Elk vs Arlo Camera

Photos of Elk in Mariana Butte neighborhood from February 15, 2019.

In mid-January, we had a night-time visit of two elk bull. Have you ever seen the inside of an elk's mouth? These two curious fellows were passing by our lake shore and decided to investigate the Arlo camera up close and personal. Good news: the camera survived! Click the link below to have a look.

Elk vs Arlo Camera

UFO Sighting :-)

Can you see the UFO in these pictures?!?

I am kind of pulling your leg on this one. However, you are looking at what is commonly called a UFO cloud since the shape resembles one of those flying discs out of a cheesy 1960s SciFi movie.

I'm not a meteorologist, nor do I attempt to play one on the blogosphere. However, if you do a quick search for "UFO clouds" or Lenticular clouds, you will find more information about how these interesting quirks of nature form. 

They are mostly related to higher altitudes with mountains terrain, and are associated with moist winds that blow over the mountains. That would explain why I never saw any of these weather oddities while growing up in Texas.

The clouds and winds the other day made for a glorious sunset
viewed from our back yard in Northern Colorado.

Adorables

When I was growing up in Texas (way back when!), my parents loved loading up the old Oldsmobile and driving northwest to Colorado. I was always amazed that we would leave hot and humid Texas and arrive in dry and cool Colorado. Even in May, there was still snow in the mountains. The snow would sparkle in the sun, and the little me, back then, knew there were diamonds in the snow :-).

I also adored the ground squirrels and chipmunks that would dart from rock to bush at the speed of light. Chipmunks are just so darned cute! Yesterday, we spotted this one strategically positioned at a picnic site in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

No-Bake Chocolate Yumminess!

Trying new foods and recipes is one of the most intriguing aspects of living abroad. The way food is prepared and the ingredients that are used provide further understanding of a country's lifestyle and passed-down cultures.

When living in England, I found the desserts especially diverse and interesting. But first, I had to figure out what to call this category of yumminess. I often heard the terms afters, sweets, desserts, puddings, cakes, biscuits, etc.

Then, I discovered a whole range of new desserts, including meringues, Bakewell tarts, sticky toffee pudding, spotted dick, Eaton mess, trifle, fruit crumble and more! There also were some no-bake delights such as flapjacks (made predominately of oats), chocolate biscuit cake, chocolate caramel slice and chocolate clusters. 

While I loved the chocolate biscuit cake (imagine taking cookies, crushing them up and pouring melted buttery chocolate icing over the top), this concoction is just too sweet for me. The clusters were made by mixing corn flakes and melted chocolate.

I wanted to achieve some kind of hybrid between the biscuit cake and the chocolate clusters that I could slice into small pieces. I looked and looked online, but never found exactly the right mix. There are a number of American “fudge” recipes using melted chocolate morsels and coconut oil, so I tacked that onto my recipe, too.

Let me introduce you to my hybrid “no-bake chocolate cluster slice fudge recipe.” There are so many ways to change it up, depending on your mood or food sensitivities.

I’ve made two different versions, and you can play around with the recipes and personalize them. Here goes.

The Teawife’s No-Bake Chocolate Coconutty Slice

6 to 8 cups Mesa Sunrise GF Flake Cereal (or a similar “sturdy” flake)

1 ½ cups chocolate morsels

½ cup coconut oil

½ cup almond butter (or peanut butter)

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup desiccated coconut (unsweetened)

1 cup chopped pecans (or your favorite nuts)

Use a large bowl and add 6 cups of cereal flakes, coconut and nuts. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate morsels, creamed coconut oil and almond butter (or peanut butter) over very low heat. Stir regularly with a heat-resistant spatula.

Once melted, remove from heat and stir vanilla into the chocolate. Pour melted mixture over dry ingredients in the large bowl. Mix very well. If you want more cereal, you can add an extra cup or two until you achieve your desired consistency.

Scrape mixture into a rectangular or square baking dish, spreading out evenly. If necessary, you can use a large spoon to press down the mixture. Allow to cool. You can speed up cooling by placing dish in the refrigerator (especially helpful on a warm day).

Cut into small pieces once cooled. Eat at room temperature or chilled! These slices will last a long time if stored in the freezer.

