Gourmet on a Weeknight!

Mussels and scallops in a white wine tomato sauce over spaghetti and squid ink pasta

You'd think looking at this dish it was from a restaurant, but it's from our kitchen and Eric made it!

Over the weekend we went to this small speciality grocery store that has all sorts of  meats, seafood, pasta, cheeses, seasonings, etc. While we were there we came across some squid ink pasta, and we see it used frequently on cooking shows, so we bought some to try! It tasted like regular pasta, no funky flavor, and it mixed well with the seafood and it was a really delicious dinner for a weeknight!

Castlewood Canyon

We went hiking for the first time this season to Castlewood Canyon, about an hour southeast of Denver. 

The canyon is the remnant of a dam built in 1890 that burst in the 1930s and sent water rushing towards Denver. The trails go around and down and out of the canyon, so you get a really nice view no matter where you go.

We hiked a loop trail that was about 2.5 miles long that had plenty of water access for Indy to hop in the river and play around. The hike was really nice and the weather was great- sunny and about 55- just right for a Sunday hike.

Indy did great on the trail and wore himself out nicely, so as I'm typing this he is zonked out on his bed under my feet!

I didn't do any hikes last year, and per Eric's rule/line of thinking I should have been excommunicated  from the state of Colorado for lack of outdoor activity. With that in mind, it's a goal for the 3 of us to do more hiking this year and see more of Colorado rather than just the front range that we're used to.

This area used to be the reservoir for the dam.

Looking out towards the old reservoir {and trying to keep Indy from diving down a 10 foot ledge to explore}

What's left of the original dam walls.

Ready to start hiking!

He's a lab, he couldn't resist the urge to jump in!

Looking up from the bottom of the canyon.

Another canyon view

My favorite picture all day! What happy guys!

I'm ready to eat. Where's the food?!

Just Call Me Martha

While we were grocery shopping on Saturday we came across a great deal on strawberries- 2- 16oz containers for $3! It was such a good deal for this time of year that I had to get some. I then remembered we'd eaten all the raspberry jam that I'd made this past summer, so I grabbed 2 more containers and decided my afternoon project would be strawberry jam. 

I was pretty excited about making jam. For whatever reason I really enjoy canning and doing stuff from scratch. Not to mention, I got to use my new strawberry corer gadget {it shouldn't surprise you that I have one of these!}, so that made the process even more fun. All went well- jam is yummy, I didn't burn myself and none of it ended up on the ceiling {Hey, I said I enjoy doing this, I never said I was good at it!}

Bowl of berries waiting to be chopped and my strawberry gadget that looks like a strawberry!

Boiling Goop!

Final Product

Colorado Avalanche Hockey Game!

Every now and then Eric's company is given comped tickets to sporting events at the Pepsi Center by a very generous client of theirs. A couple nights ago, comped tickets to the Avs game were floating around Eric's office so he snagged 2 so we could go! Eric had been before to games before in the suite, but I hadn’t yet so I was really excited to sit in a suite and feel important!

The Avs were playing the Columbus Blue Jackets so it was a fun game to go to. The Avs won it at the very end in overtime, and of course, we left to beat some of the crowd so we missed the final winning shot {this happens at every sporting event we attend!} Nonetheless, it was a great evening with friends and co-workers, and we didn't have to pay for anything but food!

They presented a Purple Heart at the game!

The Suite

Other Side of the Suite

Bottling the Brew!

Eric has been brewing beer at home since we lived in Ohio, but within the last few months he's become more serious about it. It's like cooking for him- experimenting with ingredients and adjusting recipes. 

A few weeks ago he made a Stout {accidentally}, but it turned out really well so he got some more ingredients and made a Pale Ale {what he intended in the first batch} and the recipe was actually based on a the Pale Ale that Great Lakes Brewing makes back home. 

I didn't get pictures of the other brewing events because the smell is pretty awful, and I usually run for the mall when Eric says he's going to brew. I happened to be home for the bottling this time, so I snapped some pictures of the process {doesn't smell as bad as brewing, trust me!} The beer will sit in the bottles to carbonate for about 2 weeks and then it'll be ready to drink!

I'll try to take pictures of the brewing process next time Eric does it, or maybe I'll just leave the camera out  for him and I'll head to Cherry Creek Mall!

Eric bottling all the beer from the bucket. Bottling the beer allows it to carbonate so it doesn't taste flat and awful.

