We had a great time in Colorado this past weekend. We crammed a lot of relaxing into four days!

Friday, September 22:

We arrived late Thursday night, took the shuttle home, and went straight to bed. Friday morning, we were greeted with a breakfast of peach and banana crepes, sausage, and eggs over easy on toast (fortuitously, my stepdad, Alan, happened to be visiting at the same time as us, and he fed us very well while we were there).

Later that day, we walked downtown and had lunch at Coopersmith's (yum, tomato mushroom bisque!). We walked around the Co-op with my mom and Alan. There was so much good stuff there, and a whole room full of bulk food bins! I wish we had a co-op where we live. It seems like we should.

We tried to go to Brave New Wheel to look at bikes, but as soon as we walked inside, the owner (I assume) followed us in and asked us if he could help us outside. It was very odd, since we just wanted to look around, which we could not do while standing outside. I think he was the only one working there, and he didn't want to leave us unattended inside while he helped a customer outside. Whatever his intention, we felt unwelcome, and so we left without looking around. Too bad!

Patrick and I went to Life of the Party (our local party supply and costume store) to look for something to wear to the Tour de Fat the next day. We weren't the only ones. There were a lot of girls trying on costumes (sexy referee, sexy pirate, sexy girl scout, etc.), but it was supposed to be cold and rainy the next day, so I decided to dress a little more warmly.

In the end, I didn't find anything that I wanted to wear, though I did find a cute knit hat that I want to try and copy sometime this fall. Patrick got some sweet Elvis sunglasses to wear the next day.

Once home, I rifled through our stash of old costumes and decided to stick some bunny ears on my helmet and call it good. We had a yummy dinner of lasagna with Boston cream pie for dessert.

Saturday, September 23:

Saturday was our busiest day; we had a good time! We started the day by riding borrowed bikes to Lucile's to have breakfast with my dad and Vicki (stepmom). I wore my helmet with bunny ears attached, which Patrick found amusing. It was a chilly morning, but we didn't have to ride far to get there.

I'd never been to Lucile's, but I'd definitely like to return in the future! It was small and full of people, and the food was great! We started by splitting an order of beignets, hot, golden and covered with powdered sugar. I had spiced tea, scrambled eggs, grits and a gigantic buttermilk biscuit with jam. A good way to start the day!

After breakfast, we headed for New Belgium Brewery, to attend the Tour de Fat! We were close enough to just ride over, which was convenient. Our accessories were nothing compared to the awesome costumes people had put together, but at least we weren't totally normal-looking. There were a ton of cool bikes to look at. I was especially impressed by five or so very tall bikes manned by well-dressed young men. They had to ride at the back of the parade, since they required a bit more effort to start and stop. We milled around in the cold for awhile, and then the bike parade started (very slowly, as there were hundreds--thousands?--of bikes involved).

The bike parade went around downtown Fort Collins, and it was great fun! We got to ride down College Ave (one of the bigger streets in town) while lines of cars waited for the parade to go by. The drivers seemed to be cool with the wait, for the most part. We enjoyed being a part of it. As we rode past Lucile's, we saw our waitress from that morning waving at the parade.

Eventually the parade returned to New Belgium, and the kegs were tapped (they had a semi truck parked there with taps protruding from the side of the truck!). We had to wait in line for a wristband and beer tokens (for Patrick; I'm still not a beer fan), but it didn't take too long. We ate lunch (burrito for me, brat and kraut for Patrick) and looked at all the costumes. My favorites were a girl dressed as Max from Where the Wild Things Are (a very good choice, given the frigid weather) and a couple wearing monkey and dinosaur vests. I tried to get good pictures of the costumes, but people kept walking in front of me (the nerve!).

