Sunshine ski trip

The first trip of the 2005/6 ski season is now under our belts and Sunshine actually lived up to its moniker this time with some quality weather to go with the very quality snow. I was on telemark skis again as I am determined to get good enough at tele-skiing so that trips into the backcountry powder don't fill me with trepidation. Backcountry skiing is so wonderful even when you're really bad at it as I was last year that I can only imagine what it will be like this year with a bit more time on skis and a smoother technique. Any technique at all would be an improvement frankly. So I'm sacrificing some snowboard carving for a payoff of first track powder days and I think it will be worth it in the long run.

This year it's mostly going to be Ken and I skiing due to uni demands on Col, which makes for a less than complete ski trip without her. Hopefully she'll be able to make it to one of the multi-day hut trips that are in the offing and we'll also be able to get some practice on the local slopes in the meantime.

There's a new photo set up on Flickr with the very few snaps that I did manage to take. There never seems to be a good time to stop on the slopes and pull your gloves off, fish the camera out, turn it on, frame the shot, fix up the contrast because of all the white reflections everywhere and actually take a shot when you could be working on your turns, bending your knees and trying to point your shoulders down the fall line properly. I'm hoping that I'll get better at taking the time for photos as I get better at negotiating my way down the hill.

Give a little to get a little

The rewards for a well executed chocolate cake seem to be plenty of yummy leftovers of wild salmon caught by David and his brothers in the Queen Charlotte Islands. So what else can you do with salmon other than baking it with dill and lemon juice? Why put it in a fritatta with some prosciutto and take a photo of the result of course!



It tasted even better than it looks if you can believe that...

First snow for 2005/6 season

It's a little late in coming, but the first snow of the 2005/6 season in Edmonton finally dropped from the sky last night. It's slowly been getting colder and colder here but the sky has remained stubbornly bright and cheery until this week when you could tell that snow was just around the corner. Maybe the reason I started a baking extravaganza on the weekend was because I could sense it in my bones - I could be becoming attuned to the seasons here in a new and unorthodox manner. Steve starts baking - snow is just around the corner; Steve stops blogging, the snow has gotten so deep that there's no time for anything but snowboarding and skiing; Steve continues to stop blogging - summer has arrived and there's waterskiing to be done...this could be the start of a bad trend!



Last year snow came a lot earlier on the 9th of September

So my total cooking experience over the weekend was baguettes during the day on Saturday followed by an unbaked layered lasagna with prosciutto, ricotta and asiago cheese from my new favourite foodie blog Lex Culinaria for dinner that night.

I made the best chocolate cake in the world on Sunday night with traditional English custard to take over to David and Monica's place for dinner (more delicious salmon from the Queen Charlotte Islands trip in the summer). There's nothing quite like a great dinner with friends (Rod, Huey and Angela were all there as well) followed by rich, dense chocolate cake and custard to really make you appreciate how lucky you are. And then you walk outside and everything is layered in white fluffy snow.

First baking of the colder season

There seems to be a cycle in my baking that closely follows the seasonal changes. When the weather starts getting colder and the thought of having the oven up at 500F for a few hours doesn't seem so bad, baking comes to mind as a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning. So here are the results of yesterday's baking frenzy - French baguettes. They look almost as good as they taste too.

27 countries - 12% of the world

Crusing through the internet byways and highways and I found this interesting little piece of nostalgia. Just punch in the countries you've visited (and I'm including the broadest definition here of having stopped at their airport for a few hours - hello Fiji and Thailand!) and voila, a map of places you've been and conversely places to get to. South America, Africa and Antarctica remain the only three continents I haven't made it to yet. I guess the 2007 trip should maybe take those into consideration?


Click for larger version

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