Vegan Cream of Broccoli Cheese Soup

 1 cup cashews, soaked for at least 1hr in water that immerse the cashews by 1 inch. Soak up to 4 hours but no longer.

1 TB olive oil 

1 lb broccoli florets

1 small or 1/2 med onion, finely chopped

6 cups vegetable stock 

6 tablespoons miso paste

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

1/4 cup Miyokos cheddar spread (optional but really nice if you can find it).

Saute the broccoli, onion and a pinch of salt in olive oil for about 7 minutes (if you prefer lower fat saute in vegetable stock) in a large pot. Add stock. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes over low heat. 

Add all remaining ingredients to pot; simmer and stir for a few minutes. Transfer to high speed blender in batches that fill the blender about 1/3 of the way. Puree at increasing speeds until soup is very smooth and velvety. Transfer to a new pan. Alternately, use immersion blender.

Serve with bread and salad and top with fresh chopped parsley. 

Salsa Recipe

• 2 medium fresh tomatoes
• 1/4 large onion, or 1/2 small
• 1/4 cup cilantro loosely packed
• 3 adobo peppers in sauce
• Dash or 2 of habanero sauce to make a hotter salsa, optional.
• 1 tb olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (jar is fine)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• Juice of 1/2 lime (optional)

Cut tomatoes in half and onion into large pieces. Add tomatoes, cilantro, and adobo peppers to blender. Blend on low speed for 30 seconds.

Heat olive oil in pan. Once hot add garlic, salt and cumin. Cook for 30-45 seconds until garlic sizzles lightly. Add tomato mixture. Bring to simmmer over medium heat, reduce heat to low. Simmer for 2-3 more minutes. Add lime juice. Cool before putting in container.

Taste and adjust seasoning as neeeded.

Vegan Enchiladas or Tacos

Filling:

3/4 cup walnuts

One and a half cups cooked lentils (or one can)

2 TB Cumin

2 TB Chili Powder (mild or hot as desired, or use mild with cayenne)*

1 teaspoon salt (ideally smoked), or to taste
1/2 cup corn
1 cup cooked spinach

1/2 cup sauteed mushrooms (optional)

other cooked veggies like anaheim peppers are great as desired
2 TB olive oil

For tacos: 

Steam tortillas in microwave inside a damp paper towel in an open plastic bag for 30 seconds for 10 tortillas. Heat filling with vegan cheese, top with quick salsa, and eat! (for low carb this is also good in romaine lettuce)

For enchiladas:

15 small or 10 large tortillas (recommend white corn)
1 15 oz can red or green enchilada sauce (for homeade check out Gimme Some Oven)*
1/4 cup mexican vegan cheese 
1/4 cup vegan sour cream ( I like kite hill for vegan)
LImes and cilantro

Preheat oven to 350.  

Pulse walnuts in food processor until chopped fine. Add lentils and pulse until they have a mealy texture together. Spoon into bowl. Integrate salt, spices, and olive oil. Mix in veggies. 

Steam tortillas in microwave inside a damp paper towel in an open plastic bag for 30 seconds for 10 tortillas. Fill each tortilla and turn seam side down until tray is full. 

Pour enchilada sauce over enchiladas and top with mexican cheese. Bake for 12-13 minutes. slather with sour cream and return to oven for 2-3 minutes. 

Serve with cut limes and cilantro- lime juice gives them a nice finish.


* If you use premade red and like heat, spin red sauce with 2 adobo peppers

Keto Cereal/Granola

Vegan Keto Cereal (or Granola)

The worst thing about Keto is no cereal, and no bread. Well also no chips.

But breakfast. Eggs get really old, and I don't eat bacon because most of the pigs I met are smarter than I am. So I kitchen tested about 10 versions of cereal and ended up here.

I'm baking this at elevation so if you're at sea level, you may need to put it in a little longer or reduce your butter and oil. Just play around with it a bit.

Ingredients

1 cup slivered (preferred) or whole almonds.

1 cup coconut flakes- make sure they are unsweetened

1/4 cup chia seeds 

1.5 TB coconut oil 

3-4 teaspoons stevia or to your taste

1/2 teaspoon vanilla*

1-2 teaspoons cinnamon or apple pie spice (optional), per your taste

Pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300.

