Peach jam

Daniel's Birthday Weekend

This year, we surprised Daniel with a weekend at a cabin on Lake Granby, just outside Rocky Mountain National Park. The first night we saw the Supermoon blood moon. It looked HUGE!

The second night I woke up in the middle of the night and went outside to see a partial eclipse. Crazy.

Everyone got to do some of their favorite things. Fishing was high on the boys' list. Check out the huge fish Jack caught the first day--right off the dock in a net! It must have been beginner's luck because the boys didn't catch anything else the rest of the weekend.

We paddled, read, and relaxed in the hot tub.

A cute boy decided to brave the icy water.

For his birthday cake, Daniel asked for eclairs. I had to get all fancy and make a croquembouche--which is basically a pyramid tower of cream puffs glued together with caramel and wound with decorative spun sugar. It is traditionally served at French weddings.

Here's a very unflattering picture of me sweating bullets. I made the cream puffs, pastry cream, and a chocolate ganache dipping sauce at home, and I piped them at the cabin. The caramel should have taken 15 minutes to make. An hour later, it was still crystallizing every five minutes. You can see the thick layer of crystallization in the pot in this photo. I forgot that I always have problems making caramel in Denver (at 5,000 feet). The cabin sits at 8,000 feet. Daniel broke the rule book and kept adding water which seemed to stop the crystallization but it took over an hour to make. I was pretty worked up but Owen, my loyal sous chef, stayed by my side, and Daniel had to help assemble his own birthday cake.

It was delicious but the caramel was so hard it kept getting stuck in our teeth. We were laughing hysterically. This video gives a sense of the party ambiance. My apologies for the operatic attempts.

It's rare to get to canoe on a lake in Colorado. Our morning canoe ride was such a treat. It doesn't hurt that Lake Granby backs up onto Rocky Mountain National Park so most of the shoreline is national forest.

We paddled across the lake to a small island.

My dudes. I love them desperately.

Birthday breakfast for the (very loved) birthday boy. We adore you, Daniel!

Chuck Wagons and Ursa Major

It's no secret that half the fun of camping is playing house in the woods. This time around, we had some exciting new gear to test out.

An air mattress. (I know, we're getting old and soft.)
A heavy-as-lead Dutch oven.
And, wait for it: a brand spanking new camp stove, the Camp Chef Everest!

Oooh, that thing makes me so happy. No more pumping of the gas cylinder. No more dropping matches and burning your finger. Every. Single. Time. Push a button and whoosh goes the flame. And, wow, is it fast. We had water at a rolling boil in seconds.

I know it kind of hurt Daniel's feelings that I was ready to retire the bottle-green Coleman stove, a $10 Craigslist purchase from the early days of our Colorado camping career. In its defense, the thing was used when we bought it. And if it's no longer green but rather dingy and black, it's because one time, ah-hem, it went up in flames. I can't seem to remember what happened. Unfazed, that Coleman kept on chugging for another five years. Surely, it deserves some kind of camping award.

That's great. Life moves on. Can we talk about my new stove now? I actually lay in the tent the second night fantasizing about making coffee in the morning. Yes, it's true. I'm in love with a camp stove.

Shove that casserole in there, baby! This is a kale sausage roasted squash rosemary bread pudding delight.

There was a moment of studious reading about a certain number of briquettes in a checkerboard pattern. Daniel decided to keep it real and dump chunks of wood on top instead. It turned out delicious. Amazing, even. However, there was this slight l'eau-de-burnt-ash that we weren't fond of. This led to DK The Science Guy deciding that for the next go-around, we needed to create an internal "oven" to distribute the heat more evenly. I smiled and nodded sagely, pretending I had something to contribute to the conversation other than detailed ideas about what would go inside said oven.

And now we need to talk about what happened for dessert. Brownie mix cooked in oranges. What? So good. Recipe here. You're welcome.

While we were cooking, Jack announced, "Grub's up!" And then he said, "Um, Mom, do people really say that?"

