Showing posts with label Ruby Tuesday.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ruby Tuesday.. Show all posts

Sunday, October 15, 2023

A Drive on the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado



After spending a day in Durango, Colorado, to take a ride on the scenic Durango to Silverton Narrow Gage Railroad--see the blog post about that on--this link--my husband and I decided to take a scenic drive on US Route 550, which in Colorado has the nickname "The Million Dollar Highway," and it is also a portion of the San Juan Skyway, on a loop that takes one through old mining towns, spectacular scenery, and exhilarating twists & turns. This loop of state-maintained highway goes through the San Juan Mountains.




Otto Mears built a portion of the highway connecting Ouray to Silverton in the late 1880s as a toll road, and it is now one of the most spectacular drives in the USA. There are a few different stories surrounding the road’s colorful name. One legend states that the road was built using a million dollars worth of gold and silver tailings. At the same time, another claims the nickname originates from an exhausted traveler who proclaimed: “I would not travel that road again for a million dollars!"


We were taking our drive during the last week in September, and we were worried that the aspen trees would not have changed into their glorious autumn yellows and golds as yet, but for the most part, the autumn colors along the ride were beautiful!





We even saw some bright orange color along the way which is the last color that many of the aspen leaves change to before falling.





The drive soon took us over two high mountain passes, Molas Pass and Coal Bank Pass, that had scenic panoramic views!



The autumn colors became more plentiful and brighter the higher elevations that we traveled.





Looking closely towards the bottom of this photo you can see US Route 550 cutting across a ridge in one of the mountains.





Many of the San Juan Mountain tops can be viewed here.



The lush thick San Juan Forest went on for many miles.





A view of the historic gold mining town of Silverton in the distance--you can see the road swinging around a mountain that is going towards the town on the left side of this photo.





I liked this photo as it shows how I took many of the 500-plus photos I took during our drive. Thank goodness for fast camera shutters!






Colorful mountain views along the way.



Please click on the photo to enlarge it to read the signs.

We passed by Silverton, as we had visited it when we took the Durango to Silverton Railroad the day before. It is an active town and open year round.





More beautiful autumn color on a cloudless bright blue sky day.




A bit of old mining presence still stands among the gorgeous scenery.





A view looking back at the road as we rise up in higher elevation again.




The Million Dollar Highway earns its reputation as being full of twists and turns with few to no side rails and full of scary cliffside drop-offs. Thank goodness my husband has nerves of steel!





But despite being a bit scary at times the drive is well worth taking to see the views!





We "oohed and ahhed" at the aspen colors along the entire drive! 



So much autumn color surrounded us!




As we approached Ouray the road got especially curvy and mountainous. The Million Dollar Highway climbs up and over Red Mountain Pass, with a summit of 11,075 feet (3.358m), before clinging to the stunning, steep canyon walls of Uncompahgre Gorge as it makes its descent into Ouray.





In the short video above, you can catch a glimpse of a stretch of road that we were fortunate to be driving on the mountainside, rather than in the opposite direction where the road's edge is perilously close to a deep gorge.



Ouray, known as the "Switzerland of America," offers up picturesque mountain views. We visited Ouray in 2016, in late November, and drove a portion of The Million Dollar Highway then--click here-- to see that post and what the road looked like with winter snow and ice on it.





Ouray is a charming high alpine community sitting at 7,800 feet (2377 meters) in elevation. Set in a geographic bowl formed by rugged and steep mountainsides that lead up to jagged 12,000 to 13,000-foot-high (3962 meters) peaks with several creeks cascading down through valleys and canyons into the city. It is also known for its hot springs and ice climbing at the Ice Park!




"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn." 
~ Elizabeth Lawrence 

I am going to take this advice and I will be taking a short blog break. Enjoy autumn if you are in this hemisphere or spring if you are in the southern hemisphere. 

Please pray for world peace during these sad and trying times. 

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Monday, September 4, 2023

September Joys: Peaches, Tomatoes and Football!



A beautiful sky over the foothills near Boulder, Colorado

Happy September! 

Colorado experiences an early autumn due to its high elevation, however, there are still a few weeks of summer remaining to enjoy.




One of the joys at this time of the year is Palisade Peaches from the western slope of Colorado. They are juicy and sweet freestone peaches and every year I look forward to them. Last year our daughter had a business trip to Palisade and purchased a box of peaches for us.  I made many delicious dishes with them which you can see on this post.  

This year, our oldest grandson entered high school and his school orchestra has a fundraiser where Palisade Peaches, and honey from peach grove bee hives, could be purchased.  We bought 20 pounds of peaches and a jar of honey-- both so wonderful!