Pulse the almonds and coconut in a food processor on chop setting. If you're using whole almonds, start with the almonds until they are mostly chopped and then add coconut or you'll pulverize the coconut before almonds are chopped. 

Place almond coconut mixture in a bowl. Add stevia, salt, and cinnamon and stir for 30 seconds. Add water and chia seeds and let sit for about 5 minutes. The mixture will coagulate and become almost like a paste. Melt coconut oil briefly if not liquid. Stir in coconut mixture and vanilla to dry mixture in to integrate thoroughly.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and spoon the mixture on. It will be clumpy, don't break it up. Bake for about 25 minutes. The cereal will not be crispy at first but as it dries it will become crispier. I eat it plain or with half and half.

Has about 6 grams of carbs per 1/4 cup and a ridiculous amount of fat. If you're counting net carbs it has about 2 grams of fiber per serving as well.

Culebra!

OMG, what is there to say about this island? Paradise, in a word.

 

Getting there was kind of nuts. Our first night we spent in San Juan at Casa Del Sol because our SW flight got cancelled. SJ near the airport was...a hotel near the airport. Nice, but nothing compared to our destination.

 

So we got to the island on Wednesday via our little puddle jumper plane. Scary, but oh so amazing. And then our six-seater plane somehow forgot our luggage. Things weren't starting out well. Luckily, the folks we were staying with at Mango Fish Guesthouse were amazing. While we waited for the next flight, Fred gave us a million dollar tour of the island. He showed us where to eat (Dinghy Dock! El Eden! Zacos Tacos) and where the quieter beaches are, as well as the more popular (Flamenco). He gave us some of their great local beer- Medallion- while we were on the ride, and by the time we got back to the airport I couldn't have cared less if our luggage had arrived. Which it had! Then we got to go explore our beautiful Casita.

It was so nice. We loved it!! Everything about it, except maybe for the fact that the ghetto neighbor chained up their dog in the backyard.

Chili Recipe

Vegan Chili

About 90% of this comes from the Moosewood Restaurants Low-fat favorites festive black bean vegan chili recipe. 

2 cups chopped onion*
1 each red (or yellow or green) and pablano(or anaheim or pasillo) pepper  chopped

4 garlic cloves

2 TB olive oil

2 TB ground cumin

1 TB ground coriander

2 cups prepared salsa- buy per your heat preferences- I used Kirklands Medium Organic Salsa

1 can or equivalent cups black beans

1 can or equivalent cups kidney beans

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can adobo peppers in sauce

1/2 cup brewed coffee, preferably dark roast

1 teaspoon salt, preferably smoked

2 bay leaves. 

2 TB apple cider vinegar

Quick roast cumin and coriander over high heat in dutch oven for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add olive oil. Reduce heat to medium.

Add onions, peppers and garlic* with a generous pinch of the salt. Saute,  stirring constantly, for 5-7 minutes.

Add salsa and red peppers. Simmer for five minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes, coffee, bay leaf, adobo peppers, ACV and rest of the salt. Simmer over lowest heat for about 30 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

Add beans at the end so they don't overcook and split.

Adjust for seasoning. 

*- I typically saute a serrano or jalapeno at this point as well but I like hot food a lot if you prefer less heat you may not want to. 

Coffee Ice Cream Recipe

Seriously the worlds best coffee ice cream...

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup cream
• Heavy pinch sea salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 2 packets instant coffee
• 1 TB cocoa powder

Bring sugar, cream, salt and coffee to a simmer in a saucepan.

Store about 1/4 cup slowly of hot mixture into egg yolks until integrated. Return to pan. Allow to thicken but do not boil. Once thickened add cocoa powder.

Chill over ice in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Stir in the heavy cream.

Add to ice cream maker and churn until ready. Refreeze for a harder ice cream. 

So we're doing this house thing...

We hadn't really even started looking for a house so to speak. Robin had JUST landed a WFH job literally days before, so we started kind of poking around the weekend of June 16 in a small mountain neighborhood called Pinewood Springs about 30 minutes or so away from where we currently live in Longmont, Colorado, a bedroom community of Boulder. We stopped by an open house and scheduled to see another in the neighborhood the next morning. 

And that night we rechecked to make sure there wasn't something more we wanted to see- and we saw THIS HOUSE! At about the same price as the other- well under market.

