Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Waxwings - Jonathan Raban


We visited the Sunriver Bookstore when we first got to town and the owner recommended this book. She has a book club called Carole's Surprise. Each month she mails participants a book of her choice. It can not be a famous book, but can be a famous author's unknown book.
We both enjoyed this and look forward to the next one.

Smothered Steak Recipe at Epicurious.com

This was so, so delicious! And Easy!! Very few ingredients. We followed the recipe exactly and wouldn't change a thing.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Snowshoe adventure

We planned to hit the mountain for a little snowboarding, but the weather didn't cooperate. It was SCARY driving there, could hardly see a thing, and the parking lot had about a foot of snow. The lifts were hidden behind the heavy blowing snow and we figured that even though the snow would be fantastic, the visibility was way too poor.

So instead, we decided to go snowshoeing. After eating a spicy Chipotle Burger at BaseCamp Grill, we rented snowshoes, drove the a parking spot by the river and headed out. I thought we'd go for an hour or so, but we got a little carried away and hiked all the way to the stable through deep unpacked snow. Then we had to get back...cut across the airport runway to the lodge...and still about a mile to go, phew! At that point, we took off the snowshoes and stuck to the plowed path. 4 hours later we got back to the car, just as it was getting dark.

Then, back to the dinner for the fantastic dinner...see next post.









Quinoa Cakes with Eggplant-Tomato Ragu

Found this recipe in the February 2008 issue of Gourmet Magazine and knew we had to make it. We made a few changes; added crimini mushrooms and substituted regular mozzarella for the smoked mozzarella in the recipe. The only thing we would do different is not bother with the long instructions for making the cakes. I think we could just fry the cooked quinoa without taking the time to pre-form it into rounds and chill.

Very yummy!



Tuesday, January 29, 2008

...and the snow continues to pile up

Monday was spent reading, exercising, and going to town.

Our first stop was at the Old Mill District to see Cloverfield. What a surprising, intense movie. I was amused at the warnings that one might become nauseous. What the heck?!

Then we met our friends David and Lisa for a great dinner at Anthony's. The food was fantastic, but the company was better. The 3+ hours we inhabited the riverfront table flew by and it was soon time to say goodnight. Looking forward to a little travel in the late fall, Lisa??

This morning woke up to even more snow. At least 6 more inches fell overnight and it's still coming down. I know snowboarding was on the agenda for later today....we'll see.

Tender at the Bone



Darla gave this to me for Christmas. Gotta love a book with travel, fun stories about strange people and RECIPES!!

Monday, January 28, 2008

Sunday at Mt Bachelor

Sunday was the day for skiing. The ski report showed 6 inches of new snow, 23 degrees and only moderate (20 mph) wind. We started the day with a nutritious breakfast of Noah's bagels (brought from home) and Borgia (orange mocha) from the local coffee shop, Bella Tazza.

The drive to the mountain was a little snowy. After renting short shapely skis, we hit the slopes to find that the visibility was just ok and the snow was deep and chopped up by the early bird skiers. But never fear, our rental skis were just the thing, in fact, snow that would have sent us running for home with our old skis was exactly what the skis liked.

Every run was spent seeking out the least tracked, deepest powder and it only took about 2 hours of that kind of fun to wear us out. The last two runs.... Canyon and Tippy Toe. Black diamond, completely ungroomed powdery moguls....way, way too much fun. Guess we're converts of the short fat skis.

Headed home for a quick lunch of quesadilla, guacamole and chips and a nice hot bath. We had another dinner and a movie night. Wonderful chopped salad: lettuce, tomato, avocado, green onion, cucumber, Mrs. Mays Naturals Fruit & Nut Crunch (from Costco, chopped up), beef summer sausage, and goat cheese. Accompanied by crusty italian bread with goat cheese spread.

Movie: Spiderman 3. Not as good as the first two, but ok.




Pretty snow-covered tree in front of our condo.

Walking in Circles Before Lying Down

Ok, so I never read the back cover of books that are given to me as gifts. It came back to bite me. Read 1/3 of the book before I realized this was not a non-fiction dog lover memior. Nope, it was a fine weekend read of a chick novel. Wouldn't really recommend it if you have anything else to read.

A lazy day in Sunriver

Saturday turned out to be so lazy. After reading, we walked over to Cafe Sintra and had a semi nice lunch. We usually really enjoy it, but after a frosty greeting, a spilled drink and soup that tasted like dish soap, we left feeling a bit disappointed. The nice part was the sandwich. As usual, they used a nice aioli and the bread was scrumptios.

Is snowed a bit, so Pat shoveled our sidewalk. Otherwise, we hardly moved. Late we took in dinner (leftover Garlic Jim's pizza that we brought from home) and a movie (Borat, kinda funny but too long).

From Sunriver Vaca...

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Sunriver Vacation

First day of vacation was spent on a leisurely drive to Bend, a little shopping at the outlet mall and a nice lunch at the Bend Brewing Company. For lunch we split a bowl of Chipotle Potato Soup and a Spinach Salad with Tri-tip steak, crumbled bleu cheese and dried cranberries, accompanied by their Pinnacle Porter. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a nice view of the park (covered in snow).

The lunch discussion centered around our meal plans for the rest of the week. First decision was something we'd made before; Balsamic Glazed Chop a recipe for pork, but great with lamb or beef. Nice salad of avocado, goat cheese and tomato. We have a pile of recipes for the rest of the week, too.

Got to the condo around 4:00, read little, ate, and watched a little TV. When we woke up Saturday morning to light snow, spent a few hours reading, each completing an entire book.

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A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Wow, what a quick read. Another interesting book set in Afghanistan by the author of The Kite Runner.


Friday, January 25, 2008

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson


I really, really enjoyed this book even though it was over 1100 pages long!!! The writing was better than the story, but the story was entertaining too. Lots of history and math. There was one annoying thing...two story lines with characters with the same last names. It was obvious that there was a relationship between then, but it wasn't really revealed until the last 100-150 pages.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Even more Wedding pictures

Marnellie took lots of great pics, check out her blog.

Sunday, January 06, 2008