Happy Trails

It was a bittersweet end to the week.  The ranch closes at the end of the summer, and with business winding down to a crawl and not enough work for even five employees, I said goodbye to my lakeside cabin and moved (yet again) home to Denver with my parents.

I spent my last couple of nights in the mountains canoeing, four-wheeling, and watching the sunset light up our mountain range a warm shade of pink night after night.

I don't think I could have chosen a better week to leave my mountain home.  The Aspens are in full bloom, so to speak.  The mountain looks like it is on fire every morning the sun comes up.  The shades of bright yellow, orange, and red make you almost want to put on sunglasses.

I also caught a fish (my first one ever!), gutted it (gagged the whole time), and fried it up fresh.  Chef Jeremy and Justin shot a couple of ducks one night, and we ate duck corn chowder with wild rice. 

Julian also decided to whip up a batch of his dangerous caipirinhas.  I say dangerous because you can barely taste the alcohol through all the tangy limes and sugar.  Trust me, you'll understand once you're halfway through your first glass.

The first time I had one of these was for my 22nd birthday in Argentina.  Julian decided that we were going to celebrate both the night before my birthday, sort of a midnight celebration, as well as the actual day of. 

What can I say, I'm a lucky girl. :-)

We ordered empanadas for dinner, my favorite, and Juli cut about a dozen limes and put them in a bowl.  He dumped in endless amounts of sugar and vodka, and this is what came out.

That night, I sat on the couch sipping my "caipi", watching Juli mix more and more of the tasty, toxic batch.  We only realized after half an hour into an intensely deep conversation that the drinks might have gone to our heads... it's easy to drink them a little too fast.  Ever since, it's become one of my favorite South American drinks, perfect for a hot summer night on the patio.

 Caipirinhas

10-12 limes
vodka (I prefer Smirnoff, but any regular flavored vodka will work)
sugar to taste
water to taste

Slice limes and place in large bowl of ice.  Fill the bowl with 3/4 vodka, 1/4 water.  Add sugar to taste; err on the heavy side with the sugar.  Mix well and serve in chilled glasses.  Makes 3-4 servings. 

Tokyo Joe's...on steriods

I had the most fabulous two days off of work this week.  I went down to Denver, stayed in CIVILIZATION (!!), had central heating, ate fast food (God bless Taco Bell), and slept in until whenever I damned well pleased.

Ahhhh.

I also spend an entire day (yes, one of the two) sitting on my rear end on the couch, watching cable television and drinking warm things.  Can I just say that I am obsessed with Food Network Channel?  I discovered a new (maybe new? I've been out of the loop for awhile) show called Chopped.  They bring in chefs from all over the world and challenge them to cook random, wierd foods.  The chefs only have 30 minutes each to prepare an appetizer, main course, and dessert.  They cooked things like rattlesnake, blood orange syrup, and hot cross buns.... all together in one dish. 

There's no chance I'd be able to whip up a tasty rattlesnake appetizer in 30 minutes.  Hell no.

I did learn a few things at least, though.

There was a chef from Japan competing against an Irish chef.  Their "secret ingredient" was some sort of fish... I'm not a huge seafood fan, or else it might have stuck in my mind.  Anyway, it doesn't really matter what kind of fish he cooked.  What matters is how he prepared it.  Pure genius.

He placed his plates--stone bowls, actually--in the oven while he prepared everything.  He then whipped up some sort of fish stir fry... I won't lie to you and tell you exactly everything he included, but when I reenacted it tonight, I used bell peppers, onion, garlic, broccoli, snap peas, and crushed red pepper.  Fried everything and added chicken (instead of chef's choice: fish)  and placed it on a bed of rice.

Here comes the kicker. 

Instead of placing everything on a regular china plate, put it in the stone bowls that you should have already heating up in the oven (about 400 degrees F).  Careful, the bowls will be very hot... but they'll keep everything warm for about 45 minutes; perfect for those slow eaters out there!

To make a real show, crack a fresh egg on top of everything in the stone bowl.  The heat from the stone will cook the egg, and you can mix it into the stir fry to make a delicious fried rice.

Bon appetit!

Chili season

It's fall at the ranch, and things are starting to wind down.  The lunch rush consists of one or two tables, and the most exciting part of the day is placing a Sysco order.

Working in the restaurant now means maintaining a fire in our wood burning stove to keep the lodge warm all day.  Not that I'm complaining that my job is hard or anything.

The Aspen trees are also starting to change colors.  I noticed that on my way into town yesterday.  They're yellow now and will slowly fade into shades of orange and deep red--my favorite.  Hopefully it will bring in another rush of tourists right before we close up for the season.

