use real butter

Last night I fried up some shrimp chips - those crazy chinese snacks that scream “artifical ingredients” and red dye no. 40. I think I like frying them more than eating them.

dried colorful chips, fry up in hot oil in seconds to a fluffy chip!

happy shrimp chips

I prepared a simple t-giving dinner tonight while simultaneously making a giant batch of Brunswick Stew from my turkey broth. No cooking for several days! Jeremy installed our new honeycomb blinds on the second floor and already we can tell a marked difference. Our plan was to ski Copper Mountain tomorrow, but it’s still early season, less than 30% of the mountain is open, and Jeff informs me that it gets VERY crowded. We’ll enjoy the backcountry skiing until the snow really gets underway later in the season. I think we’re just anxious to hit the slopes, but Fiona’s advice to wait for the good snow on the slopes is - me thinks - wise. That comp time will be nice for a weekday venture over to Copper.

brunswick stew a la williamsburg cookbook

t-giving loadup: ham, corn pudding, brussels, garlic mashies

Jeremy still had the tail end of his cold this weekend, so I made congee - chinese rice porridge. Growing up, we always ate congee plain. It was essentially rice boiled to hell into a mushy consistency like oatmeal. Then we added shredded dried bbq pork, pickled vegetables, chili radishes, and sometimes scrambled eggs with green onion. This version is loaded with goodies for sick people: chicken broth, chicken, green onion, sesame oil, and some minced ginger. It’s so good served hot. We had leftovers for dinner tonight:

chicken broth congee with pork sung and chili radishes

I think a lot of my friends who did field work in China hate congee. I’m sure if you ate it every day, you’d be sick of it. Then again, there are a lot of people in the world who eat the same food daily. Anyway, when Hoke came to my parents’ house to celebrate Jeremy’s defense for a weekend with us, my mom served up some congee one morning. He’s a pretty open-minded eater considering his field seasons and other travel around the world. He tried some and immediately asked if it would be okay to add some bananas and sugar? I gave him a funny look, but said sure. He said it was delicious. I just thought, “Americans…” And so it is only appropriate that in September, when my parents came to visit, they were fixing breakfast and my mom asked for some oatmeal - plain. I gave her the instant oats and she poured in the hot water. Then she came back and said, “Can I put some of the leftover tsa jiang in it?” Tsa jiang was this fragrant spicy, salty mixture of chili, garlic, black beans, dried tofu and ground pork that you eat with noodles. I gave her the same funny look as I had given Hoke and said, “Sure.” When she took a bite she said in Chinese, “Oh, this is really good, you should try it,” and shoved a spoonful in my mouth. It was good. But I realized that Hoke and mom were both just taking a staple from a different culture, and bastardizing it with their own culture. I actually thought that was kind of neat because I like my oatmeal sweet (but not too sweet) and my congee savory (and spicy!).

Last night, we couldn’t decide what to do today - to downhill ski at Eldora, to tele ski at Eldora, or to cross country ski at Brainard. I wasn’t keen on going to Eldora just yet, after all it is opening weekend and only a small percentage of their runs are open. We packed up the skis and dog and set off for Brainard Lake, the staging ground for many excellent hikes and climbs. The road is now closed at the gate and people were hiking, snow shoeing, and skiing in. Parts of the road were so melted out that there were only thin sheets of ice to ski across (instead of rutting up on the asphalt). But other parts, and especially off the road, there was nice deep powder.

where someone else postholed, i glided across without a worry

mush!

ski whore - jeremy tries to cross in sparse places on 1/8 inch thick ice

It was so nice to cross country again - we hadn’t done this in several years! Kaweah really got on Jeremy’s nerves at the start, but when we hit some deep snow, I told him to let her off leash and she went about tiring herself out in due time. On the way back to the car, she was very good off leash and Jeremy could actually enjoy the skiing without the non-linear component known as the kaweah force. It was a warm day (maybe 32?) but the winds were pretty stiff at the lake. A good workout because I can feel it in my butt right now (sore).

And tonight I finally tackled that project of mine: the crusted roast. The key to this recipe: the fresh herbs that go into the crust: thyme (one of my favorites), marjoram, garlic, shallots. It smelled fabulous in the oven for the hour that it was roasting. The pork loin I bought was so damn big that I only used a third of it and saved the other two thirds in the freezer. I seared the meat on each side in my sauté pan and was left with some fond which I deglazed for a nice wine sauce.

fresh is best

ready for the oven

deglazing

finis

The roast was a success! Jeremy and I both liked it a lot (good thing too, we have plenty leftover). I will probably reduce the salt in the recipe since you have to salt and pepper the pork before searing it. Tender and juicy. This will eventually get filed in my photo recipe archives.

I was bad today, and I ordered some stuff from Patagucci. Hey - at least I buy stuff on sale! I also got a top for Jeremy. Their silkweight capilene is the best.