I was very excited to see The Ditty Bops perform, and I was not disappointed. I would've liked them to perform even longer! They were both wearing oversized men's trousers with buttons on the front and suspenders attached, which looked totally cute on them. It was a fun performance. I didn't get any good pictures of them performing, but I did get this picture of them relaxing after the show (hopefully they don't mind people they don't know taking pictures of them). I especially liked Amanda's hat (turquoise knit hat with pearls) here. You see what I mean about people walking in front of my camera when I was trying to take pictures?

I bought one of their 2006 bicycle bikini calendars after the show. True, the year is almost over, but we can reuse the pictures and just ignore the calendar part. I was too chicken to go up to them and say hi. That happens a lot.

A little later, we watched the Yard Dogs (noisy website!). They performed some circus acts, some burlesque, and some music. It turned out to be pretty entertaining, though odd. It made me want to dress up all fancy and play the accordion! I was particularly impressed by Tobias, who swallowed a variety of things and produced a real live chicken out of nowhere. Magic! I kind of wanted to go down to Boulder the next night to see their unabridged performance.

Toward the end of the day it was getting especially cold, so we bought a hot chocolate, which hit the spot. And then we bought a Tour de Fat belt buckle for Patrick and headed home, where it was warm! We had pork stir fry and fruit salad for dinner, with a strawberry trifle for dessert. The trifle involved strawberry Jello, which seemed a little unorthodox, but it was really good!

Sunday, September 24:

Sunday was slow and relaxed. I'll just have to list what we ate, as not much else happened. We enjoyed a breakfast of corned beef hash with eggs on toast (this time using Alan's special multi-grain bread, which is really good--I wish I had some right now!). Patrick and I went to Beau Jo's for lunch and sat out on the patio, enjoying the beautiful weather (so unpredictable, that Colorado weather!). Back at home, we napped for awhile, and then dad, Vicki, Matt (stepbrother) and Erin (stepbrother's girlfriend) came over. Alan made fajitas for dinner (with tortillas made from scratch) and chocolate pudding pie for dessert (three different desserts in three days--we were so spoiled!). It was nice having dinner and talking with everybody; it made us want to have more dinner parties at our place.

Monday, September 25:

On Monday, we went looking for cowboy boots for me (I'm mildly interested in acquiring a pair, though I'd feel kind of bad wearing cowboy boots and not having anything to do with actual cows). I tried on a few pairs but didn't end up buying any. Later on, at the airport, there was a girl in front of us in the security line who was wearing a brand new pair of cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. I'm pretty sure she had bought them for the same reason I'm interested in them--for fashion reasons only. I wanted to compliment her on her choice of boots, but she got pulled out of line because she had a giant crystal vase in her carry-on, which didn't sit well with the screener.

We had an Indian buffet lunch at Taj Mahal (currently the only Indian restaurant in Fort Collins). Yum! We also stopped by Choice City Butcher and Deli on our way home, which I'd never been to before. I definitely want to go there for lunch next time we're in town. I really liked the ambiance, and the meat selection looked good (they had sausages made with New Belgium beer!).

All too soon, it was time to fly back home to California. It was a great visit though, and it was so nice seeing my family for a few days. I'm lucky!

We had a yummy dinner tonight, courtesy of the Cooking Light website: Buttermilk-Brined Pork Chops, Cinnamon Stewed Apples, Chipotle-Bacon Corn Bread, and Curried Cabbage.

The cabbage was a little too mustardy for my tastes and didn't really go with the other three items, but everything else was great! The pork was really tender, and the apples complimented it well. The cornbread was nice and smoky, and I was so thrilled to be able to cook with bacon without feeling guilty! I do feel sad that we didn't use the bacon drippings for anything. I could've used them in the cornbread instead of the butter, but that probably wouldn't have been healthier. I'd definitely make everything but the cabbage again. Yum!

I bought a Mighty Leaf tea sampler yesterday after Heather recommended that I give them a try. I love their packaging! It feels so fancy using a cloth tea bag instead of paper. The tea itself is good, but I haven't learned to distinguish between good and bad tea yet, so who knows. I had Orange Dulce last night, and I'm looking forward to trying the rest of the flavors in the sampler.

