13.5-hour Camping Trip at Chatfield SP

I've been putting in some long hours recently trying to get a project that was handed off to me done on time. Jen and I talked, and she was concerned that our entire summer would be gone before we got a chance to do something fun. So, the sweetheart that she is, she decided to take a day off of work (Sat) and she set booked a campsite at a state park that is about 2 miles from our house!

So around 7pm, we headed over to the park along with a co-worker. I set up the tent with Jens help, and started a fire as the sun was setting (along with getting some cool pictures). By 815, we started to get hungry, so I grilled up some brats, hot dogs, onions, and cracked open a beer. Around 9pm, our neighbor (Fish) showed up and we had a good time goofing around and telling stories. By 11, Fish left, and Jen and I headed to the tent. We heard coyotes somewhat nearby playing and howling (along with an occasional child crying). Overall, I slept GREAT (especially compared to our previous camping experience on the last day of the season last year... it was so cold we only slept 30 minutes!).

By 530, the sun was starting to come up and it woke me up. I laid in bed until close to 7am. When I got out of the tent, I saw about 15 hot air balloons in the sky! That was an awesome site. Apparently, they launch in the cool morning, and land before it gets too warm. By 8am, there was only one balloon in the sky.

We packed up the tent, and were back home by 830am! And that was our 13.5 hour camping trip!

Our first CSA delivery

We joined a CSA! I'm so excited about this! I visited the localharvest website to investigate CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) near us. The closest one I found was Willowgrove Farms (willowgrovefarms.com). We bought a share for the season, and we received our first delivery this evening. It's still pretty early in the season here in Colorado, so our share this week consisted of greens. But fun, interesting, organic greens! Jon and I had a salad tonight of lettuces, spinach, radish tops, and pea greens. Yum! I never knew you could eat pea greens! We ate them with radishes and a miso dressing that I made from the Moosewood Restuarant Daily Special cookbook. It's exciting to get new and unusual produce - hopefully this will inspire some new recipes!

Roses and squash blossoms

It's finally summer weather here in Colorado. It seemed to transform almost overnight, from cold mornings and snow showers to 90 degree days. Our backyard has been blooming - and not due to anything we've done. We have several bushes with small yellow flowers that have been blooming since May. And we have roses! 5 different colors - pink, red, yellow, peach, and a deep purpley-red. Despite our neglect, they're doing quite well. One type of plant in our yard I can take credit for - the squash. Back in April I planted several types of seeds - mostly veggies, but some herbs and flowers. The only ones that really took were the squash. 3 squash plants are alive and well in a border garden right by our deck. This week they started blossoming. I've heard of people eating squash blossoms in fancy dishes, but I'm afraid if I pick the blossoms then we may not get the actual squash. Anyone know if this is true? Does the plant have to retain the flower to grow the veggie? In the meantine I'll just enjoy the beauty of the squash blossoms next to the roses.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there - and especially to our dads! We love you guys and wish we could be with you today!

Today was a pretty typical weekend for us - housework, yardwork and relaxing. Jon made banana bread, and the house was smelling great while it was in the oven. Unfortunately, about halfway through the baking process, I opened the microwave to find the melted butter that should have gone into the bread! Oops! The bread was still pretty tasty in my opinion (and lower fat!), but Jon wanted the real version. So we trooped off to King Sooper's to purchase more bananas and butter. He made a second batch, using all the appropriate ingredients. Can you tell which is the correct loaf in the picture??

My First Rodeo

So even though I lived in TX for 26 years, I had never been to a rodeo until yesterday. I went with some friends from work to the Elizabeth Stampede. It's a small town about 10-15 miles from where I work, and every year they put on a big rodeo. They had a small carnival area with lots of booths selling stuff, snowcones and carnival food, and even a mechanical bull. We bought "Texas Taters" - which I've never heard of before, in Texas or elsewhere. They had a setup with a drill, but instead of a drill bit it had a long screw attached to it. In front of the screw was a knife. They stuck a potato onto the screw and then when they turned on the drill and pushed it forward the potato was cut into thin slices by the knife. Pretty creative use of power tools! The potato slices were then fried and served with cheese (classic carnival food combo - fried with cheese!).

After we ate we found our seats - on the top row of some homemade-looking bleachers. There wasn't a back to the bleachers, so during the rodeo people would jump down (about 7-8 feet) to get more snacks or beer. The rodeo itself was pretty fun - they had calf-roping, calf-wrestling, bull-riding, barrel-racing, and a really cute event called mutton-busting (I think). Little kids would try to ride a sheep, like a junior bull-ride. One little girl stayed on for several seconds! It was a fun experience and apparantly just as popular in Colorado as it is in Texas.