Weekend Things

This post contains a LOT of wildflower pictures, so I’ll spare you an intro and just jump right in!

Feels like it’s been so long since we stayed home and did nothing on a Friday, so this one felt extra nice.  We stopped by the grocery store on the way home from work and look who I ran into!  Wayne sent Joey and I a picture of my sister doing this same pose last week, so it only felt right that I reciprocate.  We ate fajita leftovers in the backyard and would you look at how fruitful our shishito plants are?!  We are so amazed and happy about it!  Also, we’re on a Leo kick after seeing OUATIH and decided to re-watch Wolf of Wall Street, which we hadn’t seen since we saw it in theaters in 2014!  We only made it halfway, because it’s a billion hours long!

Saturday we were up and at em for a wildflower hike!  I’d been wanting to do this since last year when I came across an article about the best places to see Colorado wildflowers, except by the time I read it, wildflower season had already passed.  I wasn’t going to miss my chance this year!  I found an article that listed Black Powder Pass as a good spot, so we loaded ourselves and lunch into the car and drove up toward Breckenridge.  It was maybe cloudy and rainy the whole drive and for a moment, I thought we would just have to turn back around, but the rain stopped and we had the most glorious time!!!  These pictures do not do the flowers (or their INCREDIBLE fragrance!) justice.  I could hardly believe my eyes!

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Um we saw two moose!!!!!  We made it up to the final meadow and there they were on the other side of the valley.  I know they look really far away, but they felt a lot closer in real life!  I was part amazed and part terrified because, MOOSE ARE HUGE!  But apart from what felt like them staring right at us, they basically ignored us and went on their way.  And wow, what an epic view we had!  This trail was seriously so wonderful.  It was just the right length, just the right difficulty and except for a few groups we saw on our way back down, we had the whole thing to ourselves.  Plus, did I mention wildflowers and moose?!  Had a tailgate lunch back at the car and felt like my happiest self 🙂

Back at home, it was summer again!  My mom, dad and sister are out of town for a few days, so my sister dropped Huni off to watch while they’re gone.  The pups are such bad influences on each other!  But it has been highly entertaining to watch them compete with each other over everything and I can’t complain about double puppy cuddles 🙂  Joey did some more work on the slat wall while I read and relaxed for a bit inside.  We broke out the pasta maker for dinner!  Joey mentioned wanting to make spaghetti and meatballs months ago, so I’ve been keeping the idea in my back pocket.  It was our first time using the spaghetti attachment and even though we accidentally made a few ramen noodles, we got the hang of it and Joey declared this his favorite fresh pasta meal yet!

Also, we finished Wolf of Wall Street, and though it is a GREAT performance by Leo and there are many funny parts, why does this movie exist again??  It feels pretty much in service of the real Jordan Belmont (who literally has a cameo in the movie) and uh, this guy doesn’t deserve any service.

Sunday, Sunday!  We woke up and had waffles, then headed out to do some patio furniture shopping.  Word to the wise, maybe don’t wait this far into summer to START shopping for patio furniture.  At Home had slim pickings, Fruehauf’s was out of our budget and Home Depot was a major bust.  We were finally able to find what we wanted at Christy Sports but it was still a game of piecing a set together from what was left in stock at this time of year.  Whew, felt good to make a buy though and I can’t wait to see it all on our deck next weekend!

Back at home, Joey did some deck/yard work and I made burritos for lunches this week, cleaned the floors, read (sorta) and harvested our eggplant!!! Isn’t she a beauty?!  Just a tad better than our last attempt at growing eggplant 😛  I sauteed it up for a Sunday Salad.  Can you tell which salad has real feta and which has tofu feta??  I maybe didn’t let it refrigerate for a full 5 hours like I was supposed to, so it was more goat cheese texture than feta texture, but YUM!  We walked the pups and watched Big Brother but the highlight of the night, was seeing our string lights over the deck ♥

Make This Now

Even though it is the end of July and I’m already (sort of) jokingly lamenting that “summer is over,” temperatures in the upper 90s, nightly dinners in the backyard and the pain I suffered when I wore black pants outside earlier this week means we are truly in the thick of it now, friends!  Please enjoy some of our very favorite recipes from this summer, and just remember there are plenty of tomatoes, corn and peaches and eggplant to come.

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BBQ Salmon Cobb Salad

Katie Lee does not mess around with a good salad and neither do I!  Perfectly cooked flaky salmon, salty bacon, egg that is boiled to my liking (help, I recently developed an aversion to soft egg yolks), in season corn and tomatoes, a creamy avocado and most importantly: homemade croutons!  We really dug this meal.

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Juicy Grass-Fed Beef Burgers

What’s summer without a really good burger, though?  Get this, these ones have mayo MIXED INTO THE PATTY!  Why have I never thought to do this??  These were SO GOOD.  So juicy that they were dripping everywhere and I was sad because I wanted those flavors in my mouth and not on my plate but what can you do?  Also, Joey claimed these were better than the BA Burger Deluxe which had previously been our go-to classic burger recipe.  Reader, I gasped when he said this but… he’s right!  P.S. Please season the outside of your patty with salt and pepper, regardless of whether this recipe tells you to or not.

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Loaded Summer Chili Fries

Switching gears entirely, we now enter the vegan portion of this post.  I make this cashew cheese sauce often and always have so much left over — I’ve tried halving it and my blender says NO — so I have to find ways to use it up.  Enter these chili fries, which already called for a similarly-made cashew sour cream, so it seemed like an easy substitution to make.  I was not prepared for how delicious this meal would be!  It was light and fresh but still hearty and satisfying?  I was FULLY in my happy place.  Plus, even though it seems like a lot of components, it was pretty quick to whip up.

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Peach Crisp for Two

Okay, this actually served four but that means two nights of dessert for each of us, instead of one, so I’m calling it a win!  A gluten-free vegan peach crisp is, in fact, NOT Betty Crocker’s peach cobbler but I just can’t make it like Mom, so why even try?  I actually don’t know how this tasted as good as it did considering there was no butter or white flour involved but IT DID.  I would 100% make this again!  And that’s the end of the vegan portion of this post 😛

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Grilled Salmon with Whole Lemon-Sesame Sauce

I made Joey watch a video of the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen making this recipe then said “I don’t care what you think, I’m making this!”  He’s maybe not quite as into lemon as I, a person who will eat the lemon slice that comes in a glass of water, am but don’t let the idea of cutting up a lemon skin scare you because when mixed with shallot, olive oil and honey, it’s really mellow and lovely.  I really love the easy salmon grilling technique used in this recipe too and scattering basil over anything just feels so fresh and summery, doesn’t it??

Please tell me what delicious things you are whipping up this summer!