It was Saturday, 8th of October, Silverton received 4 feet of snow, a wonderful surprise to the town and the avid skier or snowboarder. Wolf Creek Mountain, known for accumulating the most snow in Colorado, decided to open for the weekend, running two lifts and only for 33 dollars.
Michael and I left the house at 6:30 am to make the trip down, excited about skiing a full day, Michael waxed his board and my skis, filled a small cooler with the essential items such as Kosher hotdogs, Dijon mustard, Salt and Vinegar Kettle chips, and ice cold Euphoria from Ska Brewery.
As we approached the uphill drive to the base, the cars started to file in and the snow was still falling just intensifying the excitement of great POW about to be discovered. There was no covered parking, elevators, or heated sidewalks as those are luxuries of Mountain Resorts, only a guy flagging us to our spot in one of the four parking areas, a tracked in hill of snow that led you to the ticket office.
The sun was shinning, no sign of wind, and a chair lift was carrying zealous snow lovers up the mountain. We took advantage of the luxury of being carried up and skiing down from 9:30-3:30, skiing through the trees, carving through the endless four feet of powder with a smile of pure joy on our face.
If life couldn’t get any better, Michael received a text as we were cruising down a run, came to a stop to check it out, and to our much surprise a job opportunity appeared! A family we recently cooked for this summer was inquiring for our services again. I threw my poles down and said, “You are joking right.” Michael responded by reading the message out to me and then decided it was a good time to take a break.
We finished the day proudly with a perfectly steamed kosher dog in our All-Clad pan, and beverage in hand, relaxing in our camp chairs behind our truck with the tail-gate down, listening to the talk of the day around as people removed their hats and gloves and loading up their car. We felt simply blessed, as though God was granting us a final ski for the year, knowing that we would be on our way to our next culinary adventure. Thank you Lord.
Monday morning came, and the Great Adventure began with more information, pushing us to make a decision about our house, dog, personal belongings, and car. What should we do? Do we hold on or just store it and take a leap. We went jumping…rented a storage unit, started selling useless items to make an extra buck, and decided to drive our car down to Phoenix to store and have our dog Booker be watched over by my parents. We realized as we were packing that we had a lot, meaning more than we wanted to pack and store for who knows how long. I couldn’t just let go of it all but willing to compromise with downsizing, we were just happy we didn’t own furniture.
Looking over the pantry of dry goods I had for baking I had an idea on how to put it to good. I had a large container of oatmeal, and wasn’t about to just cook a pot of porridge but instead made one of Michael’s chewy granola bar recipe and multiplied by five based on the amount of Honeyville honey I had. Perfect snack for a long trip! The bars would include: Oatmeal, flaxseed meal, sesame seeds, raw coconut, Hempseed oil, and toasted unsalted peanuts. The recipe produced a half-sheet pan, about 50 chewy and slightly sweet bars. Next I mixed the last of the oat bran, raisins, the single ripe banana, grated carrots, cake flour, brown sugar, two eggs and a cup of milk for the Healthy muffin recipe. It also enabled me to use the cupcake liners and butter spray that has been hiding for the last months. Now we have breakfast for the last days in Silverton. I didn’t stop there, I baked two types of cookies, and two loaves of bread that I could share with some of the friends we have in Silverton. The cookies we enjoyed on many occasions as we packed, and baking my last two loaves in our classic gas oven was memorable. What wonderful memories I have created in the kitchen with Michael and the many people that have joined around our table and broke bread with us. They will always be cherished and never forgotten no matter where the road leads us.
Congrats to the both of you! Sounds fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing where in the world you'll pop up next!
Glad I got to enjoy some of those memories of good food and conversation around that table, and help come up with the name for your blog. Now, just waiting on that cookbook!
Posted by: Jim | 10/20/2011 at 07:40 PM