Food Experiments

In case you weren't aware, Mr X and I were lucky enough to source our meat this year from a small "farm" - My Dad! It was our first year doing this (for both us and my Dad) so we weren't really sure how everything was going to turn out. For my Dad's part, the animals were raised well and happy so subsequently the meat was of incredibly good quality. Mr X and I really didn't have a great idea of how we wanted our meat processed at butchering time. So we did the best we could on that part - we had the majority of our meat left as is, but cut up in the traditional manner.

Since we received all this meat we've spent a lot of time experimenting with it.

Here are a couple of examples:

Ham. We ordered our hams cured - the only things that we had cured. Next year we plan to cure at least one of them ourselves. Anyway, we decided to then enhance our ham further by smoking it on our Traeger and glazing it with a maple-y glaze.

Honeybaked hams are delicious. I honestly wasn't sure that our little ham would measure up. But with the superior meat, a good cure, and Mr X's expertise, this ham was even better than a Honeybaked ham.

Next up - Bacon. 

We had the butcher leave the pork belly alone so that we could try making our own bacon. 

This is what we did:

1) Cured it with a mix of curing salt and maple sugar for 7 days. 

2) Washed the cure off  and then let it "rest" in the refrigerator for a day.

3) Smoked it for 3 hours using applewood chips.

4) Let it cool and rest in the refrigerator overnight.

5) Ate it for breakfast.

 

 It was the best bacon I've ever eaten. I'm not kidding. So delicious!

Lost Photos from SD

Mr X had a few photos on his phone from when he came out to visit me one weekend in San Diego last month. The pictures were really nice so I felt it would be a shame not to post them.

Frogs

Mr X and I were wandering about in this really great store down in Denver recently and we came across some big, plump-looking frog legs in the freezer section.

Yes, of course I bought them! You aren't really that surprised are you? You shouldn't be.

So we thawed them and seasoned them.

We dredged them in a bit of seasoned flour.

We lightly pan-fried them.

And then we ate them.

So how did they taste, you ask? If a chicken and a fish had a baby it would be a frog. That's what it tasted like: elements that were reminiscent of white meat chicken but a moist tenderness of fish.

Fun with Cross-Country Skiing

During our holiday break Mr X and I played in the snow a fair amount. We snowboarded several times, skied a couple of times, cross-country skied a couple of times and we even managed to go snowshoeing once.

We failed to take many pictures of our adventures, however Mr X had his camera on him during one of the cross-country days. Unfortunately there aren't any photos of him. Boo on my part, I know.

Getting ready to head out.

Enjoying a fun and easy downhill section.

Working my way uphill (even though the angle of the picture makes it rather flat).

Ungracefully managing a downhill turn.

Having a rest.

The spectacular view.

End of Year Activities: Christmas!

On Christmas Eve day Mr X and I packed our things and headed to Winter Park for some snowboarding. The crowds thinned out in the afternoon and we had a really nice time.

We reserved a night in a studio at the base of the mountain so that we could enjoy the festivities that evening and then hit the slopes again first thing in the morning, on Christmas Day.

We snowboarded until the mountain closed and then we headed to our room to get cleaned up and warm up a bit before heading back out for the holiday show. In the photo above, Mr X and I were meandering towards the excitement, just enjoying the festive scenery.

Mr X decided to have a go out on the ice skating rink, minus the skates, for fun.

One of the many brightly lit Christmas trees at the base of the mountain.

At the bottom of one of the main runs the crowds were gathered around an enormous bonfire, singing and dancing to the Christmas music blasting through the loudspeakers. 

When the appointed hour arrived the mountain staff came traversing down the face of the run with red flares in each hand and not long after the fireworks show began.

I tried to embed a video of the event but I'm not sure it will work for all of you. If it doesn't the two photos above will have to suffice. If it does work for you, you may want to fast forward to about halfway through - that's when the fireworks start. There's music too so feel free to turn your sound on.

Once the show was over Mr X and I hopped on a gondola for a 'top-o-the-mountain' feast.

 The gondola rides (up & down) were pretty chilly.

The beautiful lodge at which dinner was served.

 There is lots of great woodworking in the lodge.

I took photos of our food with my iPhone but they really don't make the food look great. So you'll just have to be content with my word that the food was really good and I left incredibly full.

Mr X and I keeping warm by the giant fire while waiting for our gondola ride back down.

We did this all last year and had such a great time that we were delighted to be able to do it again this year. If any of you have the opportunity to do something similar where you live (or if you want to come do this here), you should!

End of Year Activities: Kicking Off the Festivities Part 2

After our last day of work before the holidays Mr X and I decided to kick things off by going to view some holiday lights. We went to the Botanical Gardens to see their colorful and twinkling displays. It was COLD but festive and we had a great time. Here are some photos we took. After a while our fingers were too cold and we slowly stopped taking pictures because of that.

End of Year Activities: Kicking Off the Festivities Part 1

Since both Mr X and I work predominantly from home, sometimes "the office" is a very quiet, lonely place. So last year I decided that we should have an "office" Christmas party. So, the last work day before our holiday break, we had a lunch party. I thought Mr X would think it was a bit silly (it was), but apparently he liked it well enough that he asked if we were having another "office" party this year. So we did.

First of all, I was gone the first two weeks of December on a business trip so I wasn't around to decorate our house for the holidays. Mr X volunteered to do it for me but I didn't want to miss out. However, when I got back from my trip there were 10 days left until Christmas and so somehow we felt like it was too much of a hassle to get everything out and decorate just for a handful of days. So I put some cheap red ornaments on our stick tree and called it good. Here it is:

Now onto the office party. The luncheon this year consisted an assortment of Thai food hors d'oeuvres.

There were door prizes: Movie tickets and fancy popcorn to go with those tickets. 

And then for dessert I had made a version of a traditional Stollen. It was my first time to make this. I've made Panettone as well as fruitcake before, but never a Stollen. Turns out that the Stollen is my favorite of the Christmas breads so far. It was good. 

And yes, after the party we both finished out our workdays.