What I've been cooking . . . again and will cook again

I've been moving up the ladder of canning and started pickling. But instead of have bottles of pickles stacked on my shelves, I've been stuck on one recipe because it so delicious and adds so much interest to my eating routine: Pickled Veggie Sandwich Slaw from smittenkitchen.com. In addition to the tasting great, the finish product looks so beautiful. It's a great gift.

I made my second batch with most of the veggies from my farmers market--heirloom carrots (purple and yellow) [the yellow was incredibly sweet], radishes, red and orange peppers, garlic scapes, kirby cucumbers, celery and sugar snap (from the asian food store). 

waiting for the brine

purple carrot, some are much more yellow inside

The purple carrots added some color to the brine. Making it even more beautiful. I ended up with 2 pints and 6 half pints.

marinating in my fridge. YUM!

Another great way to eat this slaw on top of a pulled pork sandwich. Sandwich provided by, of course, Cafe Bua. From our daily lunch specials. It add an extra tanginess and crunch to the sandwich. 

Sandwich from the restaurant, pickle slaw by me from the 1st batch

My Summer Vacation: Part 3--Garden of the Gods

I thought I posted this weeks ago. Oh well, here you go.

See those people looking up at the top of the left path: there's a rock climber going up there

Our last full day, we started out driving south from Estes Park to Garden of the Gods--about 2-3 hours. As like the rest of the trip, no planning had not happen and we were just kind of winging it. I just entered "Garden of the Gods" into my google map app and off we went. Drove past Boulder--tons of cyclists in both directions.

Got to the park visitor center right around lunch time. Out goes the diet and it was chili dogs for both of us. We finished up just in time for the movie about the park--nicely done. Really worth the $5. And I assume that how they make their money to maintain the park, since the park is free. 

Now we are down from the mountain and it is hot and dry. Of course I forgot to put on sunscreen, my hat was somewhere in the car and no, we didn't bother to bring a bottle of water. I think we were too excited to be lucky that we got a parking in a packed parking lot and those red rocks were calling out. 

Here's a the link to the set on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/princesshotflash/sets/72157634591205103/

After the park we were going to Pike Peak but we found out it would take 3 hours up and back and we were spent. We went to a historical castle in the town of Manitou. We basically ran through that because we were too tired stop and read all the description. It's a nice town probably worth a stop and roaming around. But it was pack with holiday crowds and we just wanted to get to the hotel and rest up for our early (extremely) morning rise to catch our plane back home. 

Saturday's Harvest

It's the end of July and my garden is not a bed of weeds! Hurrah!!!



Today I harvested:

• all of my manoa lettuce--8oz worth. Not bad for the weed whisperer
• 4oz of swiss chard--they are still going strong 
• 2oz of assorted herbs--flat leaf parsley, basil and mint
• pulled some carrot to test to see how they are doing. 

And I planted:

• row of manoa lettuce
• row of beet--one more try

In my kitchen, I'm rooting some thai basil from some cutting from the restaurant. I hope to pot them tomorrow. I'm trying to root some celery, doesn't look too great. 

Oh!I forgot I got 8oz. of tomatoes on Friday.

My Garden, My Breakfast

So it's terribly hot and humid out and I think my garden is only thing that is enjoying it. I'm getting tomatoes, lettuce (manoa), flat leaf parsley and swiss chard. My beets not so good but I'm eating the greens. Waiting for my carrots. I just put in some scallions and will adding some thai basil, more lettuce seeds and beets seed soon.

As for my breakfast, I've been trying to cut down my carbs fro the last several months. I decided my breakfast this morning would be a salad with lettuce and swiss chard from my garden. Yum!

My breakfast salad with leftover salmon from dinner last night, red pepper, my homemade salsa  and harrisa and splash of balsamic dressing. Maybe next time I'll add a fried egg. My love of harrisa has been a slow rise but I'm definitely on bandwagon now. I love it in my salad.

Did I share last week's farmers market goodies.

4 white peaches for some white peach cupcakes [as soon as the heat goes away] and 3 round squash to be stuffed with ground chicken and today's harvest of swiss chard. I'll try and get some picture of the process. 

Oh yeah! WG bought more strawberries. Yes, 8 more lbs. The only thing I'm thinking of is ice cream at the moment. I just don't want to turn on the oven. I hope it ends soon.

My Summer Vacation--Part 2: Rocky Mountain National Park

I think I keep this short and sweet. We have a fun time RMNP. Altitude was intense, that's why we end up at the Cub Lake trail. But wasn't disappointed. At the end of trail a beautiful lake with duckling swimming by and tons of dragonflies.

Here's a links to the RMNP sest in flickr:
Trail Ridge Road:  
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princesshotflash/sets/72157634490340982/

Old Fall River Road:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princesshotflash/sets/72157634635813915/

Cub Lake Trail
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princesshotflash/sets/72157634597678224/

Okay, okay. One little story to make you laugh.

WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN ON TRAIL RIDGE ROAD
Yes, WG donned the crazy costume for pictures.

Let me set the scene, the parking area was packed, both sides of the road. I could only hope that the parking area would clear out soon so people would stare. In the background, I could hear screaming and laughing from a group of Chinese tourists who were across the road.

So WG gets all dressed up and crosses the road to poise on the stone wall. There was a car parked right next to where he was going to poise. WG said take a lot of pictures from all angles as he readies he's mask. Right then the driver of the car walks up to get in and does a double take at WG. He looked very confused.

But right at the exact moment the crazy tourists decide to cross the road--did I mention their inappropriate hiking outfits--tight high black patent leather stilettos boots with short shorts--screaming and laughing and stopping traffic. That enough time to distract the driver and for me to get all the pictures I could to make the lone ranger happy.

That poor driver. He must think he maybe getting a little light headed from altitude because all the asians he's encountering in the park are dressed for costume party.

Here's the Lone Ranger on Trail Ridge Road. High-Ho, Silver! Away!

Strawberries, strawberries and more strawberries

I bought 2lbs for the restaurant and 2lbs for home on Wednesday. I'd mentioned on vacation if WG saw fruit that looked good and at a good price to buy some and I'd make something with them. The last resort being jam. Well, I guess that really stuck in his mind. He calls me on Friday and said "you bought strawberries?!" I guess he was looking in the refrigerator and noticed the strawberries. "I just bought 4 (2lbs) containers." said with a bit of a panic in voice.

So guess what I'm doing this weekend. Making jam (4lbs), sorbet (2lbs) and hand pies (.5lb) and the rest just to eat [for my breakfast and WG dinner--he's been eating fruit for dinner for months] or I could make some strawberry ice cream for home . . .hmmm

He's a couple of picture of the fruits of my labor. 

4lbs of strawberries jamming = 4 pints and 1 half pint of jam 

2lbs of strawberries = very intense cooling experience

.5lb of strawberries = 7 hand pies waiting for the oven

My Summer Vacation--Part 1: South Dakota

Mount Rushmore from viewing platform

This is a little teaser of the our vacation. I'm usually crappy at getting my photos from vacation up in the timely fashion. Before I get tied down with the craziness of my life, I've decided to at least get one leg of the vacation done. Not even back a week and I have something up on my blog. Now that's a record.

This year's summer vacation was out west to Colorado and South Dakota. To start the festivities, WG had a fashion show of his outfits for the the trip.

as the Lone Ranger

as General Custer

Yes, he did bring all the accessories including the mask, badge, and gun belt. The only thing that didn't make it was the big Custer hat. He replaced it with a smaller version. I posted these pictures on FB and cause a little bit of commotion amongst my friends. I guess people didn't know what a nut he is.