Last Wednesday was the first big snowstorm of the season.  While I made a warm pot of creamy turkey wild-rice soup (yum!) Jim spent the afternoon building a big snow cave with James and Colin.  Within 24 hours the 12-inches of snow was quickly melting, so Jim transformed the snow cave into a James-Colin sized sledding hill.

And one below from the big snowstorm.  James had to go to school but Colin enjoyed a day of eating snow from the backyard:

This year I decided to plant some basil seeds in an extra garden pot that we left unused last summer.  Shockingly (I will always be shocked by any gardening successes I have!), my basil is growing quite well.  I’ve already “harvested” enough to make two batches of homemade pesto.  We love to put it on top of pizza, stir it in with pasta or spread it onto turkey sandwiches.  I thought I’d share the recipe for anyone who may not already have one.   And an important heads up–you’re going to have terrible garlic breath once you devour this.  :)

Pesto:

1 cup (packed) fresh basil
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/8 cup parmesan cheese
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 t. lemon juice
1/4 t. salt
2 small cloves fresh garlic

Add all ingredients to food processor except olive oil. Turn on food processor and slowly pour oil in.

Yum. Let me know if you have any good pesto variations (spinach? sun-dried tomatos?) or any favorite ways to use pesto.  I have a feeling I’ll be making at least a few more batches before summer’s over.

Last weekend we were wedding-free so we took a quick camping trip to the Sand Dunes in southern Colorado.  I captured our trip primarily with my iPhone, since sand inside 5D camera & lenses = not good.

If you’re already friends with me on facebook, these photos are old news.  If you’re not, enjoy a few photos I captured at the Tomato Battle in Copper Mountain last weekend: