t o m a t o e s & t e q u i l a

I have officially been sharing my cooking and traveling with you all for one year, well just over one year but close enough. I seriously can't believe it - it has been quite a year of culinary exploration, travel and personal changes.

To re-cap the year I wanted highlight some of my favorite recipes.

Overall Favorite: Quiche Lorraine - This is without question the best quiche recipe I have ever come across.


Best Quick and Easy: Pesto Pasta Salad - This seems overly simple to some, but sometimes simple is the way to go. This is easy, flavorful, and something everyone loves.



One you HAVE to try: Easiest French Bread - I can't say enough about this simple french bread recipe. Everyone who I have ever convinced to try it falls in love and wonders where this bread has been all their lives.



Best Sweet: Tied between Oreo Truffles and Strawberry Cupcakes - Very different but both pretty darn amazing.

So....WOW. Telluride. WOW. Amazing. Gorgeous.

I have never seen anything like Telluride, CO in my life. The hubby and I took Friday off and headed down to camp for the weekend and I spent the entire time with my mouth gaping open at the beauty of it all. The hubby said it looks like the Alps. Having never been to the Alps, I had to take his word for it, but I suspect he is correct.



We spent Friday evening setting up our campsite, cooking, and enjoying the views. For dinner we had pizza. Yes, pizza while camping (recipe below). It was really, really easy and delicious. It would also undoubtedly be great kid food since we didn't cut it, we just ripped off chunks of melty goodness.



Saturday we headed in to town, did some window shopping and strolled by the river for a couple miles. For lunch, we plopped ourselves down by the river and had our packed lunch of turkey sandwiches.

Then we rode the free gondola up to the top of one of the mountains to take a gander at the view. Afterwards we headed back into town for an appetizer of baked brie with apples and a drink before heading back to camp to rest and make dinner.







And then it came....the rain. It rained...and rained....and rained. After hours of rain I am very disappointed to report that we packed up and headed to Montrose for a cheap hotel. So depressing. I had up until then been in a pure state of bliss from the astounding beauty of Telluride. We tried to make the best of it and keep each others spirits up - but it sucked. There is no way to deny it.

However, the hubby's grandma came to mind when we were getting really depressed on the way to Montrose. When something hadn't gone well while on a trip she always told him as a kid, "It's not too important, it really doesn't matter, and we're on vacation," along with, "We have to save something to see next time."

And with those wise words we had already decided that fate hadn't led us astray on our adventure in Telluride, it just wanted us to come back next summer and still have plenty to see.

CAMPING PIZZA RECIPE
(Adapted from Sunset Magazine)

1 package pre-made, thin crust, pizza dough
1 c. grape tomatoes, halved
1 packaged pre-shredded mozzarella cheese (I used part-skim)
3 tbl. chiffonade basil

Prepare your fire, grill, etc. - whatever you are using. (If using fire, the dough may take much longer to brown, we used a camping stove.)

Spray a 10 inch pan, (we used a dutch oven - pretty much any size pan would work, the smaller the pan, the thicker the pizza will be.) with cooking spray or coat with oil. Place the pizza dough in the pan so it is evenly spread out - it doesn't have to be pretty - we sort of just tossed it in there.

Let the dough cook until the underside is browned, then flip the dough. Sprinkle the dough with the tomatoes and cheese. Let cook until browned and cheese is melted. Sprinkle basil on top.

You could cut it up but we just ripped off chunks.