Mother's Day

Mother's day (this past Sunday to those of you that live under a rock) started off pretty crazy!

I volunteered at the Rocky Mountain Rollergirl's bout against Texas at our warehouse during the day which was awesome!! The RMRG team that played was our amazing Fight Club, and Texas put up a hell of a fight (excuse the pun). It was a really super exciting game, and all of the ladies played phenomenally. I got to meet some of the girls afterward, and they were all totally kickass. One of the girls on the Texas team even gave me a free beer coozy! Rockin'!

After that I headed home to make dinner for my momma and give her the best Mother's day gift ever.... an RMRG sweatshirt! Haha! She's the hottest derby mom ever.

I cooked up some new recipes that I have been wanting to try out for a while.... Creamy Pumpkin Pasta, with an Arugula salad topped with caramelized onions, croutons, candied walnuts, crumbled goat cheese, and an olive oil vinaigrette. The salad was definitely the big hit, as the pumpkin pasta was missing something.... we decided that maybe mushrooms could be added? Some kind of vegetable maybe? I'll have to work on that....

...my little sistah Taryn made AWESOME crepes for dessert too - with melted chocolate, powdered sugar, and some kind of tart berry compote in the middle.... YUM!

Busy busy Sunday, but totally rockin'!

Slush Jam - 2010

Early Saturday morning some friends & I partied it up end-of-the-snowboarding-season style the right way at Arapahoe Basin!

We started off with mimosas, which led to good ol' grilled grub (yes, I brought my veggie burgers), and plenty o' beer. We had some fun costumes, and although it did get pretty cold that day, we had tons of fun. I was pretty darn pooped by that evening!

The '09 / '10 boarding season was not the best I've ever encountered - and I didn't go up to the mountains all that much because of it. Here's hopin' that our partying will act as some kind of "snow dance" for next season....

Mister Grimes was nice enough to be the driver in his pimp new Subaru.... no really - it's totally pimp. Below I'm eating his jacket. 'Cause it's yummy.


Stacey wearing my coat - she got pretty dern cold up there! I love this photo of her - so funny!

Tony - the GRILLMASTER!


Little Brody - the pup of the moment. I love this guy!

Brian's awesome teddy bear hat.



We're quite the colorful bunch!

Creamy Shrimp with Corn & Bacon

OK - I will have a TON of awesome pics from this weekend posted very soon! It was a crazy/awesome one, so I will definitely be sharing all of the shenanigans with you.

First off though - I tried out a recipe Saturday night that I found in Real Simple Magazine a while ago, and it turned out really delicious!

Creamy Shrimp with Corn & Bacon
Obviously, I subbed fake-bacon for real bacon - and this was one of those situations where I wish I could have the real thing! But although it would've been really awesome that way, but I love piggies way to much.

Serves 4 Hands-On Time: 25m Total Time: 25m
Ingredients

* 1 cup long-grain white rice (I used short-grain brown rice, and it worked just as well!)
* Kosher salt and black pepper
* 4 slices bacon (or fake bacon)
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1/2 cup dry white wine
* 3/4 cup heavy cream
* 1 1/4 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
* 1 10-ounce package frozen corn

Directions

1. Cook rice according to package directions & set aside.
2. Meanwhile (while rice cooks), cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel, let cool, then break into pieces. Wipe out the skillet.
3. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the wine and cook until reduced by half, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add the cream and bring to a boil. Stir in the shrimp, corn, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Simmer until cooked through, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in the bacon; serve over the rice.

(photo from www.realsimple.com)

For two people this recipe makes WAY too much food, but the great news is that it's AWESOME as leftovers!! I actually scooped some into one of my 13" sundried tomato farmer's-market tortillas, added chopped romaine lettuce, half a diced avocado, and a bit of ranch dressing, and had it cold for lunch just now. It was really wonderful - and I will definitely be making it for lunch again tomorrow! SUPER YUM! :)

My new favorite snack!

Oh dear... I could go crazy with these babies!
I found this amazing recipe on Epicurious.com - Dates with Goat Cheese Wrapped in Prosciutto.
Being the vegetarian that I am - I swapped the Prosciutto out & opted for vegetarian bacon instead, and guess what: it was still DELICIOUS! A wonderful combination of salty/sweet/rich. They tasted so decadent & "gourmet", but they were super easy to make.

The other day, I happened to have some dates, some plain ol' goat cheese and a few extra minutes on my hands.... so I thought I'd try a simplified version of the recipe. I just pitted the dates, stuffed 'em with goat cheese, and toted them off to work with me in a re-used Whole Foods container.

I couldn't keep my hands off 'em all day!
Great snack to try if you like the sweet stuff, fo' shizz.

What a sight to see...

...this is what I saw as I locked up my apartment last night to leave, then turned around on my porch....

