Vegan Chili & a Craft!

Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

~George Eliot

And here enters Fall, with leaves o' fire and cleanly crisped air.  After one of the hottest summers in history, I think we can safely say that the state of Colorado is ready for a new season!  The days have turned from witheringly hot to mild, with a slight tang of coolness in the breeze.  

This is my absolute favorite time of year.  As the days begin to shorten in duration, I find myself taking a little more time for things: stopping outside to feel the chill of the air across my skin, admiring the swirl of misty clouds sweetly curled around the mountains.  Once the cold deepens and comes to stay, long periods of contemplation outside are few or require a bit of outfitting!  Let's not rush winter.  Although I know the ski bums are getting anxious for the real stuff...

The cooler weather has been inspirational for both cooking and crafting.  Labor Day weekend had me itching to make something with my own two hands.  I had been sitting on the materials for a project for quite some time, and finally I had a chance to see it to fruition!  

First things first, the FOOD.   

Black Bean Chili w/ Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard

 I enjoy this chili for its simplicity and versatility.  You can find the recipe in its original form by clicking on the link beneath the picture.  I would recommend using only 2 cans of black beans (or the equivalent), as nearly 3 lbs of beans could be a bit overwhelming.  Don't feel limited to Swiss chard- this chili would taste great with a variety of dark, leafy greens.  Try some kale for extra heartiness.  Some soy crumbles, perhaps?  Top with shredded vegan cheese and chopped red onion. 

And now that your palate is sated, on to the handmade creation!  I first found this Do-It-Yourself craft on one of my favorite websites, Recyclart.  This amazing website compiles recycled art, home furnishings, you name it.  Mostly everything featured has been re-purposed to become something else.  With all of the waste in our society it is encouraging to know that so many people are dedicated to reusing and re-imagining objects.  As they say, One man's trash...  To learn more about Recyclart, check out the upper right corner of this blog. 

This craft takes a completely unassuming and everyday item and makes it into a piece of art for your wall. 

Here is the first one I made:

 

Guessed the material?  Yep, toilet paper rolls!  (Paper towel rolls work too.)  Smash the rolls, cut them into strips, glue the points together and there you have it!  For detailed instructions, go here. 

 

 A peek at the process:

Of course, I couldn't have done any of it without my helpful muses.

And now there's another pretty something on the wall to look at!

I like the fluid, organic form of this piece.

I'm always on the hunt for more good and easy projects like this one.  Share share share! 

Once again, a flower until next time. 

Quintana Roo, Mexico

 

Meet me on the sunny road...

What an amazing summer of wonder and discovery!  I have thoroughly enjoyed my rudimentary explorations of Colorado, my new home.  I continue to be awestruck by the diverse climates and landscapes I find, each place having its own beautiful and harsh nuances.  There is definitely something "great" about this West, whether that be in its vastness or the rugged handsomeness of its valleys and peaks.  It's hard not to wonder what the first newcomers thought of such places, and it isn't difficult to understand the reverence and worship that the Native Americans have felt for natural landscapes for centuries.  Anyone who knows me knows how very non-religious I am, and yet when I am in the presence of such earthly splendors I've never felt closer to god.  Appreciation is the prayer, enjoyment and preservation are the worship.    

Cottonwood Pass-Continental Divide

In many ways I feel as if I've been a tightly-furled blossom, closely guarding my inner secrets, life and love giving abilities, in anticipation of a brilliant sun.  And with the perfect proportions of nourishment and light, I....

  Bloom.

My new and improved, plant-based lifestyle has been coming along swimmingly.  I can't quite tell if I feel so much better because I have cut meat and dairy out of my diet, or due to the fact that I'm paying much closer attention to what I eat.  As predicted, cheese has been the most difficult thing to stop eating.  I'm borrowing a bit from Alcoholics Anonymous with my "One Day at a Time" approach.  I realize it is unnecessary to think about whether I will be able to not eat cheese a year from now, and instead channel my sole focus into not eating cheese today.  Ironically or not, I'm beginning to understand that I was addicted to that component of my diet.  By making the conscious and informed choice to remove it, I'm empowering myself to start taking better care of myself and the world around me.

