A Very Happy Thanksgiving Indeed

This year Mr X and I unanimously decided to postpone the traditional Thanksgiving activities (spending all day preparing delicious food and then feasting) until Friday. That way we could spend the holiday snowboarding while everybody else was mingling with friends and family and feasting. This was in hopes that the slopes would be slightly less crowded than they will undoubtedly be the rest of the weekend.

I'm happy to report that our plan worked out great! Yay!

The other great part of this plan is that I still have to work Friday. Mr X doesn't. So Mr X will be doing the majority of the cooking. How nice! 

Last Friday the Boa dial on my old snowboard boots broke. The boots were so old that the repair people said they couldn't find a boa dial of the same model to replace them. So I upgraded and purchased these Ride boots. They have a double-Boa system - one to tighten the ankle area and one to tighten the foot area. It's nice.

We spent Thanksgiving morning at Winter Park. We normally really enjoy this place but there wasn't enough open yet so we went down everything they had open and then enjoyed a Thanksgiving lunch of burgers (normally we bring our lunches with us but since it was a holiday we decided to treat ourselves). This is the view of the mountain from our lunch spot. Those are our boards' noses.

Mr X is about to sit down and enjoy his lunch in the warm sunshine on a beautiful day.

After lunch we decided to change mountains for some more terrain. So we drove to Copper and spend the afternoon riding down everything Copper had open. It was great! Beautiful weather and gorgeous views!

This is just the view to and from the ski resorts from our house. I couldn't help but snap a few photos.

A Whirlwind Weekend

Mr X and I both had a 3-day weekend last weekend. It was jam-packed and flew by. Here's what we did:

We went snowboarding for the first time this season on Friday. It was great, I had been looking forward to it for months. In the photo above Mr X had gotten stuck in deep power and had to strap out. He then proceeded to sit on his board and ride it like a sled. He's not nearly as skilled at sledding as he is at snowboarding.

Saturday morning we packed the car up with empty coolers for a previously scheduled meat transfer with my parents in Vernal. It's about the halfway point from our place and theirs so that's where we decided to "meat" up. Ha ha. While there I received a violin lesson from my very talented and gracious mother. I'm terrible and she tolerated it and was sweet and encouraging. What a wonderful mother!

She recorded some music on her keyboard and then we played a duet. Mostly she played beautifully (because that's just how she rolls) and I struggled to hit the right notes at the right time. It was really nice to play with her and I had a great time.

We came home with a car full of pork and beef on Sunday and proceeded to pack our freezers completely full. We kept out some breakfast sausage and a steak for Monday's meals. Mr X declared, while sorting through all of the meat, that he couldn't decide what to keep out because he wanted to try some of everything already.

We did keep some head cheese out that my dad made and I started some dough for a rustic loaf of bread so we can have head cheese sandwiches. I'm really looking forward to that.

We even brought home some pig's feet. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I'm sure that with a little help from the interweb and maybe Michael Symon's troves of pork recipes I'll find something great for them.

Once we put away all of the meat, unpacked and showered, we decided it was time for our first fire of the winter.

A Silly (But Satisfying) Acheivement

I keep meaning to compile all of my favorite recipes into one location rather than having scraps and photo copies and scribbled copies scattered about. When I originally started putting together my "cookbook" I quickly realized that I'd bitten off way more than I could chew. So I scaled back the idea and decided to tackle it one book at a time. So I started with a compilation of my favorite treat recipes. I finally finished it last week and had it printed - I think it took me 7 or 8 months. Yay!

The next step, in theory, is for me to do a "Volume I" each for Main Dishes, Side Dishes and Bread. Then I'll move on to Volume II for all of them. But it's quite possible that I may burn out long before then. We'll see. I hope not though.

The Weather Outside...

Is PERFECT!

My SIL just posted photos on her blog that were full of vibrant colors of fall - crisp leaves everywhere. I'm guessing that photo wasn't taken too long ago. When I saw what she has recently been seeing outside in her region of the country I was a bit surprised. I guess I figured it must feel like winter is solidly here to everybody right about now, but that's just silly of me. Regardless, I'm happy with what I'm seeing outside in my neck of the woods.

Beginners Again

On Saturday Mr X and I headed up to the mountains for a little adventure. The shoulder seasons here make us go a little stir crazy. 4 or 5 ski resorts are open here already, but as you can see from the photo below, there's a pathetic amount of snow in the mountains at the moment. Boo hoo! We've had light snow storms here and there, but nothing to get excited about much to my dismay. We were trying to patiently wait for more snow before we headed up because it gets boring really fast when there's only 1 or 2 runs open. Plus, everybody is trying to ride those 1 or 2 runs. This usually amounts to disappointment and frustration. It's like your starving and you're given one small spoonful of food to "tide you over".

However, we are chomping at the bit and ready to play in the snow. So we decided that rather than snowboard on the limited terrain, we'd try out skiing. It's been probably about 17 years since I've skied and I think its been 25 since Mr X has skied. We were terrible, just as we suspected. But we had a great time.

By the afternoon we were sick of the long lift lines so we decided to pack up our skis and go on a stroll around the area. It was a beautiful day and a nice long walk.

We'll try to hone our skiing skills again soon. I just wish some nice storms would come in soon.

Winner, Winner Salmon Dinner

Mr X recently attempted making smoked salmon using our Traeger. He used alder wood pellets and brined the salmon prior to the smoking. During the smoking process he glazed the salmon with some maple syrup. It was a success and I can't wait for him to do it again.