This week, I had to be in New York until Friday. Fortunately, I was able to catch an early flight, and it was on time, so I still made it home at 5pm to start my weekend.
And I started my weekend in a great way – my neighborhood friend Kate had invited a bunch of friends over for a last minute happy hour! About a dozen families brought drinks to share and kicked in a few bucks for dinner, then Kate ordered pizzas for the whole crew. The adult hung out enjoying the beautiful spring weather on the front stoop, while the kids played in our sights at the playground across the street, and it was perfectly relaxed and delightful. Stuff like this makes me feel like Superior is a perfect modern-day Mayberry: small town life just a few minutes away from both a college town (Boulder) and a major city (Denver). What’s not to love?!
Everyone except me was the parent of a first grader, which meant an early bedtime for them… and that also translated to an early bedtime for me. I loved it! I did a little unpacking / laundry when I got home, then curled up with a book and fell asleep by 10pm.
That meant I woke up at 6am Saturday feeling perfectly well-rested, and I headed over to Chuze Fitness for Team Training. It felt great to start my weekend with that kind of great workout! After class, I headed for coffee with my friend Heather. I was so glad I had seen her in class, as we had planned to do Body Pump at Chuze on Sunday and get coffee then; seeing her Saturday meant I could instead go hiking on Sunday. Sunday’s forecast had some rain, but I hoped that if I got out early, I could beat the storm.
Next, I popped into the grocery for a few ingredients, and then headed home for a whole bunch of cooking. My cookblog club was meeting at 12:30pm to try out the recipes of Little Spice Jar, and I also needed to cook this butternut squash quinoa risotto for my friend Sarah’s annual (non-traditional) Passover Seder that night. For cookblog club, I was making this superfood broccoli salad with creamy poppyseed dressing, and it came together very quickly and easily. Ready to go!
Cookblog club was fabulous – in addition to my salad, our host Elisabeth made skillet chicken in balsamic caramelized onion cream sauce as our main dish, Helene made strawberry watermelon feta salad, Dani made this seven-layer chickpea shawarma dip, and Cathryn made this incredible no-bake nutella pie for dessert. We really liked all the dishes, but especially raved over the Nutella pie. The crust was a little bit sweeter / more decadent than all of us preferred, so I was thinking maybe it could be made crustless and served as a pudding, to lighten it up? Something to try for a future dinner party!
After cookblog club, I headed home stuffed – it had all been so delicious! But I couldn’t stay away from food yet – I had to finish the risotto, and also take a few work calls. The risotto was incredibly easy, had a short list of ingredients, and came out delicious – this recipe is definitely a keeper! It didn’t even need the cheese on top to be delicious (and that’s say something, since I think cheese makes everything better).
Once the risotto finished, I was ready to head out the door… a little bit later than anticipated, but when I arrived at Sarah’s, someone else showed up after me. Phew! I wasn’t the last 😉
Sarah’s Seder was fabulous – more than a dozen good friends, many of whom I hadn’t seen very much at all throughout ski season. Most of these girls are my running crew, and we had fun discussing our upcoming Ragnar relays – a trail Ragnar in Aspen in June, and a road Ragnar from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins in August. I’m really excited for both! And to kick off this big year for me of Ragnars, I’m running a trail Ragnar in Richmond, Virginia, with coworkers next weekend. I’ll be sure to post a race recap.
While I probably should have gone trail running on Sunday morning to prepare for Richmond, I really wanted to go hiking. The question was, how far could I go? The forecast was calling for rain, but I headed out at 7am hoping I could beat the storm. To keep it quick, I chose Green Mountain in Boulder – one of my favorite hikes, with stunning views.
The weather was stunning the whole hike, and as I was descending, I debated whether I should go add on an ascent of Flatiron #2 or Royal Arch. I was so full of energy, I would have loved to keep hiking all day! However, by the time I finally got down to the bottom (hiking not trail running, as I didn’t want to take any chances of a tripping injury, especially with some icy sections), the clouds were rolling in fast – and within thirty minutes, it started raining. Guess I had chosen the right hike for the time / weather constraints!
I spent the rest of the day catching up on work / Town Board emails and packing for a big adventure I have over the next ten days… stay tuned for more!