So obviously we scheduled a showing. Along with a parade of other people that next morning. And it was just as amazing as we'd hoped.

We went up against 4 other parties with our offer barely 24 hours after this house went on the market. We crossed our fingers, and threw some fairy dust around. Oh, and we wrote a letter as to why we loved the home that referenced our personal histories in Western PA and Canada and Danny's obsession with detail in his craftsmanship, among other things.

So, you never know whats going to work in a multiple offer situation, but some combination of this did. We were lucky to get an agent who knew the area and was able to understand how to compete in this situation. And we know from speaking with the *amazing* sellers we got it in some part because the current owners two grew up in Dravosburg and Cheswick, just about 30 and 40 minutes respectively from Robin's hometown of Murrysville, PA. Who knew?!

So yea, we moved to the mountains and now we're REALLY moving to the mountains. It is isolated but not entirely in the middle of nowhere; it is in fact just 15-20 minutes to Estes Park and 10-15 to the vacation community of Lyons, CO. And we'd love to have our dear friends and family visit. Here's our lovely guest room and some drone footage of the house:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_4IxYg43aU

Dog friends: We will be promptly replacing the carpet so the house will be very dog friendly. The creek pools have been fully dog-tested and approved, though the granite can get slick in spots.

The community is rather amazing. Here's an article Pinewood Springs-it was heavily impacted by the 2013 floods:

https://www.denverpost.com/2013/09/23/pinewood-springs-residents-thrive-as-they-survive-flooded-isolation/

They're not Snyders, but they'll do

Honey-mustard onion Keto Crackers, baby

So I just (re)started a ketogenic diet. For many reasons. Brain health, gut health, body health, and to fight off this last 10 stinking pounds that will not leave my aging hips and belly. I'd lost about five earlier this year on keto and gained it back at light speed with a fervent dedication to chips, margaritas, and gnocchi.

So, I'm four days in. And I feel like would steal crunchy snacks from a baby, so I decided to try my hand at a homeade version of my favorite snack: Oily, yummy, honey mustard and onion pretzel bits from Snyders of Hanover.

So do they measure up? Um, no. But they stave the craving and I'm not stealing snacks from babies. And they help immensely with the constipation I tend to get on keto. If you don't like honey mustard just omit the optional ingredients. Again- these alone will be bland but they're good when you need a cracker to dip things in, put cheese on, etc.

To make:

1/2 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup flaxseed meal (you can also just put flax seeds in a food processor and make flaxseed meal or just do a whole cup of whole flax seeds)
2 TB onion powder (optional)
1/4 cup mustard (optional)
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon stevia or other calorie-free sweetner


Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all ingredients and let sit for one minute. Spread thin on a cookie sheet (ideally with parchment paper) with a spatula or hands. If they are thicker they will be more bread-like; thinner more cracker like.

Score them with a fork along the top to make them easier to break into cracker size pieces.  I'm cooking at elevation, so its different than cooking at sea level, but mine take about 40-45 minutes to get golden. I'd suggest checking them around 30 minutes at sea level. Other recipes for similar suggest flipping but I do not find this makes a difference.

I also made a sweet mustard onion dipping sauce with 1/4 cup mustard, 1 teaspoon stevia, and a teaspoon of onion powder. I bet they'd be good with cheese, meats and other keto-friendly dips.

So this is approximate because I can't math, but each 2 inch cracker contains: 40 cals, 3 grams fat, 1.5 grams carbohydrate, 1.8 grams protein, and 1.4 grams fiber  (ie net carbs are only .01).

Colorado Hiking and Fun Summer 2017, part 1

Danny reminded me I haven't blogged in a while so...here goes our first summer living in CO!

We had an amazing summer with lots of visits from friends and family, hiking and fun with a new K9 family member, and a mountain biking trip. All in all it felt like we got in the "goodness" we were looking for here in CO both with being a vacation destination for people we love, as well as getting to do what we loved! We are very lucky people.

