i have found it, the new wonder drug...

what is this wonder drug? first, let me explain all the benefits of this little pill. it cures headaches, backaches, leg aches and insomnia. it dissipates all anxiety and panic attacks in the morning. so little and white it creates a blissful mood that everyone enjoys. i'm pretty sure it even helps the common cold. No this isn't a new concoction that was just released by the FDA, it has been around for quite a long time. its midol!

Many of you have probably used this and know of its healing powers. every month when i am blessed with the "joys of womanhood" greg always offers to go buy me some midol.
I quickly reply with a "no that stuff is just like Tylenol"

Well a few months ago he actually took me to the store and made me purchase some. i took some when we got home just to please my caring husband. Twenty minutes later i was surprised and humbled. I admitted to greg that we was right once again.

I now use this wonder drug for everything. I pop these pills for the simplest things and my symptoms always disappear. it's wonderful.

Fruita is the greatest place in America!

So when Greg and I moved to Colorado is was a spur of the moment type of move. He was not a big fan of the Californian way of life...meaning traffic and millions of people everywhere. He had been to Fruita, Co once in about 2000-ish. He suggested it and my first words were something to effect of, "Who would ever live in a town called Fruita?" My second request was that we move somewhere that was not in the desert... which Fruita is. Well 4 years later and I could not imagine living anywhere else. We live in the perfect spot to enjoy the outdoors no matter what time of the year it is. For the past couple of weekends we have gone on little trips in different directions.

The first trip we went on was snowshoeing (one of my favorite winter activites) Every winter I ask to go snowshoeing. This year I realized its because I can go slow and it doesn't hurt my knee...low impact. In the past we have gone up to the Grand Mesa but this year we decided to go to Red Mountain. Red Mountain is between Ouray and Silverton with lots of neat history with old mines and beautiful forests.





The next weekend we headed to Utah and Thompson Springs, then up to Sego Canyon. Greg had heard about it and was curious to see what was out there. We knew there was an old mining town but what we didn't know is that there was also some petroglyphs. It was a nice day and we saw only 2 other cars.





The next weekend we went out to Capital Reef National Park. We camped right outside of the park. It was so nice. We used our roof top tent. Greg got a heater to use in the tent to warm it up. It was a nice weekend. We hiked and took pictures. The weather was perfect and hardly anybody was there.







The best part about this weekend is that we took a family picture and Daisy would not stand still. Every year I tell myself that we are going to send out Christmas cards and when the time comes I can never find a picture or I don't have enough time to take one and still get them out. So this year we are taking tons of them so I have no excuse. This is my favorite so far. It was taken at Capital Reef National Park.

Greg has taken up Smoking!

No, not the nasty tobacco habit, the yummy, smoke-flavored, can't-stop-eating habit! One of our Christmas presents was a electric smoker that Catherine got for me. I've been wanting to try smoking food for a long time, for the last few weeks I've been trying different foods.












The first thing I tried was Tuna steaks, Coho Salmon and Scallops. About 2.5 pounds of seafood total! I had an extra Alderwood plank, so I set most of the Salmon on it and used 3 pans of Alder chunks for the smoke. I loaded the smoker up, turned it on and set the tray of chips in there... it was pouring out smoke within 10 min!! The smoke cleared up as the chips burned out, but the smell was goooooood! I ended up smoking the seafood for about 6 hrs.

After pulling it out, I sampled the food. The Salmon was amazing... could have used some Lemon though. The Tuna wasn't bad either, a tad dry though. The scallops were the best though.... oh man! Moist and tender, they just fell apart in my mouth. Catherines favorite was also the scallops. I smoked one big Salmon fillet and had plenty of that, so I decided to make a spread. I threw a couple pieces of Salmon in the food processor with a bit of Miracle Whip, a bunch of Cream Cheese and hit the button. I quickly had an amazing, smokey Salmon spread and procedded devoured a package of crackers and Salmon spread. Yummmy!!
























Next up was to make some beef jerky chunks. It was pretty simple, just got 3.5 pounds of chopped beef intended for stew. I made a marinade with soy sauce & some other ingredients and let the beef sit overnight, then I smoked it with 2 pans of Apple Wood for several hours. It ended up a bit salty, will have to keep that in mind next time I use that marinade recipe. Otherwise, it's great. It was pretty inexpensive compared to buying beef jerky outright. We still have much of it, but I'm already looking forward to the next batch of beef jerky.














This weekend I decided to pull out all the stops. It was time to make the Atomic Buffalo Turds! To make the ABT's you need Jalapenos, Lil' Smokies, Bacon, Cream Cheese and Cayenne pepper. You cut the tops of the Jalapenos, then slice them in half & remove the seeds & most of the membrane. After mixing some Cayenne pepper in with the Cream Cheese, the assembly begins.





























After spreading the Cream Cheese & Cayenne mix into the pepper, you place a Lil' Smokey on top. Then wrap that combo with a slice of thick bacon and pin it all together with a toothpick.









I placed the ABT's in the smoker, loaded the pan with Apple Wood chips and let that magical smoker do it's thing. It took a few hours to cook the bacon, but it was well worth the wait. The Apple Wood chips in the smoker were the perfect combo for the bacon and Cream Cheese mix, the flavor is amazing! I pulled the ABT's out of the smoker and quickly gobbled 5 of them down.


Catherine tried one, but I think they're a bit too spicy for her to enjoy. Sorry Catherine! Me on the other hand... I love these things. I've already eaten way too many. So much for the diet! This smoker has been the best & worst thing for us in a long time. Great because the food is so good, but bad because I can see myself getting fatter. Time to hit the gym I guess. Thanks for the great Christmas present, the next thing I smoke is your choice!

So who's coming to visit and what kind of smoked food would you like to sample?

our Christmas in california

we went to california this year to spend with my family. the day before we left it snowed all day. the roads were a little icy outside of fruita but good the rest of the way.

it was nice to see my sister melissa and her family. we had sooo much fun with them.

this was a good year for santa clause he definately did not skip over this home.

and lily...who spoils her the most? grandpa! he is very protective over this little girl. notice one of the only gifts he bought this year was for his little cupcake.

it was nice to just relax in nice weather. my parents are wonderful hosts. my mom and i made ciopino one day to satisfy the seafood urge of being so close to the ocean. it was a nice vacation. we came back on friday the 2nd and just barely missed the snow.

i have decided that snow is fun the first time it snows but then it just becomes a little nuisance.

a month of parties and birthdays!

So this month greg and I both had a birthday. Greg turned 33 and i turned 31. It snowed for the first time this year on my birthday. We celebrated each birthday by going out to eat. With school it has been super busy and after school was out on Friday I had Chirstmas shopping to start.

I accidentally told the waiter it was Greg's birthday...

daisy's tooth

daisy got her teeth brushed for the first time today. she had some build up and her breath was getting bad so greg and i got the extra tooth brush out and some minty fresh toothpaste. i don't think she minded it.

daisy the ballerina

Halloween was fun, greg was home this year to help pass out candy. daisy got excited every time the doorbell would ring and wanted to see all the children in their costumes Daisy only lasted a little while because the tutu was scratchy...

My parents came up this past weekend so I had my mom help me make the tutu. It was purple because daisy looks the best in purple and it matched her collar (necklace). She also had little bows all over her hair to make her look pretty. We were going to put purple ribbons criss-crossed up her legs but after we got the bows on she was done dressing up.

After a long hard night this is what we looked like. It was like 9:00... i was off to bed.

Both greg and i had bought candy so now we have tons of it. maybe we will save for next year...does candy have an expiration date?