The Teawife’s No-Bake Reese's Peanut Buttery Slice

6 to 8 cups Reese’s Puff Cereal, chopped

2 cups chocolate morsels

½ cup crunchy peanut butter or chocolate peanut butter

1 cup sliced almonds or chopped peanuts or another nut

1 tsp. vanilla

Optional – ¼ cup PB2 powdered peanut butter

Begin by chopping up 6 cups of Reese’s Puff cereal balls. I used a Pampered Chef chopper. Don’t over chop! You can leave them whole, if that’s your preference. Add Reese’s Puffs into a large bowl. Also add the cup of nuts.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate morsels and peanut butter over a very low heat. Stir regularly with a heat-resistant spatula. Once melted, remove from heat and stir vanilla and optional PB2 into the chocolate. Pour melted mixture over dry ingredients in the large bowl. Mix very well. If you want more cereal, you can add an extra cup or two until you achieve your desired consistency.

Scrape mixture into a rectangular or square baking dish, spreading out evenly. If necessary, you can use a large spoon to press down the mixture. Allow to cool. You can speed up cooling by placing dish in the refrigerator (especially helpful on a warm day).

Cut into small pieces once cooled. Eat at room temperature or chilled! These slices will last a long time if stored in the freezer.

Bacon Broccoli Frittata

Broccoli Bacon Frittata

6 – 8 strips of bacon, cut into small pieces

Small onion, sliced/chopped thinly

5 eggs (or 3 eggs with 1/3 cup Liquid Egg Whites)

1/2 cup Bisquick or Pamela’s GF Baking Mix

2 – 3 cups of cheese (Swiss, Cheddar, shaved Parmesan, etc.)

1/3 cup half-and-half

1 cup whole milk

2 – 3 cups raw broccoli (or your favorite vegetables)

Seasonings (salt, pepper, paprika, seasoning mix)*


Add eggs, half-and-half, milk, Bisquick and seasoning into a blender/food processor and mix well. Set aside.

Begin by frying the bacon in a pan for about 5 minutes on a low-medium stove. I used a large cast iron pan since I would be able to put the completed quiche into the oven.

Add in onions. Continue to stir and cook the bacon and onions until the onions are tender and translucent (about another 5 minutes).

Add in the broccoli, which I have cut into smallish pieces. Cook the mixture for 3 minutes, stirring to evenly cook the vegetables.**

If you are using a cast iron pan, move the pan from heat and prepare to mix rest of ingredients into the pan. Or, switch to a large pie or tart stoneware or casserole dish.

Add the cheese into the bacon-broccoli-onion mixture; mix well. Pour the egg-milk mixture over the ingredients in pan/casserole dish.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until golden and a knife comes out cleanly from the center. The preheated cast iron pan will cook faster; my quiche took 35 minutes.

*I used 1 tsp paprika and 1 tbs of Strawberry Tree Farm’s Giddya Up Ranch

** If using raw spinach or mushrooms, don’t cook them; instead, remove the pan from heat and stir vegetables into the bacon mixture.

Humming and Buzzing

 Summer in the Estes Park, Colorado, can be marked by the arrival and departure of the exquisite hummingbird.  

In the height of the summer, hummingbirds can be heard trilling and whistling on the drive up Hwy. 34 from the lowlands of Loveland to the mountains of Estes Park. 

As the temperature drops 10 to 12 degrees on the trip up the mountain, it's enjoyable to roll down the car windows in order to hear the buzzing of these bright and wondrous creatures.

At our condo in Estes Park, we keep fresh feeders going for these always-hungry visitors. They are rarely shy, and they are happy to pose for photos, with sweet nectar their only pay.

These photos were taken from our balcony, near Marys Lake in Estes Park. Enjoy! 

Hummingbirds fly to the cool mountains to mate and nest. The acrobatics of male hummingbirds is amazing to watch, especially when they perform vertical dives from dizzying heights as a way to impress the females. 

These little birds' summer time in the mountains is fleeting. Many have already left the mountains for the lowlands of Loveland and Fort Collins. And soon, their long flight southwards will begin, and summer will sweep away as the leaves color and fall from the trees. 

Pineapple Express

Today's snow in Loveland was of the more unfriendly variety. Usually, we have powdery stuff that's easy to plow and move. This time, we had chinook winds blow through a couple of days ago and the warm winds melted the previous snow, causing the ground to warm and water to be left on the pavements and roads.

As we went back down into the 20s and teens last night, all that moisture froze, and then wet snow layered on top of it. Not great for drivers heading to work or school. This Pineapple Express came from the Pacific and was laden with moisture. As it crosses over the Rockies, it's expected to drop 2 to 4 feet of snow in the mountains (great for skiers; and also 'good' for avalanche potential! Yikes). We won't be getting that much -- 5 to 6 inches this morning and maybe a bit more this evening.

I usually head out to shovel first thing in the morning, but after I saw the ice at the bottom of the snow and felt the heaviness of the snow, I came back inside, brewed a cup of tea, put my feet up, and sent a text to my trusty landscaper to come with his snow plow!