A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Estes Park, Colorado, the Last Night and Day: Snow, Stephen King, and Ghosts

  

On Friday, after our friends left we explored town. Then we came back to the hotel for a nap since neither Gene nor I had slept well the night before.  Gene slept. I gave up, grabbed my copy of The Shining by Stephen King that I'd purchased in the gift shop and headed downstairs to read.  On either side of the desk there are groupings of large comfy leather chairs in front of blazing fireplaces just begging to be curled up in. I accepted their invitation, tucking my feet under me and relaxing into the book, the coziness, and the view out the windows overlooking the town.

Exploring Estes Park: Elks, Ghosts, Food, & The Shining

Barb and the gang left Friday morning leaving us to our own devices.  But before going on they left us with their haunting stories from the night before.  Apparently, while Gene and I snoozed peacefully, the others received goodbye messages from "The Others". 

Barb and John woke up in the middle of the night to their room door swinging wide open.  Maybe they forgot to lock it, you might say, EXCEPT, the doors don't work that way here.  We had used Barb and John's suite as the official unofficial hospitality suite and while the rest of us tromped in and out, Gene and John had both tried to find a way to prop the door slightly open to save comers in from having to knock every time they came back to the room and also the already ins from having to get up and open the door every time but it wouldn't work.  The doors either stood wide open or closed with a click, locking from the outside automatically.  And yet....their door swung wide open by itself in the middle of the night.  They also heard what sounded like people running up and down the hallway, EXCEPT, when they checked, no one was there.

Diane and Rosie awoke to the tinkling of the metal clothes hangers in their closet in the middle of the night, as well as the sound of someone dropping what sounded like a ball that rolled across the floor above them.  Diane rationalized that maybe it was the people in the room above making that noise but the hangers in the closet?  As far as they knew they were the only people in their room and they were snug in their beds.  I don't think either of them got up to check the closet and I wouldn't have either.

Carol had the most up close and personal experience.  She awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of the wind gusting through the trees outside of her room when, still half asleep, her bed shook for several seconds.  She thought of the wind, but then coming fully awake realized that the wind was outside while she was inside, her room sandwiched between rooms on either side and floors above and below.  It only happened once but that was enough to wake her fully, turning on her TV  for light.  What channel?  The TV's in The Stanley automatically tune to The Shining channel, the homage to Stephen King's novel inspired by this hotel, where the Jack Nicholson/Stanley Kubrick version of the movie plays 24/7.  She quickly thought "No way am I watching this right now!" and switched to another channel, staying awake and keeping the TV on until dawn crept over the mountains.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado

PART TWO

Happy Official Birthday to Barb!  From left around table:  Gene, Me, Birthday Girl Barb, Barb's hubby John, Roseanne, Barb's sister Carol, and Diane, all having the "OMG Fabulous!" Thanksgiving Buffet at the Stanley Hotel.

John's favorite thing on the menu:  Bacon Bloody Mary!  The garnish was a meal itself and the bacon to die for.  The waittress told us the pastry chef coats the bacon with a simple syrup with six secret ingredients to make it the incredible sweet, salty, crispy wonderful it is. We all kept guessing:  "Molasses?  Sorghum? Honey?"  But the secret is still safe, at least from us.

Sigh. The views from our Thanksgiving table.

HappyThanksgiving from The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado

PART ONE:

Celebrating Thanksgiving in Estes Park, Colorado this year to help good friend Barb Schurke (center) celebrate one of those even 10 numbered birthdays that we don't always say out loud!  Barb's been telling me for at least 2 years that she wanted to celebrate this birthday at the Stanley Hotel and had been telling family for even longer that this is where she wanted to be when she turned that certain numbered birthday.

We're heeeeeeeeeere!  And it's gorgeous!  This is the front of the Stanley Hotel a registered Historic Hotel built at the turn of the last century by the man who invented the Stanley Steamer.  It's probably more famous for it's association to Stephen King who wrote The Shining while staying in a room here and built the novel around his impressions of this hotel, supposedly the most haunted hotel in America.  So not only is it one of the most beautifully built places we've ever stayed, it has that fun, grin-worthy quirkiness that lends an extra couple of fingers of fun.

View from the front veranda of the hotel.

And now, since this is a food blog, a little tour via food:

Snack Time: Seasoned Oyster Crackers

 

Having a couple of bags of oyster crackers leftover from Halloween chili, I decided to play a little. I've tried hot, sweet, salty.... but my all time favorite has turned out to be this recipe.  Not only are the great as a handful straight out of the bag, we've now topped more chili with them, potato soup, and stew--all delicious.  I also crushed 2 cups of them and topped a ham/potato casserole one night for the crunch--yummy!  They're yummy, cheap to make, and versatile. They've also stayed fresh in a gallon zip baggie with as much air removed as possible each time we get into them.  This is a keeper.

Mini Knitting Party this Friday

Mini Knitting Party this Friday @ 2:30pm (11/11/11) at my house for anyone who can drop in and knit for a couple of hours. Nothing fancy, we're just going to knit and organized Thanksgiving hats for the little LIttles.

 

Brittany's Punkin' Pie Cupcakes with Spiced Frosting

 

Thank you to Brittany for making this WUN-DER-FUL spiced cupcakes for our November Nightshift Birthday Party.  Holy cow, believe me, you can't eat just one.

Chicken, Rice, & Vegetable Casserole the Old-Fashioned Way (No Campbell's Soup)

 

I've grown up as part of the Campbell's soup generation.  Mom used it a lot for things like "Stroganoff" made with ground beef and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup over egg noodles, "Smothered Chicken" or "Smothered Pork Chops" with any of the "Cream of's":  Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Chicken, or Cream of Celery, "Chicken Enchiladas" or "Chicken Pot Pie" with it's mandatory Cream of Chicken soup as the base sauce/filler. I enjoyed those dishes so  I'm not going to go into a huge anti-Campbells rant here becuase it is a quick and easy fix and it does taste good in that very comforting country creamy Paula Deen way. That's not a slam.  I do like those types of casseroles and homey dinners.  What I am going to say is there is another way, a better way, a healthier and cleaner way to cook/eat that doesn't have as many chemicals and salt and, I promise!, is not labor intensive.  If you have a little flour in your pantry and milk in the fridge you can skip the "Cream of".  Have a can of chicken broth?  Even better!

 

Halloween Food: Eyeball Rice Cereal Treats, Devil's Eye Eggs, Blood Clot Cranberry Dip, and I See You Meatballs

Bwahahahaha! Halloween--my very favorite holiday!  And a family favorite as well. No matter how old "our" kids get, this will always be our tradition: get together at Aunt Gonnie and Uncle Gene's house, eat great creepy food, dress up or dress down, take any little ones trick-or-treating the neighborhood and just hang out..

This year our creepy food was all eyeball in theme. We didn't really plan it that way but as the eyeballs piled up we just kept running with them it:  Gummy Eyeball Rice Cereal Treats,  Devil's Eye Eggs,  Blood Clot Cranberry Dip, I See You Meatballs, and just for fun, the un-eye-ball Mexican Villa Cheese Dip and Chips. There was also two crockpots full of chili and a few others goodies on the table like spinach dip, witch's pretzel/candy fingers, etc.    

 

 And now for recipes....