Our home town before moving to Costa Rica was Lafayette. It’s about a 20 minutes drive East of Boulder. Every year they have two fun festivals; Oatmeal Festival in January and then Peach Festival in August. We were very excited to attend as we missed last year’s due to scoping out where we were going to move to in Costa Rica. This years was even bigger than two years ago. More art, food, games for kids, live music, and of course peaches!

It was a hot sunny afternoon so we drove with the windows down and listened to Jim’s new “Indie Mix.” (I love that he’s getting more into music I like. Hahaha.)

When we first started walking we were excited to see The Styria Bakery stand. Styria is the part of Austria where my sister-in-law and her husband got married just last month.

So many people! Our first stop was to get Jim some peach cobbler (which he shared a bite with me) and then walked around. We got there late in the day so many of the food vendors were running out of food so i missed out on falafel. Oh well.

They had rides for kids too, which they didn’t have a couple years ago. After walking up and down Public Road checking out all the options and comparing the prices of peaches I decided I needed some roasted corn. We got some and found a nice shady spot in the grass.

Jim put some spicy stuff on his.

I loaded up on pepper (or course) and a little salt.

Happy to have eaten such juicy sweet corn!

We went back to the peach vendor we liked and got a large sack of peaches (some of which we’ll eat right away) and others we’ll freeze before heading to my good friend Coleen’s wedding this week. The stand we chose was local and organic and also had the cutest shirts that said “Don’t squeeze the peaches.”

We then headed over to our friends Kate and Sita’s house. They bought a place in Lafayette just as we were moving back to CO. We now live in Kate’s old place in Boulder. I was SO excited to check out their garden. Kate built the beds!

They have all kinds of goodies growing including tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, carrots, beets, chard, and melon!

Kate and Jim used to work together at HP and are super fond of each other. Scratch that, we’re all fond of each other!

It was nice to relax, eat a little (I brought a veggie and bean quinoa pilaf), and chat with people. They have such nice friends and family.

While sitting there an old war plane flew overhead. I had such a fun time watching some boys at the party play together. Remember when it didn’t take much for us to be entertained, all we needed was to be outside? These boys reminded me of the simple joys of life and the never ending curiosity and wonder that’s inside us all.

Now, did you notice that I forgot to take photos of both the peach cobbler that Jim ate and the sack full of peaches we bought?! I know, it doesn’t seem like much of a Peach Festival without the photos, but trust me, peaches were the focal point.

The only thing not pictured is a pink heart shaped Pez dispenser with “Dream” printed on it. I gave it to Jim as he loves Pez and I wanted him to feel included in the package receiving.

But seriously, look at all those goodies!!! I had already read most of Skinny Bitch and Food Rules, but I’m happy to get to read them again. (I already read Food Rules in the bath tub 2 days ago.) I’ve also been reading Ani Phyo’s book (which Kylie won in a blog giveaway!) and The Coconut Oil book. I’m coo coo for coconut in all it’s forms but I had no idea that coconut oil has helped so many fight yeast problems. This was awesome information for me as I am highly susceptible to yeast problems (which I’ve been able to keep under control only by diet and daily probiotics). All the other books I’m so excited to finally read, rather than just flip through in airports or bookstores. Also, I’m pumped to watch the documentary Food Fight. Kylie actually got to meet the maker, helped do some promotion for the L.A. premier, and got to attend the premier too. I’m loving how many documentaries on food have been coming out. Totally rad.

So after reading until my eyes started to close, I went to bed, sleeping in! This is such a luxury since I wake up at 5am Monday through Friday for my new job as the baker and sous chef for Gindi Cafe (which I love). OH! I also had my first catering gig for 12 people a couple weeks ago. It was such a success but I’ll tell you more about that another time. For now, let’s get to breakfast…

This was awesome! Gluten free oatmeal (cooked) with chia seeds, some coconut flour, and coconut butter. I then topped it with large flakes of coconut, walnuts, a dash of cinnamon and a splash of almond milk. So coconuty and SO GOOD! I also had a glass of Amazing Grass’ Original Amazing Meal blitzed with frozen bananas and almond milk. It was good, but I’m obsessed with their Chocolate flavor!

Next up, Lafayette’s Peach Festival!

Carrot Cake (free of animal products, gluten, and refined sugar)

Cashew Creme

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Cashews, soaked for 3+ hours then drained

7 dates, pits removed

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/4 +1/8 your choice of nondairy milk (I used my homemade almond milk)

Tiny pinch of Sea Salt

Optional:

Spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, etc.

Directions:

Blitz ingredients in food processor until creamy.

Note:

Keeps for a week in fridge.

Next up…..

Mmmmm Mango…

Raw “Cheesecake”

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 rounded cup Almonds

3 Dates, pits removed

Filling:

1 cup Cashews, soaked overnight then drained

Agave to your liking (I don’t like mine to be too sweet)

2 tablespoons Lemon Juice (If you make it too lemony you’ll end up with Lemon Bars like Kylie’s did.)

1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

pinch of Salt

Directions:

Blitz Almonds to your desired consistency in a food processor then add dates and blitz again until it forms into a ball.

Press the crust into a bread pan, slightly oiled if you’d like (I used a little coconut oil). Put in freezer until you’re done with filling.

