Papa Curry in the 'Boat

DAD IS "HOME"!!! After our morning club routine, Pegs & I drove to Hayden airport to pick up our man of the hour (well, weekend really)! It was another beautiful day, with the sun shinning.

When we got back to the house, we made some brunch before tending to the yard. Dad cleared the brush and pruned the trees, as Pegs weeded the garden and I picked the crab apples. We were quite the sight for family bonding.

*helping dad prune the crab apple tree*

Once outside became a tidier place, and deserving a break, we all went for a bike ride. Pegs and I chose our favorite route to show dad all of autumns’ glory; and his timing could not have been better! The trees lining the bike path were peaking, and the mountains looked like a rust, orange, and yellow Monet.

*re-u-nited and it feels so goOod*

*the happy couple*

We then headed home to prepare our dinner with the Allen’s. Pegs & I made chicken and halibut fajitas with a zucchini hash and an apple crisp for dessert. It was a satisfying day to say the least!

*rainbow colored Bell Peppers for the Fajitas*

*Halibut Fajitas*

*Chicken Fajitas*

Tashlikh

Not enough of our day...
....working in the garden

L'Shanah Tovah

Tonight marks the beginning of the new Jewish year, Rosh Hashanah. And after a long day of working on the book, Pegs & I decided to make a celebratory meal for the high holidays! We lit-up the Shabbat candles, said our prayers, and graced our pallets with this delectable dish you should try for yourself :)

Wild Rice Pilaf

Ingredients:

½ C Sprouted Brown rice

¼ C Wild rice

*For faster cooking time:

- ½ C Basmati rice

- ¼ C quick cooking Wild rice

6-8 Shiitake mushrooms

½ of a Yellow onion

2-3 cloves of Garlic

2-3 pieces of Celery

1 bunch of Parsley

2 TBLS Olive oil

1 ½ Vegetable (or chicken) broth

Start by prepping your ingredients. Slice the onion, celery, and shiitakes in half and then chop into smaller pieces. Continue by dicing the parsley and garlic.

Pour the olive oil into a medium sized pot, and then add the rest of your prepped ingredients with the rice. After you mix it all together, add a pinch of Salt & Pepper with the vegetable broth to bring it to a boil.

Once it boils, place on a low heat to simmer. Leave the rice covered for about 50 minutes (with Sprouted/wild rice) or 20 minutes (with Basmati/quick rice) for it to absorb all the liquids.

We enjoyed the rice with roasted chicken, squash, asparagus, and a salad. Delish!

Busy Bodies

Today was what I would call a successful business day. I finished organizing all 120+ recipes that will prospectively go into the book and Pegs finished her introduction! This task was not easy for me, seeing as Pegs’ form of computer document “organization,” is well… not organized. So I was very pleased it only took me two days to find them!!

For our mid-day break, Pegs & I did a never-ending hike that conveniently is located right here in Steamboat! What Pegs informed me would only be an hour hike, unknowingly turned into two (which I did not mind en route, until we got to the car and my stomach growled with me for having forgotten lunch).

I believe it was because our company was delightfully entertaining! Kathy and her daughter Sara guided Pegs & I as we hiked up to the first waterfall at Fish Creek Falls. The scenery was beautiful with autumn peaking.

Now I must admit, this term “peaking” has fueled quite a debate the past weeks here in Steamboat. For those of you unacquainted with the fall season, the “peak” of fall can be open to interpretation. Whether you are talking about tree leaves color, how colorful they are, which color they are, etc. it all can be defined by personal preference. However, Sara provided an excellent definition I feel could satisfy the majority of these interpretations:

“When the leaves will not get any brighter than they currently are.” Simplistic.

If you never have had the chance to see the peak of fall, I suggest you take a trip to Colorado, or any other place that has seasons, and bask in nature’s beauty!

* Sara, Kathy, and Me *
...Hiking along

* The First Waterfall *

A Case of The Mondays

Every now and then I will wake up in a funk, and today was one of those days... I warned Pegs right when I rose of my current mood, but even with that being said there was nothing she would be able to do right today (to me).

This morning also happened to be one of those unusual days where I got out of bed before Pegs, so naturally I made our morning tea. While it was brewing, I got myself ready to for our 8:30-11am workout.

Since there wasn’t a cloud in the bright blue sky, I knew Pegs would want to bike to the club… yet being in my mood, and averse to cold morning weather, I decided to drive the car those three blocks (I know, I am a ridiculous grump… but I acknowledge that in advance and apologize profusely in retrospect).

The rest of the day went a little bit like this while working on the book:

Megs- Waaa Waaaa Waaaaa

Pegs- ….(silent)….

Megs- I’m sorry

Pegs- it’s Ok

Megs- Waaa! You can’t do anything right

Pegs- (laughing) I know

Megs- I’m sorry

You get the picture… thankfully tomorrow is a new day :)

Family Dinner

Every Sunday back home in Manhattan Beach we have a family BBQ dinner. Since being in Steamboat, I personally (not Pegs because she was home the other weekend) have not had a large family dinner in weeks… So when our neighbor Betsy came over yesterday and asked us if we would like to have a Sunday family dinner we accepted with open arms!