Kitchen experimentation has been frequent and fruitful.  There have been some flops, but they have been few.  What is most exciting, to me, is finding ways to reinvent the ingredients I love.        

Some tidbits from the kitch:
(Click on the recipe title, below the picture, to be redirected to the recipe!)

Olive-Oil Roasted Tomatoes & Fennel w/ White Beans

I dare you not to eat this all in one sitting!  Use the best olive oil you have, and a cast-iron skillet makes the transition from stove-top to oven easy.  Try this over pasta, greens, or the best way: sopped up with crusty whole wheat bread.

Cantaloupe Granita

I made this up, using the basis of another great recipe, which you can find here.  It's easy as pie.  Flaky, frozen, melt-in-your-mouth, cantaloupe pie.

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups cubed cantaloupe
1/4 cup agave nectar
Juice from one lime

Preparation

Put it all in the blender.  Blend until smooth.  Freeze 1 hour.  Remove; stir mixture and break up frozen chunks with the back of a fork.  Cover, freeze until firm, 2 hours or so.  Flake with a fork before serving.

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding

I. love. this. pudding.  You will too, and you won't believe that it's dairy-free!  Trust me on this one.

I leave you with a flower, until next time.

To vegan, or not to vegan?

  One of the greatest things about seeing an old friend is that you get to catch up on what's new in each other's lives.  Among other recent and momentous events, my friend Lauren decided to go all the way and start eating a vegan diet.  She has been a vegetarian for as long as I've known her, and we've talked a bit about its meaningfulness to us.   
  When I was 15 or so I got my first job working at a local wings place down the street from my house.  Within about 2 weeks of working there I decided I couldn't eat meat anymore.  I became a lacto-ovo vegetarian, continuing to eat dairy and eggs, and remained so for about 6 years.  Until one day, when I was watching a McDonald's commercial and started salivating and gargling like Homer Simpson at the sight of a donut.  I took that as a sign that I should probably start eating red meat again.  So I ordered a buffalo burger from Upland Brewery, devoured the entire thing and never looked back.  Until now.
  Was all that sumptuous consumption of pork belly, bacon, prosciutto and pancetta going to come back to haunt me?  All the heavy cream, butter and eggs?  Obviously without moderation and exercise that kind of a diet could make one less than slender and in good health, but what about the other implications?  Even while some sources will not explicitly state that meat is bad for you, they most likely recommend keeping red meat and dairy intake low.

So why not just cut them out altogether?             

I'm pondering...and that leads to cooking:

Smoky Corn and Tomato Bruschetta

Green Summer Soup (Pre-puree)

Watermelon Granita

And if the pictures don't hook you, this will: Two of the recipes only have three ingredients!

All recipes are from my favorite food and cooking reference (besides Joy) Epicurious.com.  Got an ingredient you have no idea what to do with?  No problem!  Customize to your heart's content.  You'll thank me later.

I am excited to chronicle this new endeavor in eating and lifestyle.  I welcome and hope for comments, suggestions, skeptics...

Life without cheese.  This should be interesting.

Weekend in the Clouds

  This past weekend we had the pleasure of enjoying Alma's Festival in the Clouds with new and old friends.  The festival is in its 14th year and is an annual free event that the town sponsors.  There was live music all day, children splashing in the Platte River and scraping in the sand at its shore, artists vending their wares, and a few rain showers to keep us on our toes. 

bruised sky threatens wet/snug in flimsy house we laugh/daring the drops down.

  Probably the most exciting part of the weekend was the chance to see my dear friend Lauren and meet her new husband, Greg.  The Foxes are on a westward honeymoon journey and we were just lucky enough to rendezvous with them on their travels.  Both have quit their jobs and embarked upon a quest to find their place in this vast space we call the American West.  I, for one, can't wait to see where they end up!
  We took a nice hike at Kite Lake on Sunday.  The lake is above timberline and gives access to three mountains over 14,000': Mount Democrat, Mount Lincoln and Mount Bross.  Though we chose not to climb much above the snowline, it was still magnificent.  Wildflowers blanketed the valley- sunflowers, Columbine, Indian paintbrush, and many others I could not identify.

