You know I love my hills around here. Living at the bottom of a valley, we are surrounded by rolling hills that go on forever. They often end up in my photos.
In the morning
In the winter
Or the summer
Or any other other time
While we were in Arizona, we took a day trip to Sedona, and on Route 17, there is a rest area called Sunset Point. Our time was a little limited, so we took the most direct route and were thrilled to find this great spot to get out and take some photos.
And these?
These are not just hills.
Though that is certainly a valley
These are mountains.
Don’t get me wrong – I still love my little hills back home. But was just amazing to stand up here and look at this.
… and not in a good way either…
Brush the mushrooms free of dirt and slice thickly. Set them aside for now.
Dice 1 large carrot, 1 large stalk of celery and 1 medium onion.
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a 5 quart soup pot, and add the diced carrot, celery and onion.
Sweat over low heat for 6 to 8 minutes, until the celery and onion are translucent and the carrot is starting to get tender.
Add the mushrooms, increase the heat to medium and cook for about another 6 to 8 minutes, stirring every couple minutes.
Add two teaspoons of dried [1 tablespoon fresh] thyme, and 3 medium garlic cloves, minced. Cook 2 minutes.
Add 3/4 cup of dry white wine
And 3 tablespoons of brandy
Now this next part has to be done fairly fast and all at once, so I didn’t get any photos, but it is not difficult. Raise the heat under the pan a bit and cook the mixture until it reduces by about half. Quickly whisk in 4 tablespoons of all purpose flour. Reduce heat back to medium and whisk continuously for about a minute, to cook the flour and ensure that it is completely incorporated. Add 3 cups chicken stock and keep whisking until everything is evenly mixed. Bring back up to a simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring every couple minutes.
Add 3/4 of a cup of half & half or light, or heavy cream, depending on how many calories you want to add.
Bring back up to serving temperature.
Serve with a bit of shaved romano cheese on top.
It didn’t completely make us forget about the snow, but it was close.
You just don’t see this out here in the country.
They have a nice fountain out front. 
I took about 50 photos of the water drops falling – they reminded me of home, where we have drops of water falling a lot. I will spare you the other 49 photos though.
Finally, we were allowed inside, only to be met with the information that since the museum doesn’t own the Ansel Adams exhibit, they can’t allow any photos to be taken of it. Is that a cruel irony or what? I have no doubt that I could have taken some sneak photos, but I honored the rule and just enjoyed myself. And this exhibit is quite wonderful – not just prints of some great photographs, but numerous videos of Mr Adams teaching classes, explaining how he set up a particular photo, and just generally talking about taking pictures. I was able to take a photo of this lovely sign, which at least proves that we were there.
You could easily spend days in this place – it is enormous, and just chock full of awesome stuff. We have our priorities however, and had appointments for pedicures, so we could only spend a couple hours there. We did visit a few other areas, including an atrium outdoors where we found this gentleman.
They wouldn’t let him take any photos of the Ansel Adams exhibit either.
