La Sandia

One of the things I like best about Colorado summers is the opportunity they provide to sit outside on restaurant patios...today was a perfectly sunny, warm Colorado day so I was able to do just that for lunch with some good friends.  I'm kicking myself that I didn't snap a photo of the terrific view of the mountains, but it was beautiful...blue skies, lots of sun...and a shaded / cover patio for us to sit under.

La Sandia is a great Mexican restaurant that has both an upstairs and main floor outdoor patio / bar area.  They make guacamole table side, provide sangria by the pitcher, and have fabulous food!  This was the first time I'd been on a weekend, so was able to try out their brunch menu...

Iron Skillet Tacos with potatoes, eggs, onions, cilantro, chorizo sausage, flour tortillas, black beans, salsa verde and salsa rojas...it was delicious!   And I always love their presentations...

Ashley's choice...tortilla soup, cheese enchilada and chicken tinga taco...

 And Dean's choice...chicken quesadillas...with a Coors Light... :)

 the blue skies turned somewhat cloudy by the time we left, but it was still a great day...

 close up of the cool punched tin stars decor hanging from the ceiling

Thanks Dean & Ashley for a fun birthday lunch!

Homemade Granola

This is what happens when you only buy oatmeal around the holidays for various baking projects and fail to look in all of your cupboards to see if you already have some...

I usually cheat and buy the Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal packets when I want oatmeal for breakfast, so the oatmeal in canisters does not get used up very quickly. What to do?? I definitely plan to make more Honey Wheat Oatmeal bread (will post recipe one of these days)...but I also found this old recipe from a college friend for making homemade granola - it's a very simple recipe...

Homemade Granola Cereal:
- 6 cups dry quick oats
- 1 cup of white sugar
- 1 cup margarine, melted
- 1 tsp cinnamon

*Mix all ingredients together in bowl. Spread mixture onto sheet pan. Bake at 200-250* for 2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes, until mixture is dry and golden brown. Add nuts, coconut or other ingredients to mixture prior to baking if desired. Add raisins AFTER baking if desired. Store in air tight container.

*I chose to add in some chopped pecans (about 3/4 cup) since I had them on hand. I also cut this recipe in half to make this batch.

I actually like to sprinkle this over yogurt or on top of ice cream more than anything!