I'm a Coloradan !

It's official.  When someone asks me where I'm from I can now say Colorado.  I've been calculating when this day would arrive on some of my walks this spring, knowing that I was getting close.  You see, I've now just surpassed my total time living in Colorado over that spent living in New York.  I've lived in N.Y. on three separate occasions and here in Colorado on two.  I have also lived a couple of other places, but the majority of my life has been spent in these two states.

I remember clear as day driving into Colorado Springs all of those years ago with my bike strapped to the back of my car and everything else I owned in the trunk.  I would have never guessed then that I would wind up here for so long.  And it's been mostly fab and very little drab!  If this ends up not being my forever home, well, at least I can say I'm a Coloradan 


Clearly this post has nothing to do with Paleo so if that's what you came for you can stop reading now.  Also, the story that follows is just a brief recap as to how I'm actually the fourth generation of my family to live in this great state of Colorado.

In 1941 my great grandfather, Henry Walter Henderson (know as Judge Henderson - his title) came down with Tuberculosis while living in Warsaw, Missouri.  He was advised, like many people back then, to move to Colorado where the dry climate and sunshine could possibly help with the disease, which it did.  While visiting him for a planned two weeks, my great grandmother decided she loved the place and wasn't going back to Missouri.  So they rang up their daughter Laura (my grandmother), told her to sell everything, and move on out to Colorado with them.

My grandmother was in her early twenties then and found work at some point (as a secretary likely) in Camp Hale, near Tennessee pass (then headquarters of the 10th Mountain Division).   This is where she met and married her first husband, Claude (Shelby) Ford.  As a matter of fact, my mom has some pics of them walking down the 'aisle' together under a bunch of ski poles held up by 10th mountain guys.  Unfortunately, Shelby was gunned down in Italy during the last official battle for the 10th on the 30th of April, 1945, just 7 days before the Germans surrendered. 

A few years later, in 1947, my grandmother then met my grandfather in Colorado Springs, who was stationed at what was to become Ent Air Force base (which is now, oddly, the U.S. Olympic training center).  They married later that year and began the typical military lifestyle of moving around the globe every 3 years or so. 

Enter Mama Aspen Paleo.  After graduating from high school in Alaska, she moved to Colorado Springs in the late sixties where she was a nursing student at the Penrose hospital nursing school.  She didn't actually graduate from there, instead, finishing her degree in Brooklyn. 

And then there came me.  I moved to Colorado Springs after graduating from college and soon found my way to Manitou Springs.  I then went back to N.Y. briefly and finally returned, this time to Aspen, destined to become a Coloradan.  Good stuff.

Cool Story

Here's a cool, quick, little story.

Mama Aspen Paleo received a phone call out of the blue from a childhood friend a couple of weeks ago who happened to be vacationing near where my mom currently lives.  Mom invited her and her husband over to catch up on old times.  Like really catch up.  50 years of catch up.  You see, they were best friends in 8th grade when both of their fathers were stationed in Indiana and have only exchanged Christmas cards since then.  They hadn't seen each other face to face in half a century.  I can only imagine what was going through each of their minds as their reunion approached.  Cool, no?

They had a great little visit reminiscing and catching up and such, but it turns out they had something recent in common as well ... they're both Paleo!  My mom's friends daughter got her started just like I got my mother to 'buy in' a couple of years ago.  I guess this stuff is a craze.  Mom's friend actually lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and it was interesting to hear of her frustration getting quality dairy at any kind of a reasonable price up there.  Probably living on an island doesn't help matters.  Anyway, she's into 'smuggling' the max amount of Kerrygold bars back into Canada (from the U.S.) when she visits, and I know she's not alone among Canadian Paleo types in this little habit.  When you think about it though, it must be kind of irritating as living in St. John's, they're literally the closest one can get to Ireland on the North American continent.  Ah well, c'est la vie.

 I guess it's not that close

Closed

"Sorry folks, park's closed.  The moose out front should've told you"

Does anyone remember that classic line delivered by John Candy to the Griswold family at the entrance of Walley World in the movie National Lampoon's Vacation?

I think we need a moose out front of Aspen right now to tell people it's closed as well.  I was walking around town today and snapped all of these pics of restaurants closed for the off-season (and one or two others).  I'd say well over half of the eating establishments in town are currently closed.  I could have safely taken a nap in the middle of the street if I was so inclined.

I used to see bumper stickers around town that said 'bring back the quiet years' - careful what you wish for!

Today was the last ski day ... at Highlands

What?  Oh right, pot is legal now.

New Beef

I'm just about finished with the quarter buffalo I purchased last Fall.  A couple pounds of ground and the English roast to go.  If you recall, about half of it came ground and the rest in various cuts.  Pretty early on I just gave up on cooking the cuts with any kind of bravado and stuck them all in the oven low and slow wrapped in foil.  Usually around 8 hours at 215 degrees or so.  Yep, even the steaks.  I know, I know, blasphemy, but that's just where I'm at with my 'cooking'.  I couldn't care less about forethought into meal planning.  Most of the cuts came out pretty tender and quite tasty, but as you can imagine, some of the lean steaks dried out a bit too much.  Everything was edible though, and that's what I'm mainly concerned with.  Anyway, unless or until my situation changes, I decided that I would just purchase ground meat from now on and supplement with the occasional fancier cuts if I so desire.  

