back in business/zesty black bean soup...

Yay!! Internet is up and running again!

I thought I would post a great, quick recipe today to make while keeping up with you business.

I made this soup a few weeks ago when my friend Megann and her adorable son, Bradley were visiting.

 

poor teagan... we tried.

Megann asked for the recipe so I thought I would share it with all of you here. It is super easy, kid friendly and good for vegetarians (mom). The cinnamon gives a really good, unique flavor.

Zesty Black Bean Soup
(A Whole Foods Recipe)
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil*
1/2 pound baby carrots, sliced
1 bay leaf
Salt to taste
1 red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed*
1 cup frozen corn, thawed*
1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their liquid
1 quart vegetable broth
Hot sauce to taste*
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish

Method

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add carrots, bay leaf and salt and cook until carrots are just tender, about 7 minutes. Add onions and garlic and cook 5 minutes more. Add cumin, cinnamon, beans, corn, tomatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes Stir in hot sauce and chopped cilantro. Ladle hot soup into bowls and garnish with more cilantro.
(I prepared this soup ahead of time. I stopped at the step of bringing everything to a boil, kept it in the refrigerator overnight and then cooked it before we were ready to heat. I also admitted the hot sauce due to the kiddos who were eating with us.)

Hope you enjoy!

Technical difficulties...

I thought I would write an update... Our Internet service is out again! In a way it is a blessing, less time wasted surfing the net, but not good for the blog. I am jumping on the iPad now. Does anyone know how to post pictures to Blogspot using an iPad? Can't seem to figure it out...

Hope to return soon!

red rocks...

While Mark's mom was visiting us Mark and I were very thankful for having a babysitter. It was quite a treat and were very grateful!! We took advantage of this rare event in Colorado and checked something off our bucket lists, a concert at Red Rocks.

Mark expressed this experience the best. He said usually the high expectations you set for something makes you disappointed. Well Red Rocks actually EXCEEDED our high expectations. There is NOTHING like this venue. Naturally formed rock formations dramatically jut out of the earth creating, what some musicians have said, are the best acoustics in the world. The place was awe inspiring...

We did a little tail gating first with a little fine Colorado microbrew...

After that we decided to head to the amphitheatre. We first made some friends along the way by accidentally stepping into their picture they were taking. After some laughs they wanted their picture taken with us. Mark made this funny face and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "I don't know who these people are and how we got in their picture." And I made a silly wave. We are probably on their Facebook page by now so if you see us on FB with some random people now you know the story!

We soon realized getting there was a little tough. Because everything is naturally formed you have to work at getting to your seat in the way of many stairs, or, in our case a hike.

Now this picture may look like nothing, but let me tell you this trail was steep. It was may fault. I thought this was the best way to go. Haha... I was wrong. Especially for this girl who has been pregnant and feeding an infant. After one beer at altitude I didn't know if I was going to make it to the top of the trail or slide down on my butt because I couldn't stop laughing at us trying to climb this trail while everyone around us was tailgating!! These poor people in the picture probably saw us take this path and followed our lead. Sorry! We didn't know what we were doing!!

But on to the amphitheatre...

 By the way... see the banner...

We loved this opening band Soja. They have kind of a reggae sound to them.


Not to sound too far out, but I felt very close to pass performers in this awesome place. It was as if the rocks held the sounds of the Beatles, U2 and Ella Fitzgerald.

Our concert night created new music for the rocks by O.A.R. It was SO good.

Enough of the happenings of our family. I am hoping to share some recipes soon that our family has been enjoying this summer!

playing tourist...

The best thing about having house guests is being able to play tourist yourself. Last week we had our first wave of guests for the summer. I love to have people visit and luckily we live in a pretty awesome place that people want to come to. Our first guest was Mark's mom. I was super excited to have her visit. Even though we live just 15 minutes away from her there is nothing like being able to talk lazily in your pj's over breakfast with someone. Or staying up late chit chatting.  Am I right? Well... I may be wrong in remembering this visit with Joan... we were pretty busy for long, lazy breakfasts and we were often whipped after a jammed packed day to stay up too late!!!

Here are some of the fun things we packed into her visit...

The first day we ran around town and even went to the park for a birthday party for one of Gavin's friends. That night we were pretty tired so we ordered pizza from our favorite place, Peppino's in Frisco, and watched Gavin's first movie, Peter Pan. After the movie Gavin was convinced he saw Peter outside. We all had to look and pretend too!

We actually rented the movie from the library, for free which is awesome! We may have started a summer trend. We have been reading all the Disney classics to Gavin from a storybook collection so he is totally into them. Seeing the movie makes it even more fun. We actually rented and watched Snow White on Friday!

One thing I should mention concerning a visit from Joan is that she loves to eat out. Luckily she takes as along!! I think we never ate at home for lunch and only had two dinners at home. We ate at all our favorite places, Dillon Dam Brewery, Frisco Marina, Smiling Moose Deli to name a few. Here we are at Arapahoe Cafe in downtown Dillon right along the shores of Lake Dillon...

They serve awesome breakfasts. 



After breakfast Teagan and I headed to back to the house for some much needed baby zzzz's. The rest of the gang headed to Copper.

I know this activity must of made Mark a little nervous, but I think it is too cute. Joan said Gavin wanted to "decorate the rocks" and did so by doing this...

So they were beautiful like this...

After Gavin's work was done he got to do what he was so excited about...

 Bumper boats...

But the highlight of Joan's visit was riding the Georgetown Train Loop. If you ever come to Colorado on vacation, especially with kids you must do this! It was a ball!! Just look at this face...

It is a bit pricey- $25 for adults, children under 3 are free. But you ride on an actually train on actual tracks through some beautiful scenery. I thought it was well worth it!

  

If you do ride and have little ones I would recommend getting to the train station early to watch them fill up the steam engine with water. It is just like the water tower kids play with on Thomas the Train table sets!

Here is the railroads website if you are interested.

 After the train ride we stopped in the little town of Silver Plume which is very neat. This town makes you feel like you have gone back in time.

We stopped at the small bakery, Sopp and Truscott, for lemon squares a friend had recommended to me. They did not disappoint!!



Hopefully if you ever come up our way you can use some of these ideas when you are the REAL tourists!! Especially check out Gavin's decorated rocks in Copper. :)