Mariposa Lily

Some weather rolls in...

Indian Paintbrush

Puppies playing in the snow

Satisfying Summer Recipes

I'm sharing some summer favorites that require little to no cooking. Enjoy!  Comments and recipes are always welcome!

Summer Berry Salad

Black & Blue Summer Salad

Strawberry Salad

 The beauty of these salads is that you can use any fresh ingredients you have on hand.  It seems we can never eat our fresh fruit fast enough, so one day I decided to put some in the rather boring-looking salad I was having for lunch.  What a pleasant surprise!  I know I'm not the first to put fruit in a salad with lettuce, but sometimes you forget the simplest and most delicious things.

Ingredients

Salad greens; such as mâché, spinach, arugula
Fruit (strawberries, peaches, blueberries, blackberries- whatever sounds good!)
Sliced almonds
Chèvre, crumbled (optional) 
Raspberry vinaigrette or other vinaigrette salad dressing

Preparation

Rinse greens; fruit.  Place greens in a bowl.  Top with fruit, crumbled chèvre, if using, and sliced almonds.  Drizzle with vinaigrette.   

The Minimalist's (Revised) Corn Chowder

I first tried this recipe last summer and got rave reviews from everyone who tried it.  The original recipe is Mark Bittman's and stands alone as one of the best and easiest corn chowder recipes I have ever come across.  His recipe, as is, is only 60 calories per serving.  My version ups the calories a bit for the sake of flavor. 

Ingredients

4 to 6 ears of corn
1 TB butter or neutral oil, such as canola
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 tomatoes, cored, seeded and chopped
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped

Preparation

1.  Shuck the corn and strip the kernels from the cob with a sharp knife.  Reserve kernels, making sure to capture any juice.  Put cobs in a large pot with 2 cups of water and 2 cups of broth.  Cover, simmer for 10 minutes.
2.  Place butter or oil in saucepan and heat on medium-high.  When hot, add onion and potatoes; season.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add tomatoes.  Cook, stirring for another minute or so.
3. Strain the corn cob mixture, return to large pot, and add onion potato mixture.  Bring to a boil, turn heat down so mixture simmers.  When potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes, add corn kernels and heavy whipping cream.  Heat through.  Season with salt and pepper and fresh parsley.

  

Sweet Alma Soul Sisters perform @ Festival in the Clouds

   

the future of the past.

.looking back.

  The late Lucy Grealy wrote that there are moments in life which grab us, and demand that we live each day after in reference to them. Just as our outward experiences affect our attitudes, our inward thoughts and meanderings are able to imprint a subtle influence on behavior and actions. Maybe it's not so much a moment as it is a person, a place, a smell, a taste- that both sweetly and urgently demands our attention. Our memory becomes soaked in the bitterness or the joy, and we are undeniably marked by the experience.

  Long ago I was imbued with a love of writing, and it stained me in a way I never could or cared to wash away. Not to say that it hasn't been a tumultuous relationship, because the ups and downs have been numerous and frequent. But it's a practice, and you eternally work at the things you love.
Along the way I have had the great fortune of being surrounded by incredibly talented artists, dancers, writers and musicians. Some have been fleeting characters, now distant ghosts, and others have made lasting impressions- all fortifying my love for the crafted word.

  April is National Poetry Month, and all month long I toyed with the idea of a writing-related blog post. I realize the month is long-gone, and Spring has lazily shed her skin to make way for Summer. But the nagging feeling that this is something worth doing remains.

In my younger years I was lucky enough to meet and begin a correspondence with an author named Fielding Dawson. Fielding was a close friend of some other poets in Indianapolis that had nurtured and encouraged my writing. A long time resident of New York, he journeyed to Indiana as a guest speaker during a visiting authors series sponsored by Butler University. I had the opportunity to pass along some of my poetry from that period of time, and to my pleasant surprise, he actually liked it. It is worth mentioning that I was a teenager at the time; preferring the company of adults but unable to rationalize that preference with the fact that I still had so much to learn.  Nonetheless, the experience has left a subtle imprint on the way I look at life and the world around me.

