Traveling

Sorry for the lack of posts recently - it feels like I'm hardly here anymore! Jon and I spent the first week of September up in Glacier Park, Montana. I spent the first week of October in Virginia visiting Grandma. Then I was back in Denver for about a week, and then off to Texas for a 4-day weekend for my high school reunion. I'm back in Denver now, but Jon and I leave Saturday for Portland. I have to go for a week of continuing education for work, and Jon was sweet enough to go with me! We'll have the weekend to travel and do touristy stuff, then Jon will be on his own while I attend classes/labs during the week.
All this to say that it will probably be another couple of weeks until I get back into a routine and get back to blogging - gotta catch up on laundry and cleaning first! =)

Spicy!

I tried a new recipe for dinner tonight - Roasted Poblano Pepper and Green Tomato Chili. It seemed like a good idea, since we bought a bag of roasted poblano peppers from the farmers market yesterday (last of the season - so sad!), and we have a bag of green tomatoes from our plants. It was yummy - but super-spicy! Chicken, onion, garlic, chicken broth, green tomatoes, roasted peppers, corn, and some spices.

We had our first hard freezes last week and this week - hence the big bag of green tomatoes. Jon and I were out in the dark last week picking all the eggplants (4-5), tomatoes (about 25-30), and the one zucchini from our garden - good thing we did since the plants are all dead now! We rescued some of the smaller potted plants - hydrangea, petunias, dahlia, and our herb garden. So now they're living in the garage at night and spending their days outside (when we remember). The growing season sure seems short up here!

Hey Amy and Guthrie!

I can't respond to your blog post - it won't let me email back. email again with contact info! We want to hear about France!

Many Glacier Hotel at Glacier Park

This was definitely our fave of the 3 hotels we stayed in - it's much more resort-y than the other 2. It overlooks a lake with gorgeous views - we walked partway around the lake one day.
Our 3rd day in the park - it's finally sunny!

The night before at sunset.
This place is huge! And very Swiss-chalet-themed.
Walking around the lake - notice the hat/jacket/fleece combo - it's Labor Day!!

Bears!

Welcome to the first picture post from our vacay to Glacier Park, Montana last week. Everything I read about Glacier Park prior to going mentioned bears in the park. Even our park pass receipt was stapled to a bear safety pamphlet. Luckily, all 4 of our bear encounters were from a safe distance (hence the far-away pics!) - in fact, one of the four encounters we didn't even know about until we were back home! (Jon was videoing out the window of our cabin and ended up videoing a black bear snuffling around our neighbor's cabin! We didn't even know until we were watching the video a couple of days ago! Crazy!)

Black bear - we saw this guy on our very first afternoon drive through the park. ( FYI - It's always a good idea to stop when there are several other cars pulled over taking pics!)




Grizzly!! We saw this one just behind the Two Sister's Cafe (a fun little local restaurant we visited twice in 2 days!)

We're Back!

We're back from our vacation to Glacier Park, Montana!
We drove up all day Saturday and Sunday and stayed in the park Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. Monday we did an afternoon horseback ride, and Tuesday we drove up to Canada. Wednesday and Thursday we drove home -including a side trip to Little Bighorn battlefield. Pictures to follow, as soon as I can get to them!

Countdown to Glacier Park!

In 4.5 days Jon and I leave for Glacier Park, Montana. It's hard to believe, but it's actually our first vacation where we're not either visiting family or attending a wedding or funeral since our honeymoon over 4 years ago! Crazy right? We're leaving here Saturday morning and will arrive at Glacier Park Sunday afternoon. We're staying there Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights, and then will drive back Wednesday/Thursday. So far all I have planned/booked is a horse-back riding tour. Anyone who's been there, any suggestions are appreciated!

Canning Peaches

After owning a canner/accessories for almost a year, I finally put it to use! I became interested in home canning last fall, so Jon bought a setup for me. However, I didn't get around to using it prior to the end of the harvest last year. (Our farmers market was done by the end of October - gotta love the short Colorado season!)
So, last week I pulled it out. Last Sunday at the farmer's market I bought a box of peaches (about 55 peaches). I've now completed 3 rounds of canning: 3 quart jars of spiced peach halves, 7 half-pint jars of peach preserves, and 4 pint jars of peach butter. I also ended up with a frozen batch of peach margaritas (thanks to Jon for the yummy suggestion!), 2 frozen batches of honey peach syrup (to be used as an ice cream topping), plus a few that we ate. =)
Canning definitely has a steep learning curve. At least for me. My first attempt took like 7 or 8 hours - it was hard to get everything the right temp at the right time! (Canner, jars, lids, and actual product to be canned.) But, I learned a lot, and the next 2 times went faster. It makes me happy to have local produce stored for the winter, when it's so hard to find anything local here. I'm hoping to do tomatoes or raspberries next!

