Nesting... (Not really craft-related)

 Since moving into our little home, I have tried to make it as cottage-y and possible!  I loved our home in Hutto, and it was much bigger and newer.  This house was built in the 1940s and is small.  I adored our home in Hutto.  I really bonded with the house's spirit, and it was gutting to leave.  But I really think that I will bond deeply with this house too.  It has a lot of character and it's small but so homey!  

I have been in the mood to bake and cook a lot lately, and not just convenience food, which is what I often go to after work if I'm tired or have a lot to to. One of my favorite comfort meals to make is Zuppa Toscana and bread.  The soup I made, but the bread in the pic is a take and bake bread.  I also made the garlic butter, but of course, didn't make the butter itself from scratch.  I think this may be the best batch of Zuppa Toscana I have ever made and I think it was because rather than making cashew cream, which tends to get thick when you cool it and then you have to water it down to heat it up and that dilutes the flavor, I used vegan cream, and didn't have to water it down when I reheated so the flavor remained.  This is such a great comfort meal!

I made these hobbit pies for National Hobbit Day, which was September 22nd.  That's Bilbo and Frodo's birthdays.  We ate these while watching The Fellowship of the Ring.  Allen gobbled his up, but I had  half of mine left for lunch the next day!  

And I baked these low-sugar oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  They are so easy and so goooood. 

Pueblo Chile Fest! (Not craft-related)

This past weekend was the Pueblo Chile Fest.  Green Chile is a regional thing here in Pueblo and I am ALL ABOUT IT.  I usually don't like chiles or chile sauce, but this stuff is so good.  It's almost like a gravy, and of course, we eat the vegetarian version.  I first had some at a place here we frequent called The Cutting Board, which is an all-vegan restaurant.  He made some chile sauce and gave us a little sample and some fries to dip it in, because he puts it on fries and on a couple of his sandwiches on the menu.  It was DELICIOUS and since we are now Pueblo citizens, I thought it was important, and would be fun, that we go to the festival that's such a huge deal here and see what it's all about.  

We had so much fun.  It was a bunch of vendors of crafts and food.  I was like "I'm eating everything", but quickly realized I had to be careful because most people use pork in their chile sauce.  But, The Cutting Board had their famous nachos that they don't always have, and they made some green chile fritters with green chile sauce.  Allen even loved it, and he's so picky!  That is green chile sauce on the nachos... they were incredible.

One of the ice cream shops was serving Green Chile Smores ice cream.  You know I got me some and it was SO good and very interesting with the chiles in the ice cream.  I would definitely eat this again!

Of course, it was warm and we needed some refreshments, so we stopped at The Senate Bar and had some drinks.  We went upstairs for a bit of quiet and privacy.  I wore the dress I bought with my mom and Sam in Savannah last year and my sun hat because the sun is BRUTAL here sometimes.  We are closer to it than we were in Texas!

We will definitely go again next year! It was nice to get out and see more of what Pueblo is all about.