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Lemon Blueberry Bread

from: Paula Kafer

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups sugar
½ cup butter, softened
2 eggs
grated peel of 1 lemon
2 ¼ cups flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp salt
¾ cups milk
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries
or partially thawed frozen ones
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 5×9 inch loaf pan. Cream 1 cup of the sugar, and butter in a large mixing bowl until fluffy. Add eggs and lemon peel; beat well. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the flour. Sift the remaining flour with baking powder and salt. Mix flour alternately with milk into creamed mixture, beating until smooth after each addition. Combine the reserved 2 tablespoons flour with blueberries and gently fold into batter.

Turn into prepared pan and bake 1 hour fifteen minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes then pierce gently with a fork. Combine lemon juice and remaining ¼ cup sugar; stir to dissolve sugar. Spoon over bread. Serve when topping is set. Makes 1 loaf.

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Clear Creek Trail

We've taken a couple of long bike rides in the past week. There's a great trail near my parents' house called the Clear Creek Trail. Most of it is part of the Colorado Open Space project. And it links up cities and parks and rec centers … and runs all along Clear Creek, which is very very pretty.

Last week we went into Wheat Ridge on it and then past that into Arvada and part of Denver proper. Along that was mainly parks and stuff and it was really interesting. But today we went the opposite way, into Golden. The Golden part of the trail runs by Coors Brewing Company and then into the little town of Golden itself, which was the territorial capital of CO and has a cool and interesting history all its own. Anyhow, they've done some really great improvements along the trail with proceeds from the state lottery. The trails are paved and about 10 feet wide, with red stone retaining walls all along, and nice bridges. In Golden itself, they've worked Clear Creek into a white-water park complete with landings and man-made white water bits for canoers and rafters and kayakers. They also have great spots for you to stop and have a wade in the creek (we did!) and there was also a neat spiral slide coming from above where the trail runs under a street and onto a prettily-patterned foam landing spot (I heckled Matt into trying it out). Continue reading “Clear Creek Trail”

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I Know It's Been a While …

But, sadly, nothing much of interest has been going on. We've just been living our lives and trying to get that whole job/house thing together.

Sims 2 was released yesterday. I'd LOVE to have it, but that would mean having a computer that's actually fast enough to run it … which won't be happening for a while yet. I've read sooo much about it and I'm so excited for it and I still have to wait … bummer.

And on Tuesday, the new season of Gilmore Girls starts!!! I'm vair vair vair excited for that. We'll get to see the consequences of Rory sluttin' it up with a married man. All of the spoilers I've read suggest it will be a great season. Season 1 is out on DVD and Season 2 comes at Christmas, so if you aren't into GG yet, pick 'em up or rent 'em from the Evil Empire (Blockbuster) or Netflix.

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Hodge Podge

Today was an odd sort of day. We didn't really do anything towards house hunting which was a nice break, but we both did other little bits of work. Besides the work, we went on a 20 mi. bike ride through the area on the Greenbelt, which is a trail that links up across multiple cities on preserved areas, so it's pretty woodsy and nice. That was fun! Tonight, we chilled out, ordered in food and watched some TV and Calendar Girls, which was v. cute and funny.

Today we found something great too … the Spanish station!! It's got great up-beat Mariachi type music and we don't know what anyone's saying, so they can't annoy us!! It's practically perfect. Plus, Matt's covinced we can learn Spanish from listening (ha ha!). Continue reading “Hodge Podge”

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Campout!

We spent the weekend in the mountains. Richard, who works with my mom, has a cabin up near Red Feather Lake and he holds an annual campout and invites all of his co-workers. So on Friday we loaded up my dad's Element and took off. May had to ride in the back seat with Matt and I, but she seemed to enjoy herself. She found a pillow that my mom had lain between the two front seats and laid her little head on it and snoozed for almost the whole trip (right through an incredible thunderstorm we encountered along the way).

It was late by the time we arrived and we spent the balance of the evening having a bit of food, sitting around the campfire and pitching our tent. As we went to pitch our tent, I stepped in a gopher hole and twisted my ankle. Youch! It hurt like mad, but it's pretty much healed now…. Anyhoo, so we pitched out tent, but it was kinda on a hill, so we were all (dog included) sliding down hill all night. Not the most comfy, but whatever. Continue reading “Campout!”

