SnoPlace Blog

Jennie and I had the good fortune to be invited up to Whistler to see some of the Olympics! Our friends Bill and Eleanor have a timeshare right at the Creekside base. When shopping for this vacation getaway, they specifically limited their search to units that were available during the two weeks of the 2010 Olympics.

We drove up on Monday, leaving around 8am and getting to Whistler at about 4pm, right on schedule. The weather was fabulous, so we got some great scenery on the Sea to Sky highway. Bill’s unit looks right out on the new lift that they put in just for access to the alpine event venue. The white tents by the path are the security screening station. Every venue was outfitted with a whole array of these, complete with x-ray and metal detector, just like the airport! At the top of the chairlift is the viewing area, and you can just make out the bottom of the competition run just above the top tower of the lift.

We went skiing on Tuesday. The conditions were pretty good for “back East” but pretty bad for “out West.” We had fun anyway, and we all (Eleanor and Bill, their son Mike, Eleanor’s brother Art, Jennie, and I) skied together all day. We mostly stayed over on Blackcomb, and tried out the Snow Cross course (link to video) and the GS race course. Art and I finished up with a run on the Harmony chair in the fog. Here’s a shot of me and Jennie at the top of 7th Heaven.

Riding the Peak2Peak tram was quite a trip!

Wednesday we went to the Women’s GS event. The production values of these events was just fantastic. We had great seats in the grandstand which was just below the finish line. They had a GIANT monitor set up to show the televised action. The TV cameras were all supplied and run by the organizers, so all the networks got the same raw footage. At the venue, they had live video coverage complete with multiple angles, replays, slomo, and great live commentators. We saw Lindsey Vonn’s crash right in front of us at the top of the last pitch, as she came over the feature called “Hot Air.” It was really foggy on Wednesday, so the bottom pitch was really all we could see. After lunch the fog got even worse, and they postponed the second run until the next day.

On Wednesday evening we rode the Blackcomb gondola up to the mid station by the day parking lot, and then walked across the snow from there over to the bobled venue. After a longer secuity line than at the skiing venue, we got to walk all the way up and down the bobsled run to watch the third and fourth runs of the Women’s Bobsleigh event. During the first run we walked up to the top, watched the Irish team push and jump in, then worked our way back down. We were at turn 14 when the German sled crashed and slide by us — at about 9omph — on its side! (Art got a picture that I’ll insert later.) Here’s a view looking down from up high on the course with the finish waaaay down there at the bottom.

The mood at the end was electric, with Canada finishing Gold - Silver (with the US Bronze). The highly partisan crowd was understandably pumped!

Thursday we went back up the hill behind the building to see the second run of the Women’s GS. The competion was thrilling, although the US ladies were pretty much out of it. Julia Mancuso was in first for a while, but then came the really fast skiers (that day at least) and the event was won unexpectedly by Germany’s Viktoria REBENSBURG.

We bolted after the first 30 skiers to go to the Women’s 4×5K cross-country relay. Which meant a travel adventure consisting of: 20K taxi ride to a remote shuttle bus stop; shuttle bus stop 12K shuttle bus ride uphill; go through security; 1K walk to the venue. We got there in time to see the changeover from the second to the third leg. It was a pretty exciting race, and another really great venue. Jennie and Eleanor sat in the grandstand, while Bill, Art, and I roamed the course. I positioned myself where I could see the last uphill and then turn around and look down on the finish area.

Friday we drove home, stopping in Vancouver to get a look at the official Flame in its fenced-off Cauldron. We drove by, went around the block, and found a parking space on the street basically right across from the Flame!

All in all, it was a great trip and I’m really glad we did it. We ended up staying home all weekend — it was glorious spring weather and we did some gardening, and we had the drive to San Jose to look forward to on Monday.

Susan loves butternut squash! This fact has been the inspiration behind several menu items recently.

We had friends over on Jan. 30, and I made a butternut squash lasagna that came out just fantastic. The tricky part was finding the amaretti cookie crumbs. Jennie called around and found an Italian restaurant (http://www.pazzo.com/) Portland that had the crumbs, and the manager agreed to sell us a bag. (Apparently they use them in their butternut squash ravioli recipe.) I had a couple of meetings downtown, and the place turned out to be directly on the path between the two places I was to meet people — amazing!

