The Grand Canyon!

Whoohoo!

11th November 2013
Arizona, US
78.8 miles north of Flagstaff

Words are going to fail me and never do justice to this day so I'm simply attaching the photos to this post and letting them speak for themselves. Even then, it's just one of those places that will never have the same effect on you unless you are actually there to see it for yourself. Standing on the edge of one of the world's natural wonders with the wind in your face as you cautiously peer over the edge to see the Colorado river miles away below you is an indescribable experience. Everyone should visit the Grand Canyon.

Seasoned with Grandeur,

Jacob

Getting excited!

Super excited!

Some things make you feel like you can fly!

One of my all time favourite photos of this trip

I thought this was cool. Different hiking routes with the recommended supplies needed. I would love to do some of these!

If you look closely you can see a pod-racer bottom left...I'm joking!

The raging and wild Colorado River literally miles below.

Now, that's a view...

The vastness is hard to comprehend

"Am I really here?"

Breath taking, right? It's about ten miles to the plateau on the other side.

He, he! Now this was a surprise!

Elk at an arms reach was such a cool, unexpected thing to see.

A few for my ever growing collection...

An experience that I'll never forget.

Anyway, anybody else hungry now?

Oh, and here's a fantastic picture I thought I'd add...

The Grand Canyon from Space! Just bamboozical..

I Cook in the Mojave Desert - Part 3

 Once again, it was time to be back on the road again. However, there was still more delicious stuff to make. Helen and I made pizzas for everyone! Absolutely fantastic fun!
 A little trick that Helen does with her pizza bases is lightly oiling the pans but also sprinkling a garlic powder mix on the oil. This gives the base that perfect, light and golden crispness. When it came to toppings Helen told me off for being stingy with the pepperoni. Apparently we were making American pizzas, not English pizzas... Ha, ha! 

 If you're looking at the photos and thinking that some of the pizzas look like they ballooned a bit, that's because they did... The first ones were obviously left the longest so the carried on rising a bit. That didn't stop them tasting just great however! 
 And don't get me started on Butterfingers, let alone the ice-cream version! Some things I wish I was never introduced to...oh, boy.

Butterfinger "candy" bar

 Dear Sullivan family, thank you so much for everything you did in my stay with you all. Hopefully it won't be too long until we get to all meet up again. If ever you fancy a break from the desert and want to cool off a bit, don't hesitate pay me a visit across the blue. God bless you all!

Seasoned with some Californian sunshine,

Jacob

The pecan dessert from Part 1 with pumpkin pie
ice-cream.

Absolute deliciousness! We did a sausage pizza too. (right middle)

Double deep pan!

"To glorify my Savior, Jesus Christ, the Creator 

of the universe and spread further abroad His glorious gospel." - Yours Truly

I Cook in the Mojave Desert - Part 2

Oh yes, Twinkies...

 Here are some more photos of my stay with the Sullivan family in California. Making cinnamon rolls, pasta bolognese, glazed roast pork shoulder, managing to get photos in an industrial kitchen and trying the world famous Twinkie for the first time! I have to say, the Twinkie wasn't fantastic...

 For my fellow Brits who are likewise ignorant of these squidgy lumps of empty calories, or, as my favourite comedian, Tim Hawkins, put it, "deep fried hunks of trasfat and sugar", Twinkies are described on the box as "golden sponge cakes with creamy fillings". So, let me help you get a mental picture here. Imagine a cheaper than the cheapest Victoria sponge with quality far less than that of a TESCO Everyday Value type thing, take away the jam, times the preservatives to the third power, leave it uncovered for forty-eight hours and you might have something still healthier in comparison to a Twinkie. I'm pretty sure it's only the legal addictive stimulant that these kinda things are laced with that keep people coming back for more. Have a read of this story at least before you think about trying one. What a 37 Year Old Twinkie Looks Like... (And as it happens, on the radio it was announced that there was a new record set for the most amount of Twinkies consumed in six minutes: 121! That's about 20 per minute.)

My first Twinkie!

 Anyhow, check out the photos below for real food and a little surprise at the end...

Griddling pancakes. I didn't intend to make a lemon...

My mini-me

Glazing the pork...

...and the finished result!

Making a delicious bolognese sauce on a superbly large scale for well over twenty people.

It was so cool to see Worcestershire Sauce over here!

Not a masterpiece exactly but for the little hands that helped it certainly was. (In case you're wondering, that's pineapple not sweetcorn...)

The world's best cinnamon rolls! Oh my goodness...

Don't ask! It's amazing where good manners get you.

Tim at his best. The Twinkie Song!

"To glorify my Savior, Jesus Christ, the Creator 

of the universe and spread further abroad His glorious gospel." - Yours Truly

I Cook in the Mojave Desert - Part 1

From this...

...and this...

 And the title is referring to me cooking, not me cooking food if you get it? It's like a play on words...? Never mind, to the important stuff.
 It's absolutely fascinating driving through the States and just watching from your car window the scenery change drastically before your very eyes without going more than a few miles. Still heading steadily southwards through California, I left behind the green hills of San Francisco and continued on with everywhere about me gradually looking more and more like a scene from "Cars". Orangeries and vineyards gave way to hills of shaggy dry grass with the odd tree here and there and then even those soon disappeared leaving nothing but endless, lifeless rock and sand. And the occasional cactus. (Cue the whistling and tumble weed.)

...to this.

 Leaving my vehicle and stepping out into that dry air, realizing that the cook is being cooked by that unforgiving, Californian sun was my warm (understatement of the century) welcome to the Mojave Desert. A breathtakingly beautiful spectical and an aridly empty wasteland at the same time, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd waken up on planet Mars. 

Had a near miss with this fella...

 The Mojave Desert is a place I'll never forget. Thought it seems empty, it is full of surprises. Pleasant ones like discovering that pistachios are grown here and that there is an annual pistachio festival that I was able to attend, and then some not so pleasant that you've got to really keep an eye out for. Venomous creatures such as rattlesnakes and sidewinders, tarantulas and black widows, Gila monsters, etc. The list goes on. That's without the coyotes...

Of course I had to get a
green keyring...

 And then there are the Sullivan's. Long term friends whom I had the pleasure of staying with for ten days. Helen, the wonderful wife and Mum, is an amazing cook and makes the absolute best cinnamon rolls on the planet. Seriously, you haven't lived until you've tried one. There were some fantastic other things we got to concoct in her kitchen with 11 year old Chelsea FC fan, James, such as the amazing pizzas you'll see in the photos.

Part two with more photos coming soon...

Helen making potato salad. I used to really dislike but
eventually acquired a taste for it.

Fellow handsome ginger, James...

Cross chopping pecans...

Come on, let's cook something!

...for delicious desserts

Meatball sandwiches. Delish.

Leftover chilli and rice in a slowcooker layerd with wraps
and topped with cheese. Absolutely fantastic.

The Mojave Desert
(Images)

And then a little surprise. I saw this commercial around the same time as the festival so I thought it was kinda fitting. And it's kinda green...

"To glorify my Savior, Jesus Christ, the Creator 

of the universe and spread further abroad His glorious gospel." - Yours Truly