Update, 9:30pm: The Chamomile Citrus tea tastes like Pez!

For dinner on Thursday, I made a very vegetable-heavy meal of Tamale Pie and Southwestern Corn and Potato Soup, both from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites, as well as some steamed green beans.

The soup was just a bunch of vegetables (most notably corn and sweet potatoes) simmered in vegetable broth, but it was pretty tasty. I don't know if I'd make it again though. The tamale pie was good. I put a layer of full-fat cheese in between the veggie filling and the top crust, which probably helped the flavor a lot. I do like entrees that have a delicious top crust. I might make it again.

We had leftovers for dinner on Friday night, which was kind of boring for a Friday, so we went out to Cafe Borrone after dinner. Normally we only go there for lunch on weekends (I think I've mentioned Patrick's deep and abiding love for their Niman Ranch Pastrami Melt on rye), but they're also a good place to go for after-dinner drinks and dessert. They usually have a jazz band playing inside on Friday nights (and outside on weekend mornings). We sat outside on the patio, as the band was a little loud, as usual (but we still appreciate the fact that there is a band there and that they play enjoyable music, sometimes featuring the accordion!). Patrick got Vanilla Steamed Milk, which was really yummy. It tasted like rice pudding without the rice. I kept stealing sips. We also shared a crystal goblet (ooh!) of tiramisu that was quite good. I'm so glad we have a cool neighborhood cafe where people congregate. We love that place!

Yesterday, we headed up to San Francisco to have dinner with Tree and Andrew at Millennium. It was a great meal, and it's always fun hanging out with them. I was too busy conversing to take notes on my meal, which is probably how it should be. I had an Ecstatic Traveller, which I'd really liked when Patrick ordered it last time we were there. This time, kava kava was not in the ingredient list. It tasted more like limeade, without any gingery aftertaste (a little light on the agave, maybe?). It was still good, but not as good as I'd remembered it.

We were presented with bread and the yummy bean spread we'd had last time, which was yummy once more. I started with a dish of grilled mushrooms (lobster and oyster) over orange-flavored beans (with ground almonds, I think) and crostini. The beans were perfectly textured and were really delicious. They tasted like what I imagine beans should taste like when I make them from scratch, but I guess you have to flavor them to make them taste that good. If only I knew exactly how they did it! Maybe I should buy their cookbook.

There were four women at the table next to us who appeared to be having a bachelorette party, as one of them was wearing a light-up tiara, they were all wearing feather boas, and they laughed a lot and took funny pictures of each other. It wasn't the kind of thing I was expecting to see at Millennium (it seemed like more of a refined, reflective kind of place), but they weren't too rowdy.

I was very remiss in remembering what exactly was in my entree, but it was a tamale filled with good stuff (I think there was zucchini involved) with sauteed greens on the side. It was enjoyable; I like tamales!

Andrew had a triumphant moment when it came time to order dessert. He was intrigued by the dessert on their Big Easy prix fixe menu (it was some sort of apple bourbon crepe--mmmm), and he asked the waiter if he could order it even though he hadn't ordered the prix fixe meal. The waiter went back to ask the chefs, and he returned and said that Andrew could have it if he promised not to tell any of the other patrons, because they didn't have many extras (I hope I haven't broken the promise by telling the whole Internet after the fact!). Andrew and Tree shared his hard-won crepe, and he enjoyed it very much. I'm glad!

Patrick and I were adventurous and shared a terrine of avocado and lemon ice cream drizzled with olive oil and pink Hawaiian sea salt. From the description, we weren't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a frozen layered dessert with avocado ice cream on the bottom and lemon ice cream on top (and a thin nutty crust underneath). We both enjoyed it, but it was a little unusual, as you might expect. I'm glad we tried it though. In addition to dessert, I had a mug of Warming Digestive Elixir, same as last time. It was just as good as I remembered it. I need to get a hold of some ginger-chamomile syrup for myself (or make some; it shouldn't be too hard).

