Exploring a New Cuisine

Today we were so pleased to have three beautiful, young women (grad students) from India visit with us, and help to prepare a really delicious meal. CA and I have enjoyed various curries over the years and memorable meals in an Indian restaurant or two in London, but when we ate a wonderful meal at Paddy Rawal's Raaga in Santa Fe in September we decided we were going to learn more about the cuisines of India.

I bought The Raaga Cookbook-Modern Indian Cuisine, and then ordered Aarti Paarti, an American Kitchen with an Indian Soul by Aarti Squeira. And, I asked Eeshita, a recent acquaintance (hopefully friend), if she would cook with us. We settled on November 5th.

Eeshita and two roommates met me today, and we shopped at India Rice and Spice for ingredients to make Spinach Chaat (a Northern India specialty--street food), Saffron and Coconut Milk Risotto (via the Pioneer Woman blog), and Saffron Rasmalai for dessert (Bengali).

By 12:30 or so we were dividing up the responsibilities--Me-risotto; Eeshita-Rasmalai; KG and SD-the Chaat and a green and spicy Chutney (mint, cilantro, olive oil, onion, jalapeño, lime juices...).
What a fun and delicious afternoon that we plan to repeat very soon.

Catching Up

We're approaching the end of our month+ in Fort Collins and while home sounds good, we've enjoyed a relaxing visit--just the right amount of activity, family, eating in new restaurants, entertaining...

We've spent most of our time planning for, shopping for, and feathering our nest.
We waited a bit for chair #3 to arrive...

And then, the first time we had guests for dinner, we decided we need to occasionally fit a fourth chair around our small table. We decided to order a variation of the Corvus Madonna (Overstock) so that the chair acts as a side chair next to the shiny red media cabinet.

We're feeling comfortable these days, realizing our next visit can be about exploring, adventuring, and meeting new people. 

This clock just arrived and will hang on our very blank wall above the couch. 

We've done a bit of entertaining--my niece and her husband visited from Chicago. We put together a huge Mexican feast and enjoyed that meal together at D+Ms. Only pic I managed to snap. 

The Fun Kids spent an overnight with us their last day of school before Summer break. We had great pizza at Cozzola's and on Saturday morning we made our first visit to the Old Town Farmers Market. Happily, we found some small radishes--memories of French markets.

The very best way to enjoy radishes--salt,  good butter, and a fresh baguette. 

On Memorial Day D+M hosted an indoor picnic and invited some international students. We ate All-American food, finishing off with an all-time favorite. 

CA and I are benefiting from our DILs garden. Sautéed Spinach is a family favorite--based on a Macaroni Grill version. 

We made Pasta Carbonara the same evening--using a technique we experienced first in Cagne Sur Mer near Nice. No worries--the pasta is very hot. The egg is rapidly stirred-in and creates a TDF creamy sauce. 

We spent some time with our niece JF and her newish (10/17/15) husband Cameron. Such great people. JF's  birthday was the day before they visited us. 

For dinner, our version of Georgio's (Crystal Lake) antipasta salad. 

O.K., so maybe I went a bit overboard on the cake! But, we rarely see JF and I can count on one hand the number of birthdays we've celebrated with her. D+Ms family stopped by mid-afternoon for a visit. 

I ordered a white cake (her 2nd choice), frosted simply in white, and took it from there. Since her favorite cake is carrot (not so much the Fun Kids fav and I made her one 5 years ago when we last celebrated with her), there were also Carrot Cake cupcakes. 

Plenty left to share with work friends. 

Our second Farmers Market visit. 

D+M's family spent several nights in the Black Hills right after Memorial Day. Loved everything--scenery, food, Mount Rushmore, wild animals... 

This purchase has already paid for itself. Car-to-elevator-to-flat; or reverse. Huge help. 

And finally, gorgeous roses from a DIL who shares generously.

Getting Into the Groove

Our "Welcome to Fort Collins" bouquet from DM, MK, and our Colorado Fun Kids. 

We arrived in time for LG's 11th birthday, May 17. 

Visited LG's classroom for each student's presentations on an individual state. LG's is Virginia--her daddy's birth state. 

Our experience with DIRECTV got off to a shakey start. All good now. 

My reward for a miserable few days dealing with wifi, DIRECTV, moving details, etc. 

We were here for NJ's Spring Poetry Recital, and her Kindergarten final recap. Precious. 

Visiting family kicked me into cooking again (finally). We did a full-out Mexican-Southwest meal. Plenty of leftovers for both DM's family and CA and me. 

Had the girls for our first sleepover in our flat, and found this cutie on our walk to Cozzoli's for pizza. 

Saturday morning, we all walked to the farmers market. 

I baked some fully-loaded Raisin Bran muffins. 

Helped our DIL as she assisted in an friend's wedding prep. Then, she was honored to be a bridesmaid in the combination Vietnamese-Indonesian-American wedding. 

We've been visiting DM's family's church--Mountainview Community. 

Our farmers market radishes-Demi baguette-butter-salt for Sunday's lunch. 

Preparing my mother's potato salad recipe for our Memorial Day cookout. 

Snapshot of Our New Adventure

We're dipping our toes in the waters of relocation. We still love our home in Illinois, and will be spending the majority of our time there, but our children and grandchildren live 8 and 16 hours away. We want to be more involved in the lives of our family. They definitely want that, also. So we're taking a small step and leasing a 2-bedroom flat in the heart of Fort Collins. Restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques--a vibrant pedestrian lifestyle is at the doorstep. 

Old Town Flats, Fort Collins, Colorado. 

I took photos of every box I packed. (8) 

This is our current king-sized. platform bed base. We'll get something more permanent after we see how this year goes. (Not our view. From the www.)

We're loving our small table and chairs. The third chair was back ordered, but is now in-place.  

While, it's definitely a table for 3, we will occasionally need seating for 4. We ordered this side chair for a small corner of our living space and it can be utilized as a dining chair when necessary. 

Loving that we now have a use for our Languoile flatware. Discovered that it is dishwasher safe! 

 

Our small terrace faces east. It's about twice the size it looks here. The bistro table will fit in the SUV on our next drive here.  

This is our t.v.-media cabinet. Also, IKEA. We've used the 4 drawers in the center to conceal the myriad cords always lurking around electronics. Strongly considered the wheels option, but once I decided on a large area rug the wheels lost their allure. 

Originally thought I'd find a vintage rug for the open living area, but since we opted for Mid-Century decor I needed a more modern look to tie the glossy red into a rather grey/white space. Found this on overstock.com. It's arriving early next week. Fingers crossed!

After a week of schlepping bags and boxes, groceries and household goods--from the car to the elevator, down the hall, fishing for keys--picked up this foldable wagon. It fits compactly in the back of our small SUV and makes me happy. Better for our flakey backs. 

I'm kind of loving this clock from Wayfair.com. 

Also, maybe this coffee table: in front of long couch, or in the corner between couches. 

Some exterior pics taken this week.