I recently made a lifestyle change to eat a low carbohydrate diet from now on--see why on this post--but, happily, peaches are one of the healthier fruits that I can consume in moderation.  The first meal I made was a Tomato Peach Fig and Burrata Salad, with arugula, basil, and prosciutto added and a balsamic glaze on top.  We enjoyed it on our deck as we watched the sunset.   It was the perfect meal for a warm evening!




This year I tried a Peach Quick Bread recipe from the blog "Sally's Baking Recipes" for my husband.  It was delicious!  It had a cinnamon crumb topping and as well as cinnamon-swirled peaches inside the cake's interior.  




I had less success with attempting a low-carb version of a peach loaf using almond flour, coconut flour, and monk fruit sugar substitute. It did not rise too high despite having both baking powder and baking soda added. It may have been because of my area's high elevation as I live at 6,200 feet (1889.76 meters) and baking is often a challenge here.  It did taste good, and I hope to get better at baking with substitutions so that I can also enjoy some low-carb treats. Does anyone have any low-carb baking hints for me?





A savory dinner with peaches was this one called Balsamic Peach Pork Chops with Blue Cheese from the blog "Closet Cooking."  

It was fabulous!




I used extra peaches since I had more pork chops than the recipe called for. I doubled the recipe and served them separately so I could regulate my portion size. 

Additionally, I still have an abundance of zucchini and zucchini blossoms growing in my garden this September, so I made zucchini fritters for my husband to enjoy.



As far as gardens go, a disaster hit my patio tomato plants!

 If you look at the collage above you can see the photo in the lower left corner of my plants a week ago. I was picking many red tomatoes every day, as you can see by the basket of ripe ones. I came out this week to find that a deer somehow squeezed past the chicken wire fence around my plants and ate all the tops and tomatoes it could reach!  AGH!!!  I lost so many tomatoes.  Knowing it would probably come back I pulled all the remaining tomatoes and will allow them to ripen inside by a window.  The season for tomatoes was coming to an end, but it was sad to lose so many.

Finally, another September joy is watching our oldest grandson play football on his high school freshman team. It is nice to see the team learn sportsmanship and for them to be kept busy in the afternoons after school with practices.  He also hopes to play lacrosse in the spring.



Fall's here soon. Let's enjoy these last days of summer!


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Sunday, April 2, 2023

Our Favorite Italian Easter Cookies

 


Both my mother-in-law and my husband's oldest sister, made these Calabrian-style Italian Easter cookies every year and would give us many of them to enjoy. They are called "Nguti" in their Reggio Calabria town's dialect.  If you are Italian, you may know them by another name, as it seems almost every southern Italian town or district has another name for them. My mother-in-law passed away many years ago, and we no longer live near my husband's sister, so we have not had these cookies in a few years and felt nostalgic for them. Years ago, I watched my mother-in-law make them, and I copied down the recipe.  After a quick phone call to my sister-in-law, to make sure I had all the ingredients and methods right, I decided to finally tackle making them myself.  Was I glad I did!  The recipe makes a lot of cookies, but they keep well and the plain ones are wonderful with a cup of coffee or tea at any time of the year. I imagine you could halve the recipe if you'd like to make less, but they are light and not too sweet, so you will find you can enjoy eating quite a few at a time.  I'm resharing them again as I know many missed the original post that I wrote in 2015. 


Italian Easter Cookies

Ingredients:

12 cups of flour, divided into 6 cups and 6 cups -- have more flour available if needed--it is almost an entire 5-pound bag of flour.
3 cups of sugar
12 extra-large eggs for the batter
12 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons vanilla 
1 pound butter or margarine.
1 tablespoon cooking oil
Have extra egg yolks beaten, for the glaze--I used 4 egg yolks in total.

If you desire to make the bunny shape holding the egg, clean as many eggs as you like (I used one dozen), and dye them if you desire. 

*Important: The eggs used in the bunny shapes are raw --they will fully cook in the oven along with the cookie holding them.

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and then lower to 375 F
Melt butter or margarine and let it cool.
In a mixing bowl with the beater blade, add 12 eggs and mix --do not overbeat.
Then add sugar, vanilla, baking powder, and butter or margarine to the egg mixture and mix well.
Then add 2 cups of flour and mix
Add 2 more cups of flour and mix
Add two more cups of flour and mix until the entire mixture is smooth. 