As we were walking back to the BART/Muni station, we spotted the Virgin Megastore, which houses Citizen Cupcake on its third floor. None of us had been to Citizen Cupcake, but Tree and Andrew got their wedding cake from Citizen Cake, and we're all cupcake lovers, so we wanted to visit it. I was convinced that they would be closed, but we went up to check it out, and they weren't closed at all! It was pretty empty though.

Patrick and I shared a lem-ania cupcake, which was filled with lemon curd and was embellished with little lemony candy sticks that reminded me of butter mints, kind of. Tree had a cupcake filled with toffee and topped with toffee peanuts and frosting. It was good (she and Andrew were both kind enough to let me sample their desserts). Andrew had a lemon sandwich cookie, which was yummy as well. Although the cupcakes were delicious, as cupcakes tend to be, I kept comparing them to my memory of the Cupcake Royale cupcakes, and I don't know if any cupcake can be as good as those (or at least as good as my memory of those). We need to go back to Seattle!

We'd intended to take the Muni back to Caltrain to get home, but all of the Muni coin slots were jammed or broken, and we didn't have a fast pass. Instead we decided to take BART to Millbrae, and then take Caltrain home. We were convinced that we would have to wait a full hour to catch the next train once we got to Millbrae, because BART was running kind of slow. But just as we descended the stairs at the Caltrain station in Millbrae, the train pulled up! We were just in time! We felt very triumphant. That almost makes up for the two occasions when we have sat at the Millbrae station, bored out of our minds, waiting an hour for the next train to arrive.

Today, we went back up to the city to have lunch with Jay (Patrick's older brother) and his fiancee, Heather (the engagement is a recent development, and we are all very excited about it!). They live in the city and suggested that we go to Fresca, a Peruvian restaurant. It turned out to be a very good choice!

Instead of bread, we were given a basket of warm corn muffins, dusted lightly with powdered sugar. The muffins were really good--light and fluffy and slightly sweet. It took great restraint not to keep eating them throughout the meal. To start, we split an appetizer of taquenos, which were essentially tortillas filled with cream cheese and deep fried. They were, of course, delicious, much as crab wontons are. Cream cheese and deep fried dough compliment each other all too well.

It took a while for our entrees to arrive (Jay and Heather warned us in advance that the service could be a little flaky), but we had plenty to talk about (I haven't gotten to talk about wedding stuff in a whole year!). Patrick had a steak sandwich, which was really good. I had been intending to order something lunch-like, but we were given the brunch menu, and I was compelled to order their quinoa-encrusted french toast, topped with maple mascarpone and sherry-glazed strawberries. Oh yes, it was as awesome as it sounds. I would absolutely order it again, given the chance. It was light and fluffy inside, nice and crunchy on the outside, and full of complimentary flavors. I wonder if I could make something similar at home. I should try encrusting other things with quinoa. It's a nutritional powerhouse, you know!

I would definitely return to Fresca. That was some good food!

We had a very simple dinner tonight. The goal was to use up some of the odds and ends we've collected over the past week before we go on vacation (yay!) next weekend. It struck me as the kind of dinner a toddler might eat--all finger foods. It consisted of rounds of sourdough bread, a little strawberry jam, some mild white cheese, carrot sticks, sliced nectarine, and green grapes. We ate it outside on our patio with the sun low on the horizon. It was a very satisfying and peaceful meal and a good end to a good weekend.

We went to Straits (in Palo Alto) for the first time last weekend. It's Singaporean food heavily influenced by other Asian cuisines. Everything on the menu looked really good!

We started by sharing an appetizer sampler for two, which consisted of chicken satay, samosas, grilled oysters with blue ginger marmalade, and ahi tuna tartar on waffle-cut taro chips. The satay and samosas were good, but not remarkable. I'd never had grilled oysters before (and still have not tried raw oysters). I wasn't sure how to eat them, so I slurped them whole but then chewed them a little. They were good, and the marmalade was delicious. I don't think I'd go out of my way to eat oysters regularly though. I liked the tuna tartar the best, both because raw tuna is yummy and because the taro chips were so cute! Also because they refer to the pieces of tuna as "jewels," and I think that's an apt description.

