Garden Veggie Quiche

Ingredients

• 1 frozen pie shell (9 inches)
• 1 small red onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup sliced fresh bell peppers
• 1/4 cup diced yellow summer squash
•  1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup fresh baby spinach
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded smoked Swiss cheese
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1-2/3 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh chive
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

1. Let pastry shell stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. Line unpricked pastry shell with a double thickness of heavy-duty foil. Bake at 400° for 4 minutes. Remove foil; bake 4 minutes longer. Cool on a wire rack. Reduce heat to 350°.
2. In a large skillet, saute the onion, mushrooms and squash in butter until tender. Add spinach and garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Spoon into crust; top with cheese.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, cream, salt, rosemary, thyme, chives and pepper until blended; pour over cheese.
4. Cover edges of crust loosely with foil. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. 

Yield: 6-8 servings.

Watermelon-Mint Lemonade

Ingredients:

5 to 6 cups watermelon, cubed
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 sprigs mint
1/2 cup lemon juice

Mint to garnish

Lemon to garnish

Watermelon to garnish

Directions:

1. In a pot on high heat, bring sugar and water to a light boil until the sugar is completely dissolved and your mixture is clear. Turn off the fire, and throw in your sprigs of mint.
2. Allow mint to steep for at least 15 minutes, then remove it from your simple syrup and discard. Cool for about 10 minutes.
3. Pour cooled mint-infused syrup into your blender along with the watermelon. Blend until mixture is  is smooth and uniform.
4. Strain mixture into a pitcher using a screen to get rid of the fruit bits.
5. Add lemon juice to the pitcher, and stir.
6. Serve immediately, over ice.
7. Garnish with Mint, watermelon, and lemon

Prep: 20 min. Bake: 40 min. + standing
Yield: 6-8 Servings

Training Wicket

When it comes to teaching and maintaining desirable behaviors with animals, a positive trusting relationship is the first ingredient. Currently, we are working on building a trusting relationship with Wicket, our new hippo from the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. She is shy, but does respond to special treats like cantaloupe, popcorn, and bread. Unlike Zambezi and Kasai, Wicket backs away from touch and has been slow to respond to us, her new keepers. While at the Brookfield Zoo she was trained to open her mouth on command, she has continued to demonstrate this behavior, which is a good start. She does allow keepers that she’s "comfortable with", to scratch her tongue and brush her teeth. As with most trained animals, practice makes perfect, so we will continue to practice this behavior with her while we work on building a trusting relationship.

Our overall training goal with Wicket is to instill the same behaviors Kasai and Zambezi illustrate including: stationing, target training, refining the open mouth behavior to allow for proper oral care, and doing some A to B work with her as well. We will post a short blog defining what each behavior consists of and why we train the specific behaviors later this week.

Wicket is beginning to adjust to her new pool and stall. Along with, Zambezi and Kasai, they have all been curious about one another with interaction through the bars several times a day. This interaction is all part of the introduction phase but the stressful part is still to come. Placing a new animal in an already established group will be challenging and there will be an adjustment period.

We have our work cut out for us, but with time and patience we anticipate Wicket to be a happy hippo here at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

Friday Cooking Demo - Ice Cream

Mint Chocolate Chip

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Cup Heavy Cream
• or 2 Cups Half and Half (instead of milk and cream)
• 3oz Sugar
• 5oz Plain Chocolate Grated
• 1 tsp. Peppermint Essence or 2 TBSP Fresh Mint
• Optional: Two or three drops of green food coloring

Directions

1. Place the milk* and sugar (or 1/2 of the half & half) into a saucepan with sugar & mint. Heat gently to dissolve sugar. 
2. Strain through mesh strainer & cool. 
3. When cold stir in the heavy cream* (or rest of half & half) & food coloring. 
4. Transfer the complete mixture to ice cream maker & once the mixture begins to thicken add the chocolate.

Banna Churro

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups Heavy Cream
• 3oz Sugar
• 1 tsp. Cinnamon
• 3 Bananas Frozen and defrosted

Directions

1. Peel & puree the banana into a smooth puree. 
2. Stir in cream & sugar into banana mixture. 
3. Mix well & strain through a mesh strainer. 
4. Chill in fridge for 2-3 hours. 
5. Add cinnamon & transfer mixture into ice cream maker.

Cape Vulture

In the last African Rift Valley post, we met our African black millipedes and learned about their important job as a scavenger. Have you seen any other scavengers in African Rift Valley? Maybe you have been to our Wings of Africa bird show and learned our Cape vultures are scavengers, too.

Vultures have a very important job in the ecosystem. They keep our planet clean, and help prevent disease from spreading to humans and animals. They are especially effective scavengers because their strong gastric juices kill harmful bacteria in their food. Vultures are also immune to many diseases, such as cholera, rabies, and anthrax.

Sadly, vultures are being poisoned in Asia and Africa at an alarming rate. The poison is used by farmers to protect their livestock from jackals & lions.  As obligate scavengers, vultures eat the poisoned carcasses and die. Vulture deaths are having a direct impact on humans and livestock, as disease is spreading. We need vultures to prevent this!

You can help vultures when you visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo by voting for vulture conservation at the Quarters for Conservation kiosk.

Next time we‘ll introduce you to a shy member of our African Rift Valley family who is a great impressionist!