This is where the story of our store's very own grass-fed beef program comes in.  We've heard talk of our store owner wanting to raise some cattle on his ranch in Basalt for a while now, and it's finally come to fruition.  Basalt is the next town downvalley from Aspen, so we now have the most 'local' meat you can buy up here.  It landed in our stores for the first time about a month and a half ago.  As you can imagine, I'm super stoked for this program.  Unfortunately, I learned that the owner only had 8 head of cattle ready to go and we just received the last of it.  This was kind of a test run and he's purchasing many more cattle to get the program going to where we can have it on a full time basis starting next Fall.  Coolio.
 

40 one pounders

So in the meantime I had our meat manager package up some 40 pounds of ground chuck to tide me over.  I asked him to make sure he made it on the fattier side of life, and I picked it up this weekend.  I've tasted it already as I've bought some 'fresh' off the shelves to try it out.  Good stuff.  And we have marrow bones for sale too ... I've tried me some of those as well!  I did request some of the offal, but, well, I think they thought I was kidding or something.  That's fine as I can pick some of that up at the Farmers Market when it starts up here in the summer.  But next time they'll know I want that 'junk' for reals.  People there are still surprised I eat meat - remember my whole spiel on how vegetarianism is associated with health?   I guess I don't exactly go around with a club in my hand touting my inner caveman.  Well, here's to good, nutritious, food.  But mostly to food that's easy to cook

Last of the Goat

This one really came out of nowhere.  As in, because of this and the timing of that and blah, blah, blah, I had absolutely no foresight as to these ingredients coming together.  But I'm sure glad they did, as this was one of the better meals I've ever prepared. 

So what's in that colorful bowl?

• Sauteed carrot and some beet (first time I've purchased veggies in months - very spring like day here is the culprit).  
• Goat tongue - simmered all day, then peeled and sauteed with the veggies.
• Sweet potato - boiled
• 3 eggs - whites cooked, yolks raw
• lemon juice and pink salt

Not the best presentation, but man was it good

All washed down liberally with Kerrygold, of course.  Yummers.  This is the first time I've had goat tongue, and I quite liked it.  Reminded me of heart - a meaty flavor and texture with no fat to it.  I'm glad I simmered them all day (there were a couple) as I could see this cut being way too tough if one didn't do this first.  In the very back of my mind this was the one bit of offal that I thought I might slightly, possibly, be squeamish about ... not the finished product, but the peeling of it.  I was fine, but maybe the buffalo tongue will be different as that thing is like 3 pounds.

I mentioned it was a very spring like day here.  There was abundant sunshine with temps in the low 40's.  In fact, it was so nice that I cracked the door open for some fresh air.  Upon telling Mama Aspen Paleo this, who lives in south Florida, she informed me that they had closed their doors because it was soooo cold outside at 60 degrees.  Somebody is getting a little soft, eh 

Seeing Yourself

The Paleo prism.  I often take a gander through this metaphorical device as part of my thought process when considering, well, everything really.  Nutrition, exercise, work, sleep, sunshine, stress, social life, and on and on.   It's just putting myself in Someone Else's shoes, only in this case, it's our paleolithic ancestors unshod feet.  I don't do this to find the right or wrong answer, merely as part of the fun process of over thinking things, which I happen to be good at.  For instance, one completely trivial thing that's crossed my mind is:  how did those guys keep their hair and nails trimmed?  I'm guessing they pretty much just take care of themselves, but thankfully, I've never been so information starved that I had to look it up.

Indeed

With this in mind, while I was watching Frank Forencich's AHS 2012 presentation today, I heard something that has my mind spinning from looking through the prism.  At the very end of the clip, at the end of the Q & A, he mentions that paleolithic people never really knew what they themselves, as individuals, looked like.  Especially their own faces.  Of course, it's obvious when you think about it, as they had no mirrors, photos, or videos.  The only possible glimpse they could get would be from seeing their own reflection in water, and that would only give them a general idea, not a detailed high definition view. 

Think about that.  Think about living your life never knowing what your own face looks like (insert joke here), or more importantly, ever really having to CARE about it!  Go ahead, honestly think about that, I'll be right here still chewing on it myself.   I'm having a hard time coming to grips with how my life would be different if I never had the opportunity to see my own face.  I can visualize myself chasing wild game, using leaves to wipe with, eating bugs and sleeping on the ground, but never seeing my own face?  Sure, it would've happened because it had to like everything else, but, well, there's just a lot racing through my mind right now on how differently you would look at and treat other people never knowing your own image in the first place.  Am I wrong in thinking this might be a big factor in how and why interpersonal relationships differed in tribal people as compared to what we have today? 

Is there anything we can do about this?  I mean, I can sleep longer, in a darker room.  I can eat more nourishing food while foregoing refined garbage.  I can sit less and move more.  I can even lift hard and sprint occasionally, but I can never undue seeing my own image.  I know what I look like and how I look compared to others.  And I always thought knowledge was a good thing.  Hmm.  Fascinating, just fascinating.

Horror Show

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I have the privilege of ordering and stocking the Kerrygold at our store.  Imagine my horror when I came across this case today which someone had clearly dropped, inflicting damage on two golden bars of goodness.  Who could've done such a heinous thing?

I finished my stocking with a heavy heart this afternoon.  Clearly, the world is not right today.  Maybe tomorrow will bring back some sense of normal.


PS  This is humor.  It's called hyperbole.