Colorado Produce!

Sorry it's been a while! This past weekend was pretty low-key for us (the previous weekend we spent camping!). We went to the Coleman outlet to purchase some new camping gear (sleeping bags, a new chair, and a nifty lantern) on Saturday, and I made a yummy PW (The Pioneer Woman - check out her blog!) recipe for dinner - zucchini and pasta with a light creamy sauce. We got the zucchini from a friend's garden. Our zucchini plants are definitely happy and growing, but blossoms yet. Our eggplant and 2 tomato plants are doing much better - several fruits are ripening on each!

We seem to have finally reached prime produce season here in Colorado. I know most of the rest of the country has had yummy local stuff since April, but our growing season is just a lot later here (we were still having frequent snow in April and freezing temps into May). We visited the farmers market Sunday and it finally looks full like we remembered it from last summer/fall. We bought (all local):
-apricots
-a peach (early still)
-a tomato
-pickling cucumbers
-a yummy melon that's a cross between honeydew and cantaloupe. I think it's called Rocky Ford (or that may just be the name of the farm!).

In addition to that, our local grocery stores have several local produce items also - I rounded out our week's purchases with:
-local romaine lettuce (2 heads - we've been doing a lot of salads this summer)
-local broccoli
-local mushrooms
-2 local zucchinis
-local green onions
-non-local eggplant
-non-local (california probably) avocados
-non-local blueberries and cherries

Jon and I are stil trying to do the local foods thing this summer, but it's hard to pass up good deals on berries/cherries! Now we just have to figure out some recipes for all this good stuff - any suggestions:? Especially for the eggplant - Jon makes a good eggplant parm, but I'd love a lighter recipe for the summer.

We'll be back soon to post pics from our camping trip and Jon's family's trip up to Colorado!

More pics from 12000 feet (RMNP)

Inside the gift shop at the top - cute moose with O2 tank. We actually saw a guy suffering from altitude sickness while up there (it is a real thing - can be pretty scary!) - the park rangers realized he was sick even though his wife was over shopping, unaware. I hope I will always recognize if Jon gets sick!

Jon was super-excited to use his GPS - it was very accurate in the elevation!
Gorgeous mountains!
There's less oxygen this high up - Jon and I were slow-going on this hike.
Elk!!

Jon's shoe made a sound and the elk suddenly raised his head directly at Jon - he looked rather annoyed that his snacking was interupted.
Still staring at Jon (who is just a tad concerned about how large and close the elk was).
The elk noticed me too - look how fuzzy those antlers are! =)

Mom and Dad's visit

Mom and Dad flew up to visit Jon and me a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time! I was able to take a few days off work to hang out with them. We went to our local farmer's market, had a shrimp boil for father's day, drove up to Grand Lake for a day, went downtown to see the Art Museum, and spent a day up in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. The following pics are from Trail Ridge Road - the road that goes up to 12000 feet through RMNP.

A yellow-bellied marmot! So cute!

Another marmot - this one's kinda lazy - probably what I would be doing if I was a marmot. =)

A pic from the Denver Art Museum - that's Dad standing in front of a giant broom/dustpan. =)

aftermath of crawfish

Just wanted to show a few pics of what followed the crawfish boil. Jen and I had excellent crawfish etouffee and gumbo, and froze the leftover tails.

Leftover crawfish tails. My thumbs are still sore from gettin' the meat out!

Boiling some crawfish heads for stock. From what I hear, the fat from the thorax/head is the tastiest for stock.

Crawfish Etouffee. Goodness, it was tasty.

Crawfish gumbo. It was gooood!

