chocolate "cake"

My mom forwarded me a recipe for a single-serving, microwave, chocolate mug-cake. I was dubious (as it is supposed to cook in the microwave, and also seemed to have odd proportions of ingredients), but since it had plenty of chocolate (and was supposed to be easy to make) I decided to give it a whirl.
The recipe:
In a mug, mix 4 Tbsp flour, 4 Tbsp sugar, and 2 Tbsp cocoa.
Mix in one egg, then add/mix in 3 Tbsp oil and 3 Tbsp milk.
Then add 3 Tbsp chocolate chips (this was "optional"; I scoffed); and a "splash" of vanilla
Cook it in a 1000W microwave (I checked; ours is) for 3 min.
So the top photo is while the "cake" is cooking; the middle photo when it is done (but cooling); and the last photo was the finished product (which Tom said looked like brains).
The result: I thought it tasted like a box-cake (I think because the fat is oil instead of butter). Tom says it tasted like a cake that comes as a side-dish on a microwave dinner tray. He also pointed out (quite correctly) that if you had a bite that didn't have any chocolate chips, it didn't really taste like chocolate... I'm not sure how that worked, but it was true....
Anyways, it was amusing -- but we won't be making it again. Let's hear it for email!

awesome dinners

Tom recently roasted some chillies & peppers -- and the dinner in the top photo was born.
The bottom photo: home made pasta, served with sauteed fresh farmer's-market mushrooms, asparagus, walnuts & olive oil. MMMmmm.

Sarah & Erik: beware!!!!

I wonder how much it would cost to mail a 47 pound box to Arizona?

Barker Reservoir

Since Tom didn't fish at Caribou, of course we had to stop on the way home at Barker Reservoir. (In between these stops, we went to a tasty brewery & smokehouse in Ned; Tom got his new-favorite IPA and a pulled-pork sandwich; I got a bowl of smoked-beef and vegetable stew.) I have no idea what the middle photo is (I believe it is lichen) -- it just looked really cool, so I had to click-click-click the camera.

OK, last aspen-post (for tonight)

I think limiting myself to posting maybe 10 of 123 photos isn't bad...

a new kind of Where's Waldo?

We stopped for a snack at a stream. Tom, of course, found fish in every little water-hole. Each of the top two photos has trout in them (two different kinds); can you find them?

warning: I have an infinite number of these pictures!

We got to see so many glorious yellow aspens... and the sky was such a perfect blue, that I couldn't stop taking pictures.

Caribou Open Space & Preserve

Today was another awesome day of near-autumn hiking. We took 123 pictures! (Well, if truth be told, I took about 113 pictures, and Tom took about 10.) This probably explains why our 4 1/4 mile, essentially flat hike took about 2 hours. It was gorgeous.

Adrianna's cake efforts are applauded

Evidently, when my brother was young, one of his favorite birthday cakes was a "train cake." As you can see, this is a series of small cakes (all individually decorated) that are assembled together to create train cars.
As it was my brother's birthday, my mom dutifully made his favorite cake. Adrianna, my brother's daughter, did a wonderful job decorating this year. As you can see, there are very few limits to the various colors of icing that can be created if one is willing to mix food coloring! (Note to moms: this approach also creates some very interesting colors of one's stools the following day, if one eats enough of said icings.)

Garrett the Scowler

This is my nephew, Garrett. Since this is only the 2nd or 3rd time we've met him, we don't know him very well yet. He seems to scowl a lot... Fortunately, there is nothing that cake with blue icing cannot fix!!!!

CA family

This weekend, Tom and I went to CA to see my family. My parents hosted a BBQ, and about 20 Rosenbergs gathered to do what we do best: eat & talk. In the top photo are my cousins John & Kenn; in the bottom photo is my uncle Paul and my father. I think my dad is whispering Sweet Nothings into Paul's ear...

Estes Lake

Since Tom didn't get to do much fishing at Mills Lake, we stopped at Estes Lake on the way home. The weather was improving, so it was a nice stop. I walked down the road a little way, and was amused by the elk herd that was munching on someone's front lawn. According to our neighbor, the folks in Estes Park get really pissed off about the elk. Since they are protected, evidently you can't do anything that might bother them -- even if they are feasting on your landscaping. Ha!

view during the descent

This is a photo from our way down from Mills Lake -- on the Alberta Falls trail. Tom and I were on this trail once before -- about a year and a half ago, on snow-shoes. I must admit -- today's hike was infinitely easier.

Kathee: this Buck's for you!

On our way out of the park, I made Tom stop a second time -- to get some photos of one of the bucks.

elk everywhere

These elk were kind enough to station themselves in the "Elk Viewing Area." #17 was quite the show-off, and had quite a crowd of paparazzi.