Here’s a link to the recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/butternut-squash-lasagna-recipe/index.html

And here’s a picture of the results:

Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of these next three. We had more friends over on Feb. 6. I made two appetizers: bacon-wrapped butternut squash drizzled with maple syrup from a blog called “Young, Broke, and Hungry” (http://youngbrokeandhungry.blogspot.com/2010/01/bacon-wrapped-butternut-squash.html), and a butternut squash “galette” (a tart) that I found here: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/10/butternut-squash-and-caramelized-onion-galette/. Both of these were VERY yummy, especially the tart. And for desert, Jennie made a butternut squash cheesecake, and we found an amaretti cookie crumb crust recipe to make with it. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

For the filling:

    3-8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened

    1 cup heavy cream

    1 cup roasted butternut squash puree (see below)

    1 1/4 cup sugar

    1/2 tsp salt

    1 tsp ground cinnamon

    1/2 tsp ground cloves

    1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

    5 large eggs

For the amaretti crust:

    1/4 cup almonds, toasted sliced (or slivered)

    2 tablespoons sugar

    3/4 cup amaretti cookie crumbs

    2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

   1.   Preheat oven to 350 and line the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan with parchment paper.

   2.   Snap the side pan closed and cut off any excessive paper that hangs outside the pan. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

   3.   Crust:  In food processor, combine toasted almonds and 2 tablespoons sugar; pulse until finely chopped. Add amaretti crumbs and melted butter; pulse to mix. Press crumb mixture evenly over bottom of pan. Set aside.

   4.   Filling:  In a mixing bowl, whip the cream cheese until it’s smooth and uniform. Add the sugar and continue beating until it’s incorporated into the cheese. Add the salt and spices and whip until the spices are distributed throughout the cream cheese mixture.

   5.   Stop the mixer and add the first egg. Turn the mixer back on and allow the egg to be whipped into the cream cheese. Add the next egg and continue the process until all the eggs have been added.

   6.   Finally, reduce the mixer speed slightly and pour in the heavy cream and squash puree. Continue mixing until all the ingredients are whipped together uniformly.

   7.   Pour the filling on top of the crust. Cover the bottom and sides of the springform pan with foil and place it in a roasting pan. Fill the pan with hot water until it reaches halfway up the side of the springform pan.

   8.   Bake the cheesecake for an hour or until the edges are set but the middle still jiggles a bit. Turn off the stove and let the cheesecake remain in the oven for another hour. DO NOT open the oven during this second hour.

   9.   Remove the cheesecake from the oven and take it out of the roasting pan. Let the cheesecake cool completely before wrapping it up in plastic wrap and refrigerating it. Let the cheesecake cool in the fridge overnight.

For the Roasted Butternut Squash Puree:

   •     1 medium butternut squash

   •     2 tbs butter, melted

1.       Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2.       Cut a butternut squash in half and scoop out the string and seeds. Place the squash halves on a baking sheet lined with foil. Evenly brush each butternut squash half with the melted butter.

3.       Place in the oven and roast for 40-45 minutes or until the flesh is soft (be careful not to burn the squash). Allow the squash to cool and then scoop the flesh out. Blitz the flesh until smooth in a food processor.

I flew back from Taiwan on Friday (my last SpringSoft visit!) Jennie picked me up at the airport and we went to The Mountain Shop (www.mountainshop.net) so that Jennie could rent some Alpine Touring (AT) skis and boots, then we went home, I repacked, and we headed up to SnoPlace. Kelly, Sue, Paul, and Kenny were already there when we got there — rare for a Friday. Kelly was cooking ribs, and Peter was coming over. We figured out that we needed to make the butternut squash cheesecake Friday so it could chill before dinner on Saturday, since we were planning to go skiing in the morning. So instead of going to the Brew Pub for dinner, we stayed home and Sue and I collaborated to make a simple dinner of grilled chicken breasts, angel hair pasta, and pesto. I mixed some Margaritas down on the bar just to get it going.

Saturday Jennie and I went up to Timberline and she tried out the AT gear. The forecast said cloudy, but it was beautiful first thing in the morning, and I underdressed. By the time we got up to Timberline it was clouding up, and it got a bit windy. I was barely warm enough. We rode the lifts for a few runs, skiing on frozen chattery hard pack, then headed out to the west from the top of Stormin’ Norman and put on our skins at the boundary. We hiked up and out until we reached the big canyon, then went straight up until we found a convenient place to climb out back to the east, then up until we got back to the run, probably about 4/5 of the way up the Mile. We sheltered behind a rock and took off our skins. The OB was all crust, but wind and sun, and would have been “survival skiing — no fun at all. This little jaunt let Jennie get the feel of skinning on the AT skis. Here she is about about 6500′ with Ski Bowl in the background.

We called Kelly and found that he was positioning himself for Kenny’s slopstyle conpetition, so we found our way over to him. We missed the first run, but saw the second, ate our lunch, and then headed back down to SnoPlace. I got pictures of Kenny on the two jumps we could see.