Pegs figured it would be best to do it at our house with all of our seating capacity, and truly break-in the dinner table. We all decided on a pot-luck meal: Betsy & her husband Herb would make Peach Salsa and Burgers, Amanda (who lives in their front house) would make a pasta salad, and Pegs & I would make a Greek salad.

So after going on a bike ride with Kathy through Steamboat’s mini-farms on the other side of the river, we got cooking!

Since I had made so much hummus last night, Pegs & I decided we would make it an appetizer and cut up some veggies. We also made garlic bread with a baguette we had in the fridge. And my favorite dish we made for dessert, was a fresh apple crisp using the apples from our very own trees in the backyard!

It was the perfect evening for our dinner. We began with appetizers in the garden and then brought ourselves inside for the main course. Altogether, it was 3 hours of great food and even better company!

Workin' on the Weekend

Since we barely did any work Friday, Pegs & I were feeling very determined to get to business today! After a living room yoga set, Pegs continued to polish her introductory passages, while I organized the recipes (Pegs has a TON of yummy ones, but unfortunately they all cannot make the cut).

After a couple hours of work, we decided to enjoy another beautiful day in Steamboat and biked to Kathy’s to pick lettuce from her garden. On our way back home we stopped by City Market to grab ingredients we needed to make Baba Ganoush and hummus.

Julia Child once said in My Life in France, “…no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.” Being able to work with what you got (even though it might not have been what was intended) is a practice I am still learning in the kitchen!

Pegs & I worked diligently in the kitchen on separate goodies: she worked on her Hippie cookies and I intended to make Baba Ganoush. Yet what began as Baba Ganoush transformed into eggplant hummus (not too far off).

It all started when I added too much parsley and garlic. Both would have added lovely flavor to the Baba Ganoush in moderation, but with my big-flavor-loving taste buds I used just a tad too much… So, insert the garbanzo beans!

Even with my change of course, making hummus (as well as Baba Ganoush) is very easy:

• Begin by halving the eggplant and broil until the skin is charred black (as you can see below). I broiled it on high for roughly 15-20 minutes. Let it set/cool down to make it easier to scoop out.

• Next, place all the dry ingredients into the processor: 2 cloves garlic and a handful of parsley (This is where I added too much for the Baba Ganoush, but just the right amount for hummus)

• Then add all the “wet” ingredients: 1 TBLS tahini, 1 juiced lemon, and the innards of the eggplant

  

• After blending together, I added a pinch of chopped chives, 2 TBLS of olive oil, salt & pepper, and almost a full can of garbanzo beans to the chopper to create my eggplant hummus.

Eat with chips, cut up veggies, or even put it on a sandwich to add some flavor! Bon Appétit :)

Hearty Hike

Today we broke our routine… Instead of our usual Friday morning strengthening class at the club, Kathy called us early and asked if we would like to meet her in Yampa for an unknowingly arduous hike.

Kathy’s friend had told her about a nice and leisurely 4-mile hike by Bear Lake that she had wanted to do; however, when we got into Yampa Kathy forgot the exact name of this hike. When we looked at the map, we saw a trail for Ute-Heart Lake and we decided that name sounded about right—were we in for a surprise…

When we got to the trailhead it informed us that the hike we had chosen was a cool 6.5-miles up. Feeling ambitious, and still somewhat convinced this was our intended hike, we decided to go for it!

The scene was breathtaking and the company made it all worthwhile. Although we did not quite make it to the lake (as we were pressed for time), we did score some beautiful pictures as you can see:

Farm to Table

Today began with electricians fixing problems with our light switches mad early… So Pegs & I further edited the book. After a couple hours of that ruckus (/when they finally finished tooling around), Pegs & I were able to do our yoga set. Then we decided to enjoy the sun by hiking up Spring Creek! While enjoying our hike Pegs & I had another enlightening conversation about the book, life, friends, family, and more… The leaves have just started changing to the most beautiful shades of yellow and gold, and with this being Pegs first real fall, we are fully appreciating Steamboat’s beauty!!

By the time we got home we had to get ready for our Farm to Table dinner. Pegs bought tickets for this event she saw in the local paper last week and invited Robin and her Mom, Winona, to join us. It was about 10 miles outside of town at a newly purchased ranch. It was very interesting getting to walk around the property with the owner while listening about his methods of farming. He was refreshingly honest about everything he shared with us!

After seeing where the chickens, pigs, and dairy cows were kept we sat under large white tents next to the huge red barn for dinner. It truly was a farm fresh meal! Our first course was a potato, kale, & onion soup; followed by blanched green beans, a beet salad with a Dijon vinaigrette, and beef tenderloin as the main course! YumMmMmY!!

It was another delicious day in the ‘Boat : )

*Robin & Mama at the Farm*

*Me & Pegs at the farm*

*Pegs & Farmer John*