Fielding Dawson (1930-2002)

The enclosed poem is one of which I hope Fielding would have approved, had he had the chance to read it.  Here was a man who wrote with such stunning imagery and bone-deep emotion.  A man who had incredible insights on society and culture.  A man who wrote this:

"America has the brightness and glitter of someone who is big and rich and powerful who is trying to skip what can't be skipped, itself, using everything it has to avoid itself, it doesn't glitter inside, it's dirtier and more neurotic than it dares believe, it's soaked with guilt and fear for its unsatisfied viciously related hungers which are never satisfied, causing a friction sending up great showers of sparks for the whole world to see, and the world cries, 'How wonderful!'"  

Krazy Kat & 76 More: Stories 1950-1976

 This piece is from 2006.  A fleeting memory that tells a fragmented story of an important person from my past.

For the demimondaine from Detroit

dem-i-mon-daine n.  a woman of a demimonde

dem-i-monde n. 1 a hist. a class of women in 19th-c. France considered to be of doubtful social standing and morality.  b. a similar class of women in any society.  2 any group considered to be on the fringes of respectable society.  [F,=half-world]

The Oxford American Dictionary and Language Guide

And she was beautiful like a funeral dirge.

Melancholy mournful like when two notes

make that perfect connection

and just vibrate on through.

She had a voice that made me hungry

for creamy foods.

Puddings, custards, meringues.

It was in the way she said words;

Pushing her tongue to the roof of her mouth

and letting them glide out

like newborn babies.

On that plywood stage in the back of the record store

she stood ten feet tall,

dressed in black,

with long hair flowing as she paced

to her own tempo.

She her own metronome.

  And we were just slack-jawed kids

in awe at how well and how good she looked playing their game.

She was the demimondaine.

  To be the only woman

in a group of male poets

who had concluded that men wrote poetry for pussy,

she was doing pretty well for herself.

  Became the girlfriend of a writer with a bald head and glasses,

known for his graphic accounts of anal sex with fat women.

  She was the same age as my mother

though she looked 10 years younger,

and sometimes wore a leather jacket.

  She published a chapbook

with a photograph of herself on the cover,

smoking a cigarette in a silky black dress.

And at a party in her honor,

she read those poems like they were fresh, wet wounds

she was bandaging.

Like they were a feverish brow she was caressing,

a nervous hand she was holding.

And she was magnificently serene in the face of such pain.

She called herself the demimondaine.

  The queen of the half-world,

ruling on the fringes.

  A little girl playing dress-up,

and a woman encouraging her daring to dream big.

  I eked out the lines

and she was there every time

to tell me to keep going.

To keep writing because it was inside of me

like it was inside of her.

  And when that fire went out,

it meant we were dead.

  The last time I saw her

was at a poetry slam

-someone's idiot idea of making poets

compete against each other when really,

they can only compete against life.

  I was older and not much wiser,

but wearing it well.

  And she was older,

and very much the same.

Though it had ended badly with the poet,

and he was there to get revenge

in the best way he knew how.

  She was uncomfortable and alone,

smiling sadly at her table by the window.

Writing her number on a cocktail napkin,

though we both knew I wouldn't call.

  There was nothing to talk about anyway.

Too much time elapsed between old and new.

The only thing we'd ever had in common

was the poetry.

But sometimes that's enough.

Sometimes that's the stuff,

that bonds you even after the moment is gone. 

  She was the demimondaine from Detroit.

Queen of the half-world,

the soul-child of passion done wrong.

While this post has strayed a bit from my normal focus, I have realized that this isn't a space for creative limitation, but rather a blank slate without borders.  While I enjoy sharing recipes and notions about food, writing also feeds and nourishes me.  And I must admit, my soul has been starving for its return.    

