Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Oven Roasted Vegetables
One of our favorite steak restaurants, Cowboy Star, has a butcher shop on site where they sell the same aged meats that they serve in the dining room. We had been to the farmer’s market in the morning and had gathered up a nice variety of vegetables, so we decided to pick up a nice, thick rib eye steak and bring it home to grill. We grilled the steak to a perfect medium rare, added some brandied mushrooms, roasted the fresh vegetables and paired it with a wonderful Pinot Noir wine. See the recipes and cooking instructions below.
Cowboy Star Butcher Shop
Grilled Rib Eye Steak
Ingredients
Prime Rib Eye Steak – 1 1/2 inches thick
1 tbsp Chopped Fresh Rosemary
1 tsp Fresh Thyme
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Garlic Clove, minced
Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
Combine the olive oil, rosemary, thyme, and garlic in a small bowl and then rub both sides of the steak with the seasoned oil. Salt and pepper both sides of the steak and let it rest at room temperature for about 20 to 30 minutes while it marinates. Place the steak over direct heat on a grill that has been heated to medium-high heat. Cook for seven to eight minutes per side for medium rare.
Marinated Rib Eye Steak
Sautéed Brandy Mushrooms
Ingredients
8 to 10 Button Mushrooms, sliced
4 tbsp Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup Brandy
Instructions
In a sauté pan or small frying pan, heat the pan to a medium-high heat with the butter and brandy until the liquid begins to sizzle. Add the mushrooms and sauté until golden brown and nicely caramelized.
Cut the vegetables into 4 inch strips of equal thickness and place into a large plastic bag. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, rosemary, thyme, pineapple sage, and salt and pepper to the bag. Seal the bag and shake vigorously until the vegetables are thoroughly coated. Heat an oven to 450 degrees and bake the vegetables for 20 to 30 minutes or until caramelized.
Even though we’re still in the heat of August right now, there is a sense in the air that fall is right around the corner. Living in Colorado, it isn’t a surprise that we’re avid hikers and there isn’t a more picturesque time of year to be in the mountains than during the fall when the leaves are changing and temperatures are falling. Although the weekends can be crowded as people from the cities head into the mountains for a day to view the Aspens as they turn to gold, it is actually off season in the resort towns and a perfect time to spend a few days surrounded by some the most beautiful scenery in the country. Each town or resort provides its own unique opportunity to view the natural beauty of forests as the leaves change as well as places to stay and restaurants to eat.
Fall 2012Fall 2010
One of our first memories of getting into the mountains during the fall was when we went to Estes Park and stayed at the Stanley Hotel. Estes Park is a beautiful little town that is right outside of Rocky National Park, which is the Yellowstone of Colorado. At the time, the Stanley Hotel was a five star hotel that was proud of its heritage of having hosted many presidents, including Teddy Roosevelt, and of its original owner who was the inventor of the Stanley Steamer. Nowadays, after appearing on an episode of Ghost Hunters, they are all about the Shining and the ghosts that may inhabit the property. Oddly enough, we actually stayed in the same room that Stephen King stayed in when he wrote the Shining, which made our stay even more special.
Stanley HotelStanley Steamer
We’ve also stayed in Breckenridge and Vail during the fall and they are both wonderful places to stay, but our favorite place to go is to Beaver Creek. Beaver Creek has a feel of exclusivity without being pricey. The center of the resort has an ice skating rink with shops and restaurants all around. There a plenty of places to sit outside and watch the sun set over the mountains, all with fire pits or heaters to keep you warm as it can get fairly cold at night. Hiking up the mountain can be quite strenuous, but the views that you are rewarded with are well worth the effort.
Beaver CreekView from Beaver Creek Trail
In addition to hiking, there a lots of small little towns with plenty of history. Towns such as Minturn, Georgetown, or Leadville make for perfect excursions from wherever you’re staying. We have fond memories of going to Minturn and having lunch in a saloon that boasts that Jesse James used to frequent the place. In addition to the historic towns, there are also a few ghost towns in Colorado, such as the ones near Cripple Creek and Leadville.
Fall 2010Silver Dollar Saloon in Minturn
Regardless of where you stay, getting into the mountains of Colorado during the fall will leave you with images that will last a lifetime. Whether going to Aspen and hiking the Maroon Bells, going to Winter Park where the college students love to frequent, or going to a resort such as Beaver Creek, you will enjoy getting away from the crowds while the locals prepare for the oncoming ski season. As with any time travelling into the mountains, there can be a chance of snow, but generally speaking the chance of perfect weather far outweighs the chance for inclement weather. Even if it does snow, it will just add to the beauty of the mountains. So, despite the lack of proper grammar, the old mining saying is still true that “there is gold in them there hills”.