Jennie found climbing on the AT gear more cumbersome than cross-country skiing. But she also found the stability of the locked heels more comfortable when we skied through the trees in crusty crud. So all in all, it’s a go for AT boots/bindings instead of tele for the new Rossi Rip Chick skis we bought pre-season.

Saturday night we had friends over and cooked up a big feast. Our new friends Jason and Sarah who are building up at the end of Little Trail came, as well as Lisa, Darlyn, Jim, John, and Keely. Kelly fixed his pork chop and rice dish with pears and chutney. I made two different butternut squash appetizers: a tart with carmelized onions and simple bacon-wrapped cubes drizzled with maple syrup. Susan made a waldorf salad, but since Govie General didn’t have grapes, she used bluberries. Everything was yummy, as usual!

After dinner most went downstairs to watch some Midnight Special, and there were a bunch of people sitting at the bar! We bought some Ikea stools through Craig’s List, and Kenny and his friend Max put them together — so there was something to sit on.

Sunday I was going to make Marth Stewart’s mac and cheese for the Superbowl party at the Alldritts’ but Jennie noted that we had three packages of pork chops thawed and not used for dinner. So I started them in the crock pot. When it became clear that they would not turn into pulled pork in time, I made the mac and cheese after all. It came out great and earned raves — wish I had gotten a picture of it! We enjoyed the party, and Jennie and I were two of a very few that actually watched the whole game. The game was over by 7:00, we came home and had a starlight walk through the woods, listened to some music and played some pool.

Government Camp and SkiBowl have been right on the edge of the freezing level ever since the beginning of December. The snopack at SkiBowl now stands at just about 30 inches. It had gotten down to about 20 a couple of weeks ago, and then it snowed last weekend. As I sit at SnoPlace, it is drippy outside, but the showers turn to snow every once in a while. It’s been like this since Christmas! We’re extremely lucky to have a base to ski on, and the Upper Bowl remains totally skiable. Yesterday with just a couple of inches of new we had a really fun session. But we’re right on the boarderline. The Lower Bowl run is closed because there’s just not enough coverage, and they haven’t been running the platter tow or the Cascade Chair. We need a couple of feet to  turn everything back on!

Here’s what its looked like at SnoPlace for the past month:

Last weekend I was in Fernie, BC with my friends Bill, Greg, Mike, and Peter. We spend a day and a half at Fernie Alpine  Resort and four days at Island Lake Lodge. This was our ninth tour there in 11 years (in 2001 the snow melted before our March tour date, and in 2005 we got all the way there just ahead of the pineapple express, and went home in the pouring rain without taking the skis from the bags.) This year was spectacular — we rated it our best ever. We had clear weather and perfect week-old powder over a super-stable snowpack, allowing us to get up to the highest cat drops and ski the high alpine bowls. We even got to  ski some of the tantalizing chutes we’ve been eying for years. You can see a photo album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/or31acres/IslandLake2010# and a video a made of our hike up and descent of a face called Big White here: www.snoplace.com/vids/BigWhite-FlipFantasia.wmv.

Our sessions

Here we are in mid-January still listening to it rain. SkiBowl was closed during the week and somehow operated yesterday, although the Lower Bowl is looking rather brown. The whole town is looking bleak. There is a sad little lump of snow left on the deck (Jennie says it looks like a turtle.)

The wet helped keep Jennie and I at home on Friday night, along with the inertia that comes from just having gottent home from over a week away (San Jose and Las Vegas) and the prospect of leaving again on Monday (Fernie!) But it didn’t get in the way of a nice dinner party Saturday night with our friends Lisa, Tom, Janet, Blaine, Darlyn, Jim, Keely, and John. Lisa made a fabulous pork loin roast (”I always travel with one”), Janet made a spectacular potato dish (”comfort food”), Darlyn made a greek salad, and I think everyone brought wine. That’s “King James” presiding over the dinner table.

Today Jennie and I will head down fairly early so I can pack, although I probably have time tomorrow. I don’t leave Portland until mid-afternoon. The weather forecast looks promising for next  week, both here and in Fernie with colder temperatures and moisture all week.

It was another wet New Year’s Day. It tried to snow all day, with few bursts of lovely flakes filling the air. But it never lasted.

The house was full in the morning with kids all packing up and heading home. We exchanged gifts with the Srofes, and Jennie and got “boot studs” that will be great on the icy street. That’s Kelly with his new keg — we hope to pour some homebrew soon!

