Road Trip: October 4, 2011

Dear Husband,

This morning, we took a walk.

And we heard it coming.  You can hear it start to roll from the station about half a mile from our apartment.

I was a dork and waived at all of the passengers.

And just like that, we marked something off of my list from 2 years ago.

We didn't ride it, but it counts.

On our long walk back, we saw someone's backyard STUFFED full of apple trees.  Their entire property had apples on the ground.

You did what anyone would have.

We ate them straight off of the tree.  Best apples I've ever tasted.

Our apartment- the 2nd door on the lower level

The rest of our day was spent waiting around for Anthony to call with your bike cage, so we went and had a long lunch.

By 4 o'clock, we had not heard from him and needed to get on the road, but he called right then to tell us Mr. King Cage had forgotten and would have it ready soon.  We could pick it up at his house.

You = kid in candy store

Me = chopped liver

This dude is serious about bike cages.

But I guess I would be too if it was how I made my living

and by living I mean make me famous.
Someone in the front window waived us around to the back and we found ourselves making our way through Ron's backyard.  It was full of bikes.  Don't get any ideas.
And we found him in here.

 I totally dig everything about this man.
You told him "I would love to have a picture with you; you're sort of famous"
to which he replied "Yeah somehow that happened"
And yet he still makes everything himself or with the help of 1-2 friends
And people pay him in beer.  Literally, he had cases and cases of Colorado's best brews
And we left with your custom cage that fits your Salsa perfectly.

And we were on the road out of Durango, and we actually had no idea where we were going.
You drove me over Wolf Creek pass, and somewhere in there told me to shut up so you could drive followed with "Don't tell your mom we did this".
We couldn't see 10 feet in front of us, and it was snowing.  Lots of snow.  Lots of fog.
IT WAS SO GREAT!

And we found ourselves stopping in Salida, CO at a bed and breakfast that had one vacancy...we had no idea how awesome it would be in the morning.

If you can avoid it for the rest of your life, don't make a tart from scratch.

In an effort to move right along on one of the things on my list of 28 things to do before I'm 28, I have been a baking machine since January.  And what I have learned is that when you bake everything in a Baked cookbook, you learn all kinds of hard bakey things.

This week, I made a tart.  I made an Orange Dreamsicle tart from scratch.

Tarts are hard.

There was all kinds of gelling, freezing, cooling, cooking with beans, cooking without beans, cooling, freezing, waiting 4 hours.

This blasted tart took me all day.

But then there was this

And it was to. die. for.

Baked French Toast. Holymoses.

Make Baked Baked French Toast

Present to man in your life for his birthday breakfast

Point for you.

I used Italian bread.  So good.

With raspberry sauce (next time I'll double it).  So good.

We ate the whole pan in a weekend.  SO GOOD!

28 things to do before I turn 28

I'm 27 today.  Woot!  Last year I made a list of things to do before today.

Here's today's.

Some explanations, because they're necessary since Kstan thought I meant "eat more leftovers":

# 6: I never learned how.  It's terrible.  I feel like I do not belong in my generation.

# 8: Anything I didn't do on my last list

# 12: Please refer to this

# 20: Like maybe them and probably some of them and her and here and them (Dont you dare hate; it's my birthday.)

# 27: I am only allowed to do this if someone does it with me.  And DC has a race that day.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Free beer?  No?

# 28: Wild card.  Something that just comes up that is awesome.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have today and tomorrow off and I plan to savor every second of my freedom.

Much love, party people.

This is a Loaded Post. Prepare yourself.

My girlfriend's birthday was yesterday, so I wanted to deliver her something super colorful and bright with a wine theme.  Because she digs the vino.

I just wrapped a wine bottle in raffia. With some tacky glue.  This was specifically called Hollywood Raffia.  I guess because it is shiny?
Random fact: my parents wanted to name me Holly.  But then my name would have been Holly Wood.  Thank you for not doing that and thus making middle school even more awkward.

Happy Birthday to my #1 She-ruby!

And in completely unrelated news, remember the asian chicken?
We beefed it up.

And it was incredible.

And then I stayed up until midnight baking Monkey Bubble Bread aka thebesthingIhaveeverbaked aka totallyworththelackofsleep aka IloveyouKitchenAidemixerandBakedcookbook.

aka YourewelcomeBiblestudygroup.

Orange Bundt Cake of Bliss

When I saw "Mom's Orange Olive Oil Cake" in thebestcookbookgiftever,  I was all, "Woah, woah, woah, woah...woah...woah...woah...woah.  Lois...this is not my Batman cup". 

Name the show.

Random side note- I found out in baking this that one of my least favorite things to do, like, ever, is beating egg whites to a stiff peak.  Longest. Process. Ever.

But worth it.

Ok, anyway, where was I...I don't think anyone thinks anything delightful when they see Olive Oil as the main, like big time main, ingredient in a cake.  It just doesn't sound right.

But if this isn't right, I don't know what is.

Let's try that again.

Happy Monday!