In early June Robin's mom and dad visited. They stayed with us for the weekend and then in Estes Park during the week. Over the weekend, we visited Eldorado Canyon, which has a lovely non-strenuous hike called Fowler Trail which still offers really breathtaking views of the canyons:

During the week, Danny and I worked and mom and Dad enjoyed some time in Estes Park. We headed up to visit on the 13 to celebrate our anniversary and went to 1929 Tavern which was gorgeous and had decent food. Our last night here we visited Colterra near home which had EXCELLENT (if expensive food). 

After mom and dad left our good friends Heather and her husband Brent visited. Heather and Robin have been friends for almost 20 years and were also probably separated at birth in another life, and true to form, Danny and Brent are pretty much brothers from another mother as well, so having them there was like having family here but even better. Just kidding family! We crammed about as much into 5 days as we could.

Hiking near Chataqua

which, given our recent rains, looked more like the english countryside than the Colorado mountains:

Whitewater rafting at clear creek

which helped us learn two things: 1) beginner trips are just fine and incredibly fun for us and we need nothing more challenging than that and 2) never underestimate how cold it can be in the mountains of CO in early summer (we rafted in 47 degree weather). Our Dallasites were thrilled for the cooler temperatures and no one got hypothermia, so all in all the trip was a success and the gear was super cool. 

More Hiking in Eldorado Canyon

We loved Eldorado Canyon so much the first time and Heather and Brent were all in for it, so we decided to undertake something a little more challenging this time, the Eldorado Canyon trail itself. And how. As you can see, the fit among us really were not interested in waiting for anyone.

It was a beautiful hike and definitely clocked in as one of our favorites. The first 1/2 mile was a little crowded but once you got past the people in flip flops (yes) it was awesome.

To prep for our last day's hike we visited the famous Lucille's, a Boulder and Longmont mainstay, and caught a beautiful moment of Heather actually holding up a tree.

Hike: Red Rocks Trail

Second weekend hiking in CO; third here we did Red Rocks trail. Last weekend we did Caribou trail and there was SNOW!

The fire in Boulder recently swept through this area so there is a lot of damage to the trees and landscape.  It even still smelled of ash while we were there, and some of the trail boundaries were damaged. Still the trail is very pretty and an awesome weekend day hike. All trails has it listed as an easy but we felt it was more like a moderate given the steep incline climb at the start.

We didn't do the whole loop, the trail is kind of oddly marked for its vantage point so close in. Still it was a great hike; we took the dogs over the crest past the rocks, down the other side, and then turned back. Poppy and Missy both did great but were clearly very tired by the end of the trip.

It appeared to threaten rain briefly but the weather was perfect. Note that people are climbing to the top of red rocks without protection. Not sure I'd be doing that!



Afterward we had lunch at the Alpine Cafe just at the base of the Flatirons and then we bought Robin a mountain bike.

Telluride

Telluride was last year, but better to do this while my memory is fresh instead of when I'm 90.

If I won the lottery I'd probably buy a house in this town. It is perhaps the most amazing place I've been in the US. Nestled in a Box Canyon, it is simultaneously comforting and terrifying: feeling cradled by, and potentially trapped by (only one way out) mountains. Home to people who have more money than I can imagine, its dotted with amazing restaurants, cute Victorian homes, and what has to be the world's coolest Gondola.

There are loads of restaurants there...many more expensive than necessary but the best we found was the new Sheridan: impeccably cooked steak, amazingly selected wines...all the things that make a meal worth it. Brown Dog was also awesome and recently won some international pizza competition! Best gluten free pizza ever. There was interesting but too into itself. Ate at some other Sushi place I didn't review and don't remember.

Biked the Jurassic Trail. Hiked part of the Jed Wiebe trail. Went to Orvis hot springs (old weird dudes lots of nudity you don't want to see), rented bikes and did all sorts of land trails.

South Padre Island

SPI

As the locals call it.

Its tempting to think of SPIs as just a trashy spring break place, and it is that, but thankfully spring break is only a few short weeks out of the year.

OK, its still a little trashy but they clean it up pretty regularly. Seriously, like every day. But someone is paid to do this, and this is good.
This was another trip for Quincy. We took her along because we were reminded, as we were three years ago, that she was getting old but she is STILL going strong.


Really strong.

Yea, I was too tired for that. So clearly, Quincy at the equivalent of about 80 in dog years is besting mom at 40 human years. Maybe I should give up pizza and start eating their kibble.

