat. I came for cleaning supplies and I wasn’t disappointed. I bought the cheapest stuff I could find, as that bottle of cleaner/degreaser for $15 was too heavy for my pocket. I grabbed a bottle of concentrated Bi-o-Kleen grape seed extract and orange peel cleaner that makes 32 gallons (121 liters) for only $7.45. Got home, tried it out, and just kept on going cleaning stuff I had just cleaned a week before and each wipe, each scrub, this stuff was getting cleaner than ever before. Threw out the Comet, the 409, the Windex and am now sold on not only a better and cheaper cleaner but an eco-friendly one at that. Now it’s time after all this hard work to go buy one of these Himalayan Salt Lights and test if the tanning results will be what I expect.

Tiny Bubbles

JWise Photo of the Day

Sour dough starter

These tiny bubbles are the healthy results of fermentation at work, as natural yeast turns flour and water sour and my first batch of sourdough starter in more than 25 years comes to life. Tired of buying crap bread, tired of the poor excuse for a baguette from any and every restaurant and baker in Phoenix, we have come to high-noon and I’m pulling out the recipes to try my hand at recreating some of the bread Caroline and I used to eat in Europe. If you have ever been to that part of the world, you will know that I am intending to make roof-of-your-mouth gouging, jaw-tiring loaves of bread that weigh as much as 100 loaves of Wonder bread. Results to follow.

Red Hot

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Shadow of a tree on a red brick wall

Spring is over – hello, Summer. The radar is now turned on for shade as the days get hotter and our closed cars start baking. And so it begins, the old Phoenician pastime of drivers crazily searching for the itty bitty strands of shade that might protect them and their cars from the onslaught of hotter and hotter days. This coming week we are forecast to approach the 90’s (32c) and just two weeks ago the heater was still on – there are some things you never get used to living in Phoenix, Arizona.

Sprecher Soda

JWise Food, Photo of the Day

Sprecher Cream Soda from Wisconsin

Another case of Sprecher soda bottles arrived this week. We have been savoring the first case for the past 2 months, enjoying the best root beer we have ever had, which got us thinking that maybe Sprecher’s other flavors might be worth a try as well. So, an order for an assortment of flavors, including ginger ale, cream, cola, orange, and Ravin’ Red – a concoction of cranberry, cherry, and ginseng was made.

I read about Sprecher of Wisconsin on the Slow Food USA website, specifically their ARK program, which aims to preserve artisanal foods from across the country. The sodas cost about $1.50 each after shipping so they are no more expensive than purchasing from a local convenience store, but the flavor difference of a handmade soda is a thousand times better.

Blizzard, where?

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Phoenix, Arizona looking west from Camelback mountain

Suffer you mid-west dogs. While you try to deal with blizzards, white outs, monster snowdrifts – in other words, the dread of winter, we bask in the sun of perpetual perfection here on this beautiful spring day in Phoenix, Arizona. In three months I’ll be choking on a dust storm or two and sniffling with half of the local population suffering from allergies, but come on, look out there – NO, not the smog layer, the blue skies, and red rocks.