Our night in Fort Collins

Hello again!  We are back from our week in Vail and I am missing the mountains so much already!   We had a great time and I have so much to share, so I am just starting with our drive out and our night in Fort Collins.

We left on Friday afternoon for Omaha, where we spent the night after dropping Shay off with Mark's parents.  Definitely not the most exciting drive to make, but leaving for a road trip is always so much fun! Here is Omaha looking pretty as we rolled into town:

  

We could have definitely gotten further that night, but my legs were really sore from my run that morning.  Plus, Mark used to live in Omaha and wanted to take me to one of his old hangout spots.

We were on the road early the next morning and headed for Fort Collins.  We got in pretty early in the afternoon and had plenty of time to check out a few breweries.  We started with O'Dell which has a really laid-back tasting room with plenty of cool things to look at, good beer too!

After O'Dells we headed to New Belgium for the tour we had signed up for.  It was a 90 minute tour, which I thought seemed long, but it was one of the best brewery tours I've ever been on.  It was definitely more of a "production" than O'Dell, but really informative and down to earth.  We bought a growler of one of our favorites that we tasted, the Yuzu Berlinerweisse.  It was really yummy and I've never seen it around MN.  If you see it, tell me and then buy it!

We ended the night at Ft. Collins Brewery.  This was the perfect end to our day because in addition to their tasting room, they also serve food there.  We had a really good dinner and one of our favorite beers, Red Banshee.  We discovered this beer on our last trip to CO, and had been looking forward to having it again for a long time!

Fort Collins has lots of other breweries that we would have loved to check out, but these 3 are all in a row and are super convenient to visit all at once.  

After all that beer drinking, we were pretty worn out.  We hit the hay early and were up with the sun the next morning to finish the drive to Vail.

More to come later...

4th of July Weekend

Is it just me, or did last week seem super weird?  Having Thursday off for the 4th, then working Friday, then having a weekend, it got me all messed up.  It seems like a really long weekend to recap, but I'll see if can get it all in here.  Mark and I had a little bonfire on Wednesday night since it wasn't a "school night."  We made s'mores...and I demonstrated how to roast the perfect marshmallow.  Here is a little tutorial on that...

1. Slowly rotate the marshmallow about 5 inches above the flame.

2. Watch for it to turn golden-brown.

3. Insert directed in flame, catch it on fire, and blow it out.

4. Eat.

Yes, I really do like them like that.  I have a weird preference for burnt foods.  Also, our 80 lb. dog truly underestimates his size.

On the 4th of July, I got up and went for a little 3 mile run.  Then I headed over to Lake Harriet to walk with my friend Sonja.  We went to Bread & Pickle afterwards and shared some yummy snacks.  It was a really fun way to spend the morning!  Mark and I golfed 9 holes with my parents at Interlachen in the afternoon.  There was a cook-out going on too, so we had dinner before the fireworks were set off.  We didn't stay to watch the fireworks though because we both had to be up early for work the next day.

We really didn't do anything on Friday after work, we were both wiped out and I had my long run the next day.  On Saturday, I got up early and headed over the Minneapolis lakes to run.  I ran around Lake Calhoun, Lake of the Isles, and Lake Harriet, which is 10 miles in total.  I was pretty tired afterward, but managed to rally and head out the Excelsior Brewing Co.  The beer was pretty good, I had the Big Blonde Ale and Mark got the Bridge Jumper SPA.  We ended up trading though, because we both preferred what the other had gotten.  We walked over to Maynards from there and shared some food before heading home and calling it a night in front of the TV.

Sunday was another fun but exhausting day!  We pretty much spent all morning cleaning and doing stuff in the yard. At noon, we headed over to Interlachen to golf again. We met up with my parents, my dad's business partner and wife, and their daughter and her husband.  The guys all played together and us ladies played right behind them.  It was a super hot day for 18 holes, but we managed.  I played ok, much better than Friday though. We all had dinner together afterward, and Mark and I were asleep by 9:30.

I can't believe that the 4th of July is already over and before we know it, it will be August!  So crazy!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and are not too depressed about it being over!

Summer Shandy Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I make shredded chicken in my crockpot almost every week.  I actually am not really a fan of chicken and I never have been, but shredded crockpot chicken is the exception.  I take 3-4 frozen chicken breasts (no need to thaw out) and throw them in the crockpot, cover them with some sort of liquid, and let them go for 4-6 hours on low (or high depending on your crockpot.)  Then I shred with 2 forks, and voila!  Easy lean protein to add to salads, sandwiches, pasta, etc.  It is from this basic shredded chicken that this recipe was born.

The Summer Shandy pulled chicken could easily be served over rice or a salad, but I was feeling the lettuce wraps!


Serves 4

4 frozen chicken breast
1 medium white onion, sliced thinly
1 bottle of Summer Shandy (or any shandy style beer.)
1 lemon
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 green pepper, diced
1-2 tbsp lean sour cream or plain greek yogurt
8-10 iceberg lettuce "wraps" (I tore 1 full leave in half for each wrap.)
several leaves of fresh cilantro
optional: shredded cheddar cheese

First, slice your onion and lemon.  Place them in the crockpot with frozen chicken breasts.  Cover with 1 bottle of Summer Shandy.  Ok, almost 1 bottle.  I'll let you figure out what happened to that last swig. Leave them be for 4-6 hours.

 Once this chicken is cooked through, shred with too forks as so:

Pour out about 1/2 the cooking liquid and return shredded chicken to crockpot for about another hour.

Stir in the sour cream and green pepper.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

At this point, you can decide if you want to let your chicken cool off or eat it while it's hot.  I let mine cool, but I think it would be good either way.  Spoon into a lettuce wrap, I used about 1/3 cup of chicken in each wrap.  Chop up some cilantro and shred some cheddar, sprinkle on top!  Enjoy with a Summer Shandy, duh.