Archive for March, 2010
IN THE BEGINNING
Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on March 29, 2010 – 11:58 am -You can be pretty sure that your life is crappy when you finish talking to your $200 an hour lawyer at 7:30 one evening and he calls you again at 7:30 the next morning on your cell phone while you are driving to work.
I still can’t figure out how someone as smart as I am got themselves in this mess. I was spending thousands of dollars a month to sue my former contractor. If you can figure it out after reading this, drop me a line and set me straight.
Anyway, here’s how it started:
About three years ago I was spending a long weekend in Park City, Utah. I had gotten into the habit of spending weekends in the mountains a few years after my husband died. My kids were both still living with me, the oldest had moved back in with his wife and baby. Lately, however, all of them had been making comments about moving out on their own.
As I was having breakfast at my favorite breakfast spot, The Morning Ray (great vegetarian Eggs Benedict), it occurred to me that soon I would be living alone. The thought was quite a pleasant one. As I sat there, sipping coffee, another pleasant thought came to me, I could live anywhere I wanted. Why, I could live in Park City if I wanted to!!
After breakfast, I wandered down Main St. to a real estate office. I was dressed in my normal weekend attire of jeans, flannels and cowboy boots, so I wasn’t sure if the realtor would take me seriously, but he was kind enough not to laugh at me when I told him I wanted to look at acreage in the Park City area. I explained that I share my life with a dog and usually at least 5 horses, so I needed a lot of room. Real estate is not cheap in Park City and I looked like I could barely afford the Starbucks I had picked up on my way down Main St., much less 10 acres of prime Park City real estate. It must have been a slow day, because the realtor spent a couple of hours going over maps of the area and explaining to me why I probably wanted to look outside of the city in the rural areas where it was still possible to buy a few acres of land.
I am a serious research geek. Give me a good enough reason, and I will spend countless hours researching every single little in and out of a situation to the point of nausea. It’s sick. Anyway, you can imagine the possibilities for research when I was looking for a place to plunk down my dream home!
For the next year and a half, I spent every weekend driving my pickup around looking at land. Not only was it a great excuse to spend weekends in the mountains, I got a chance to research and photograph every single piece of property in Summit County that was for sale or even looked like it might be for sale sometime in the future.
Don’t believe me? Here are some of the finalists:
I spent hours walking around on each parcel to see how much and what kind of scat there was in an effort to figure out what kind of wildlife visitors I could expect. I researched the neighborhoods, availability of water (a big deal if you live in the West and have horses), access, etc., etc., I would leave work during snow storms and drive up there to gauge what areas got plowed more frequently than others. Obsession doesn’t even begin to describe this process.
Near the end of the first year, I found a very patient realtor who drove around with me for hours and helped me narrow down my choices to a half dozen parcels.
To be continued………
Posted in She Builds | 11 Comments »JALAPENO JELLY
Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on March 25, 2010 – 6:17 am -This jelly is spicy and tart and sweet all at once. It’s not your mother’s jelly.
I usually make it in the summer when the peppers are going crazy in the garden, but decided to make it for Alphabet Tuesday because I couldn’t think of anything else for the letter J.
So, here we go:
I use one large sweet green pepper to a dozen jalapenos
Wash & drain and then deseed (is that a word?) them all
Process in a food processor until
they are finely chopped
move the peppers to a saucepan and then add 1 1/2 cups of apple cider vinegar and bring to a boil
let the mixture simmer for 20 minutes, then strain through two layers of cheesecloth
Discard the pulp and return the liquid to the pan. Add 1 pinch salt and 4 1/4 cups of sugar and bring to a hard boil for one minute. Stir in 4 ounces of liquid pectin and ladle into clean plastic jelly containers. Let them cool and then freeze. This is a really simple way to use jalapenos from the garden and they last for months in the freezer.
xxoo
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Rocky Mountain Woman
Posted in She Cooks | 26 Comments »
Beresen Cabernet Franc
Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on March 10, 2010 – 12:56 pm -
So, on my last wine buying expedition to Washington, I picked up a few bottles of Cabernet Franc. It’s kind of the red headed step child of Cabernet Sauvignon and I hadn’t really ever tried it. A wine varietal that I hadn’t tried? That was a problem that needed an immediate remedy! So, last night I opened a bottle and fell in love! It had a pronounced berry flavor with a little hint of chocolate. Chocolate always get my attention! Anyway, try it you must.
Posted in She Drinks! | 1 Comment »