Dang - I love living here!

I heart sparkle eyeliner!

Ever since I was a kid, I loved glitter. Glittery bouncy balls, glitter streamers, glitter erasers, glitter nailpolish - if there was ever a choice of sparkles versus no sparkles, I always went with the former.

Maybe that's why I love David Bowie so much? Nah... he's still rad without the glitter.

When I began experimenting with makeup in college, I was thoroughly disappointed that I was never able to find glitter eyeliner. I even considered putting something sticky on my eyelids & dousing them with craft glitter, but it just seemed like it'd be a messy disaster.

Then... 3 years ago.... I discovered the Urban Decay makeup line.... and their GLORIOUS glitter eyeliner (and eyeshadow gels). I was in heaven!


You can get these babies at Sephora or Ulta - or straight from the source. They're a little more pricey than other brands, but totally worth it! I like to put a similar color of pencil eyeliner underneath to really make 'em pop.

Hangin' out at the cafe

A coupla weekends ago I wanted to be a stereotypical blogger, and post something while enjoying a cup o' joe at Cafe Europa. Of course their internet connection was down, so that totally didn't happen! Haha!

Instead, Geneva and I just hung out, drank some delicious coffee (I got a toasted marshmallow soy latte - YUM!), and had some lovely conversation. She attempted to study, and I attempted to read - it was a great way to kill a few hours.

Afterward we rode our bikes (Geneva on her awesome one) to Wash Park and did a lap. It was a beautiful day, and some great hang out time!

First Farmer's Market of the Year

Finally, the day I've been waiting for all winter has arrived! The first day of the Cherry Creek Farmer's Market. I hopped right on my cruiser and headed down yesterday morning to enjoy the beautiful weather, and all the sights/smells/tastes to experience. Some of these vendors I've actually been dreaming about throughout the cold months - I missed my 13" tortillas (a huge stack for $6 that you could get in flavors such as jalapeño cheddar, or sun dried tomato basil), the Grateful Bread company (that concocts the most delicious 14-grain bread), and of course, the flowers, the puppies, the people, the pastries! Oh my!

Oh, those wonderful tortillas! I use them for breakfast burritos, as a thin pizza crust, a delicious snack to dip.... UGH - they are amazing.

Mmmmm..... I do love jam (and all of the other things that are available to taste)!

Ah, yes - the Greatful Bread Company! Now, I'm not a hippie anymore (I went through a bit of a phase in middle school....but who didn't?), but this bread is really amazing. Last summer I asked the woman in the booth "so what kind of ingredients do you use"? She goes "Um, you know, flour, yeast, grains, all the usual stuff you use to make bread!" - I laughed so hard! She thought it was common sense, but it's amazing how many additives we've figured out to put into bread - she sticks to the original ingredients, and it's some of the best bread ever baked (in my opinion)... funny how that works, ain't it?

More flowers....

I happened to walk up to the Kettle Corn booth the moment they were pouring out another batch! I was super excited that I could capture this photo. The people at the booth were super fun too - they saw my Rocky Mountain Rollergirl shirt, and they got so excited for me that I made the league. We chatted for a bit, they were a lot of fun.

Herbs, glorious herbs!

Of course, PUPPIES! Oh golly - I love those little guys. The pups were out and about everywhere I looked. I had to snap a few pics of the cuties....

I came across these super yummy looking empinadas on my stroll, that were so pretty looking that I couldn't NOT give them a try. And Guava Cream Cheese? Yes please! I don't know how they get the shell to be so flaky and not dry out at the same time - it was absolutely delicious. The guava wasn't too tart, it was a very mild sweetness, and the cheese complimented it perfectly. YUM!

I can't wait until we finally have our own tomatoes growing in our backyard garden, but these will have to do for now! Not that I'm complaining of course.... Farmer's Market tomatoes taste SO much better than grocery store ones... I had to buy a couple!

The people at this spice booth encouraged everyone to give a sniff to each of the bags. They smelled so delicious that I found myself dwindling by the booth for a while, and sniffing a lot of them.

My favorite kind of flowers!

This bistro sets up a tent every year, at which they cook up a GINORMOUS skillet of Paella. I have always wanted to try it, but unfortunately they make a full-meat version that I can't enjoy while at the same time staying a vegetarian. Such a dilemma! Ah well, I can least appreciate how wonderful it smells, and how awesome it looks! Luckily my friend Ryan shared his secret family recipe for Paella that I have yet to make at home.... and that I can easily make vegetarian (or more specifically, pescetarian)!

I loaded up all my goodies into my bike basket, turned my iPod onto the "Great Lake Swimmers", and had a beautiful ride home, where I quickly cooked up a pizza for lunch (made with my newly acquired sundried tomato basil tortillas)!