Early Thanksgiving with Dad

What moistens the lips and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?

~John Greenleaf Whittier

Dad visited the weekend before Thanksgiving over a five day period. We had an early Thanksgiving featuring Tofurky (a delicious wheat gluten "turkey", instead of the real bird) along with the usual suspects: stuffing, mash potatoes, gravy (vegetarian, and taaasty), green beans with toasted slivered almonds, and pumpkin pie.

Some tasty highlights from his trip include:

• Brunch at The Huckleberry, a restaurant and tea room here in Louisville that describes their fare as "funky country".
  
• Lunch at Oskar Blues, a Cajun-style restaurant and brewery in Lyons. As a former fisherman and daughter of a fisherman, we agreed that the crab cakes were awesome.
• Dinner at Noodles and Company, a Boulder-based American/Asian/Mediterranean family-friendly noodle/soup/salad restaurant that has raised the fast food bar - easily taken for granted by people with easy access, but a cool treat.
• Dinner at Casa Alegre, a Mexican restaurant in Louisville that has awesome margaritas and chips and salsa.
• Dinner at Pupusa in North Boulder, a tiny, humble, tasty Salvadoran restaurant where you MUST eat pupusas. (There are other menu items, but pupusas are the specialty, here.)
  
• Homemade Pannkaka, from a family recipe. Want the recipe?
  

Pannkaka (Finnish Coffee Cake)

6 eggs
1/2 to 3/4 c. sugar
2 c. milk
1 c. flour
dash of salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cube (yes, cube!) butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 400F. Melt butter in 9" X 13" pan. Beat eggs and sugar until thick in piles. Stir in flour; salt to season. Then stir in milk and vanilla. Blend in melted butter or margarine. Pour in 9" X 13" pan and Bake 20 minutes.



In addition to eating, we brought Dad around the area to the numerous historic mining town downtowns - Niwot, Nederland, Lyons, Idaho Springs, Frisco, Estes Park, and Boulder - Ute and Arapaho tribal lands thousands of years before the first miner struck pay dirt.

Enjoy some pictures from Dad's visit.


Pumpkin pie

Dad taking in the Red Rocks Amphitheater, a popular concert venue located in the foothills of Denver.

You can see downtown Denver in the background, if you click on the image to enlarge it.

Dad in front of a statue of a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worker. Red Rocks became the natural amphitheater that it is thanks, in large part, to Mother Nature and the labor of CCC workers during the New Deal. This economic development effort not only created jobs for workers, but also added amenity to America's natural resources. On his visit, Dad saw three natural amphitheaters built by the CCC including this one, one on Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder, and one in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Steve and Peanut Butter Wolf approaching one of the many pods of workout junkies that use Red Rocks as an outdoor gym.

Leaving the Visitor Center parking lot at Red Rocks

Dad near kayaks on Dillon Reservoir in Frisco, CO

Peanut Butter Wolf on the boat launch on Dillon Reservoir

Antique store in Idaho Springs. This antique store featured multi-thousand dollar antique stoves rebuilt by "Skipper", a white-haired chin strap-bearded man who wears a fishing cap.




Dad holding Peanut Butter Wolf in Nederland.