Fall also means hunting season.  Most of the cars driving up our windy dirt road now are men in their Safety Orange hats and camoflauge jackets. 

I woke up this morning at 3:30 in hopes of heading out on an elk hunt, which ended up falling through.  Andy has been camped out in the backwoods for the past three days, waiting it out through rain and heat and stinky bear signs (yes, apparently bears are stinky. Who knew?).  He came back this afternoon empty handed, ate a pizza, and headed back out.  I'm hoping we'll be eating elk for dinner in the next couple of days.

One bonus of business slowing down: I can hike every day after work.   This is a photo from our hike this afternoon, which got rained out towards the end.  Luckily, there was a fire roaring in the lodge when we got home and a glass of Malbec waiting for me.  Nothing warms you up like a good red wine!

Cooking tonight for the hunters.  Hopefully it will be elk chili?

Bienvenidos!

I have wonderful news!

For those of you who have been following along from the humble beginnings of MUSTGO, you will know that I have fallen head-over-heels for a man halfway across the globe.  Convenient, I know.  Well, about two weeks ago (apologies for the late updates...) I received an email from spoken man with the subject line: "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you".  Inside the email was an e-ticket to Miami!

Julian has arrived in the USA!!!

Obviously, this kind of celebration called for a cake.

As is with about half of all the recipes on MUSTGO, this cake is loaded with dulce de leche.  You'll realize what I mean when you try to lift the plate out of the refrigerator; it's about two pounds of pure chocolatey, dulce de leche-y (?) goodness.

This cake has some history behind it.  I have to admit that the recipe is, indeed, not mine.  Last fall while Julian was visiting, he was dying for a bite of dulce de leche.  We went to Walmart of all places to look for it, and it was there!  While we wandered around the aisles of Walmart, Juli was surprised by our Americanized boxed Betty Crocker cakes and ready-to-go frosting, somehow put the two together, and this is what came out.

Since his arrival, I've now cranked out two of these whoppers: one for home in Denver, one for the ranch.  They are both disappearing quickly.



Juli's Chocolate Cake

Betty Crocker Super Moist Chocolate cake mix

Pillsbury Milk Chocolate Frosting

two cans La Lechera Dulce de Leche

1.  Prepare chocolate cake following directions on box.  Refrigerate overnight.

2.  Heat dulce de leche in microwave for thirty seconds, until slightly warm.  Using a large knife, cut cake into three layers.  Spread warm dulce de leche between layers.  Reassemble cake.

3.  Using a spatula, generously spread milk chocolate frosting around outer surface of cake.  Kept refrigerated, cake should be fresh for up to a week and a half.

These days

It's been hard to keep up on Mustgo while I'm up at the ranch.  We all usually get off work at the same time, immediately grab a beer and a computer, and race to open email / facebook / Skype / CNN before the wireless router slows to an unbearable crawl, and even opening Google is impossible.

So, I apologize.  I'm going to try harder to write more.  And cook more. 

Do you know what kind of skills it takes to cook good food for 50+ people?  Mad skills.  I never realized this before.  I'm slowly mastering the art of cooking several pounds of baked beans at a time... along with barbeque sauce, grill rub, and potato salad.  Pounds of everything.

It's intimidating.  I mean, if you accidently mess up the measurement on one single ingredient, pounds of food go to waste (or disappoint lots of people). 

I'm learning these things while working at the ranch.  Also how to manage the lunch rush, cooking burgers and briskett sandwiches and pan-seared fish tacos, all the while making sure orders are finished at the same time so everyone's food will be delivered together... and still hot.

No big deal.

These days, I have to admit I haven't been cooking much.  When you have a live-in professional chef, it's easy not to cook.  I have, however, been trying to expand my food horizons and not eat BBQ sauce with every meal.  For example:

• I (actually, one of my coworkers) caught a trout.  We immediately brought it inside, had one of the men gut it (no way am I ready for that...yet) and chef Jeremy cooked it.  I don't think I've ever had fish that fresh.
• Caramelized onions are probably one of my favorites these days.  Chef makes them in his potato salad, and caramelizes them in bacon fat.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  The other day, I caramelized some onions with mushroom and a dollop of butter, and added them to a grilled cheese sandwich.
• One word: the fryer.  I know, I know... it's so unhealthy for you.  I don't care.  I love anything fried.  Fries, for one. We make them on our own, with one of those potato stamper things.  I remember as a child seeing deep-fried oreos and Snickers bars at the State Fair every year... I haven't gone that crazy with the fryer yet, but one of these days....
• Summery drinks.  For happy hour last night, Mom and I soaked fresh pitted cherries in citrus vodka...we were going to add ice and soda, but we ended up just snacking on the cherries.  Oops. :-)  Our next concotion is going to be strawberries with clementine vodka.

