Monday, August 15, 2011

second trip of the year to colorado


We spent last week in Colorado. The family used to go to Vail every year, and we hadn't been since 2005, so it was great to be back. We had a terrific week, spending a lot of time with my mom, dad, brother, Glo, Justin, Tiffany, Kylee, pork chop...errr Taylor, Jared, Aunt Glo, Shannon, Lee, Daniel, Kai, and even friends Jeremy and Emily, and most days we had a big activity, including a couple hikes, mountain biking (after both of us fell, including me flipping over the handle bars, we realized single track isn't for us), trail running, and of course, shopping. Lelaine ended up with the best souvenir, a snowboard.

Saturday the family headed back to the midwest and we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. After a quick stop in Estes Park we went into the park, hiking to Dream Lake (amazing) and driving part of Trail Ridge Road up mountains, above the tree line into tundra. That night we went to Boulder and flew home Sunday afternoon. Here are pics.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Chronic Cooking

I had the pleasure of discovering earlier this week that I most likely have chronic sinusitis. After a CT scan, the doctor says "Oh...yeah...you see how there is all this black space in your sinus here on the left, well, on the right it is nearly all gray. That's not good. " An hour later, I find myself with nearly 60 pills to take over the next 21 days. I will say I am happy to at least know what it is and hopefully there are ways to prevent it from happening more often.So, in short, I had a few sick days ahead of me and I decided to try Marshall Field's recipe for Chicken Pot Pie. It was delicious! I may be on the hunt for this old cookbook.

First of all, what I thoroughly enjoyed about the whole experience was I could nearly use up all the ingredients on my list. It is so irritating to buy a bag of carrots for a one-two carrot recipe. I would love to say I never waste food, but with our schedules, it's hard to plan dinner.

In order to make the meal a bit more nutritious, I added diced zucchini and to make Chris a bit happier he was eating veggies
some small diced potatoes. Since I don't have oven proof bowls (hint hint husband) and our pie dishes are a bit shallow, I decided to use our cast iron pot. It was a pretty good idea since you didn't have transfer the filling anywhere after cooking.

I added two more tablespoons of butter to account for the extra veggies and a pinch more flour. I found that I didn't need all of the chicken stock and milk, so add slowly until the right consistency.

But the best of the best was to come, the crust! It was everything a half of cup of butter should taste like. What also surprised me is there is a definite hint of sweetness when eating, but I didn't add any sugar.

I bought a 4 lb bird, so I had a little chicken left over for chicken salad, which was also tasty. Some dijon mustard, mayo, garlic powder, fox point seasoning (Penzey's), red grapes and walnuts and it was perfect on a bed of lettuce today.

It's been awhile since I had a chance to be this busy in the kitchen, so maybe I might like this chronic sinus thing afterall.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Step past the feet and into the bathroom!

I just realized we never finished the decorating saga from last year. And I am sure that many of you are tired of looking at Chris's gross feet.


The first update was the bathroom. The inspiration came from the light plate you see that I bought at Old Luckett's Market. The towel on the side is from Anthropologie. From that point, it was a very long hunt for the right shower curtain. Navy blue is not a widely available color for shower curtains. Light blue, turquoise-- very common, but not navy blue.


After some searching I finally found the curtain to match at a place I wouldn't image to have cool decor: Wal- Mart. Can you believe these class pieces are from there?



Our next project was to paint the bathroom. We chose Behr paint and the color Prelude. We also found out who has a better knack for painting between the two of us. It was me of course.


However, my favorite part besides the light plate is the bit of artwork. I found it on etsy. It's the perfect color and so unique.


It is nice to see a project you've had in your head complete. It is also nice to show of our place and not have every room painted the same color. Yes, we have a personality!