Last Thursday Lee McBride from Foodscapes came over for a garden coaching session with us.  The meeting was great and got us reinvigorated to make some progress!  We're working on finishing the rock bed on the south side of the garden - Michael is almost done with the front row of rocks.  I weeded and turned over several of the beds.  I also photographed the winter veggies we have left - swiss chard and cabbage.  The swiss chard is fabulous, and we've really enjoyed it.  We've yet to see on the cabbage.

Today is beautiful, and we're hoping to get outside and work some more!

Today was a big cooking day for us:  Roasted Carrot Soup and Alice Waters' Ratatouille.

We cooked pizza this weekend on the Big Green Egg my parents gave us and the pizza stone Michael's mom and stepdad gave us for Christmas!  It was fabulous.  The pictures above are our first attempt - handmade pizza dough, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, red pepper, mushrooms, broccoli, onion, and goat cheese.

The image above is our second attempt - handmade pizza dough, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, red pepper, mushrooms, olives, onion, and goat cheese.  On this round, Michael was able to get the Egg hotter than the first time (around 650 degF!), resulting in the crust being very crisp on the bottom and pleasantly crunchy on the edges.  It was the best pizza I've ever eaten.

Arches National Park on December 31, 2011.

A sampling of photos from Canyonlands National Park.

We just got back from a big trip:  4000 miles, 14 states, 13 days.  We drove through Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming on the way out to Utah.  We spent the first night in western Kansas with my Aunt Stephanie.  The next night was in Fort Collins at my cousin Katie's house with her and my Aunt Georjean.  Katie came with us to Utah where we spent five and a half days in suburban Salt Lake City with Michael's family over Christmas.  After our visit in northern Utah, I dropped Katie off at the SLC airport so she could visit her boyfriend in Texas, and Michael, Pika, Nacho and I headed down to Moab.  We did some sightseeing and spent a night in Moab, and then drove through southern Utah and Colorado to Santa Fe where we stayed with my Uncle Jack and celebrated the new year.  On the way back to Alabama, we drove through eastern New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi.

The trip highlights for me are as follows:

(1)  Katie's safe return from Afghanistan on December 20 and getting to spend six days with her.

(2)  Skiing at Alta and hiking in Millcreek Canyon with Michael, Katie, and Michaels' dad (and of course Pika and Nacho!).

(3)  Seeing southern Utah for the first time and touring through Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.

(4)  Green chile in Santa Fe on New Year's Eve.

Sunday adventures!  Michael is in red.  I'm in white.