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!