We’re in the process of planning a trip to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, so we decided to take a moment to look back at our 20th anniversary trip. We travel as often as we can, but since we both have full time jobs, not as much as we’d like. Travel has pretty much become our hobby and is something that we both love and we feel that it brings us closer together. For our 20th anniversary, we decided to go to Walt Disney World, just the two of us, to bring out the child in each of us. Honestly, just like Peter Pan, we’ve always teased that we’re still just kids ourselves and that one of these days, we’ll figure out what we want to do when we grow up.
Pete and Dona with Goofy and PlutoDona in Hollywood Studios Theme Park
We’d taken the kids to Disneyland when they were all very young and it was one of those vacations when we didn’t have a ton of money, but we made it happen anyway. We drove from Colorado to California, stopping in Las Vegas along the way. This was back when Vegas was trying to be family friendly, before they realized it was costing them money, and before they started the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” campaign. We stayed an the Excalibur Hotel and Casino for one night and then drove across the desert to Los Angeles and Anaheim, where Disneyland is located. It was a great trip, the kids had a blast, and they never knew what a tight budget we were on. We were even able to enjoy a dinner at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and take advantage of some of the early morning eat and greets where you have breakfast and meet some of the characters.
Kids with Mad HatterKids with Meeko from Pocahontas
Things were a little different for our trip to Disneyworld, there would be no driving and we were staying at our Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare in Orlando. We planned in advance, purchasing our 6 day “Park Hopper” passes and some customized maps that you could order online. We also looked at the restaurants and made sure to have special dinner reservations for the night of our anniversary, plus a few other surprises. When we arrived in Florida, it was a stress free experience as we knew that we weren’t on a schedule and could just enjoy everything that Disney World had to offer. Disney World isn’t just a single theme park, it is actually several parks, so we were glad that we had a full week to explore and relax. Even though it was April, we’d also planned a visit to Cocoa Beach since we met in Ocean City Maryland, we thought that a visit to the Atlantic Ocean was in order.
Hollywood Studios Theme ParkMagic Kingdom
When you enter the park, they ask if you’re celebrating anything special and, if you are, they give you a special occasion button, so we proudly wore our anniversary buttons. We weren’t the only adult couples enjoying the parks, Walt Disney World has turned themselves into quite the wedding and honeymoon destination offering even coordinators that will make any trip special. Whatever your age, we would definitely recommend that you visit Walt Disney World at least once, it is truly an experience that you’ll never forget.
Pete and Dona with Anniversary ButtonsEpcot Gardens
We started our trip by going to the Magical Kingdom theme park, which was the original park and is where Cinderella’s castle is located. Throughout the week we made our way to the other parks as well, including Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and the Epcot Center where they were celebrating the International Flower and Garden Festival. We weren’t shy about getting pictures with the various characters throughout the parks and going on the rides like Peter Pan’s Flight, Its a Small World, The Wizard of Oz, the Haunted Mansion, and so many others that there are too many to mention. We also made sure to watch several of the many parades at the various parks as well as stay in the park to watch the famous fireworks show. We really enjoyed Epcot Center where you could do wine tours and get a different glass of wine from each of the countries represented in the theme park.
Parade in Magic KingdomDona at Epcot
The highlight of the trip was our anniversary dinner at Victoria & Albert’s, which reservations must be made well in advance as it is very exclusive, but also very much worth it. Before heading to the restaurant, we went on a horse drawn carriage ride where we enjoyed opening a fine bottle of wine that we’d purchased on our 10th wedding anniversary to open on our 20th. We had no doubts that we’d still be together and very much in love. At dinner, Dona was surprised with a princess tiara and glass slipper on a pillow made of flowers that Pete had arranged to be delivered. To say that the evening met our expectations would be an understatement as it will always be one of our very treasured memories.
Dona with Tiara and Glass SlipperTiara and Glass Slipper at Victoria and Albert’s
It was a wonderful week that truly made us feel young again, reminding us that age isn’t a number, but a state of mind. Wherever we go this year for our big anniversary trip (we went to Aspen for a long weekend on our anniversary itself this year), we know that we’ll share new memories that will last a lifetime. In the words of the fairy tales that inspired Walt Disney to create his movies and theme parks, we are living “happily ever after” year after year.