Quincy loved the beach but her favorite part was the seaweed. Eating the seaweed, rolling in the seaweed, smelling the seaweed, climbing on the giant piles of seaweed raked up against the dunes.

In addition to taking quincy to beaches and
restaurants, we visited the South Padre Island Birding center.

This is how you know you are getting old: you vastly prefer the birding center to the bar next door to your condo. We're ok with this. It really was cool. SPI has an amazing role in the lives of birds in the western hemisphere during their annual migrations from the southern americas to the northern americas; it is only one of nine worldwide locations that has a unique World Birding Center.

We also visited the turtle rescue center (both the turtle center and the birding rescue center were across the street from our lovely condo).


Turtles! They have a really rough life. Seriously, like .03% of them survive...some don't even make it to the water, so make sure to recycle everything so they don't eat it and turn your lights off at night when you stay on a barrier island because once it gets into the ocean they might think its dinner.

We ate at some cool places but I save that stuff for yelp. Read about it there!

Summer in Colorado 2012- Day 1

This post is so overdue...we went to Colorado last summer and never blogged about it.

Arrival was a nightmare. We got into Denver at 4 and had about 4-5 hours to kill before we picked Ed (Robin's brother) up at the airport. We got a cab into Denver and grabbed dinner at Dazzle, which was a really cool place in SW downtown Denver. They were doing HH when we got there, but knowing better than to drink during the first 48 at altitude, we skipped booze and instead got a few entrees (steak: apparently a bad idea) and some coffee (also bad idea). Then we went to see Prometheus, which was weird and not worth recounting.

Danny got altitude sickness from the rather heavy dinner. I had no appetite, and hadn't eaten, so was fine, but Danny could barely walk by the time we left. A kind pedicab took sympathy on us and drove us all the way from the entertainment district (I know it has a name but I don't know what it is) to our car 20 blocks away. We headed toward the airport with plans to pick up water on the way.

Well, not only were there no gas stations apparent from I-70, but the road was closed down except for 1 lane for at least 70% of the way. Danny was progressively sicker, Robin was in irritation due to being late picking Ed up and at the horrendous traffic...it was generally a bad experience. We got lost once at the airport because the DIA is the Suckiest Airport Ever.

We finally got Ed and headed on to Boulder. Luckily things picked up immensely there! Robin and Ed got to catch up in the car, Ed explained to science-tard Robin why altitude is colder, and we made it to our rental easily. 

We were all exhausted but super-excited to be in Boulder....

Final days of Asheville

End of the Asheville Trip. This is sure to be boring for onlookers.

So...Tuesday we went downtown. Brunch at Carmels (best bloody mary ever!) and an afternoon at the Gallery district- dog friendly of course. Visited one amazing painter who was inspring (Jose Girard). Had coffee. Quincy got bath in clawfoot tub at an interesting dog wash. Went home and had dinner at Tupelo Honey. Wednesday went hiking at the major falls in Dupont State Forest. Came home and mom made brunch. Got the call about Angel. Thursday went ziplining and Angel was put down at 12. He said goodbye in the clouds at 5:00 that afternoon.

Walked downtown with Quincy- went to the Mast General Store. Quincy was in heaven- is that candy for ME??!!

Cold front! Went to a place that had an outdoor patio and had the best tomato soup ever. Met a beautiful dane wearing a thundershirt, and also met his family. It was darn chilly. From Pittsburgh. Who knew?

Took Quincy home and had dinner at Curate for our last night.

Friday drove to Charlotte. Surprisingly cute city. Had a great time. Went for some walks:

Ate hot buttered fried corn on the cob. that's right!

Had way too much fried food for dinner. Then walked next to the rail.

Then went home. Last day went to the festival and had crummy Thai food. MMMM. Thai. Am hungry.

Ducks!

Not birds. The boats. On Monday we went rafting with quite possibly the coolest rafting company on earth, Blue Heron Whitewater. Here's how cool they were. We were the only people on our tour, and somehow showed up at the entirely wrong time for our trip, but they came to the shop and took us out anyway. Then they upgraded us to ducks since we are semi-"skilled" rafters. Ducks are the tiny boats you see the real kayaker types head downstream in. Like this.

