Finally I can reveal the Ellis Dress on the internets! I knit this for my friend Lauren, who just had her baby shower a few weekends ago.

I used some mustard yellowish Cotolino. The yarn was really great to work with!

Also in other baby knitting news, I got to see A Cardigan for Abigail in use this weekend. She is finally big enough for it! I am going to try to snag some pictures next time.

Saturday we took a hike at the Cheesman Trail, near Deckers. It was really beautiful to hike along the Platte River, see the fishermen (and women) and have the lovely smell of water in the air.

Swiss-cheese lookin rock.

Fisherman down in the Platte.

Fresh water spring found along trail.

Yesterday we took a short hike up Mt Cutler. It was snowy, foggy and pretty and we were the only ones there! Here are some shots of the trip:

Ice detail on a pine

Me about halfway up, look at that fog abyss!

View across inside of canyon. Not sure what that canyon is called.

Covered grasses and yuccas.

Lone tree

I tried, I really did. I just can not get a good picture of these babies. It must have something to do with all the green.

Anyways, you should know about my favorite taco ever. The only place I could find them was in Chicago (El Torito), and since moving I had not had them.

Its very simple- just pan fry 3 corn tortillas until slightly crispy. Slice half an avocado, layer inside. Then sprinkle tiny pieces of red onion to taste. And don’t forget gobs and gobs of fresh cilantro. Top off with green (tomatillo) salsa. Its so simple, yet sooo tasty and satisfying.

But not photogenic.

I finally bound off the Bliss Shawlette Thursday!

Posing outside yesterday morning:

All laid out, warming my knees.

Blocking out, near the refrigerator vent.

I used some pretty Blue Skies Alpaca Silk in a stormy blue color, 3 skeins. I wanted to use as much yarn as I could, so I did a few more repeats of the holey lace, and then did another repeat of the chevron. I have a teensy amount left over.

I also used a smaller size needle so the shawl would have been overall smaller if I didn’t do extra repeats. Overall I am really happy with this project, and would highly recommend it! I have already gotten to wear it a few times this weekend.

In other news, my mom found out she has another tumor in the small portion of her lung that is left. Please keep her in your thoughts as she receives radiation therapy…

We got a new camera with a giftcard from Christmastime, so we have been taking lots more pictures. These are just compiled from the last few weekends and I thought I would share.

Hot springs at Chalk Creek. So relaxing!

Quinessential relaxing legs pose.

We also went shooting in Tarryall last weekend, and its a nice secret and beautiful spot with great views. Here is just one I captured.

We saw bighorn sheep there! Here is a piece of the flock:

Friday I made a really great pizza. I used Peter Reinhart’s Napoletana dough recipe.

I roasted some red potatoes with spices, roasted some garlic and put that on there. I also sauteed green pepper and added that, but it was not such a great mix. Then with full fat mozzerela and some peccorino romano, I completed the toppings. For the sauce I made a pesto out of spinach, walnuts, white wine vinegar, garlic, salt pepper and olive oil. Very yummy!

And lastly, my progress on the bliss shawlette. Right now it just looks like a pile. I ripped back half of the lace to add more since I had extra yarn. I think I have enough yarn to do about 20 more rows. I am so close and wish this were done so I could wear it!!!

It peaked about 47 degrees in Pueblo today, yay.

Scenic view at Lake Pueblo Trails

At Lake Pueblo Trails

Outer Limits Trail

Break on Outer Limits Trail

Outer Limits Trail

Railroad section on Outer Limits Trail

Droppy section on Waterfall Trail

In Waterfall Trail

In Waterfall Trail

Walking Stick Fruit Cacti on Pronghorn Trail

Yay, we are nerds on our way back home!

This year we celebrated Christmas with our families a little early. A work trip allowed us to go out in the middle of the month and we came back home a few days before Christmas. Visiting Chicago was nice, especially since we chose to not rent a car and use public transportation. I always forgot how easy it is to get around that way. It was a lot less stressful! We also went on to visit more family in St Louis. Luckily we were able to get out of the Midwest before the big storms hit.

Since we are mostly lollygagging around and visiting friends, I decided to carry on my family’s tradition of making empañadas or pierogi for Christmas. Empañadas fit the bill for me this year, so I went ahead and made some vegetarian versions.

Our usual dough consists of rolling the mixture in layers of butter. I did that yesterday for the neighbors gifts. Its more of a flaky, croissant-like pastry. I had extra filling so made some more today, but instead used a dough I had used in the past for making samosas. It is more simple- flour, fat (in my case, butter), salt and water. It only requires one rolling out too which makes our lives easier. This version is more crispy and solid, but also bready. Here are some pictures!

Waiting to fry.

Golden crispy goodness.

Nom. Filling consists of Smart Ground, carmelized onion, basmati rice, green olives, raisins and hard boiled egg. Seasoned smart ground with cumin and nutmeg. Then added more nutmeg, salt and pepper to the mixture. So savory.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

This year I had an ungodly amount of cranberry sauce leftover. My usual recipe is fresh cranberries boiled with sugar, orange and lemon zest, orange liqueur and orange juice. Its my favorite.

Anyways, we had about a cup and a half left over this year and it was going nowhere fast, so I decided to make some muffins and found this recipe. The only mods I had were to use regular milk instead of buttermilk, I added vanilla, and I did not add white sugar as the sauce already had sugar.

I think I will freeze these for morning eats as I did with the zucchini muffins this summer! They came out really good!

Yes, its as if I forgot I had a blog or something! So sorry for the huge gaps in posting around these parts. Excuses, excuses, I have been a busy bee.

We took a trip mid-November to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary, which will fall December 18. Given x-mas and birthdays and such, we decided to celebrate in November. Anywhoo, we went on a little excursion to San Francisco to remind myself why I ran away from the big city in the first place. (No really it was fun, but I miss the little town now).

Here are some of my faves:

At Muir Beach, mist

Mike at Muir Beach

Cool houses off Lombard Street

Glitter sidewalks, on our way to Pizzeria Orgasmica

How to dry your undies when you live on Geary Street

Tea Gardens at Golden Gate park

Jellyfish exhibit at the aquarium in Golden Gate park

Clam Chowdah, Mexican coke (real sugar!!) with CRUSHED ice and a lovely seasonal greens salad at 331 Fish

A seaweed I killed at Point Reyes

Zachary’s deep dish in Berkley, mushroom, green peppers and onions. YUM

Somewhere along 1, near Big Sur

Happy times heading to Big Sur on 1

Cool water pump thingy and Bixby Bridge

Bixby Bridge

And here is a link to a slideshow of all the pics!

Also, Thanksgiving was a blast. We had a gathering at our house, and I made my very first turkey! Me! A recovering vegetarian!

I found this great recipe in the Food Network magazine, and decided it was perfect. The only mods I had were leaving out the chestnut and mushroom veggies, but I did use fresh roasted chestnuts to flavor the gravy. Also I added some extra lemon to completely stuff the bird. A friend suggested I roast the breast side up at 500 degrees for about 45 minutes (which I only did for 25 minutes, the butter was starting to brown quickly), then turning and cooking breast down for an hour at 350. Then turn again and cook at 350 for the remainder. I highly recommend this recipe!!

Here is a bad impromptu picture right before the carving. Mike had to grab a shot for me while I was busy with gravy!