Oskar Blues

Tom played at Oskar Blues last night -- which is always a fun gig. I love that 6p-9p time slot on Sundays... good crowd, decent food, and home at a reasonable hour. Although Tom has played there many times, I had never noticed this sign -- and was particularly amused.

recent art acquisitions

In the last couple of months, we have been lucky enough to acuire three new pieces of art.

This is a ceramic plaque which is a portrait of Sable. It was a gift from our friend Sarah, done by a local artist named Katy Diver (http://katydiver.com) We have several pieces of Katy's in our home, and are a big fan of hers.

This is a an acrylic painting done by a Denver artist named Jack Price. We discovered him 3 years ago at the Boulder Creek festival, and have been (not-so-patiently, on my part) waiting to purchase something of his ever since. This year, we went to the festival with Tom's mom, and she generously bought this piece for us. As you can imagine, there was quite a debate over which painting to buy: we both loved this scene (particularly the colors) but there is no drummer in this composition. (http://jackpricestudios.com)

This last piece is a batik, also done by a Boulder artist. (At the moment, I can't remember her name -- nor can I find a link to her work on the internet). We had also been waiting for quite some time to buy a piece of hers -- and finally pulled the trigger this year at the Boulder Creek Festival.

Boulder Outdoor Cinema

Last night Tom had a gig in downtown Boulder at the Outdoor Cinnema. All summer long they host bands that play in the evening until the sun goes down, and then they show a movie (projected onto a huge white canvas, hung on the side of a building). It was lots of fun: perfect weather, and last night's movie was Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Classic! I was highly amused at how "Colorado" the whole thing was -- complete with Andy's dog (Gordon) relaxing on the stage during the show. (I wonder how bad Gordon's hearing is -- sitting down directly in front of the monitor?)

wildflowers at Barker Reservoir

After our hike to Lost Lake, we went to Wild Mountain (in Nederland) for lunch (and of course their microbrew). We then stopped at the reservoir so that Tom could fish for a while. When Tom goes fishing, I often amuse myself by taking pictures. The flowers there gave me ample opportunity to snap away.

we made it!

Lost Lake is such a beautiful destination. We had blue skies and puffy white clouds the whole hike, and then it started to rain as soon as we got back to the car. As Tom always says: timing is everything.

visitors galore

Jennifer had a conference in Denver last week -- lucky us! She joined me, Tom and my parents for a wonderful day of Rocky Mountain hiking. We first attempted to go to Caribou Ranch, but it was closed for raptor nesting season. So we drove up the road to Lost Lake, and we were not disappointed. What a gorgeous hike.

I went with my neighbor Jack to a section of the green river
in north Utah for a week of fishing recently.
He built his own beautiful wood boat and goes
to this part of the river every year and I can see why.
The weather had slowed the fishing a little
but didn't stop us from catching a few nice fish.

Better Late Than Never!

Several weeks ago we went out to an Italian restaurant in Boulder called Bacaro. Our friends had arranged for a large group of us to have a pre-fixe menu dinner with a wine pairing. It was wonderful! The owner was kind enough to come out and talk to us about why he had chosen certain wines (the theme was a Piemonte wine dinner). I only understood the parts of the explanations that were given in English, but the Italian sounded like he must be explaining food and wine that was certain to be delicious....


Antipasto: parma prosciutto, melon, arugula and shaved grana parmesan. While this was nothing terribly "new" -- it was certainly tasty. It was served wtih a 2007 Soave Pra.

Zuppa: cream of mushroom and thyme soup. This course (and the Insalata, next) were really the stars of the evening, in my opinion. This was served wtih a 2006 Dolcetto Bric Marenco Aldo. I would have been happy had my entire meal been the soup & Salad!

Insalata Russa: Roasted beet on fontina fondue and micro greens, served with a 2007 Arneis Sori' Paitin Alba. Funny: I never really thought of myself of a fan of beets, but I loved this course.

Primi: ravioli del plin -- Ravioli stuffed with rabbit and ricotta with a brown butter sage sauce. This was paired with a 2004 Barbera Poderil Elia Neive. This was one of those great courses where the food was good, and the wine was good -- but the pairing is what made it.

Secondi: sauteed red snapper on creamy polenta and wilted greens with shellfish broth. This was paired with a 2005 Dolcetto Nada Fiorenzo Alba. I think for this course I liked the wine better than the red snapper (I would definitely drink the wine again!), but that's OK.

Dolci: Frutta di bosco con gelato -- mixed berries marinated in Grand Marnier with vanilla gelato. This was paired with house-made limoncello. Decidedly, their limoncello doesn't stack up to ours... but by that point in the evening (particularly since I wasn't driving) I drank the limoncello anyways.

Tom wows again

We had friends over for dinner the other night. Tom's first course: shrimp sauteed in sage-brown-butter, served with greens and a cilantro sauce. (Mmm, cilantro.) The main course was smoked salmon, served with an avocado relish, and a sundried tomato oil garnish. The side-dish was cilantro rice, topped with cilantro butter. (Mmmmm, cilantro!!)
Dessert was my responsibility. Hmm. I made this fruit tart once before, and I hadn't left enough time for the custard to set. So this time I thought I was all set: I made the custard a day in advance. Unfortunately, when I pulled it out of the refrigerator (about 15 min prior to our guests arriving), the custard was not set -- it was a nice soup consistently. Argh! So Tom whipped up some whipped-cream, and I filled the tart shell with whipped cream before topping it with fruit. The glaze is a prickly-pear jelly (which is supposed to be "dotted, not spread," according to Baking Illustrated).