Condo Cookies

Within Colorado's grand Summit Valley, there lies a humble ski town named Frisco. It shares some of the royal blue waters of the Dillon Reservoir and happens to have a 20-min driving radius that encompasses some of the Rocky's finest ski resorts, including Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Keystone.  It is this quaint town that Joe and I have established a second home through April  to enable us to pounce on every opportunity to ski fresh snow without the hassle of commuter traffic and poor road conditions. 

Welcome to our winter escape... 

One morning, instead of heading out to the slopes, Joe and I decided to spend a bit of time slowly strolling the banks of Dillon's waters located just a few steps out the back door of our condo's building.   I hope you realize I'm trying to tempt you to come visit!   

We share this adorable 2-bedroom Frisco residence with 15 other friends, adding an extra dimension of fun to our visits! With a refrigerator (appropriately) stocked with little else but beer, I decided some homemade goodies were essential to balance hungry stomachs full of barley.  I dub these "Condo Cookies!"  No matter where these cookies are eaten, they are sure to be a hit.

I just have to point out what beautiful butter went into the making of these treats. It sure looks like Colorado with depicted elk and mountains scene on the box!  After whipping butter and sugar into a creamy base, flour and fresh lemon zest were mixed to create a rich and citrusy dough.

Next came decorating all of my baking sheets with miniature batter balls.

Pick your favorite thumb and put it to work! Smash a small crater into each ball while at the same time, imprinting a personal signature (your thumbprint) onto each premature cookie. 

Fill each dough nest with a tiny dip of your favorite jam or jelly, and then bake in a preheated oven as directed in the recipe below. Note that there are two options for adding jam: 1) add before baking to get a chewy jam texture, or 2) add after baking to get a gooey jam texture.  

Gifted homemade grape jam, a very special detail.

As you can see from my pictures, I baked my jam. In my option, I think they make less of a mess since they can be stacked and stored easier. This detail is of particular importance if you are transferring goodies to ski condos (ha)! Plus, who could pass up a candied, chewy jam with a buttery cookie?  

We keep a stash in Denver too.

I double this recipe each time I make them because they disappear so fast. Nothing beats cold afternoons more than mug of warm tea, coffee, or cider and handful of thumbprint cookies. You should probably make these soon... !!

Find recipe HERE.

Homemade Happy Hour

It's another Monday. What are you doing after work?  I recommend that you make plans to kick off those shoes, pull on your favorite sweats, turn up the tunes, and indulge in a homemade happy hour (or two)!

Knocking my socks off.

It just so happens that I have a cocktail master living in residence.  His signature shake is the classic Martini.  Umm... I'll take one of those, please!

Chilling the glass.

Portioning vermouth and vodka.

Shake shake shake

Oh yeah, and he has such a nice smile too...

Cocktail master,  Joe.

Personally, I prefer to plop a few stuffed olives and a splash of olive juice into the mix if we have some on hand.  No matter what you prefer in your cocktail, don't forget to garnish your homemade happy hour experience with just that... some happy!   

For this particular occasion, we enjoyed warm sweet-roasted almonds and a competitive Scrabble face off.  Cheers to making Mondays into Fundays!  

Hearty Hunter Stew

What a bunch of brawny outdoorsmen the picture below portrays... mules snorting steam in the background, snow flakes falling, and three "trophies" proudly displayed in the foreground.  The handsome man on the right (with the red hat and cameo overalls) happens to be the man I married.  A month ago, he joined up with a group of men from Colorado and Wisconsin for an extended elk hunting trip in the heart of mountain country. 

Elk hunting trip,
Grand Mesa National Forest,
October 2011.

The sport of hunting is not a familiar one to me.  I'm not quite innocent myself from my research years, but killing for the sport of it is something I had to learn to appreciate from my gentle Joe. The fact is, hunting is in our human blood. As long as it is done with respect and dignity, what better way to know where your meat is coming from?  And so, thanks to his successful hunting adventure, our freezer is chalk-full of elk meat to sustain us through the upcoming winter season, and probably beyond! 

Joe brought home about 40 pounds of elk meat, which
we wrapped in freezer paper and distributed
among gallon sized freezer bags.

Thawing one portion of solid meat takes
a few days if done properly in the fridge.

Generous slabs of the most beautiful red meat I have ever seen: cold, clean, crimson, and delicately marbled.  Bravo, my brave hunter!  

Fresh elk loin.

The first question I asked after we had the meat safety packed away was, what do we do with it now? I decided a hearty stew, slowly cooked with rich with spices and root veggies would be a safe choice to begin with. After a bit of recipe research, I settled on substituting elk for The Pioneer Women's beef and beer stew. Her pictures alone made me salivate!  

The first step was to cube a few pounds of thawed "stew meat." Check!  I had plenty of that!  The recipe called for about 2-lbs of meat, but I cubed up 3.  

More admiration of this high quality elk meat.

Time to dust off a large stock pot to begin the cooking!  The meat cubes were blotted with paper towels to remove most of the moisture (if you don't do that, your meat will not brown). Small batch-by-small batch, I browned the elk cubes in a bit of hot oil and butter (again, if you don't give your meat enough room, your meat will not brown).  Set the cooked pieces aside for later.  

Dry, uncrowded meat is the key to successful browning.

Time to saute chopped onions and minced garlic in the delicious oiled meat juices, about 10 minutes over medium heat.  