After that feast, I felt like a grub. A very rotund one. I had to take a stroll around the campground just to shake off strange but persistent memories of third-trimester pregnancy. I walked out to an opening in the trees and the sun was setting over all those glorious fire-gold aspens. I ran (waddled?) back to the campsite and we all charged through the woods. The guys missed most of the sunset, but we did catch the tail end of the show.

Here it is, Daniel's solution to the burning problem. And it worked! Perfect breakfast scones. And may I say, these were much needed after a rough first night which included a freezing Daniel (for the first time in our married life, I was the warm one--perhaps due to the wearing of not one but two sleeping bags?), a restless Jack, and an air mattress that rocked like a boat every time Bronte wandered around, which was often.

Plus, yes, we had a large animal encounter of the Ursine kind.

We woke up to a huffing noise right outside the tent. Daniel and I froze, ears cocked to the sound like paralyzed deer. It moved closer, circling the tent and grunting. It sounded big. In seconds stretched thin like taffy, we listened as whatever it was moved around the tent and through the campsite and eventually off into the forest. I started shaking. Daniel assured me it was a moose, not a bear. I've heard that one before, but I rolled over into the hedge of his strong arms and promptly conked out. Which I think says my repression skills are improving.

In the morning, a spectacularly wizened camp host stopped by. (I mean, seriously, it looked like he was wearing a wrinkled leather mask--the kind Tom Cruise is always hiding under in spy movies.) He confirmed it was a moose, and that he visits often. Visit away, moose. Anytime. Just keep Mama Bear somewhere far away.

Stuffed with yummy food and autumn beauty, we drove home. The Pathfinder reeked of woodsmoke and dirty socks, but we had big smiles on our faces. Until next time....

Puttin' Up Preserves

Summer hasn't given up the ghost. Not in Colorado, anyway. The nights are cool and fresh but by four o'clock the mercury is pushing the high nineties. Before autumn rolls in for real, I invited some friends for my 5th annual preserves party. It is always so much fun to cook for people I love, reconnect after hectic summers, and share what we preserved.

I cooked all day and here's what I came up with: white peach and plum prosecco sangria, beet chickpea cakes with tzatziki, cherry tomato crostini with ricotta and basil, triple cream Brie and aged Gouda with plum cardamon conserve and peach jam, Moroccan spiced olives, and blackberry tartlets with vanilla mascarpone cream. My friends brought a bunch of other dishes and we ate like queens.

Look at all this summer bounty! Homegrown lemon squashes, jam from Kathy's jam company Modern Gingham, roasted coffee from Hannah's coffeeshop Copper Door Coffee Roasters, espresso dark chocolate toffee, Thai-spiced pickled carrots, peach-red pepper relish, and my peach marmalade and plum jam. It is so fun to gather up the loot at the end of the night.

I just adore party leftovers--especially this party!

Fried chicken and biscuits

Behind the scenes of last weekend's supper club, there was a lot of brining, marinating, and pickling going on in our house. For the fried chicken recipe, I turned to Ruth Reichl and Edna Lewis, two of my favorite food writers. Shaking off the anxiety of influence, I tackled biscuits. I've just gone ahead and accepted the fact they'll never turn out as perfect as my mom's. I don't even try to use her recipe. It's a very intuitive affair and I don't have her touch. That said, these cream biscuits are pretty fabulous. They're my go-to biscuit recipe--easy-peasy and very tasty, even if they're not as good as Mom's.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the best father we could ask for. 

D aring

A wesome

D ynamite

D ependable

Y oung at heart

We love you to the moon and back!

Mom's birthday

We were so excited to have Mom, Dad, and Katie here for the last day of school and Mom's birthday. Mom is the sweetest mom and grandma in the world. She's patient, fun, wise, and kind. Whenever she's around, you'll hear music. Either she's singing a song as she washes the dishes or she's playing some gorgeous piece on the piano. (My neighbors asked who was playing the piano so beautifully.) She brings sunshine and light into every situation. When she's with you, she makes you feel like the most important person in the world. She's a great listener, always sees the best in everyone, and gives wise advice. We are so blessed to have her in our lives!

Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!