You can read more about Fielding Dawson here:
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/08/fielding_dawson_the_best_st_lo.php
http://ploplop.org/dawson.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2002/apr/05/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries

Go-to Bananas!

Steamboat Springs, CO (February 2008)

Looking for something sweet to sate your palate? Don't want to use tons of butter/oil/sugar to do it? Got overripe bananas? If you answered yes to even one of those questions than this is the recipe for you. I guess I should cut to the chase...Banana Bread!
Now I know banana bread is probably not the most unique baked good you have ever heard of, but that's neither here nor there. This is not the dry, crumbling block of mess you might have baked (bought, or been 'gifted!') in the past. Instead, you will enjoy a golden brown, chewy crust enveloping moist, pillowy crumbs and a slight crunch. Intrigued? Well, I am excited to share my recipe for banana bread but first I feel inclined to mention a few facts about bananas and their impact on society and the environment.

• Bananas are the fourth-largest food staple in the world, behind rice, wheat and potatoes
• The banana plant is the world's largest herb
• There are over 500 varieties of bananas; the Cavendish or dessert banana is the banana most popular in North America and Europe
• Cultivated banana plants do not produce pollen or seeds with which they are able to reproduce; thus new plants are grown from the suckers (shoots growing out of the ground from the rhizomes below) of the parent plant
  

Due to the fact that banana plants only thrive in hot, tropical climates most are grown in Central and South America, India, China and southeast Asia. A vast majority of the people living in these regions not only depend on bananas for their livelihoods, but also as a major staple of their diets.

Unfortunately, the banana industry, particularly in Central America, has a large amount of blood on its hands. You may have heard of the term "banana republic," and I am not referring to the yuppie clothing store. Coined by the author O. Henry in the book Cabbages and Kings, this term refers to a country dependent on limited agriculture and made politically and economically unstable due to the interests of corrupt business.
I'm not making this up; in 1910 the Cuyamel Fruit Company hired mercenaries to orchestrate the coup d'etat that would overthrow the Honduran government in favor of a leader friendlier to the fruit company. More horrifically, in the 1950's United Fruit Company (now Chiquita Brands International) convinced both the Truman and Eisenhower administrations that Guatemala was pro-Communist, due to the fact that the government had expropriated unused land from the company to be distributed to landless peasants. So in 1954 President Eisenhower ordered a CIA-led coup d'etat, deposing a democratically-elected government.

My point is not to bore you about the politics of bananas, but simply to make you aware of the tenuous relationship this industry has had (and has) with the people it depends on to make a profit from us banana-hungry consumers: the workers. I won't even get into the pesticides and herbicides used to combat disease, since the endangered plants are unable to resist infection on their own.

So what can you do, you ask? The best thing you can do is buy organic. Even though you are probably still leaving quite a large carbon footprint, due to the fact that the bananas must travel such a long distance to reach your market, you are still assuring that the people who cultivated, picked and packed your bananas were paid a fair wage and not physically compromised by deadly chemicals- which you would have otherwise consumed!
And now for an end to my rambling: the recipe!

Best Banana Bread

*Note: This recipe was adapted from the Quick Breads recipe found in Joy of Cooking.*

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3-1/2 cup Greek Gods Honey-flavored Greek yogurt, or other Greek yogurt
  
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon lemon rind
• 1 egg
• 1 to 1 1/4 cups very ripe banana pulp (Usually 2 to 3 bananas)
• 2-3 tablespoons whole golden flax seeds
  

Preparation
Sift together dry ingredients. Set aside. Blend until creamy Greek yogurt, sugar and lemon rind. Next, beat in egg and banana pulp. In about 3 parts, add the sifted ingredients to the sugar mixture, beating well after each addition until smooth. Fold in flaxseed.
Place the batter in a greased loaf pan. Bake for about 1 hour or until golden brown. Cool 10-15 minutes before slicing.

See? Pretty easy, eh? And the flax seeds not only add a delightfully subtle crunch, but are packed with Omega-3 fatty acids, dietary fiber and other nutrients. While it is true that the nutrients are more easily absorbed when ground, I prefer the whole seeds for this recipe.

