View of the Chutes (and giant inflatable Budweiser)

Bull Riding (1st of two rounds)

Another Bull Rider

Calf Roping - the calf has been conquered!

Calf Roping - heading back to the horse

Freeing the calf - harder than roping it!

Chasing the calf out of the arena

Bareback Riding

Getting ready for the Stick-Horse Race

Rainbow Riders Drill Team

In addition to these events, we also got to watch team roping, saddle bronc riding, and barrel racing. I think the bareback and saddle bronc riding was even more fun than the bull riding – the horses really took off across the arena! The action was fast, and the interaction between the people and animals was really impressive – it seems like it would be fun to have a really good camera and be a professional rodeo photographer.

Now I just need to convince Chuck to buy cowboy boots to wear to the rodeo next year…

• #16    Make one recipe from every cookbook I own: entries for this were frozen at 63 cookbooks, so if I get more, they don’t get added to the project. I’ve made recipes from 10 books so far, so I’m about 16% done with this task – not too bad, but it seems like a lot of work just to cross one thing off the list! One of these days I’ll write up the recipes and get some blog posts done for these!
  

• #35    Complete a cook-through (or drink-through) blog project: I’ve completed three recipes from Sangria so far, so I’m about 10% done with this one. It’s a little bit less daunting than the cookbook project, and I should be able to finish it fairly easily.

• #51    Hike to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite: I’m scratching this one off the list – I didn’t quite make it to the top, but I did discover that it’s not something I actually want to try to do, at least  in the next couple of years – getting almost to the top is good enough for me!

• #57    Visit a US city I’ve never been to before: Our trip to Austin allows me to cross this one off (technically Fresno could have counted too, but since it wasn’t the main destination of our Yosemite trip, I held out for another trip.)

With numbers 51 and 57 crossed off, I have eleven things done and several others in progress. That’s about 11% done with 13% of my time gone – not too far behind, but there’s a lot left to be done – I’d better start making some progress on the rest of my list!

I chose three-berry basil rose sangria to pair with our lamb chops and lemony cake, guessing that this would be light and a little tart, cutting through any heaviness in the meat, and playing well with the sour lemon flavors in the cake. I think it worked!

Three-Berry Basil Rose sangria recipe

The exciting ingredient for this sangria was Drambuie, a liquor combining Scotch whisky, honey, and an ultra-secret combination of herbs and spices.  The recipe called for a half-cup each of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, which was conveniently accomplished by buying a bag of frozen mixed berries at Trader Joe’s. I think fresh berries would have been prettier, but the frozen ones worked well flavor-wise.

Ingredients

Like the  first sangria, the steps are pretty simple: combine fruit (and basil) in a pitcher, add liquors (Drambuie and Brandy), then add a bottle of wine (in this case, a dry Spanish rose); refrigerate for several hours, and add sparkling water just before serving.

fruit and basil mixture

fruit with Drambuie and brandy

fruit, liquors, and wine

I mixed up the sangria in the morning, and when I tasted it in the afternoon it was a little too tart, so I mixed up some honey-flavored simple syrup: one half-cup water, one half-cup minus 2 tablespoons sugar, and two tablespoons honey, brought to a boil and then simmered for about 5 minutes.

I felt like the basil flavor got a little lost in the sangria, but adding the sprig of basil as garnish really brought out the flavor. Adding about two teaspoons of the honey syrup also helped perk up the flavor. Overall, this was a nice, refreshing sangria – not as rich and luscious as the cherry-fig sanrgia, but something that would be welcome with a light meal any time of year – I think it would be an especially good brunch sangria.