FAQ 13 SNOW DAY in AZ with Easy Vegetable Soup Recipe

FAQ 13 Snow Day in Flagstaff, Arizona 

ADOT Winter Driving Warning on I 40 past Flagstaff Arizona

I'm stuck in the house, drinking my coffee. . .

MODOT has issued a NO DRIVE ALERT

for Joplin, Missouri 

My solution. Stay home. 

The roads are covered in ice with a topping of powdery snow - more to come. It's not so bad with a couple of inches of snow but when you add the ice underneath, it's a recipe for disaster. Lovely grand-daughter got a notice that a MODOT vehicle had slid off the road. I 44 closed. Grand-son-in-law decided to stay at the hospital all night where he works, which better than risking a drive back and forth on the icy roads.

Easy Vegetable Soup Recipe

In a large crock-pot:

1 -32  oz bottle.of V-8 juice

1 -16 oz can of the following veggies: (This is quick and easy. If you want fresh brave the storm and go buy some fresh veggies-good luck. I use no salt canned veggies but regular is ok-it's cold for crying out loud!)

16 oz corn

16 oz mixed veggies

16 oz green beans

16 oz peas

16 oz black beans

1 large onion diced -  red or yellow

6 small potatoes diced (yukon gold or red is great), 
or 3 Large Idaho diced

2 cup Salsa (your favorite-Mild, Medium or Hot your choice)

1 small can of diced Hatch green chiles

2 diced jalapenos (you can leave this out if it's too spicy)

16 oz grass fed beef (or lean hamburger cooked and drained)

Spices:

All to taste. I'm a dump and pour cook. I've been cooking for 40+ years and I make it up as I go. 

Mrs. Dash Onion Herb- yummy

Pepper- more the merrier especially on cold days-to taste

Dash salt -to taste

Dried Parsley- lots. need vitamin C

Paprika (Hungarian is really good)

Dump everything in the Crock Pot. Let it simmer on High for 2 hours or medium for 4 hours. Depends on what you are doing. Stir every once in a while.

Calories -about 245 a cup. You'll probably burn up 1000 calories trying to stay warm. 

It's almost all veggies. Leave out the meat and add an extra cup of black beans if you want vegetarian.

Serves 16 -  one cup servings

This recipe freezes great. Make a big batch. Wonderful to take for lunch.

Now Available in ebook, paperback, and Large Print


Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe

A toxic Mom instigates her murder.

Marty Knox

Request ARC Copy of ebook

Murder@ the Black Mesa Salon

Murdered Lovers who disappeared 20 years ago 

discovered in a lake.

Coming in Summer 2019

MARTY KNOX

Request an ebook - FREE ARC copy of 

Murder@ the Black Mesa Salon 

email me: martyknox4@hotmail.com

Your choice of file: Kindle (.mobi), 

Any electronic device (epub), or PC (.pdf)

.

In the upcoming novel in my mystery series, Murder@ the Black Mesa Salon Book 2, cyber forensic expert Minerva Doyle makes this soup to take with her to work. Trust me - it's a lifesaver when she is trapped in a blizzard on the mountain. School is canceled. 

Minerva braves the snowstorm driving home on the back roads of the Hopi Reservation. When the perpetrator of the murders disables Minerva's car, she needs her smarts to outwit the below zero wind chill. 

Then freezing temperatures suck the life out of her cell phone. An endless night and bleak day go by, In the meantime, back home, Michael rounds up the Navajo Search and Rescue Team. 

Will someone find her in time before hypothermia and frostbite set in, as the storm buries her car under 6 feet of snow on a deserted highway?

Murder@ the Black Mesa Dance

A murdered nerdy student commits suicide.

Coming in Winter 2020

Murder@ the Black Mesa Mailbox

A vigilante murders a cyber troll.

Coming in Summer 2020

FAQ 3: What is the ATF? (Bureau of Alchohol Firearms and Explosives) Black Mesa AZ

FAQ  3

ATF: Bureau of Alcohol Firearms 
Tobacco and Explosives

https://www.atf.gov/our-history/photo-gallery-1#

In my novel Murder@Black Mesa Cafe, Michael Sean Doyle is a retired ATF agent. 

