Hometown Series - Krysta of My Life in Food

Wow! December 1, where the heck is this year going? Honestly I don't know and this month is going to go super fast and before we know it, we will be ringing in 2012. Crazy!! Thank you for your love for Cerrisse and her shop yesterday. Also she is offering henning love readers a 25% discount so take advantage of it. Also tomorrow is the last day to enter my two current giveaways. The first giveaway is for a pair of pearl hoop earrings and the second giveaway is for custom pinwheel toppers from Earth Cookie Creations. Speaking of Earth Cookie, she was featured on heartsy today. 

Today is another segment of the ongoing series of From My Hometown To Yours. 

Krysta from My Life in Food is here talking about Steamboat Springs, CO and oh did I mention she is gorgeous? No joke! She is beautiful!

So grab your skis or snowboards and lets join Krysta as she shows us around Steamboat Springs.

Hi Henning in Love readers! I'm Krysta from My Life In Food and I am so excited to be apart of the From My Hometown To Yours Series. Ever wonder what it is like to live in a ski town? Well your about to find out! If Meg came to visit me here in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, there are a number of things I'd take her to do, but first off, we would have to drive through Starbucks for a few Peppermint Mochas and head downtown to shop. Lincoln Ave is "Main Street" around here and offers a beautiful view of the Mountain as well as quaint and interesting shops and specialty stores.

I like shopping during the day AND at night, because seriously...look at it! Cold temps can't keep me away.

Most likely, it would look more like this for our morning stroll!

We would hit up most of the major shops, but no shopping experience is complete without a stop to Off The Beaten Path, our local boutique bookstore:

Some of you might be wondering why in the world I am shopping with Meg when we could be skiing in some of Steamboats famous champagne powder

Well, sadly, the answer is I don't know how to ski. Oops! I from California so at least I have an excuse. :) If Meg wanted to go (and I wouldn't blame her one bit) I'd meet up with her afterward for hot chocolate.

By now we would have worked up an appetite so we would head over to Winonas for lunch and enjoy some of their yummy soups and veggie burgers with sweet potato fries.

Then we would walk down to Ciao Gelato by the river and indulge in dessert. The owners Mossimo and Lynn are always there and so cheerful speaking Italian to one another. I usually get the pomegranate or guava gelato. The cookies and cream or salted caramel are amazing too, and my little son likes the lemon. ;) They have the most amazing pizza ever at Ciao, but we would have just eaten lunch and wouldn't be hungry. I'd tell you to come back and try it. Did I mention I write a food blog?

Then we would head back to my house and change into our swim suits and head up to Strawberry Park Hot Springs. It's a beautiful natural spring nestled in the mountains, with different pools. Going in the wintertime is the best because the snow is everywhere (it might be falling, too) and the pools are hot so it creates the coolest mist all Lord Of The Rings, like. We would go while its still light out. After dark is "clothing optional"... And it wouldn't be this busy either. I have never been there when it was this crowded!

Next we would head home and rest up for dinner. There are a lot of great restaurants in Steamboat, but I would definitely take you to Mambo Italiano. Okay, so truth be told, it's my restaurant (well mine, my husbands and a partner) but I wouldn't take you there just because of that. We just got a new chef, and we would eat things like fried calamari and mussels, shaved fennel, mushroom and arugula salad and eggplant stacks with pesto and oven roasted tomatoes, or lemon and chile seafood pasta. We would listen to Frank Sinatra and enjoy the busy-ness and open kitchen. Then, we would order the ganache for dessert. It's basically a big homemade truffle laced with baileys and battered with panko and fried and served with vanilla gelato. When you cut into it, the chocolate is melty and mixes with the ice cream and beautiful things happen.

Then, to cap the evening off we would walk a few blocks down the street to Bella's wine bar. It's located underground below Chocolate Soup, our pastry cafe. Bella's is awesome. It looks like an old speakeasy with rock walls, dim lighting, throw pillows, rustic furniture, a fire, and lots of candlelight. They import wines weekly (mostly from italy) and the menu changes because of this. The only other thing you can get at Bella's other than wine are truffles and a variety of meats and cheese (we'd get the lomo which is an air cured pork tenderloin flavored with paprika, sea salt and pepper and prosciutto, parmesan, morbier, appenzeller and olives) We would sit until we were ready to leave just chatting and snacking listening to music from the 1930's like Billy Holiday.

You won't want to leave. :) That's the curse of Steamboat. People come for vacation but they end up staying.

Well, that's it! Thanks to Meg for allowing me to participate and show you a little glimpse into my hometown. Happy Thursday Everyone!