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Recipe: pan-seared sichuan shrimp with glass noodles

You know it was a good weekend when you make food for three separate parties. I’m essentially partied out. But they were all wonderful, excellent, very good celebrations. The most important was Kaweah’s half birthday – her 15.5 birthday to be exact. Jeremy and I are still in awe that she is not only here with us, but generally in good spirits and always happy to eat. While we don’t normally celebrate her half birthdays, we felt it was appropriate to celebrate this one. I seared a few meatballs (ground beef, milk, bread, salt), fried a couple of bacon strips, and procured a proper filet mignon. Kaweah gets ALL of the good stuff.

kaweah loves birthdays and half birthdays

Kaweah gets so excited when we set a plate of goodies in front of her. She looks from the meatball to the filet to the bacon, to me, to Jeremy, then back to the meatball – over and over. All the while, she is trying to be a good girl, waiting for her release word… except she’s almost completely deaf. Instead of letting her eat off the plate, we hand-fed her (and I sliced that steak) so she wouldn’t choke on anything. I dare say she had a really really good time!

jeremy blows out the candles while kaweah stares at the meatballs

the tip of her tongue is sticking out in anticipation

chomp!

The rest of the weekend, we attended our friends’ birthday party and then prepped for and hosted a dinner party for my parents for Father’s Day. I know that I’m very lucky to have my parents here with me – even luckier that I can cook a special meal for them that they enjoy. But now that the weekend is over, I need to get back to simpler fare! I love the prep and great flavors of this shrimp and glass noodles dish.

shrimp, snow peas, vegetable oil, sichuan peppercorns, white pepper, salt, ginger, green onions, chili oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, glass noodles

grind the peppercorns

grate the ginger and slice the green onions

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Recipe: smoked salmon artichoke quiche

I think it’s over. No more major storm tracks coming our way. We went backcountry skiing on Saturday only to find that the powder from 7 days prior had never formed into the coveted corn snow for which we had hoped. It was mashed potatoes at best, water slush at worst. There are reports of wet slides all over the backcountry, so it might just be time to hang up the skis for the season. 72 ski days isn’t so bad. It is my best season to date.

until october, my pretties

our glorious high country

While our skiing has been winding down, our trail runs have ramped up as we anticipate the melting out of the trails. Last week was relatively cool and overcast, but today was warm and humid (although thankfully cloudy) on my trail run. After the first hour all I could think was “How am I going to do this when summer rolls around?” I guess 4 am starts are not such a bad thing.

i love these feetures! socks

As the mercury rises, Kaweah’s stink factor increases exponentially. Thankfully the warm weather means we can wash her with the hose outside. Kaweah is not the aggressive sort, so even though she HATES baths, the worse she does is try to sneak away. In her geriatric state, sneaking away has become stumbling and falling. Jeremy held her up while we washed her, but when it came time to dry her off, we had to lay a towel on the driveway and set her down for her toweling. She’s such a good sport. And now she’s a fluffy, lavender-scented, soft, cuddly, good sport.

you did away with my dog stink! all that hard work for naught…

I thought Kaweah was losing her marbles last week because she kept begging for this hot smoked salmon I was using in a recipe. Kaweah likes anything, really, but she’s only insistent like that with a few things: raw beef (or any beef), peanut butter, cheese, carrots, apples, bananas, bacon. But hot smoked salmon? She’s never had that before, nor have we ever had it in the house before. Maybe it was this delightful quiche I was making?

dill, hot smoked salmon, cream, milk, red onion, eggs, nutmeg, butter, salt, pepper, artichoke hearts, goat cheese

the crust: flour, butter, salt, sugar, ice water

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Recipe: grilled salmon cucumber dill salad

It’s important for us to keep one finger on the pulse of our local backcountry. We are always desiring to know the state of the snow, be it the avalanche conditions or the overall quality of the snow. Is the approach clear of snow, patchy snow, full snow, ice, slush, snirt, corn snow, powder. Part of the reason is to know what gear to bring and the other part is to gauge when we should transition from skiing to hiking.

we hoofed it up to lost lake

the continental divide in the distance

willows in bloom

It has been so warm that we figured the snowpack had another couple of weeks before turning into a junk show. We have been trying to get some turns before putting the skis away for the season. Of course, we’re not the only ones interested in the backcountry conditions. My friend, Erin Block, is a highly-regarded angler whose ears and eyes perk up whenever I post photos and issue an alpine lake report from our ski noodlings in the mountains. See, it’s not just ski whores who love on the mountains.

zipping out through the trees

jeremy skirts the shore of left hand reservoir

If anyone was hoping for an early melt, it looks like Nature has other plans. Stormy volatile weather is moving in and we’ve been experiencing lots of thundersnow, graupel, and hail at our house. They are forecasting a foot of snow for Mother’s Day!

nothing like hail on a trail run to keep your pace up

Despite our return to cold weather, my food cravings have barreled ahead into the heart of spring. I noticed king salmon is showing up at the seafood counters as it is the season. King salmon is amazing stuff, but it’s also outrageously expensive here in landlocked Colorado. I opted for the wild coho salmon that was previously frozen and on sale. It suited my purposes perfectly.

spring greens, cucumbers, dill, olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon, greek yogurt, red onion, salmon

rub the salmon pieces on both sides in a light coat of olive oil

season both sides with salt and pepper

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