Crawfish Boil 2008

One thing we missed about Texas was the awesome crawfish boils we used to go to at least once a year. Seafood (and other creepy crawlies) are one thing you can find in TX, but not anywhere this far inland. So this year, I decided that I wanted to host a crawfish boil here in Colorado. I found a company that shipped crawfish overnight (live) and decided to give it a try. Many people thought I was cazy, and most didnt know what a "crawfish boil" was, but there were others that were really excited. I fed my energy off of those people. :)

All-in-all, I had about 35 people that said they would come to the crawfish boil. This included co-workers of Jen and me, some new friends, and some old friends from TX. I ordered 60 lbs of the mud bugs, which is a good amount for 30-35 people (since most of it is exoskeleton and whatnot).

Overall, it was a great time. I spent 95% of the time cooking (unfortunately, I didnt get to sit and talk with everyone, but I plan on changing that next year), and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was a beautiful day, too! The first batch of crawfish was rather bland, but the next 4-5 batches got progressively tastier! Due to cancellations (and some people only eating a few crawfish), we were left with about 20 lbs of leftovers. Jen and I got the meat off of them and will enjoy crawfish etouffee a few times!

Here are some pics of the event:

Ernie was kinda interested in them, but enjoyed being outside and eating grass more. Plus, the only ones that we tossed to him were the few (4-5) that arrived dead.

Kim, Evan, and I "purging" the crawfish.

More purging. That one looks fiesty.

A brave Jen holds one of the crawfish. Thankfully it wasnt one of the agressive ones!

Emma doesn't like the sound that is coming from the 2x30lbs sacks of live crawfish.

Human and Crawfish enjoying a beer.

Crawfish race for $1. Some people got creative to get their 'dad to walk in a straight line.

Cooked and on the table!

Raw and in the cooler. They slowed down once I poured some ice on them. 20lbs actually. That cooler got heavy!!!

Curtis pouring some fresh potatoes, onions and corn into the mix. That morning, I cooked all the veggies to save time.

Everyone standing up and eating.

Everyone sitting down and eating.

This is James. He was tasty.

2 weeks ago

Yeah, these pics are from 2 weeks ago - the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend. Jon and I took the Denver light rail to downtown Denver. We strolled around, visited some different stores, and ate lunch at a brewery (the same one we ate at on our honeymoon almost 4 years ago!). Jon got the beer sampler - about 2oz of 9 different beers. Jon with all his drinks.
My iced tea. =) (I'm really not a beer fan.)
The ride home - looking to the east...
and looking to the west. Can you believe these pics were taken within seconds of each other, just different directions? Crazy Colorado weather!

Memorial Day weekend

Sorry we've been MIA for a while - no real reason, just got busy and out of the habit of posting. Jon and I had a good Memorial weekend though - 3 day weekends where we're both not working and not traveling somewhere are rare for us! We got lots of stuff done around the house, took some walks around the neighborhood, went to the local farmer's market (are fave vendors still aren't there yet), and did some cooking. Saturday Jon grilled hot dogs for lunch and make BBQ ribs for dinner - yum! Sunday we got sushi while we were out grocery shopping - california rolls for me and spicy tuna and salmon for Jon.
Today was overcast and got progressively colder during the day - Jon grilled burgers for lunch, but we had to postpone our planned dinner of a shrimp boil (one last practice before the 30+ people crawfish boil we're hosting Saturday!). By 3pm it was in the low 50s outside and started raining. I made a noodle soup with onions, orzo, and the last of our frozen Colorado carrots from our CSA last year. I've been cooking with baby carrots exclusively over the past few months, and I had forgotten how much more flavorful the real carrots are! I think I'm going to have to switch back! I used chicken boullion cubes and the soup turned out very yummy - nice for the chilly weather. I also made a batch of Amy's stuffing. Amy was one of my roommates in vet school, and she made up a stuffing recipe that has lots of different yummy flavors - sausage (I used veggie sausage in this one), onion, celery (we didn't have any), apple, torn up bread, and raisins (we didn't have any of those either). There's also some sage and thyme. It came out yummy and was a good way to use up some stale bread and leftover veggie sausage.
Chocolate cupcakes that I made last night - chocolate always looks pretty with red and white, don't you think?

Ernie is good at finding places to sleep

Just like the prior post, I found it comical that Ernie finds interesting places to nap.


A treadmill. A machine used to burn off one too many calories.


But wait, what is that furball under there?


Ah, yes. It's Ernie. He found another excellent place to nap.