Category Archives: Food

Surprises from the Greenhouse

It’s getting to be that time once again where we need to move all the happy tropical plants from the humid, wet and hot greenhouse back inside for the winter. Tropical plants can’t live below about 40 degrees F, and so we have to bring them in to the climate-controlled fake tropical space we create around here in our house for the winter.

When Britton started taking the citrus, pomegranates and pineapple plants in he also brought in the coffee tree. To our surprise, the little red berries had lost their skin and fruit pulp and so the bean seed started sprouting! (We saw the rolly-pollies at work on the red fruit pulp earlier.) So cool!


Coffee bean sprout


The coffee bean sprouts are awesome!


We went to the store and found the perfect pot for the coffee sprouts!

After moving out the potted plants, he was also able to get a little deeper into the greenhouse and found all these cucumbers! Surprise! Guess what we will be eating for snack for the next week!


A sink full of huge cucumbers

If the greenhouse is any indication of what we’ll get in Puerto Rico (which I think it is because of it’s consistent humidity and water) then we will be in for some fantastic gardening!

 

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Out of the Cage and On the Road Less Traveled

I had a doctors appointment in Fort Collins today so Cassie and I both took the day off.  I spend a lot of time working in the basement of a big concrete square building in front of  computer screens.  So I am always surprised at my reaction to the “outside world” on days off.  Just about anything and everything seems amazing to me.  From the amount of people driving around (pretty normal) to helicopters flying around with the President inside (not so normal).


Obama’s Helicopter (I think)

They had the whole highway shutdown and I could only get to within a block of where my appointment was, go figure.  Cassie and I decided to just walk across the shutdown highway.  It was the right choice and took less than 5 minutes.

After the appointment we decided to get some lunch.  Since we were out and about we didn’t want to eat somewhere we had been before so we went to the Taj Mahal.  Not the real one of course, it’s a restaurant in Ft Collins.  The flavors in Indian food are much different than what our palates are accustomed to, which is what we were after.  So we ended up eating too much..lol.


lunch

After lunch we went for a short walk down the Poudre Trail in Fort Collins before heading home. When we were walking down the trail, it split off into two paved ones and a dirt one. Cassie said, “Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” I didn’t know what she was talking about, so she said to look it up. I looked it up and found Robert Frost’s poem on my phone.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Just then we saw an awesome huge tree that we would not have seen had we taken the well-worn trail. It was pretty cool.


Cassie in the Tree. How cool is this tree!?

I work almost every weekday and simply don’t see the outside world often.  Even something as simple as a doctors visit can turn into a fantastically different day and an opportunity to experience something different in life.  Weird, I know, but I am ready to take the road less traveled for I truly do believe that will make all the difference.

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Cafe Panache in Greeley

The other day Cassie and I finally had a chance to visit Café Panache in downtown Greeley.  We had been meaning to eat there since we heard about their opening in the newspaper.  They focus on crepes, soups and salads.


Located in downtown Greeley

We showed up at lunchtime and ordered a turkey/provolone/sage crepe, a romaine salad and an order of curried pork with cherries.


Lunch

The restaurant has a nice French café feel to it. They play French music, serve chilled water in a wine bottle and is creatively decorated.


Cassie in front of the menu and some of the unique decorations (melted and repurposed albums)

The food was fresh and tasty and appropriately priced (everything was around $3).  I hadn’t ever had curried pork that I can remember, but I thought it was pretty good. Overall a fun spot.

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Gardens Galore!

Our garden has been producing like mad, as has my mom’s. We brought home some Armenian cucumbers from her house where they were growing over three feet long and zucchinis that will make great stir fry and breads! Craziness. We’ve been enjoying cucumbers and tomatoes and lots of salsa. You’ll have to stay tuned to The Rad Dish for the recipes. I still haven’t figured out what to do with the flying saucer squash we grew called patty pan. It’s very cool looking though!


All from our garden!


Salsa fresca hecha con verduras del jardin!

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