Now add the following ingredients to create a tenderizing "broth." From past experience, light lager (beer-pong) beers provide the best results for cooking. So, pick out your favorite and try not to drink it before adding what is needed! 

Beer and beef broth. 

After the broth simmers for a smidgen, "kick it up a notch!" as Emeril would to say. Add the following ingredients according to the recipe below.  The paprika and tomato paste will make the broth blush an appetizing red. 

Add your browned elk or stew meat back to the pot, cover, and simmer for 2 hours. The key here is low heat. You want the meat juices to combine and mature with the spiced broth without over cooking the flesh. Tender and flavorful = a fine balance of temperature and time. 

While the meat and stock are cooking and reducing, prepare the vegetables. Wash and chop carrots, as well as quarter new potatoes. No peeling necessary, yay! 

After broth as reduced a bit, add the veggies and cook another 30 min to 1 hour, or until carrots and potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork. Dish up immediately or prepare the day before to allow flavors to mingle. This stew keeps very well up to 1 week after preparation. The flavors just get better and better with time.

Come and get it!

Plan ahead to get your hands on some crusty bread and fresh parsley.  They make for excellent additions! We happened to pair our pipping hot bowls with some sweet bread and a movie. Nothing like cozying up on the living room floor in wool socks and warm bellies while the bitter autumn air rattles jealously on your window panes... 

Some seriously delicious stew!
If you don't have elk meat, go hunt for some
stew beef at your local grocery store.

Hearty Hunter Stew

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman blog

Serves 8-10

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. butter

2 lbs. stew meat (beef or elk)

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (12 oz) lager beer

4 cups beef stock

2 cups water

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp. tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 Tbsp. salt

1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon sugar

4 whole carrots, unpeeled, roughly sliced

4-5 new potatoes, unpeeled, quartered

Fresh parsley (optional garnish)

Heat oil and butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Brown meat in multiple small batches, setting aside in a large bowl when browned.  Add diced onions to the pot and cook 5 minutes until softened, then add garlic and cook another 1 minute. Pour in beer and beef stock, then add Worcestershire, tomato paste, sugar and spices. Add beef back to the pot and stir well. Cover and simmer 2 hours over low heat.  Liquid should cook down to a thicker state. Add carrots and potatoes, then cover and cook an additional 30 min to 1 hour. If stew gets too dry, just add more water to desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasons as necessary. Delicious if served with hot, crusty bread and garnished with fresh parsley.   Keeps fine in the fridge for up to 1 week. 

Curried Carotenoids

Just look at the brilliant orange tones that this curried dish radiates... 

This overt pigmentation that colors many fruits and vegetables orange, like the pumpkin and carrots shown above, is attributed to a family of nutrients known as "carotenoids". This term, in fact, was named after orange carrots (carrot-enoid), a root vegetable well known for being beta-carotene rich.  There are over 700 carotenoid species and counting.  My favorite carotenoid just so happens to be beta-cryptoxanthin.  Mostly because it has a nice scholarly ring to it!

Demonstrating how High Performance Liquid
Chromatography (HPLC) works.
This is the bread and butter of carotenoid research.

My apologies for the nerdy terminology!   I did, however, spend the past five years of my life in a vitamin-A research laboratory, contemplating various carotenoids and orange foods for improved nutrition.  Bottom line... eat a rainbow of color! That includes the orange stripe: squashes, tangerines, papaya, pumpkin and carrots to name a few.  And that is exactly what this curried dish provides... lots of orange.  Lots of carotenoids!   

Use the written recipe below to further explain my picture progression:

Prepare those beautiful vegetables!

Melt a little butter to get you started...

... saute onions and garlic. 

Season with your favorite curry powder.

Now it's smellin' tremendous! 

Add pumpkin and carrots.

Add broth, golden raisins, and salt and pepper to taste.

Let cook over medium-high heat to reduce
the broth and tenderize the veggies.

Add those darling green peas and cook some more.

But don't overcook your curry like I did!!
I was reluctant to stir as much as I should have been.  

Luckily, the charred pan bottom did not spoil the curry with smoky overtones. Whew. The dish was slightly sweet and spicy, laced with such a wonderfully warm curry flavor. Torn fresh cilantro gave this savory dish a clean balance.  I used pumpkin, however, any winter squash could be swapped in its place nicely.  

Orange = Scrumptious

Garnish with cilantro and serve with sticky, salted rice.

Curried Carotenoids

Serves 6

2 Tbsp. butter

1 purple onion

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 1/2 teaspoons curry power 

1 Tbsp. salt

1 teaspoons ground pepper

2 pounds pumpkin, seeded, peeled and cut into small cubes

2 large carrots, halved and sliced

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

3/4 cup golden raisins

3/4 cup baby peas (frozen is fine)

Fresh cilantro to garnish

Heat butter in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute about 5 minutes or until slightly softened. Add garlic and cook another 2 minutes, or until garlic and onions begin to turn brown, but not burned. Stir in curry powder, salt and pepper and cook for 1 minute. Add pumpkin and carrots and cook 5 minutes.  Stir in the broth and raisins, cover, and cook over reduced medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add the peas and continue to cook until all vegetables are tender (about 15 more minutes).  Stir frequently to prevent juices from burning!  Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve with hot rice. 

Easy Curry Power

Makes 1/2 cup

2 Tbsp. ground cumin

2 Tbsp. ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon mustard seed (or  2 Tbsp. prepared)

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Mix all ingredients together. Blend in a food processor to create an extra fine powder if desired.