Paul’s friend Willy brought his dog over again and he played with Bo. It was great to see Bo being so patient with her after tormenting Kobi so much. Looks like older dogs are instinctively programmed to be training partners for the littler ones.

George, Teri, Stacey, Briana, Jennie and I went to the brewpub to watch the first half of the Rose Bowl. The Bakewell gang left at halftime and Jennie and I joined Kelly and Sue at Lisa’s for the second half. Lisa and Eugene came over for dinner — yet another feast with open-faced crab/lobster sandwiches, baked scallops, and the remants of Teri’s mushroom pasta augmented with sauteed veggies. We ended the evening by playing a rousing game of Pairs and Pears, a word game with tiles. I passed out on the couch around 10:30 still expecting it to snow overnight and to join John for another powder session this morning.

However, it’s still 32 and drippy here. There’s snow on the trees in the Upper Bowl, but not enough to get me out there early. I’m still considering perhaps going out for a few runs, perhaps up to Timberline to get above the wet.

We had a relatively mellow New Year’s Eve, with many of our traditonal guest away for one reason or another. We cooked up a storm (Teri’s chicken enchiladas, my drunken pinto beans, Jennie’s cornbread and cheese fondue, Sue’s tomatillo and avacado dip, and George’s spicy chicken legs (but we forgot to make those!) We pretty much just had those staying at the house here for dinner but we managed to eat most of it over the course of the evening.

We were fading after dinner, so we took a walk around the town through the slush. The temperature hovered around 40 degrees all night, but it really didn’t pour down — just drippy.

The crew from Lisa’s house came over around 10:30 and livened the party.

We took our traditional midnight walk in the center of town. It was WILD with serious mortars going off in front of Charlie’s.

I got distracted byall the commotion and  lost track of Jennie at midnight but found her on the bridge a few minutes later. We saw the end of the Skibowl fireworks and then it started to rain.

One of Paul’s friends came by after we got back, adding a bit of late-night entertainment with his 7-week old malamute/wolf mix puppy — so cute!

We woke to no new snow overnight, but it started dumping at about 7:30. I got to the Cascade Chair in time to catch the first chair at 9am, and jammed three runs before John and Peter joined me. The snow was great, and kept getting better. We headed for the upper before 9:30 and skied everthing — we had the place to ourselves! At one point John and I made 5 runs on the Upper in 1/2 hour — that’s a rate of over 4500 ft/hr.

I took my helmet cam out for the first time and got some interesting footage despite the conditions, which changed rapidly from dumping snow to freezing rain to plain rain. The buttons on the camera froze up and made it hard to turn on and off, and towards the end of the session the lens was coated, giving the video that “vaseline” look.

Here are a couple of samples:

bigrockchute1

calamitywoods1

The bummer is that the rain has continued all day, and looks to continue into the night. Wandering Govie tonight might not be so much fun. Here are the young people whiling away the afternoon in front of the projector.

My big SnoPlace project for November/December has been to build the bar in the basement. This has involved building the base and forms shown in previous posts, and coming up several times with our “concrete guy” Brandon Gouner, who mixed the concrete with black-dyed water, placed it in the forms and finished it, then ground the surfaces.

We took the bar itself down to expose the aggregate, as well as the steel snowflakes that we embedded in the top. These were extra powder-coated snowflakes that we had intended to attach to the railing upstairs, but when we decided we only wanted black ones there the white ones became surplus. I drilled holes in three of the arms on each one and threaded it for a small bolt. These bolts stick down into the concrete to make sure the snowflakes stay in place. When Brandon ground down the concrete, he ground of the powder coating, leaving shiny steel, with just a touch of white in some corners.

The working sink counter in the bar we just honed to make it perfectly smooth. And the hearth we ground a bit to expose sand, but not really down into the aggregate.

I finished the hearth with Osmo Polyx Oil, the same finish we used on the wood floors upstairs. This came out good. but was a pain to do. I think I put on too much, so it turned white and streaky. I went over it wiith mineral spirits and then put on another very light coat.

I finished the working counter with a liquid silicone sealer called Miracle Cover. It worked well, but did not darken the color as much as I would have liked, nor provide any sheen.

The picture above also shows the custom concrete tiles in place. I ended up remaking the one with the taps because version 1.0 had the holes too low, so although you could get a pint glass under the tap, you couldn’t get it out without dumping part of the beer! It was certainly a low point in the project when I realized this!

For the bar itself, I chose to order a special sealer from concrete counter specialist Cheng Concrete. This stuff worked really, really well and I wish I had used it on all three pieces.

We christened the bar with a few shots on Dec. 30, and it’s ready for New Year’s Eve festivities!