Holidays

 

A happy Thanksgiving.

Soon Christmas will be here.

Oh the colors of fall.  I have to admit my dreams have turned to turkey and mashed potatoes.

This year I've come to truly love three things that I used to hate: sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and sushi.  I didn't understand why one would choose the sweet potatoes when one could have the regular potatoes, tomatoes only excited my gag reflex, and sushi I was too closed-minded to even try.

But things have changed! 

Sweet potatoes diced up with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and oregano is my new go-to.

And roasted tomatoes basically taste like fresh ketchup.  Fancy! 

Here's a tasty recipe to put them in.  And while we're at it, a perfect crisp-fall-day soup recipe from the same blog.

(As for sushi, I leave that to the pros, but who knows, once Thanksgiving is over and those dreams have come true, my new dream might be sushi chef!)

But my favorite fall concoction is the Apple Yogurt cake.  It's best as a coffee cake, a morning cake, the thing you eat while you're still shivering from the cold night. 

And it has these craters in it--these beautiful sparkling brown craters of cinnamon and brown sugar, and a tiny bit of butter.  Those craters make life okay again.

So in this the season when things fall apart so they can rest awhile and then get bountifully back together again, strike a match to a candle and heat up the oven for a little light, a little warmth.

Scrabble!

Still fun.

Scenes

This is our first full autumn in Colorado, and I have to say it has made my love for this magical state grow deeper.  After living in Virginia where fall doesn't come till November 15th, I've really enjoyed the wild and unpredictable temperature swings here (snow one Saturday, 80s the next), and the leaves that while not as wildly colorful as back East, are striking in the brilliant and constant Colorado sunshine.

I know people really go on and on about the beauty and majesty of Colorado, but it's really true...as my mom says, there's something about the mountains and the vistas and the peaks that reminds you of how truly tiny you are in the scheme of things. 

This past week loved ones from the northeast came to visit and we traveled all around seeing beautiful scenes in every direction.

We also partook of the unbelievably tasty beers of Colorado (the Napa of beer!).

Echo Lake, snow & 46 degrees:

 

 

{Odell Brewing and Equinox Brewing in favorite city Fort Collins}

favorite at Odell's--Isolation Ale

{Equinox}

favorite, Autumnal Alt

{Great Divide in Denver}
favorite, Hibernation Ale

It feels like it's really fall (not just me pushing the seasons), so I give you permission to make this apple yogurt cake (I did last night) and buy a Yankee candle that smells like your mom's pumpkin pie (I did that too). 

Under the October twilight the water mirrors a still sky...*

Hope you have a little time to take notice.  

*Yeats

Can't beat the harvest

I may have jumped the gun on the fallishness, as the last week or so in Colorado has been kind of warm...actually really warm.  But I can ignore it.  I can still wear a sweater when it's 87...mmm no.  But this weekend is supposed to be cooler and I just turned on my pilot light in the fireplace--exciting moments in life!  And we've been doing fallish things anyway....

First of all.  The Buffalo Bills.  Corey's favorite team on Earth roared in with three wins right off the bat and despite the loss last week, we still have hope (dangerous but essential for Bills' fans).

 We think that hanging the jersey on the mantel helps their performance immeasurably. (Don't worry, I take it down during the week.)

I also made tomato soup from scratch for the first time.  Grilled cheese/tomato soup is one of our favorite fall combinations but the cans and boxes always leave me wanting--a party in my mouth, but a party of extremely boring uptight people who don't eat chocolate or listen to music.  So I turned to honey and jam's recipe and things were much better in there.

 Shallots also go in the soup.  My favorite foodie Anthony Bourdain says that shallots elevate the home kitchen to a restaurant kitchen!  So when I burn toast I go find a shallot and wave it around in the kitchen to destroy the evil spirits.

 

 I've also been making my dad's famous "Junk Salad."  This is when you take all the leftover vegetables (celery, red and green pepper, onion, tomato) in your refrigerator, chop them up, sprinkle them with dried herbs, some Parmesan cheese, and douse them in balsamic vinaigrette and it makes your day seem not so bad anymore because you're eating your veggies and they're oh so good.

And the best part of fall so far is my mom sent me Pryde's coffee, just to tide me over...

Pretty nice.

Fall candles are outta the box...

What I'd tell you?

It's here.


So far there's been casserole making and baking...

And fresh feta and honey on bread in the mornings...

Fall is fun.

Labor Day weekend found us at an Oktoberfest in the mountains and let's just say the promise of thick fall beers and crisp air made me not really that sad that this marks the end of summer. 

 

 

 And so we say goodbye to a pear in the afternoon to cool off, a Scotch whisky for Corey while he grills me amazing foods, flowers to beat the band, and the other million easy breezy little moments that make up a summer.

 

Next time you see me there may be pumpkins.

Sometimes I go hiking to remember that the world is vast, the movements of the universe are strange and unpredictable, cruel and beautiful, and that when it comes down to it we're just like the butterfly on the log--dreamlike, always moving, even if it's just our beating heart.

This Fourth of July weekend we went to Crazy Mountain Brewery, a little hole in the wall that I thought for sure wouldn't be that good...

...but we didn't try a beer we didn't like and they had the most beautiful big-headed pup running around their little establishment as the taps flowed and people ran in and out for more and more of their tasty concoctions. 

I took many photos this weekend thinking I'd do a montage, but this one just said it all for me for some reason.  Fourth of July is one of those holidays that I think is so much better when you're a kid--the fireworks still amaze, the heat isn't that big of a problem, you're happy at some festival getting your face painted with American flags and eating hot dogs with the ketchup dripping...

So I could relate to the wistful gaze of this animal, like he was remembering something.

Hope it was a happy weekend in the sun for all of you!

Saturday

Mountain Saturdays are the very best...except now I have this problem where every time I go to a Farmer's Market I want to change my life and become a farmer, selling my goods each weekend.  Seems like it would be a simple way to live.

Alas, societal norms beckon so I have to live out that particular life in my daydreams.

 { blooms }

 { if you aren't eating radishes, you're nuts! }

 { breakfast }

 { market }

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. --R.W. Emerson