December Activities.

Randoms. But good ones.

Delicious hotdog joint at Park City Mountain Resort. Started at the summer park in Mt Hood, and followed the 'jibber park kids' to Park City last winter. This summer they built a permanent structure with a deck and everything.


They get Rob's approval.






Finally tried the sweet potato cupcake recipe I'd been holding on to for a few weeks. Rob helped by 'toasting' the marshmallow toppings.


Mid-cupcake toast.



Few more Holiday-esque recipes:

Candycane Biscotti




Chocolate Chip Walnut Mini-Loafs (from my new Pampered Chef Mini-Loaf Stone!)





Peppermint Martini




And a Girl's Night In Craft Night ... Homemade Wreaths!

Thanksgiving Aspen Adventure

We spent another wonderful Thanksgiving in Colorado in 2011, with plenty of food, libations, and a little bit of skiing.

Rob helped make the cranberry apple pie.


Hickory House smoked turkey feast.


Sunny day skiing at Ajax.


Talk about ski-in/ski-out.


Something you can't find in Utah, $15 Happy hour pitchers of margaritas.





Aspen Trees.


Fireworks over Ajax.

Stomach Stretching Pizza Feast

Two years officially makes it a tradition, right?

Well it does in our book.

Monday before Thanksgiving we hosted the 2nd Annual Stomach Stretching Pizza Feast. Rules are simple: everyone in attendance brings a medium pizza from one of the many take-out places in Park City, and then we eat until we can possibly eat any more.





















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Farm

We experienced the best meal either of us have ever had in Park City last night at a new-ish restaurant called the Farm. It is located at Canyons ski resort and works with local farmers/growers to create all of their dishes.



We started with a delicious lavender-infused vodka lemonade and a manhattan with local High West Double Rye whiskey. For appetizers we has pork belly with sautéed spinach and bee hive cheese, and pork corndogs with local honey mustard.



For our main course Rob had a delicious Buffalo Osso Bucco, and I had a bourbon porkchop with mashed sweet potatoes and blackeyed peas.

The dessert menu looked amazing, but we were both too stuffed from dinner to try anything on it.

The portions were very generous, especially for Park City dining. We were both very impressed by the food, atmosphere and overall experience. Can't wait to go back, but next time will be sure to save room for dessert, and bring home leftovers!

Moe.

Moe. The newest addition. An itty bitty kitty that Rob found living under our back porch.



Moe really likes smoked pork shoulder.


Spaghetti is not Moe's favorite.

Diamond Fork Hot Springs 10/16/11

Went exploring this weekend and found a new spot in Utah, Diamond Fork Hot Springs. About an hour and 1/2 drive from Park City there is a 2 mile hike up to natural hot springs. Easy hike, and there were still come fall colors to be seen.  Cant wait to try it in the winter when the snow is falling!

Mid-Mountain Colors - 10/1/2011

Took advantage of warm Fall temperatures and the beautiful changing colors and went for a mountain bike ride on Park City Mountain Resort behind our place.

 First flat tire of the season. And I got two in one ride.

Mendocino County California

Friday Night was the Welcome Dinner/BBQ for Kate and Eric at Kate's Aunt and Uncle's house.  Beautiful house tucked up in the foothills and Vineyards.  We decided to pull Kate and Eric aside to give them their wedding gift away from all the other guests and before the craziness of the wedding began.  We were lucky enough to be able to use our friendship and fresh cookies as leverage to have two custom pairs of Moment skis made to commemorate their wedding day.    Needless to say they were pumped.

The next morning we found a cute little breakfast spot across from our hotel in Hopland. It wasn't really hard to find, it was the only place besides a grocery store and a donut shop in the little town of 700 people.  The food was great, and the brought us a bread basket full of pastries to start the meal.

While the mountain biking was a bust, we were still able to do some pretty amazing exploring in Mendocino County the morning before the wedding. Drove up Cow Mountain which was supposed to have 17 miles of mountain biking trails. All we found were shotgun shells and more shotgun shells.  But we did get a great view of the valley below.

 And yes, a little brand tagging.

 The town of Ukiah held some gems of its own. Including a Buddhist Monastery, peacocks, and this guy.

The wedding was held at Jerico Estate which is a "tread gently upon the Earth" vineyard with beautiful Mediterranean-style architecture and 180 acres of vineyards.  It was a beautiful setting for the wedding.

The wedding had a very heavy ski theme, was really well done!

Great dinner, dancing and drinks, had a fantastic evening.

Even though we took 3 days to drive to California, we decided to tackle the whole drive back in one day.  This time drove South through Napa and Sacramento.  The drive through all the vineyards and past all the wineries was beautiful, and we couldn't have asked for better weather for the drive. The highlight of the 14 hour drive home was finding a roadside BBQ stand that had all the meats smoking outside over an open pit.