The capper and caps for the non-flip top bottles.

The bottles that I got to cap! I did well- they all sealed!

This is the left over goop that gets filtered out before the beer goes to the bucket for bottling. 

Indy's Days Out!

Indy had a pretty exciting week this past week! Eric got the day off on Tuesday because it was so terribly cold and he thought he'd be generous and take Indy swimming! Indy also got to go swimming with 2 friends so that made the pool party even more fun! Shane, Eric's co-worker brought his yellow lab, Kam, and Eric's boss, Sean, brought Ratchett. Ratchett come to find didn't really like the pool, so the pictures below are only of Indy and Kam. They had a blast swimming for over an hour. Indy was so wiped that when I got home at 5 he only lifted his head off his bed to acknowledge my arrival. 

Indy and his trusty tennis ball

Ratchett not loving the pool

Indy & Kam

Indy's other outing was on Saturday. We got brave and took Indy to Wash Park. Wash Park is a huge park in Denver that has a 2 mile walking trail around its outer rim. Wash Park is typically packed every day with people working out, walking/running their dogs and is of course home to ducks, geese and squirrels, all of which Indy loves to chase. I wanted to take more pictures, but go figure the camera batteries died. Indy did pretty well, and chased his fair share of wildlife, but since it was new territory he pulled every which way trying to sniff every blade of grass and telephone pole. We do plan to take him again, and next time we'll put working batteries in the camera :)

Indy tugging to get moving!

View across the park. You can sort of see the mountains in the background.

Just Because

He's cute and I couldn't resist sharing this happy puppy picture!

New TV and TV Stand

The TV is new as of New Year's Day, and in order to accommodate the TV we had to redo the original entertainment center. We didn't want to ditch it since my dad made it, so  Eric came up with a solution- Take off the top! Below is a picture of the new TV and entertainment center. 

 

New Toys for Us!

If I were a super hero I my name would be Gadget Girl. I want every kitchen gadget that Oxo, Calphalon, Kitchen Aid, Crate and Barrel and Williams–Sonoma could ever conceive to design. I think they are fantastic! My newest gadget was this salad dressing bottle from Crate & Barrel. It has dressing recipes on it and its air tight so no matter what type of dressing you make it stays fresh longer than leaving it in a random squeeze bottle. I’m pretty excited to make homemade dressing rather than buying stuff at the
grocery store!

Eric, however, does not in any way share my love of gadgets. He’s pretty sure if you have good knives, good pots and pans, a good wooden spoon and a fire source you’re set to cook anything imaginable. His new kitchen toy is his Calphalon Tri-Ply Stainless 5-Quart Saute Pan with Glass Lid. I consider it a pan, and while yes, it’s shiny and now matches the rest of the pans we have I’m not in awe of it. I have been informed though that lots of yummy dinners can be made in this pan so I’m a bit more excited {mainly
because I don’t have to cook the dinners, I just get to enjoy eating them!}

I’m hoping to put the new toys to work this weekend and make a great dinner- we’ll share pictures, but they might be of our empty plates!

Doggy I.Q. Toys: Update!

We have success! Indy loves his I.Q. Ball and we’ve given it to him throughout this past week while we’ve been at work, and he gets all the food out! He definitely got the hang of it! A video of him showing off his skills is below.

The Shuffle Bone Puzzle hasn’t been anywhere near as successful, which is sad because it was the expensive toy {but I guess it’s like getting a kid a giant toy for Christmas, and he then only plays with the box it came in} Indy knows that we’ve put food in there because he sees us do it, but the holes on top of the sliders are not big enough for him to really get the smell of the food in the hole, and when he does he has slobbered all over the puzzle so terribly that the sliders have expanded and won’t move. This results in him picking up the puzzle in his mouth and chewing on it as though it was a rawhide bone. We’ve decided this will be a supervised toy so he doesn’t end up demolishing it {and his mouth}.

Pictures

For anyone taking a look at this and wanting to catch up on what we’ve been up to for 3 years in Colorado {holy cow I can’t believe it’s already been 3 years!} prior to starting this blog feel free to check out the link below to Eric’s online photo album. We moved out here in September 2007, so anything after that are our Colorado Adventures. Little side trips here and there rarely get their own album. We try to save albums for big trips and the annual compilation of pictures. Random weekend pictures will be put up on the blog.
As always, enjoy! https://picasaweb.google.com/emsartor