More Gardens!

My wonderful sister in law followed up on my request, and sent me some photo's of her growing garden! Let's check 'em out :-)

Lots of lettuce!

I believe, this was taken a few weeks earlier :-)

Awesome Garden! Sorry the pictures came out a bit small.. I think I converted them wrong from my e-mail-

She also Tells us that the beer and slug trick wasn't working for her :-) she just goes out with a flashlight at night and picks them off! Well done. Thanks again for sharing Kim!

Garden Update!

Good afternoon everyone :-) Just thought I would pop in to your mailbox, and let you know how our garden is doing :-) I know you are all dying to know....

Well Jim finished the back patio!! it's beautiful, as is any work that he does :-) Our garlic keeps growing, and our herbs are thriving- I just noticed our cucumber lemons growing, and we have four potato plants inching up. I hope all of your gardens are blooming, and that you take a moment each day to just stop and enjoy them. Actually, I would LOVE to see your gardens,and I'm sure others would too! If you want to email me pictures of your gardens, I will put them up on the blog- and then we could all enjoy them!!!

 Other than that- it's hot here. Very Hot here- well like high 80's hot, but for colorado, thats boiling!  And to cool our selves off from the heat, Jim and I have taken up Wake boarding up in the Reservoir. Where the water is a balmy 58 degrees :-) Talk about a viking plung! We would normally just jump into freezing water up in the grottos- but since the water is flowing at an all time high, we thought we better wait until it calms down.

I haven't had too much of a chance to cook lately- well mostly it's just been to hot to bake anything! but I'm determined to make some banana bread this afternoon, and I promise to tell you how it goes :-) I've also been experimenting with some salsa's lately, with well recieved praise-  (except one of our friends woke up with a puffy lip- due to the habenjero I so descretly hid in one recipe- he said it was so good, he just couldn't stop eating it! despite the heat!- whoops!  maybe next time i'll just stick to the jalepeno  :-)

well let see if I have any photo's for you? ........


I though we would start with a play by play of the work  jim did to put in our beautiful back patio...

First he cleared the back deck, dug down quite a bit, and made this awesome rock wall!

After the wall was complete, he leveled the ground so he could dump in 3 truckloads of sand!

Then he started to lay out the flagstone for the patio.

Finally he filled in the gaps with pea gravel, and whoosh, intstant back yard haven.

Check out those steps he built! and as your might have noticed from the pictures, everything has started to bloom and grow!

I love the little side garden he made between the stone wall and the patio.

Well done Jim!

Reudi Reservoir- where we now wake board, thanks to our friends and their amazing boat!

Weller lake trail

 Just a few miles up independence pass.

The water was flowing!

Ragnar and Weller Lake

The lake.

Ragnar!!!!

This is where Jim and I normally jump in the water when it's hot out....

 No one was jumping in that day, the water was charging!

And Finally some garden shots :-) heres our garlic, and some radishes .

Our herb garden.

Strawberries, Oregano, Sage, Thyme, Lemon Thyme, Rosemary, Basil, and Bell peppers

we also planted Swiss chard, Lemon Cucumber, Potatoes, Beets and Carrots.

Ok, I'll go ahead and give you the Hot habenjero salsa recipe- but only if you promise me you can either modify the spice with another pepper, or... just enjoy the salsa as it's meant to be enjoyed- which is SPICY!

Spicy Strawberry Salsa

(sorry no picture- eaten too fast!)

1/2 white onion diced

3 large strawberries diced

1/2 orange bell pepper diced

1 Habenjero pepper minced (seeds and all :-)

2 medium tomatoes seeded and diced

2 tsp Agave nectar

2 Tbs chopped chives

salt and pepper to taste

Well, I hope you enjoy the rest of your week, know I'm thinking of you all, and i'm SERIOUS about sending me your garden pictures! I would LOVE to see them! Take care :-)

It finally feels like summer!

As the title of this post claims, it finally does feel like summer! (With the exception that our spring has forgotten to show up, our lilacs aren't even out yet!) But they will catch up quick i'm sure :-) other than that, the humming birds are back, our garlic's up, and we are again ready for another wonderful gardening season! Jim's has taken it upon himself to redo the back deck! (pictures to follow of course :-) and I did help him build a rock wall, and by help I mean tell him where to place the rocks :-)

Yes it seems life in colorado seems to be going along fabulously. We just returned from back east last monday, actually early tues morning if you want to be specific. We had a wonderful trip visiting the family, and getting to meet our new Nephew!! and of course visit our other lovely niece and nephew :-) Well enough with me rambling... lets get to some photos!

Swans in front of Jim's house back east

Old Bird house in the cuttings garden

Flax the bear. I Knitted him for our new nephew

Flax in our garden smelling the daffodils,

which is wierd because I don't think they even smell!

FENWAY BABY!!!!

it was the coldest day of our trip, But is was worth it!

I believe this is Big Poppy swinging- he tried to make it a game :-)

We had great seats to boot!

Watch Hill RI.

On one of the most spectacular days I can remember.

Short Pier in Watch Hill.