Place the remaining 6 cups of flour on a clean board or counter and make a well in the middle. Pour the mixing bowl mixture into the center of the flour. Using clean hands, mix the wet and dry ingredients together, kneading until it forms a smooth ball.  You may have to add a small amount of flour if the mixture is too wet. I did not need to do this.
Clean your hands, pour 1 tablespoon of oil on your hands, and rub the oil all over the ball of dough--this helps to keep it from drying out as you make the cookie shapes.

Cut a piece of dough off the dough ball and roll it into a rope about ten inches long and about 3/4 inches wide (see photo above).  Loop once to hold the egg and twist the top around twice to form Bunny ears (see photo). Place a raw egg in the bottom loop.  Flatten out a small amount of dough, about a quarter-inch thick, and cut two strips, which you then crisscross over the egg. pressing the ends into the loop to hold the egg in place. Using a thin spatula, pick up the cookie and place it on a lightly greased cookie sheet, then brush lightly with egg yolk.  Do not crowd cookie sheets as the cookies will rise.

You can also cut pieces of dough and roll them into shapes.  I made "S" shapes. circles, and twisted (See photo above). Brush lightly with egg yolk to glaze them.  

*Important: make sure to add the non-egg holding shapes to a separate cookie sheet, as they will cook faster than the Bunny shape.

Place the egg-holding bunnies in the 375 F oven. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until edges are turning lightly brown. The raw eggs will cook inside the cookies. If you place two cookie sheets in the oven at the same time, switch the sheet positions midway through the baking time. 

Place the non-egg-holding cookies in a 375 F oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until edges lightly brown.

Cool on a rack.  Enjoy!

 My mother-in-law did not refrigerate the bunny egg-holding cookies, but you can if you'd like. The non-egg-holding cookies store well in a cookie jar.



I am having Easter dinner at my house this year and it will be nice to have the cookies as part of our dessert, along with my New York Cheesecake that I will make with a gluten-free crust for the members of my family that must-eat gluten-free.






Our community had an Easter Egg hunt this past weekend and our oldest granddaughter, that lives nearby, joined in the fun again!  

The first time I shared this post, was in April 2015, when she was just two years old. That post has a collage of our granddaughter at that age.  How time flies!

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Sunday, December 11, 2022

A Merry Christmas Season!



I hope all who celebrate are enjoying a very Merry Christmas Season!  This is our Christmas tree for 2022. It is a true labor of love to decorate it every year as most of my ornaments are keepsakes that bring back memories from our children and vacations and other events.  I also have another small tree in my kitchen/family room that is full of ornaments made by my grandchildren. Each year it takes a little more effort for us to decorate for Christmas--the bins holding it all are not getting any lighter--but once it is finished we are so happy to have it completed and to be able to enjoy it all.  I'm sure you feel the same.



For the Thanksgiving holiday this year, we traveled north to Steamboat Springs where we rented a house for a few days. The scenery we pass as we drive up into the Rocky Mountains is always breathtakingly beautiful! I will have more photos to share of our drive in a future post.  We've always visited Steamboat in early autumn and this was the first time in late autumn when it was snowing on Rabbit Ears Pass, which made it interesting.



I cooked our traditional Thanksgiving dinner ahead of time and we brought it with us in coolers. It worked out well and we had a relaxed and casual dinner.  The house was cozy and had beautiful views as well as a hot tub that we all enjoyed.  We even enjoyed Strawberry Park Hot Springs on a mountaintop one day--a fun experience with snow all around.

As soon as we returned home many Christmas activities began! Our community always hosts a wonderful "Holiday Happenings" event with horse-drawn carriage rides and a visit from Santa Claus and hot chocolate and cookies. Our oldest granddaughter is in her school choir and we joined the choir on a chilly evening to go Christmas caroling. 



Our oldest grandson plays the viola and his Middle School orchestra performed a very harmonic performance for Christmas, which we all enjoyed very much.



Another exciting event for us every year for us is the delivery of our traditional Baccala--salted cod fish--which I prepare two ways as one of our traditional Christmas Eve Italian-American "Feast of the Seven Fishes" dinners. It has been my husband's favorite fish since childhood.  If you'd like to see a recipe for one way I prepare it called Baccala Fiorentina you can see it here in an older blog post.  We order it from Frank and Sal Italian Market on Staten Island, New York, as it is difficult to find it in the Denver area.



There are many lights and decorations everywhere to enjoy in all of Denver's botanic gardens, zoo, and Denver Civic Center.  It is a beautiful Christmas Season here and I hope you are also enjoying all the beauty where you live.

I have lots of baking ahead this week as I make treats for family, neighbors, and friends, and we have some more grandchildren events ahead and parties to attend to look forward to--will show all in my next blog post!

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