Sunday, July 23, 2006

Colorful Colorado - Part I

First off, I apologize because this is a non-food related post. I have been cooking and taking pictures but haven't had the time to sit and write up the blog entries. I first logged in to post some of my living room pictures - covered with packed moving boxes and then I wandered over to Linda's blog where she had posted some amazing pictures of the rockies. I then changed my mind and decided to post some of my vacation pictures from last month - also of Colorado. Who would have liked to look at pictures of moving boxes, anyway?

One view of the blue-mesa river, taken on our way from Salida to Silverton

Million dollar highway is a 70 mile stretch from Ouray through Silverton and ultimately to Durango. We drove from Ouray to Silverton, rode a bus from Silverton to Durango and then a train from Durango back to silverton, then drove ourselves again from Silverton to Ouray onto Colorado Springs. Whew! that was a long sentence :).

The redmountains as we saw them from the million dollar highway

Another of the million dollar highway pictures

The Silverton-Durango train chugging away in harmony with the Animas river

A picturesque view of a lake on the Silverton to Durango train trip

Another view of the lake

The baby gorilla, Umande at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. Since his mother would not take care of him, there was a care-taker that was there with him all the time to look after him

Baby Gorilla, Umande at the Cheyenne Moutain Zoo, taking the help of his helper to get out of his crate

One of the many canyon views of the black canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Box canyon water falls in Ouray, CO

I will post other pictures as and when I get a chance and I promise, I will return to food blogging as soon as I am done with a little thing called moving!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Back in time for some Refreshing Summer Drinks

Hello everyone! I am back, atleast for a little while. Feels like the last time I blogged it was still Spring.

Thank you to all of you that checked up on me. I am very sorry about my long absence from the blog world. Now my excuses as to why I didn't blog - first it was a work trip, then a vacation and then a little event called buying a house :). Yes, that is right, we have decided to make the biggest purchase of our lives, unless ofcourse we make so much money that we end up buying one of these - but I wouldn't put any money on that happening though! We are closing and moving within the next few weeks so my blog posts will be sporadic all through July and a good part of August. I am pretty psyched about moving into the house. For starters, the kitchen in the house is three times the size of my tiny apartment kitchen and I cannot wait to cook in the new house!

These are a couple of summer drinks I made in the last week or so when the mercury here topped at high 90s with 90% humidity.

spiced berry banana smoothie

First up is a spiced berry banana smoothie - I put about 8-9 frozen strawberries, 1 cup of frozen blueberries, 1 banana, 1 cup of plain homemade yoghurt and topped the blender with about 1-2 cups of milk so it reaches the 40 oz mark on the blender. I then added a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg and a 1/2 a tsp of cinnamon, blended it all together for a refreshing summer drink.

Next in line is a very easy watermelon juice drink - I put some seedless watermelon chunks in the blender, added some blackpepper, blended it all together. The drink was ready to savour.

I hope you all are enjoying the Summer as much as I am :). Stay cool, everyone!