The main dishes were served family style, so we shared Nasi Goreng (which turned out to just be shrimp fried rice, but at least it was good shrimp fried rice) and tandoori beef. The beef came out on two big skewers stuck into a quartered pinapple, and when we were done with the meat, we cut up the pineapple and ate that too. Yum, pineapple! Both fried rice and beef were good, but not amazing (that was pretty much our consensus on the entire meal, but I'd probably go there again). We finished by sharing banana pudding wrapped in a banana leaf accompanied by caramelized bananas. The pudding was stiffer and starchier than I'd expected, but it was enjoyable. The caramelized bananas were the best part. Yum!

Here's a little tidbit regarding Nasi Goreng that Patrick shared with me over dinner: apparently it was Robert Oppenheimer's favorite dish, but when he first tried making it at home, it turned out horribly, and that prompted Oppenheimer to refer to it as "nasty goreng." Patrick knows this because I bought a big Oppenheimer biography (perhaps even the definitive Oppenheimer biography) at Kepler's a month or two ago on a whim, and he has been reading it. I have yet to read it, as there are six or seven other books in my pile that I have to get to first.

On Sunday, the weather was beautiful, so we decided to barbecue. Patrick made himself a hamburger, and I made a chicken sandwich using Grilled Chicken with Whiskey-Ginger Marinade, accompanied by Spinach Avocado Grapefruit Salad. Considering that the chicken dish used boneless skinless chicken breasts, it was quite good! It turned out a little dry, but the sauce was nice and flavorful. I might make it again. The salad was fine, but I'd rather eat the components separately than together, I think.

I felt like baking something, and Patrick requested zucchini bread, so I made the Zucchini Bread recipe from Baking Illustrated. It turned out very light and fluffy, as promised, but I found it kind of bland (that may be because I left out the nuts at Patrick's request). Patrick insists that he likes it, and that's what's most important, as he'll be eating most of it. Were I to make it again, I'd throw in some cinnamon, at least.

For dinner last night, I made Orange-Brined Pork Loin, Brussels Sprouts with Browned Garlic, and Sweet Sweet Potatoes. It doesn't look like much (I really need to set up a little studio for taking pictures of our food; the kitchen lighting just isn't cutting it!), but it was a yummy dinner.

The pork was good and pretty tender, but I think I could achieve similar results by brining in a simpler solution and not having to juice a bunch of oranges. But still, yum! The brussels sprouts were pretty good, but I've had better (I think they need to be accompanied by some sort of cured pork product to make them really stand out). Roasting them is definitely the way to go though. I had no complaints about the sweet potatoes. They made the kitchen smell good, and they tasted nice and sweet, but not too rich. It was a good dinner.

Not much else to tell. Life is good. I had both my watch and wedding ring resized smaller so they'd fit me right (I've lost weight, you see! Entry coming as soon as I reach my goal). Hopefully that'll provide extra motivation to stay at my current weight. Or at least it'll be an indicator if it starts creeping back up.

We went to my company picnic this weekend, and on our walk back home (it was only a few blocks from our apartment), we saw not one but two dead squirrels on the sidewalk. The first one was a baby, and I pretended it was just taking a nap. The second one was in a shopping cart in front of our apartment complex, strangely enough. People tend to leave shopping carts in the alley by our apartment (which riles me up something fierce--one time I got so sick of it that I returned four shopping carts to Trader Joe's just so I wouldn't have to look at them uglying up our alleyway every day), so it seems most likely that the squirrel fell off of a power line and into the empty shopping cart. I told Patrick that this was our chance to take up creepy rodent taxidermy, but he didn't go for it.