Ok, perhaps they don't get caught on rocks. But their boats are like this. Anyway, they upgraded us to ducks which I am sure most rafting companies charge extra for but they did not. Quincy did not come along but apparently dogs sometimes do. One of the guides came down behind us just this day with their dog.

Our guide, Fritz, was awesome. They apparently filmed a purina commercial on this river. Guest was a filmmaker at purina...and well, you can imagine how that goes. There were FOUR rafting dogs in the boat.

This was tiring, so it was pretty much the entire Monday of our trip. Quincy stayed at the house with gramma and grampa.  Here we are looking more rafterly.






Larry made us an excellent local, free range steak for dinner that night. It was delicious. On to Tuesday!

'Shrooms

I'm not sure I would have put mushroom foraging on our vacation roster were my Dad not meeting us, but he was, as such, we booked a day with No Taste Like Home. My dad likes to forage. My cousin Julia has taken my dad foraging a few times, as he will let you know at least 25 times whenever you mention the word "mushroom" or "forage" or...really...anything. 

I digress into personal baggage. Foraging is, indeed, awesome.

About two minutes after this and about 26 more photos, Alan, our host, pulled up. Good vibes right away- Quincy all but threw herself at him which is entirely unlike Quincy, so we definitely felt we were in good hands.

I learned a lot from reading Alan's book and from the trip. In order, here is what I learned at mushroom camp.

• Many mushrooms defy cultivation: boleets, morels, mytsotake.  This is why foraging for them has taken on a mystical quality. Its also why many are excessively hard to find: so many foragers.
• There are probably hundreds of species of Rosella mushrooms.
• Certain mushrooms in their raw state are rocket fuel.
• Most mushrooms are like corn unless you cook them (input=output). 
• Deadly lookalikes sometimes sneak in amongst yummy shrooms.
• As it turns out, most mushrooms really aren't deadly.

Oh, and mushrooms like to hide in the most transcendental places. 

"No, don't eat that one!"  said Alan. I didn't really try. Just kidding.

In addition to his worldly skills of mushroom identification, I think Alan is perhaps in his sixth or seventh cab ride on this planet. He could probably walk over hot coals without feeling pain. He lives in a state most of us can only dare to dream of. I think I might be close to where he is in five lives. He runs The Real Center. He also has a charming earthly presence. Along the way, the earthly Alan entertained us with fables, poetry, and friendly conversation. He  shared his lunch. He told us it was chicken loaf but apparently also occasionally dines on roadkill (swear).

Oh, through this all, Quincy was kind of bored. We'd walk a few feet and find a fungi and discuss. It probably wasn't her bag, but I bet it was better than waiting for the mailman.

At the end of it all, Alan went to film a local TV show and dropped our findings at Zambra, a local tapas restaurant, who made us a divine set of tapas that evening that integrated our findings. The food was great, and soon enough I'll write a review of that too.

We got a great night's seat to prepare for our next day, which turned out to be a superbly fun day of rafting the French Broad River.

Asheville, next

I'm going to avoid making this entire trip about "what Quincy did." But...we recently realized Quincy is losing her hearing, and it was a startling reminder that while spry, Quincy is getting into her golden years.  Quincy has a better life than probably about 100% of dogs in the world, but that doesn't change the fact that, like most spoiled household dogs, most of her days are spent doing not much more than watching out the window for the mailman. So we largely thought of this as "Quincy's" trip.

Day 2, in the AM, we decided to check out downtown Asheville. We started at The Green Muse cafe. If I had a million dollars and I lived in Asheville, I'd eat here every meal. Everything vegan, gluten free AND organic. Digression: I used, like many, to think gluten-free was a fad, until a friend convinced me to try. I challenge you to take gluten out of your diet for a month and see what ailments leave you. I'm not vegan, but I love animals, and if I'm eating them I want to know they were happy while they were in the world. And well...I place my bets on organic produce when possible.

Then we went and saw the Basilica of St Lawrence, which I found an impressive little anomaly in such a small town. I guess those vanderbilts had a lot of cash.

 Anyway, Quincy was not permitted here so we moved on before long. Asheville is totally walkable (even from our cottage which was about a mile and a half up the side of the mountain, though we did that another day). The entire downtown covers about 25 city blocks, give or take, and most of the places are totally geared at loungey shopping. We moved on to..three dog bakery! I had to get a million pictures, but here's just one, with chef Larry.