During the Great Depression and the era of Prohibition, and thru WW 2 my grandfather was a revenue agent in the true sense. He worked with Elliot Ness. Not as dramatic as the movie or  TV series. Yet, he was injured when the beer factory he was inspecting in Terre Haute Indiana blew up.

I can remember as a kid in Milwaukee WI watching the TV series starring Robert Flack. Grandpa Tom's favorite saying "That's not the way we did it." but he kept watching. 

My grandfather was a classically trained intelligent graduate of the Chicago Art Institute, WW1 vet, an author, artist, who spoke French, Latin and Greek. He read all the classics. I sat in his vast library and read the adventures of the Three Musketeers, Natty Bumpo, Count of Monte Christo, Sherlock Holmes, and other classics (before required in high school) for fun.

FAQ 1 BRRRRRRR Colder than Alaska Black Mesa AZ

FAQ 1 
Black Mesa Arizona
Colder in AZ than Alaska. BRRRRRRR.

Flagstaff buried in Snow February 2019

The weather forecast says it was 20 degrees in Flagstaff. 

Arizona had the lowest temperature yesterday in the United States. Palm trees anyone? Plus we had the most snow in the United States, more than Alaska.

I was looking for a nice sunny day so I could take the obligatory Christmas picture that I send to folks back East. You know the one that shows me in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops in front of a palm tree. 

The only thing wrong with this picture is its high noon and 10 degrees outside. Snow is piled up blocking my front door. Cold sleet is raining down. I'm wearing jeans, boots, fuzzy socks, and two sweaters just to get the mail. My dog put his nose outside, turned around and went into the house. He's been in bed under the covers most of the day.

In my novel, Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe, Black Mesa is an imaginary town. It's an amalgam of all the quirky little towns in Northern Arizona and New Mexico that I have been to; Snowflake, Taylor, Show Low, Pinetop, Lakeside, McNary, Honda, Greer, Whiteriver, Saint Johns, Springerville, Holbrook, Vernon, Heber, Overgaard, Payson, Strawberry, Pine, Star Valley, Concho, Winslow, Keams Canyon, Kayenta, Moriarity and many more.

From now on I'll refer to my imaginary town as Black Mesa AZ.

It's located between Apache and Navajo counties, half the town is in Navajo County and the other half is in Apache county which makes for interesting legal issues It is 13 miles from Holbrook, on Old Route 66 Highway going towards Saint Johns. It's an imaginary town so you are not going to find it on the map. Although there is a real Black Mesa on the Navajo Reservation in Northern Arizona.

So for our purposes, dear reader, Black Mesa is formed as a child of my imagination. It's a good town of about 2000+ people. 

It was founded after the Civil War by the survivors of the Irish Brigade (later known as the fighting 69th). The men and their wives who moved west in the 1870's like so many immigrants, wanted a fresh start. 

They settled in the valley of the Black Mesa, a looming 7000' volcanic outcrop. A tributary of the Colorado River, the Rio de Plata flowed through the valley. 

The Black Mesa Valley had everything a farmer could want, good grazing land, water, and shelter from the worst storms. They are known for their fine working ranch horses. Carriage Lock Lake (Carraigeacha Loch in Gaelic) is where a dammed up lake was formed by the Rio de Plata bumping up against the massive volcanic outcrop Black Mesa. 

The water pools at the basic of the 7000' ancient lava flow. Cowboys used the waterhole as the last chance water before Holbrook, a days ride on a fast horse. The Irish settlers named it Carraigeacha Loch and the Cowboys turned the name into Carriage Lock Lake, but descendants still call it by the Gaelic name meaning rocky shores lake.

So here is where our story starts. Newlyweds Michael and Minerva Doyle discover Black Mesa Arizona after eating lunch in the Black Mesa Café. They fall in love with the town, buy a house, and have further adventures there.

Stay tuned to this spot.