Citrus Addict

Those of you who know me or have followed my blog for a while know that I love citrus. I love to cook with lemons in particular. When I lived in CA it seemed like there were lemon trees on every other property, all going to waste because nobody really uses them much. So I ran around the neighborhood scooping up the lemons to bring home so that they weren't shamefully wasted.

So a couple weeks ago I was out in San Diego for work again and a coworker with one of these lemon trees in his yard brought in a garbage bag full of lemons and left them in my office. This coworker knows I'm a lemon freak and he always seems more than happy to send a bunch my way during citrus season. I had to buy another bag just to get them home because there was no way they would fit in my regular checked bag. Plus they would have put me way over the weight limit.

So this is what I've been up to since I got home from that trip:

I made 8 batches of lemon curd and froze them for future use.

An opinion on citrus-y desserts: While I love the rich decadance of chocolate-themed desserts, I actually think citrus treats are more interesting on the palate and often overshadowed.

I combined some of the lemons with some blood oranges to make a Blood Orange Tart.

I made a classic Lemon Tart.

I made Avgolemono soup. (Greek lemony-chicken soup for those that may not know.)



I made Paella on Valentine's Day for Mr X.



The excess of lemons required a batch of good ole' lemonade.



A nice lemon roasted chicken.



About a gallon of Lemon Gelato.

After all of this I still had lemons left over so I juiced them and froze the juice for future food endeavors. Needless to say, we won't be having issues with scurvy any time soon in this house.

What's in a Name?

I'm always trying to get close friends and family to name their baby girls Charlotte. Everybody declines. Except my friend April. *SMILE*

Charlotte and Charlotte

A Happy Valentine's Day Indeed

Today was one of the nicest Valentine's Days I can remember. First of all, I spent it with Mr X (as opposed to many years when one of us is traveling for work). Second, I had the day off work. Third, Mr X and I went snowboarding. Fourth, I made this for dessert:

Couer a la Creme

Fifth, I received sweet Valentines in the mail from my nephews.



Sam was "holding" a starburst candy which was already in my belly by the time I snapped this picture.



Wildlife Sightings

While Mr X and I were riding up a chairlift at Steamboat we saw several of these very brightly colored birds in a tree. They were easy to spot. Later, when we were heading into a lodge for lunch we saw some information on the walls about the birds common to the area in the winter. They are called Pine Grosbeaks.



Male Pine Grosbeak

 
About halfway home from Steamboat we saw what we believe to be two Golden Eagles. They were feeding on some poor creature off the side of the road and they were absolutely enormous! And beautiful.

Golden Eagle

 About thirty minutes after the eagle sighting I spotted a coyote running across a snow covered field next to the road.

Once we rolled into our neighborhood we saw the somewhat familiar sight of several mule deer lounging about.

(All photos courtesy of the interweb.)

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I really love Colorado.

Steamboat Springs: Part 3

Mr X is a much, much better snowboarder than I am. It's a rare thing that I ever see him wreck - he does it so seldom and if he does crash he's usually so far ahead of me that by the time I get to him I've completely missed the action and he's usually back on his board again. However, on this particular occasion the deep powder made it possible for me to witness a few spectacular wrecks of his.

Here's Mr X about to wow me with his skills:

Wow...?!?



Steamboat Springs: Part 2

Most of the photos below are from the afternoon of our first day snowboarding. There were a couple of hours when the storm cleared enough for some blue sky to make itself known so we seized the opportunity take a few snaps with our phones.

The view from the top.

I like this picture Mr X took of me because you can see him taking the picture in the reflection of my goggles.

Mr X managed to catch a shot of me navigating through the aspen trees. Steamboat has great trees for snowboarding/skiing. We had a lot of fun in them.



Mr X about to take off.

Me taking a breather - probably resting my burning feet.

You can't tell it but Mr X's face is nearly frozen solid here.



Introducing Sam

Mr X and I became and uncle and aunt for the twenty-seventh time last week. Allow me to introduce young Sam:

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Nye.

Steamboat Springs: Part 1

Mr X and I went enjoyed a long weekend in Steamboat Springs this past weekend. A perk of our snowboarding season passes was that we each got a few free passes to Steamboat Ski Area as well. We each took last Thursday off from work to take advantage of these passes. We've been pretty frustrated with the snowfall most of this winter so far, but last week we got lucky because it dumped snow all week up in the Steamboat area. I think the total for the week was about 50 inches. The first day of snowboarding we were greeted with 14 inches of fresh powder. The second day we had 4 more inches of powder when we started but it snowed all day, covering up all the tracks as they were placed. It was really incredibly nice. We couldn't have timed it more perfectly.

The town of Steamboat in the evening. You can't really see the mountain peaks because they are covered in clouds - it was snowing at the top in this photo.

This is a view from the top of the ski resort, looking down into the town and valley below, after the storm had cleared.

The trees were so thickly covered in snow that the branches were sagging heavily down. If you brushed the branches as you flew past them you would momentarily be engulfed in a smallish blizzard again.