We ended up calling animal control to come get the squirrel nearest our apartment. Patrick had to make the call because I was afraid I'd end up laughing inappropriately if I had to tell them that there was a squirrel in a shopping cart in front of our apartment (it's absurd!). It took them a few days to come get it, but they did eventually (well, somebody took care of it). I am very grateful that there is somebody you can call to dispose of dead animals, as I wanted nothing to do with it. Dead goldfish I can handle, but a dead squirrel is a bit much for me.

I've finally finished writing about our honeymoon, which was almost a year ago. How'd that happen? If you're still interested, you can read about it from the beginning, starting here. However, there's not much detail in my descriptions of the last few days of the trip, as I was relying solely on my scribbled notes instead of my memory. Better than nothing, I guess. Next time we go on an exciting vacation, I'll be sure to write about it in a more timely manner!

In unrelated news, I finished reading Pride and Prejudice this morning. I'd never read it before (shocking, I know!), and one of my coworkers decided that I really must read it and lent it to me. I had a hard time getting into it at first, but I got sucked in eventually and very much enjoyed reading it. At some point I'd like to watch the movie or the BBC series and see how they compare to the book. But first I have lots of Buffy to watch!

I'd been chugging along with the Buffy-watching at a good pace, and then I suddenly just stopped, halfway through the fifth season. Not only that--we stopped watching TV altogether. It's kind of weird. I'm not particuarly sad to have stopped watching TV, but I'm not sure what prompted it. Maybe once the new seasons start, I'll be sucked back in.

I've had a very nice, relaxing three-day weekend. I cooked, read, listened to music, lit some smelly candles, and ate chocolate ice cream. I'm excited for Patrick to get back from his river trip tonight! I hope he had a good time.

The dinner I made was kind of weird. Recently I've been choosing meals using two criteria. The meals must: (1) use up produce from our box and any other perishable items that may be in our fridge and (2) be sufficiently healthy so as not to mess up my diet. I'm afraid this doesn't make for very visually-appealing or well-composed meals. These "what we had for dinner" entries are mostly for my records, so I can go back and see how I felt about a given recipe. Sorry, it's probably not too interesting to the rest of you unless you own the same cookbooks that we do.

So, dinner last night consisted of four recipes from Moosewood Low-fat Favorites (it's so easy to keep going back to this cookbook for dinner ideas, because the nutritional information is all there, and there are menu suggestions after each recipe). I made carrot orange salad, jerk tofu, garlic mashed potatoes (similar recipe here) and Carolina kale.

The combination of carrots and oranges in the salad seemed a little unorthodox, but it worked really well. The salad was dressed with lemon juice, honey and cinnamon, and it was nice and sweet and citrusy and didn't really taste like carrots at all. I'd make it again if we had carrots and oranges to use up (as we did last night), but it still strikes me as kind of a weird food combination.

The jerk tofu smelled really good as it baked, and it tasted pretty good. Not tofu-like at all. But I don't know if it was worth the prep time (a little over 1.5 hours total). Also, I was confused by the recipe--it said to use 2 cakes of tofu (12-14 oz). I wasn't sure if it meant 2 cakes, 12-14 oz. total, or 2 cakes, 12-14 oz. each. I ended up going with the former interpretation, as it agreed more closely with the nutritional information given in the cookbook.

The mashed potatoes were fine for being low-fat. They would've been much better with some sour cream or butter though! They didn't taste at all garlicky to me, which was too bad, as I'm a fan of garlic. At least my hands smelled like garlic for the rest of the night :) The kale was okay. I didn't like the addition of cumin. I prefer my greens a little simpler, with just garlic and onions.

I'm thinking of making a slightly more cohesive dinner later this week. I couldn't get to sleep last night and kept thinking about good fall-type food I could make. If it weren't for this diet, I could really go to town! But I can't complain too much, since the diet is working really well, albeit slowly (I've been on it since February!). I'm waiting until I reach my goal before I write a big entry about it; hopefully that'll happen sometime this month.