We made a quick weekend trip to Colorado Springs two weekends ago. Jonathan has some friends from high school/college who live out there and my friend-since-birth Candace lives there with her husband. I had never been out there before, it was so beautiful. Everywhere you turn, Pikes Peak is staring at you from his lofty height. The sky is massive and blue and golden aspen trees shake their precious little leaves with every breeze. 

On Friday night we were driving back to Candace's house and I saw a red fox run down the sidewalk. We thought it had to just be a weird looking cat because obviously foxes don't run around populated downtown neighborhoods. Then Saturday morning were eating an awesome breakfast at a local restaurant and a red fox ran across the street and made a car slam on its brakes! We asked the waitress if she saw it too, and she confirmed that, yes, it was a red fox in the middle of downtown. When we saw the third one while driving out in the Broadmoor area, I was prepared with my camera.

We wandered around Garden of the Gods, breathtaking! And generally just cruised around town. We also got to meet Candace's adorable bunny named Larry. He reminded us of Shinobi.

Have you ever tried a Japanese sweet potato? They are a beautiful fuchsia on the outside and inside is a soft chartreuse. They taste just like their orange relatives. I got a pound of them in my CSA bag yesterday. I like to bring one or two to work for a snack. For a medium one, I poke it a few times with a fork to make some steam holes, put it in the microwave with a paper towel on top of it and cook it for 45 seconds. Then I flip it over and do it again. I let it sit a few minutes to continue cooking itself inside. Then I slice it in half, put some butter on both sides, mash it with a fork, and gobble it up. Sometimes, I sprinkle a little brown sugar on it too. Delish!


We are going out of town tomorrow, maybe I'll tell more about it later...

Oops! It's almost been two weeks since I last wrote. Not sure where the time has gone...

Since I was last on here, we met the Woodwards for bagels, went on a runhike (or two?), watched some college football, I got sick, Jonathan went to a 49ers game, we went to The Weepies concert, and shared dinner with the Littaus.

The Weepies were so fun to see live! Deb is so tiny with a little bird chirp voice and Steve looks like a muppet. I'm pretty sure I was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. For some reason we call them Los Weeps. We're special like that. 

Here are some photos from the concert and a recipe for pumpkin dark chocolate cookies that I brought to the Littaus. I made a half batch which turned out to be about three dozen. It's easy to gobble up that many though.

Ingredients:

2 c butter

1.5 c sugar

16 oz can of pumpkin

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

4c fine whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

0.5 tsp allspice

1 tsp salt (0.5 tsp if you use salted butter)

2 c chopped dark chocolate

1 c chopped nuts (I used pecans and walnuts)

Cream butter and sugar. Add pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla; beat well. Stir in dry ingredients. Finally, add chocolate and nuts.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls an inch apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

With the colder weather lately (it's been upper 60's here, brrr ;) ) I've begun craving soup. I made a huge batch of butternut squash soup with coconut milk over a week ago. But I want to share another soup I made the other day. I call it hurry-and-use-all-the-vegetables-before-we-get-another-CSA-bag soup. I guess it's technically minestrone though...


I started by soaking some "7 Bean Mix" from the bulk section, it's just seven different beans all mixed together, you could use any beans. I put a cup of the beans in two cups of water with about a tablespoon of vinegar in a bowl in the morning. There are many benefits to soaking your legumes and grains. I could go off on a long-winded tangent about it, but I am in the middle of a recipe. So instead I will just share this nice explanation with you. 


With about an hour before dinner, I began heating a large pot on medium. I added a nice heaping tablespoon of butter and about a pound of grass-fed ground beef and let it brown. While it was browning, I started roughly chopping garlic, carrots, bell peppers, and zucchini. When the beef was finished cooking, I added the garlic and let it heat up for about a minute. Then, I added some chicken stock to deglaze the pot and made sure there was enough to cover all my ingredients, you can add as much as you want depending on your preferences. Next, I drained my beans, gave them a rinse, and added them to the pot. I reduced the temperature to medium-low and let the soup simmer for about ten minutes. While tidying up the kitchen, I found an almost empty bag of pasta in the cupboard and decided to throw that into the pot. I added the carrots at this point because they take longer to get soft than the other vegetables, and let it simmer some more. About five minutes before I thought the soup was done, I added the bell peppers and zucchini. I added salt, pepper, cumin, and a little chili powder. 


It was very filling. I served it with a nice thick slice of bread and there was plenty left over to freeze for later. I look forward to defrosting it when these veggies' seasons are long past and remembering this bountiful time of year. 


If you decide to cook something like this, I encourage you to use whatever you have around and taste it many times throughout. Trust your taste buds and instincts!

Saturday was a great day for college football! We watched the Duck game at the Petersons' house with the Shulls, it was a lot of fun.


We got up early Saturday morning for a hike. It's always so nice to start the day outdoors surrounded by trees. We both feel like it clears our minds to get some fresh oxygen straight from the source.


Youth group was canceled this Sunday, so we had a little bagel date before church. This Sunday was one of those that leave you feeling like you are surrounded by caring people. We are so blessed by the great people we have met through church. We went out for frozen yogurt afterward with some friends from our home group and just chatted and laughed outdoors, it was great.


Besides that, more school work. We are dog-sitting/house-sitting for the Littaus starting Thursday. I call it Casa Littau because it's like a little mini-vacation. And Shinobi loves it, too.