menus and food blogs

If you know me well then you're quite aware that i love to cook. turning vegetarian for January and about 70% vegetarian currently, has made me refocus on purity of taste and ingredients. I've also been really focused on not eating too many things that i didn't personally make or see being made. if an ingredient seems mysterious, don't throw it down the hatch! i also love google reader and subscribe to several food blogs, some of my favorite (in particular order) are:

Simply Recipies
Smitten Kitchen
Vanilla Garlic
Cheap, Healthy, Good (no mayo)
fat free vegan

what have we been eating lately?
Butternut Squash with pasta and sage, or some combination listed here
i made a quiche and an apple pie lately.

Forrest made me Aloo Gohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifbi and Mushroom Risotto

i've also recently made banana bread and we have different curries (Japanese or Thai) at least twice a week.

i'd like to try and find a good recipe for a Barley Salad i had at Pukeko Junction cafe... was very tasty.

Grape Ride - just a taster

We just finished the busiest month ever, with a 42km (roughly 26 miles) bike ride (known as the Taster Course, as the full ride, Grape Ride, is 101km) in the Marlborough wine region. We rounded up 8 or so friends and headed off with our bikes.... with 2,500 other bikers doing either the 42km or the 101km course.

I finished 233rd place, woohoo! with a time of 1:51:50.
Forrest finished 232nd place with a time of 1:51:48.

I let Forrest place before me because I felt sorry for him, as he had to replace the tube of his tire minutes before the race began. it was high drama!
the race and the trip was great fun, we are even considering biking 101km next year!

Second New Zealand Visitor

Our second visitor to New Zealand arrived three short days after our first. Forrest's Mom, June, traveled to Christchurch from San Diego and arrived 3 March staying through 20 March. Together we enjoyed Akaroa, Lewis Pass and Maruia Hot Springs

Lunch in Akaroa (fish and chip shop burned down 1 week after we visited, no coincidence)

Forrest and June with Lyttelton Harbor in the background

Maruia Hot Springs photos






The last weekend June was in New Zealand we took 2 days off of work and in a 4 day, 1,838 km weekend, we traveled to Lake Tekapo, Mt. Cook, Te Anau, Fjordland, Milford Sound and Dunedin, then back home (see driving map below).

Lake Tekapo


Mt. Cook


Lake Te Anau


Lake Marion in Fjordland National Park


Camping in Fjordland National Park



Milford Sounds


Cruise of Milford Sounds


Yellow Eyed Penguins

First New Zealand Visitor

Our first visitor was our friend Tracy, who traveled to Christchurch from San Francisco and stayed from 18 February to 28 February. Tracy did a bit of her own adventuring but together we enjoyed camping and small treks in Arthurs Pass National Park and kayaking around Abel Tasman National Park.

This image was our kayaking route,

this image was our driving route, from Christchurch to Abel Tasman National Park







we also cruised through the Marlborough wine region