Ok, maybe another. We got a bunch of dog cookies because that afternoon Quincy was getting a playmate that afternoon in the form of her cousin, puppy Abby. Unfortunately Quincy isn't much for young playmates, really *any* playmates except her sister, so this was more exciting to Abby than it was to her. I for one was so excited at Abby's arrival that I actually made a dog cookie platter. (Those are stella and chewys freeze dried sprinkled on top, not dirt):

Quincy's other cousins Quinn (they have never met!) and Trinity were going to make it but sadly Aunt Pat got stormed in with hurricane lee, so it was just for Abby, and Aunt Marsha and Uncle John. Or at least for Marsha and John's amusement. They got in early afternoon and we all jumped in the car for Mount Mitchell (I could segway here and talk about almost killing a jogger on the Blue Ridge Parkway but I'm just going to note it as a memory I'd rather not relive).

Mount Mitchell is in Pisgah National Forest about 45 minutes north of Asheville on the famed Blue Ridge Parkway. It lives in a veil of secrecy. Its the highest peak east of the Mississipi, but no one I talked to...ok, none of my family members knew this.  But its almost 7000 feet! Its no fourteener, but its half a fourteener, and that deserves bragging rights on the east coast. Oh, and the parkway was cool too.

Here's Aunt Marsha and Abby at mount Mitchell! It was pretty, and colder up there. Lots of pines dying due to acid rain :(. But we all had fun anyway, and Quincy totally enjoyed the drive back.

This very spot is pretty close to the location where they always take the photo of Asheville nestled in the trees, so of course I took a photo of Quincy.

Chris and Larry made lasagna that night and we got to have a really nice extended family dinner, which, living in Austin I never get to have, so that was awesome. Quincy and Abby got tons of treats, and then Quincy crashed for the day. Marsha and John packed up for an early morning departure and the rest of us prepared for our, ahem, next trip.

Asheville, part 1

I can't tell you how many times we were going to Asheville that I sort of said "we're going to Assville." I think I was just tired. But it is a hard city for your mouth to form...say it fast five times and tell me I'm wrong.
.

So first thing about Ashevile is that QUINCY came along. And we didn't just drive. Quincy went as carry-on luggage. Quincy was technically a little too big for her carrier by the airlines standard, but for three hours with a kong filled with food, Quincy would squeeze herself into a pez dispenser. As it turned out, the airlines didn't care anyway as long as she didn't "bother anybody."
We got into town on a Friday, having been up since 4. Quincy had already had more stimulation in one day than she normally gets in a week. We flew into Charlotte, and drove the last two hours so Quincy wouldn't have to go back into her carrier. Intermittently during the car ride, Quincy would look out the window and bark. The area kind of reminded us of where we found her in mid-Kentucky, so we wonder: did she think she was home? Or was she just tired of being in the car? Or...if only we could get one of those collars from UP.

The weather in western NC was perfect, at least by Texas standards. Anything under 85 and above 60 is perfect. I didn't take pictures of the drive but here's some surrounding area.

  Really that photo is from the top of Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Missisippi. We went there the second day. But back to the first. We drove into Asheville and stayed on top of tunnel mountain, on the east side. We checked into our super-cute dog-friendly cottage, among a bunch of little mid-century moderns collectively called the Asheville Swiss Chalets. Terrible name, cool place. And yes, they were pretty much perched on the side of the mountain.

Then went into town to this cute little place called Mayfel's that had really yummy all-day breakfast food, because travel makes you nothing if not hungry and we really hadn't eaten breakfast. Quincy was invited and people fed her there, to her utter delight. In fact, despite all the hiking we did on vacation she GAINED weight. but then again, so did we.

Ah, Mayfel's, with a lovely view of Asheville town center and appalachian mountains in the background. Nothing like that first day of vacation when you are just enamored with how cool the place you are is. How much it isn't home, how there is no laundry, no job, and you don't have to cook.

Speaking of cook, our chef, Larry called around this time to tell us he was lost. So we went to pick Larry and my Mom up at the Subway around the corner from our place, which admittedly was hard to find. Even our GPS got lost. Larry made dinner, and as always, Quincy helped with pre-wash.

Such was our first day of our trip in Asheville. Onto Day 2!