My new favorite hotel in the world, The Ocean House @ Watch Hill.

Gorgeous would be an understatement.

it was a cloudy cold day when we were there,

but beautiful none the less.

The Inside was stunning- It really felt like you were back in the early 1900's

But the most luxurious early 1900's you could imagine.

I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of the inside-

it was to pretty too ruin with a flash.

No recipes this episode, but I promise to cook this week-

and I'll fill you in on the details :-)

I hope everyone has a wonderful week, and has a chance to go outside and enjoy the day-

wherever you are.

Springtime Sunshine and Snow

Good morning everyone! Long time no Blog! but here we go... Some pictures from Kauai, some recipes and some knitting project updates :-) Hope every one is having a great week, lots of sunshine!  I am actually trying to type this rather quick because there is a spider lurking around this keyboard somewhere, and it's Freaking me out!

 Here we go!....

Somewhere in Kauai :-)

Kilauea, Kauai Sunset

Outside the Marriot Hotel in Poipu- Jim surfed right of those rocks.

Spicy Tofu Toco's

Salsa:
1/2 onion
1 serano- sliced thin
1/4 orange bell pepper- sliced thin
1/2 med carrot- sliced thin
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
2 large mint leaves
1 lime- juiced
1 Tbs Passion fruit syrup
Salt& pepper
Mix all ingredients together, adjust seasonings to your liking

Tofu:

Banana sauce- jufran
Soy sauce
Mango BBQ sauce- maui jelly factory
Sherry wine vinegar
Salt& pepper
Grill mates- roasted garlic & herb


- even parts- adjust to liking, marinate for at least 4 hours- bake @ 350. For 45min, turning over every 15.
you can also pan sear the tofu, if you prefer-
Serve as tacos on corn tortillas

Every trip Jim and I seem to take comes with a complimentary house cat-

This one was named Henry, and he was huge!

Matt caught a toad for us! and he let it go in the house!-

He didn't hop far though :-)

MORE RECIPES ! 

Roasted garbonzo bean salad

(Sorry no picutre... it's delicious though, I swear!)

2 cans garbonzo beans- rinsed & drained
1 med onion sliced
3 roma tomatoes- quartere
2 cloves garlic- minced
1 medium carrot sliced
2 Tbs green onion- diced
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs smart balace
2 tsp herbs d'provence
salt & pepper
1 tsp garlic & herbs seasoning



Saute onions in smart balance & olive oil unil softened. Add garlic and saute a few minutes more. Place in bowl. Sprinkle carrots with olive oil and seasoning. Broil carrots until softened- 5-7 minutes. Add carrots to bowl. sprinkle chickpeas and tomatoes with olive oil & seasoning- broil until chickpeas are golden, and the tomatoes soften -7-10 minutes- add to bowl. Adjust seasonings and topp with spring onions- serve warm or chilled
 
 

Spicy Onion Chutney

(Again no picture, sorry- this one was gobbled up to fast!)

2 medium onions sliced
2 medium carrots grated
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 Tbs grapeseed oil
1 habanero diced
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Salt to taste
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 lemon juiced
Zest from one lemon
2tsp balsalmic vinegar reduction
1/2 cup oj



Saute seeds in oil on medium heat until they pop. Add onions and saute until onions soften. Add carrots, raisins & habanero. Add spices- cook for a minute. Mix together remaining ingredients in a small bowl, adjusting tastes to preference. Pour liquid into saucepan- and let simmer on low for 20 minutes, or until thickened- stirring occasionaly. (obviously if you don't want to use a habanero you don't have to, a serrano will work just fine)
 
 

More sunset photos- Hanalei Bay, Kauai

The pier @ Hanalei Bay

The start of the Napali Caost Trail, It's 11 miles one way....

we only hiked in two :-)

Napali Coast Trail- one of the few days it wasn't raining on this side of the island!

View from the St. Regis Princeville... The last day of our trip :-(

We left Kauai, with the beautiful weather and the beautiful surf...

Only to return to Colorado where we were greeted with this.....

Delightful. Plus it snowed for the next 4 days off an on!

Brrrrrrr... what happened to spring?

But on a lighter note, here is the next brew we just bottled.

Big Ben Pale Ale with paradise seed and orange peel..... it tastes yummy :-)

I was super stoked to find this little gem in the free book bin @ the thrift store-

It has some sweet patterns- I have already started making some slippers for jim....

Yes the pattern was for small children or women, but I modified it to fit Jim's size 12 feet--

he thinks there cozy :-) I still have to finish the other one!

But alas, the snow has begun to thaw, (We have had two beautiful days in a row!) and our garden has begun to shine again :-) Time to get stuff done! Jim just took out our back deck, and is going to replace it with a beautiful flagstone patio, and I just went on a cleaning frenzy after watching the TLC show hoarders- (which is a scary scary show about people being burried alive in there own crap- it freaked me out.) But other than that Life is grand, and I wish you all the very very best rest of the week!

I'll leave you with a picture of some of our daffodils... we never seem to be around this time of year to enjoy them!