Bon appetit! In honor of bananas, I leave you with a piece written by one of my favorite poets, Pablo Neruda.

La United Fruit Co. (from Canto general)

When the trumpet sounded
everything was prepared on earth,
and Jehovah gave the world
to Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other corporations.
The United Fruit Company
reserved for itself the most juicy piece,
the central coast of my world,
the delicate waist of America.

It rebaptized these countries
Banana Republics,
and over the sleeping dead,
over the unquiet heroes
who won greatness,
liberty, and banners,
it established an opera buffa:
it abolished free will,
gave out imperial crowns,
encouraged envy, attracted
the dictatorship of flies:
Trujillo flies, Tachos flies,
Carias flies, Martinez flies,
Ubico flies, flies sticky with
submissive blood and marmalade,
drunken flies that buzz over
the tombs of the people,
circus flies, wise flies
expert at tyranny.

With the bloodthirsty flies
came the Fruit Company,
amassed coffee and fruit
in ships which put to sea like
overloaded trays with the treasures
from our sunken lands.

Meanwhile the Indians fall
into the sugared depths of the
harbors and are buried in the
morning mists;
a corpse rolls, a thing without
name, a discarded number,
a bunch of rotten fruit
thrown on the garbage heap.

Sources:
Eagen, Rachel. The Biography of Bananas. New York, NY: Crabtree Pub., 2006. Print.
Farmer, Jacqueline. Bananas! Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge, 1999. Print.
Neruda, Pablo, and Jack Schmitt. Canto General. Berkeley: University of California, 1991. Print.
"Banana Republic." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Mar. 2011.
Rombauer, Irma Von Starkloff, and Marion Rombauer Becker. Joy of Cooking. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975. Print.

distractions.

Spiced Herbed Nuts

Ashamed. Yes, it's been far too long since I have given some attention to this blog. Unfortunately, when I changed my email account I lost most of my pictures in previous posts. Nevermind that. There is plenty more deliciousness in store.

I am fortunate enough to have the best parents in the world, and because of that they drove out to help me move over Christmas. I won't get into the moving part because we all know moving tops the list of boring things to do. The more interesting thing we did was eat a lot of incredible food- like the beautiful mixed nuts pictured above. They were roasted with a variety of herbs, butter, brown sugar...you get the idea. You can find the recipe here.

Another amazingly decadent treat we had was fondue. Now, I've had fondue and I always come away feeling somehow completely annoyed by the experience. But not this fondue. No, this, well, you just have to make it for yourself. And don't skimp on the pickles.

And then for dinner... I have long dreamed of a recipe I once saw Giada De Laurentiis make on Food Network. All I could remember was that there was a rich, meaty sauce, pasta and at the end you sprinkle it with shredded bittersweet chocolate. Somehow we found it, Short Rib Tagliatelle, and my, my was it every bit as wonderful as I had imagined. It does require quite a bit of patience though, but it is entirely worth it. The short ribs melt in your mouth, and the brothy, tomato-spiked sauce is good enough to sop up with a nice piece of baguette. And I promise the chocolate on top is good.

Now this bad boy was a pure lesson in patience. Meet the Decadent Trifle. First, you make ginger cake, studded with fresh cranberries. It goes on the bottom, drizzled with sherry. Next, the cake is topped with raspberries tossed with kirsch. Then white chocolate blueberry custard is spooned over, which is then covered with raspberry sauce. And what would it be without chocolate? Why not add chocolate custard? And then cover it with a whipped concoction called syllabub? I think, yes.

mountain maiden.

With a rather reluctant heart, I left my old, Indiana home. I kissed the dogs goodbye, shed a couple of tears across the causeway of Lake Monroe and didn't look back as we headed west on I-70.

I am not the first, nor will I be the last to be afflicted with this fever. Go West! The mountains have always called to me. Not to wax anthropomorphic, but their giant, hulking forms make me feel safe and grounded in a way skyscrapers never could.

