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.