Memorial Weekend: Part I

Over the long holiday weekend Mr X and I decided to tour a few National Parks to which we'd never been. So we went to Moab. That gave us access to both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. We arrived Friday around noon and set up our campsite (yes, we camped) as quickly as possible so that we could head out for a long hike in Arches. I think our total mileage that afternoon at evening topped out at around 11 miles of hiking. The scenery was spectacular and the weather was dry and warm. The whole time we were there it was about 88-90 during the day and about 60-62 at night - which made for really easy camping conditions. Here are our photos from our hikes in Arches NP:

Memorial Weekend: En Route

Mr X and I headed out of town last Thursday afternoon for a long weekend of fun. But Mr X had a 'free' night with Marriott that was about to expire so we needed to use it. That lead to the decision to head out for our holiday weekend early so that we could take advantage of the free night and also try out the Vapor Caves in Glenwood Springs that we'd been wanting to try for a couple of years. Last year we intended to try them out but by the time we got to that area it was too hot and steam caves didn't sound very appealing. This year we beat the heat and sampled the caves. They were fantastic! I highly recommend a visit here if you happen to be in the area.

There are several caves of varying sizes, shapes and temperatures - all equipped with marble slab benches on which to rest. There is also a faucet of really cold water that guests can use to fill up a personal bucket to use to cool off periodically. Upstairs there is an atrium with a fountain and lounge chairs and lemon ice water to rest in between steam sessions. 

We spent about an hour and a half there and when we got back to the hotel we could hardly keep our eyes open. We both slept better that night than either of us had in what felt like ages. I highly recommend this place! (And no, I'm not being paid to say this, by the way.)

(These photos are taken from the interweb as I'm sure it would have destroyed our camera to take it down there.)

We're getting there s l o w l y . . .

Every day for the past month I've been checking the aspens around our house for budding green leaves. I've been disappointed every day as well. Until last week. FINALLY! 

Whenever Mr X and I drove down into Denver all of the trees there were bursting forth with vibrant green. Then we'd drive back up the hill to our house (about 2,500 feet) to be greeted by the naked, seemingly dead deciduous trees surrounding our house/neighborhood. I was getting so impatient that I decided that maybe our trees had all truly died over the winter and what if they never came back!?! How tragic! 

(The various stages of the aspen budding.)

 

I'm thrilled to report that they're alive and well.

Welcoming Spring with Strawberry Pie

While out and about last Saturday Mr X and I decided to take a peek at one of the many local Farmer's Markets. The markets here don't typically start until May as it's usually still pretty much winter here until then. We have very late springs and very early falls. In fact our last snowstorm of the year usually happens in May while our first one usually happens in mid-October.

The market was fun but a bit disappointing because I was hoping to take home some fresh strawberries or cherries or rhubarb. None of those have made an appearance at the markets yet. It's all still just baked or canned goods and some fresh herbs and spinach. I guess I'll have to wait a few more weeks.

We bought strawberries at the regular store instead. I've been wanting to try out a recipe I found on the blog Worth the Whisk: Strawberry Sour Cream Pie. Fresh strawberry pies are good but they don't seem like pie to me because you're just basically cooking a pie crust and putting fresh berries in it with some sweet glaze covering them and then maybe adding a bit of whipped cream. Don't get me wrong, it's delicious. But it's just somehow seems less like a pie and more like a fruit salad of sorts in a pie shell. But baked strawberry pies always seems to have an unappealing texture to me - an unappealing mushiness. I was curious if a cream-based strawberry pie would alleviate that issue to me. It did. The strawberries were still mushy, of course, but they were swirled into a creamy base that somehow made it work. Here is the recipe if you'd like to try it out yourself.(And hopefully you do!)

Our good camera's battery was dead so I had to make do with my camera phone. The pictures don't effectively convey the deliciousness of this pie. Mr X says the pictures make it look like a margarita pizza instead.

Strawberry Sour Cream Pie

• 1 unbaked pastry shell (preferably homemade)
• 1 qt. fresh strawberries
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/4 cup sugar, reserve 1 tablespoon
• Dash salt
• 1 cup regular sour cream (NOT fat-free)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Hull and wash the strawberries, slice in halves, set aside.  Into a large mixing bowl, sift flour, sugar and salt.  Add sour cream and blend just until creamy (it will look like wallpaper paste).  Gently fold in the berries; don’t over-mix.  Pour fruit into pie shell and using a spatula, gently spread to edges but DO NOT PACK DOWN. There should be some air holes throughout.  Sprinkle the top with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. 

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. and bake an additional 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Broil for about 2-3 minutes, watching carefully, to “brown off” the top.  Serves 6 to 8.

Saturday in Colorado

This past Saturday Mr X and I headed to REI because we needed a new bike rack for our car and REI was having a good sale. Ours was old and rusted enough to make it rickety - not something you want in a bike rack. 

That afternoon we were putting the bike rack together in our driveway behind our car. Mr X was doing most of the work because I was screwing around, scanning the woods in front of our house for wild creatures. Because I wasn't paying attention to the task at hand Mr X gave me this look like "Quit screwing around and make yourself useful!" to which I responded, "What?!? I'm looking for bears!" Mr X gave me that look again so I hunkered down and started to help him out. 

Not even five minutes later Mr X frantically calls my attention to A BEAR that had just come down from the exact area of the woods where I'd been looking earlier. This bear apparently decided to take a stroll through the neighborhood. He was about 15 - 20 feet away from where we were working on the bike rack. 

We watched him wander through the neighborhood (from a safe distance of course) - he playfully rolled around in the grass, ate some of our neighbors flowers, cooled off in the pond and then had a drink of pond water and before lazily strolling back up into the woods again.

Eee-eye-eee-eye O

Remember my old post about the chickens? Well I thought I'd update you on them and show you our additional animals as well.

One of these handsome cows is ours:

And one of these piglets is ours as well. We took the liberty of assigning names to these. The red one is Honeybaked and the other three we refer to as The Three Stooges.

Clearly our chickens have grown a lot. They actually look like chickens rather than adorable little cheeping chicks.