Rose Ranch Again

The week after we all got home from Estes Park, there was another horse show in Salt Lake. Even though the setting was not as pretty, I tried my best to get some nice shots of my barn friends.

 Natalie grows carrots in her garden for her horse. That's pretty cute.

 After his nap, T was ready to ride. He's a bit of an anomaly in our horse world. Because he's a boy.

 Boys always seem to be natural riders.

 This is C. She is the new foreign exchange student living with Kari for the school year. She is from Spain. As you can see, Kari has her up and showing right away. C 's English is not so good yet, but in the month that she's been here I can see a huge improvement.

 Another horse show season is winding down. Only a few more shows to go.

Skillet Mac & Cheese With Sausage

Yum! You might want to add this to your list of comfort foods. This is creamy, cheesy and meaty- and the bread crumb topping is sooo good.

Skillet Mac & Cheese With Sausage- serves 6-8

1 (13.5 ounce) package Johnsonville Italian Sauasage
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
3 3/4 cups water
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
3 cups elbow macaroni (or favorite small pasta)
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 1/2 c. Cheddar cheese, shredded

Brown sausage in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat (7-9 minutes). Transfer to paper towel-lined plate and cut in 1/4 inch slices. Add bread crumbs (dash with salt and pepper) to now empty skillet and cook stirring frequently, until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl and wipe out skillet.

Bring water, 1 1/4 cups of evaporated milk and 1/2 teaspoon salt to simmer in now empty skillet over medium-high heat. Add pasta and cook, stirring often, until al dente, 8-10 minutes.

Whisk remaining 1/4 cup evaporated milk, cayenne pepper and cornstarch together in a bowl, then stir into pasta. Bring to simmer and cook until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Off heat, stir in cheddar and sausage. Sprinkle with toasted bread crumbs. Serve.


I took a few pictures of the cooking process, using my new, shorter camera lens. I still need to work with it a bit more, since the aperture is a bit off in these photos. But, I do enjoy not having to stand across the room to take a picture of what's cokking on my stove! :)

Here are the little piggies, cooking away!

Then I sauteed the bread crumbs. Loved those!

This is what the macaroni looked like before I added the cheese and sausage. * I ended up adding about 1 cup of milk to make it really creamy.

Now that's a full skillet- full of yummy dinner.

The Perfect Flower

The zinnias are blooming like crazy and I love them! They are such a happy flower. I love all of those bright colors!

 They have needed a little extra TLC this year. I was a bit late getting the seeds in the ground in the Spring, and then the long hot Summer hit. I don't have a hose connection in the front yard this year, so I've hand-watered these guys all summer. The sprinklers give them some water, but not enough to make them grow 3 1/2 feet tall, which is how I like them!

Zinnias are the perfect flower. The more you cut out the faded flowers, the more flowers these plants produce. And they'll keep producing until the frost zaps them. Lots of flowers to cut for inside the house and for giving away.

I'm A Hulu Junkie

Bruce and I got rid of our satellite dish more than a year ago. Well, mostly Bruce got rid of it. I can understand why- it was massively expensive. So, I have become a HuluPlus junkie to fill that time wasting void in my life. Right now I'm watching 3 shows on Hulu. Here they are, on no particular order:

Master Chef- Gordon Ramsey's nice show. Too bad some of the contestants aren't as nice as he is.

Breaking Pointe- Behind the scenes at Salt Lake's Ballet West. My guilty pleasure reality show.

Touch- Savant children and Kiefer Sutherland. This one is a pretty interesting drama. but it's all about how people are connected all over the world.

Hulu is great because I can watch whenever and wherever I want to. Tell me I'm not the only person who does this.

Smoky Sun

It was only a matter of time until the fires started here in dry, dry Utah. The smoke makes for some neat shots, though.

Backstage At The Show

At a show I'm always trying to get some of those "backstage" shots.

Horses relaxing at the barn...

 Riders who are happy with how they did in the ring...

 Barn friends supporting other riders...

 I love horses that pose...

 And heading back to the barn at the end of the day..

Jumping At Estes

Estes Park is a great place to take horse show pictures. Here in Utah I get all of the "ugly shows"- shows with ugly backgrounds. But in Colorado...

 

 It's tough to beat that background. You can even see the Stanley Hotel back there.

Our Utah riders and their horses did well at the show. Sure, it was the last week of a 3 week show, so most of the competition had left, but our girls were still good. Some girls from Park City came with us. It was nice to take pictures of different horse/rider combinations for a change.

 

This Park City horse was so cute- he was so excited on Day #1- look how high he is over this jump. It's already a 3'3" jump, so he's probably jumping 4'3" here.

Then there were my friends from home- my little riding buddies. I love them.

I could take show pictures here all summer!

Green Growing Things

There was no shortage of flowers and green things to take pictures of in Colorado...