Blitz  all the filling ingredients in a food processor, blender, etc. until smooth. Taste and adjust sweetness and spice if adding. Layer the filling over the crust, smooth it out, then put in fridge until ready to eat. Cuts easily and is great with fresh fruit.

Note:

Keeps for a week in fridge.

And a very common dessert in the Ahern household…

Banana Soft Serve

It was just frozen bananas this time, but I love to add other fruit, nuts, cocoa, almond milk, spices, etc. Check out my next post for a delicious mix in I made.

P.S. Kylie, thanks for your encouragement to get back to blogging!

There is a small garden area off the side of our place. Three of our windows look out to it. It was so covered with weeds that after pulling all the weeds, tilling, and planting, our landlord’s wife asked if we had put up the winding stone barrier to contain the garden. She’s really quite thrilled that we planting there as well as in all the pots she gave us. The dirt along the house isn’t very good. Even after after 1 bag of top soil, 1 bag of compost, some organic clay buster, and adding some manure, it’s just not that great. In hindsight more topsoil and compost should have been added. I guess there is always next year. But before we give up, check out what we did…

My buff handsome hubby tilling.

Here is part of the tilled garden, hens and chicks succulents, and irises.

Aren’t they so lovely?!

Dirt ready for planing seeds (with leftover plastic spoons from our BBQ as labels), seeds and raspberry bushes from Marissa, more seeds from Kate and Sita, and my trowel (Jim is adamant that it’s not a shovel).

What a perfect way to give away seeds!

Aren’t they so lovely? Each type looked so different from the others.

After both the community garden and our home garden planted Jim and I enjoyed the lovely weather. Check out some of the pots:

Everything is looking much more vibrant than when I last took the photos, but I wanted to document the early stages. About a week after planting the seeds some of the radishes started to poke up (see below). The arugula, kale, squash, and peas are looking good too, but the beets, romaine and spinach haven’t appeared. Maybe they won’t. I’m not too worried as I’ve got all of those things growing in the community garden. Sadly, the raspberry bushes didn’t make it. The weather has been too chilly and they just couldn’t take it. I am sad about this as they were transplants from Marissa’s garden and I also love raspberries. Along with the veggies, we bought some and then were also gifted some flower seeds. They have been dispersed throughout our home garden and many are starting to appear! More photos later!

Within a few days of each other Jim celebrated an anniversary, I turned 27, and we moved into our new place. It was the perfect occasion for a party. Luckily the weather was beautiful so we grilled and ate lots of other great food (lots of vegan options)! It was so fun to catch up with friends and just enjoy spring. (As a side note: for the first time I feel weird about getting older.)

Delicious salad made by SimJam.

Of course our friends didn’t start showing up until 30 minutes after we said we’d start grilling.

I love Marc, and I appreciate his interest in being the grill master, because after the veggies were done I didn’t want anything to do with the grill. Some people have to have their meat.

Rick making burgers. Poor guy, I threatened him not to get his meat hands on any of my stuff.

Annabel gave us the coolest glass platter that is perfect for our coffee table as a housewarming gift. It’s so colorful! She also gave me the sweetest silver friendship necklace for my birthday. (I’m wearing it in the photos). Funny thing was that the weekend before we were at her housewarming party, though she actually bought a house. I had the most incredible experience with her while helping her shop for her party. With out all the details, I found out that her mother (who passed away last year from brain cancer) was the most influential woman in my life (other than my own mother) in terms of instilling a passion for food within me. This revelation lead me to drop all my self-doubt about pursuing a career in food (and both of us crying in the middle of Super Target). It was beyond incredible. Here’s a photo of us at her party:

Here are some of my friends forgetting that they are white and live in Boulder, therefore negating any toughness they may have.

My friend Gabe became a vegan while we were in Costa Rica! Love this rascal.

Natalie looking oh so summery. She brought us a flowering violet orchid that reminds me of Costa Rica.

So great that Adam came up from Denver. Wish he’d move back to the bubble!

This became the “smoking section.”

Lita and Sasha both went crazy when they saw Marissa. She and her husband Jeff used to watch the girls for us when we’d go away. Even though they hadn’t seen each other in 8 months the girls remembered and greeted her with exuberance.

Lisa (on the left) has been my biggest mentor and hero since we met almost nine years ago. She and Ashley are gems.

Marissa kindly asked me what seeds I’d like to have as a housewarming gift to plant in our gardens. Isn’t she the cutest?!

Baby Eliza is the cutest chunk of a baby you’ll ever see. She’s so social and smiley. Alisha gave us a gorgeous blue hydrangea plant that reminds me of Costa Rica.

Kate, used to work with Jim at HP and also used to live in our place. (She and Sita just bought a place in Lafayette.) We were thrilled to get in touch with the landlord before they had started advertising.

Natalie, Kurt, and Cecilia are our next door neighbors (and rock). Cecilia loves Sasha and Lita. It was great that Kate and Sita came from Lafayette as we didn’t get to chat with them much at their housewarming party the week before. Fun for them to be able to see the work that was done on the place and Kate’s old neighbors and friends.

This didn’t last long as most people were more interested in going to play frisbee golf.

It was such a fun party, with lots of great friends, food, and lovely weather. It’s times like these when it’s nice to be back in Boulder and I don’t miss the beach in Costa Rica so much.