La Quinta, California: The weather app on our phones has been teasing us with little "30% chance of rain" icons the past several days. Nothing. It has been ridiculously muggy - something quite rare in the desert - and everyone is complaining about the humidity. (Honestly, these people need to go live in The Philippines for three years.)
After getting the house back together after the kids left (laundry, laundry, laundry), we took Sunday off and played 18 holes. Though still humid, a storm was definitely heading our way (from Arizona). When the sun disappeared behind dark clouds, the temperature dropped below 100, making the back nine quite pleasant. Well... I still shot over 120.

I prepared a proper supper on Saturday - Spaghetti & Meatballs and a wedge salad with homemade Blue Cheese Dressing. (I am still slowly getting my recipes back on line... soup and salad recipes were added this week.)


It poured rain overnight Sunday. Finally. We received over 1/2 inch, the most rain the Coachella Valley has seen in 15 months. Of course, this much rain means washed-out roads, flooded streets, and our phones and television blasting Emergency Alerts. Houses in this area generally do not have gutters... because rain is so rare... so our courtyard was a mess Monday morning. DT had an early morning dental appointment, so it was up to me to clean-up the debris. I swept-up the big stuff, used the blower for the small stuff, but needed to hose-off the front walkway.

Everything is sunny again!
Since My Driver did not want to eat anything substantial/too chewy after his dental visit, I made RV Mac & Cheese for dinner. Leo and Lucile just love this dish, and since Dave requested it on his birthday in April, am going to assume he likes it as well? Could not be easier - no cheese sauce to make. Just mix cooked pasta in a little cream and spices, toss in grated cheese, pour it in a gratin dish and bake. Even with only using one cup dry elbow noodles, there was enough left-over for his lunch today.

This time I used a coarsely-grated mix of three cheeses. Sold in a bag. Already shredded. The cheese melts into the half-and-half to create a yummy sauce when baked.

Homemade garlic and parsley breadcrumbs (made with panko) were sprinkled on top.

Hoo, baby - was this good!
Until my next update, I remain, your carbo-loading correspondent.