My release from graduate school and subsequent deposit upon the mad world was simultaneously exhilarating and mortifying. Yes, I had put in the time, blood, sweat and tears but that's not always enough to generate sustainable income. I had heard nightmare stories about some graduates remaining unemployed for, gulp, years. I diligently applied, applied, applied and got rejected, rejected, rejected. Eventually I got an interview, and when I was offered the job I decided it was time to move. Time to bite the bullet and get out of Indiana.

I harbor no ill will towards the state of Indiana. In fact, the only two things I could actually say that I hate about Indiana are the anti-abortion billboards and the "In God We Trust" license plates. Not too bad, right?

So I got a job in colorful Colorado. If there is one thing I love, it's the drive to Colorado from Indiana. Most of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri is green, relatively flat and scarred with bridge-spanned rivers. Kansas almost feels like going to Mars. Beautiful, desolate, shaped and molded by wind, water and time. The land continues to obey gravity all the way through eastern Colorado (arguably more desolate than Kansas) until finally a portion of the horizon seems shadowed. Soon the purple stain is obviously something more. A wrinkle in the fabric of the earth. A glacial eruption of land that blocks the horizon and grazes the cloudless sky. Home.

And here I am in Colorado Springs, Colorado where every day is an adventure. I am settling in to my new job and loving every minute of it. Still get lost at least once a day- "I'm going the wrong way again?" I have begun my yoga practice anew and am exploring my physical and mental limitations and strengths. Coming to tadasana with an actual mountain in view brings a whole new sense of awareness and focus to the posture. One can only hope to extend and reach to the heavens with an ounce of the majesty and grace that these peaks display. So I am on my way to achieving my goal: becoming certified to teach yoga in the next year or so!

This move has provided me with excellent fodder for a healthy, happy blog! Exploring a new city and state is about as fun as it gets. I look forward to sharing my experiences with hiking, skiing, sightseeing, and most importantly, eating! I am already planning to devote an entire blog post to baking at altitude- something I am both nervous and ecstatic to try my hand at. Boiled my first pot of water the other day, and let's just say that living over a mile above sea level definitely dashes the adage that a watched pot never boils. There are also tons of great restaurants to try (and review). One I can't wait to go to is an organic peanut butter and jelly spot downtown, with a menu devoted entirely to quite possibly the mother of all comfort foods. They have some really interesting combinations- Thai peanut butter with pear jelly and sprouts anyone? More on that later...

Today I decided to take advantage of the great weather that is rather commonplace out here. (And to think I almost moved to Eugene!) Helen Hunt Falls is a spot that had been recommended to me, and when I discovered it was only about a 10 minute drive from my apartment I loaded up the camera and plenty of water and went for an adventure. The falls are actually part of the North Cheyenne Canon Park, which is a city-run park and free to the public. The drive up the canyon was absolutely stunning and the 20 mph speed limit was perfect since my mouth was open in wonder the entire time- guess I'm a gaper after all. The road hugs the mountain, and sandy red cliffs rise alongside with boulders like giant dinosaur eggs perched at intervals. This is definitely a popular spot for locals and tourists alike; the road was lined with parked cars and people out enjoying the late summer day. There were several other places along the way to stop and hike, but I continued up, up, up to reach the falls. (I noticed that the road continues on up the mountain so sounds like another adventure!) The hike from the parking lot to the upper falls is about 1/3 mile uphill. I made it without much trouble, but my lungs are still adjusting to the thinner air here! The falls themselves are strongest at the foot of the trail and from the top it is hard to imagine how it gains such momentum as the water seems like barely more than a trickle from between the rocks. I reached the top alone and was soon joined by two men who asked me to take a picture of them. We got to talking and had a fabulous conversation about all the great food in the Springs and surrounding areas. It's amazing the people you can meet when you are outgoing and put yourself out there. One of the men vacations in France once a year and we reminisced about Paris and other regions of the country we enjoy. How refreshing to meet other well-traveled and interesting people!

I look forward to continuing my journey in life through words and photographs. Thanks for listening, dear readers. For more insight related to my job as a children's librarian, please view my other blog devoted to all things library: The Life and Times of a Libran Librarian.