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Banana Boats

from: Girl Scouts

Ingredients
bananas
milk chocolate chips
mini marshmallows

Directions
Take your banana, skin on, and slice it lenthwise, through the skin, cutting through the banana, but not penetrating the skin on the opposite side. Carefully pull apart the cut of the banana and stuff it with the marshmallows and chocolate chips. Use lots!! You'll need 'em.

Then all that's left to do is cook the banana. Wrap it in some tin foil and cook it on a bed of hot coals (or in the oven if you don't happen to be camping). You want the marshmallows and chocolate chips to get melty and the banana to get nicely cooked.

Once it's done, pull back the foil and consume with a spoon and maybe some milk…. mmmmmm

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Be Vewwy Quiet … I'm Hunting Houses!

House huntin' is going pretty well. We've been shoppin' properties all over this great city and it's been pretty fun. It's hard though, because our critera aren't really the sort of thing that you can type into a search-engine. I guess it's the sort of thing that we'll “know it when we see it.”

We might have seen it today. We saw a really cool house built in 1939 that has lots of charm and personality and really good overall space. I'd post a link to it … but y'know internet anonymity and all.

If it becomes more of a reality, we'll be posting pics and descriptions galore, y'know.

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Cooking Adventures

My brother has never been much of a cook. This wasn’t too much of a problem for him growing up since our mother usually cooked or we went out to eat. During his first year at CU, he was in a dorm so he never was able to cook. But now that he’s a sophomore and living in an apartment we thought we’d team him a little. He came to visit us in WI right before we left and we taught him to cook chicken packets.

He came over to visit us the other day and told us he was getting board of chicken packets. Turns out he’s cooked them 7 times in the last 2 weeks. I imagine so. Anyways, we taught him to cook spaghetti tonight. Next week we’ll move on to pigs in a blanket. Pretty soon we might even let him cook for us.

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Booties!


Back in the apartment, May rarely had trouble getting up (unless she was in the sun room where there was a tile floor). Well now that she's at my parents' house, she's been having a bit of a problem making it from lying down to standing up since most of the floors that she is on are wood, and pretty slippery for an old doggie.

So this morning, Matt and I went to Petsmart and found these booties on the clearance. Technically, they're to keep a puppie's paws from getting too much ice in them in the winter, so they were cheap from last season. Well we brought them home to try … and they worked!! May can get up without assistance and she is walking much better. Yea!!

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Surprise!!!

Last night my mom took Matt and I on a mystery outing. We didn't know where we were going …. and we didn't find out until we got there that my (ultra-awesome) mom had gotten us tickets to see …. GUSTER!!

Her company has a pool of tix at the Universal Lending Pavilion (stupid name, great venue), this sort of DIA-esque outdoor venue in downtown Denver, and when Guster tickets came up, she nabbed 'em for us.

So last night, she, Kells, and the two of us went down to see Guster!! Needless to say the show was great. They had two opening bands … dunno what the first one was, and I really didn't love them so m uch, but the second one was Mission 19, a local band out of the Springs. They were fun, with a DMB sorta sound. But, of course, Guster was the main attraction. They did a great show, as usual. They played new stuff and old-favorites alike and the crowd was really psyched up to see them. The coolest thing about watching Guster though is their drummer. On 90% of the songs, no drumsticks. He just uses his hands … so you get a sort of bongo sound mixed in with cymbals at times too .. and watching him drum is amazing. Wonder if his hands hurt/get tired?

Now that I've given Guster their rave review, I must say that another cool part of the evening was the venue. Since my mom's company bought up this package thingy, we had all VIP stuff, and that was soooo great. We got close-up parking, followed by our own little pre-show area complete with food (lasagna, sandwiches, etc.), drinks, and bathrooms (so a big deal if normal bathrooms gross you out!!) and then on the floor, we had a little sort of sectioned-off booth area with a little cocktail table and chairs. So-very-neat.

Don't I have the coolest mum?