You know how some days are super productive and other days it seems like nothing gets done, even though you have been hard at work all day? Well, last Monday everyone in my household (Mom, Dad, Boyd and me) felt satisfied with out accomplishments of the day - and we attributed it to the great, relaxing weekend we had in Mariposa, in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Of course, being a Thomas-Cothran family adventure lots of good food was involved in the great weekend. Since we had a massive, hot fire already made we used our new dutch ovens (and the wine) to make an amazing stew. It was probably buried in coals for close to an hour, which was long enough for the brussels sprouts to get perfectly cooked so that they fell apart in your mouth. The potatoes were similarly smooth and Mom's jarred tomatoes made a great sauce. We topped it off with some pickled green beans that Mom and Dad's friend brought to share. They had a great pickled flavor that wasn't too overwhelming and were perfectly crunchy - just like eating fresh green beans straight from the garden. Ahhh summer veggies!
Another fun meal was Saturday breakfast, when we cooked inside the trolley-car-converted-to-living-room that my parent's have on their property. It's sort of a long story about how they got it and decked it out, etc, but the bottom line is that the trolley is a cute living space and a fun old-school place to cook! Pictured to the right is Mom cooking over their super cute (miniature) wood stove and Boyd's hand pressing down the coffee. We had tea/coffee, fresh eggs, cinnamon toast, and fruit salad with the first strawberries of the season. Yum.
Here's the inside of the trolley to give you an idea of how sweet it is:
This is how we spent Sunday afternoon...
1) Made a BIG fire from all the downed trees (from the forest fire 2 summers ago)
2) Sat around the fire, enjoying the heat
3) Drank wine we had just bottled from our friend's wine
cave.
It's so relaxing to just be up there enjoying the natural surroundings!
Of course, being a Thomas-Cothran family adventure lots of good food was involved in the great weekend. Since we had a massive, hot fire already made we used our new dutch ovens (and the wine) to make an amazing stew. It was probably buried in coals for close to an hour, which was long enough for the brussels sprouts to get perfectly cooked so that they fell apart in your mouth. The potatoes were similarly smooth and Mom's jarred tomatoes made a great sauce. We topped it off with some pickled green beans that Mom and Dad's friend brought to share. They had a great pickled flavor that wasn't too overwhelming and were perfectly crunchy - just like eating fresh green beans straight from the garden. Ahhh summer veggies!
Another fun meal was Saturday breakfast, when we cooked inside the trolley-car-converted-to-living-room that my parent's have on their property. It's sort of a long story about how they got it and decked it out, etc, but the bottom line is that the trolley is a cute living space and a fun old-school place to cook! Pictured to the right is Mom cooking over their super cute (miniature) wood stove and Boyd's hand pressing down the coffee. We had tea/coffee, fresh eggs, cinnamon toast, and fruit salad with the first strawberries of the season. Yum.Here's the inside of the trolley to give you an idea of how sweet it is:
One last note: Look how good my key lime tart turned out. Boyd's new favorite dessert is key lime pie!
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