I'll be back in a week or so, with a recipe...

Happy Birthday chef

Monday was chef Jeremy's birthday, and I knew I had to make something.  There aren't any Hallmark stores conveniently located at 9350ft. above sea level, so all I had was the kitchen and everything in it.

What in the world do you make for a chef on his birthday?

It was an opportunity to seize that I could either succeed tremendously (and impress everyone, including my kitchen counterpart), or fail dramatically (and totally embarass myself, and never get placed on kitchen duty again).

I love reading other food blogs.  If you haven't already noticed, I have an ongoing list of blogs I like to read along the right side of my homepage.  17 and Baking is one of those.  The author is a (now 19)-year old writing and cooking like a professional.  She's pretty impressive.

The first time I saw these cute little cookies on her blog, I wanted to make them immediately.  Apart from being a deadly combination of peanut butter and chocolate, they are bite sized and so cute.

The great thing about bite sized cookies?  You don't feel as guilty eating one, or two... or three... or six.  I left a plateful of these in the kitchen on Sunday night, and by Monday afternoon they were completely gone.

Tiny Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Hershey’s Easy Baking (and 17 and Baking)
Makes about 15 dozen cookies, depending on size

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Granulated sugar for rolling
Chocolate chips (any type)

1.      Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2.      Beat peanut butter and shortening until well mixed, then beat in the two sugars until light. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together, then add in 3 batches to the peanut butter mixture, beating well between additions.  Chill dough for 10 minutes before baking.

3.      Roll dough into 1/2 inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar and place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 5-6 minutes and remove from oven. Immediately press a chocolate chip into the center of each cookie. Let cookies cool a minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. [Note: the chocolate chip will be warm and gooey for some time, so be careful before stacking them.]

run Colorado

I got to spend the entire day in Denver today!  In civilization!!!  In the land of manicures, rush hour traffic, Chipotle, and hairdressers!  Get this: for dinner, I didn't eat anything with BBQ sauce.  I ate Mexican food!

I am on cloud nine.

This called for some cooking.

Unfortunately, my mom and I arrived to a barren refrigerator.  I know I've mentioned before that she usually has the kitchen of a goddess: you name it... any spice, any rare Asian food ingredient, basically anything you can think of, and the woman has it.

The one time I feel like baking, and she doesn't have any eggs.

We spent the afternoon running errands (a.k.a. shopping), which included a visit to the Boulder Running Company.  About 5 months ago, I was the exercise queen.  I was about to takeoff to Argentina and wanted to arrive as slim as possible.  I lived off of protein shakes and salads for about two months.(Obviously, this is not the case anymore.)

However, browsing through running shoes and warmup outfits and power bars this afternoon got me in the running spirit again.  My mom is a retired (read: injured) runner, and even she felt the runner's buzz after we left Boulder Running Company.

Back to my original story... when I realized I couldn't possibly bake anything without eggs, I decided to turn to my bucket list.  In the healthy mood that I was (yes, all this after scarfing a giant burrito for dinner...) I decided to scratch off energy bars from my list.

I should interrupt myself here by throwing out a photo credit to my brother, Jake.  He is an incredible photographer, as you can see.  He walked into the kitchen just as I was snapping photos of these energy bars with my cell phone, and offered to help (with his $800 camera. Thank youuu, brother!).  He was also very approving of the recipe.

I'm paying him in energy bars.

The recipe is super easy and only took me about ten minutes to throw together.  These energy bars would taste great frozen; I've already got half of my batch foil-wrapped and put away for next week.

Now go outside and get running!  My mom and I are starting on Sunday, at an elevation of 9,500+ feet... you can do it!!

Peanut butter energy bars

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 1/4 cup honey

2 scoops protein powder (optional)

3 cups whole grain cereal (I used this...but you could also just use plain dry oatmeal)

handful of dry oatmeal (for topping)

1.  Heat peanut butter and honey over medium heat, stirring until just mixed. 

2.  Add whole grain cereal (or oatmeal) and mix entirely. 

3.  Pour into 9x9" ungreased pan.  Top with a sprinkle of dried oatmeal, and let cool.  Cut into medium sized squares.  Store refrigerated for up to a week and a half, or frozen up to a month.