Before I get to that, let me tell you how much fun JC and the kidlings had on their desert camping trip last week. They found not only an arrowhead...
...but part of a human skull too!!!!!!
Crazy little foxes. And here I was lolling about my week, while they were out traipsing about the deserts of southeastern Utah, lotting and pillaging like some good old-fashioned pot-hunters. No, they did not bring the skull back and stick a drippy candle on it for the coffee table, nor did they pocket the arrowhead with intentions of bragging about it at show-and-tell. Like good wilderness stewards they photographed them and left then exactly as they were found. Leave only foot prints, right?
There was a lot of excitement up on their return, telling me about the discoveries and adventures, and everyone seemed happy for hot showers and clean beds. It sounds like there was an apocalyptic dust and wind event that convinced them to return on Thursday evening to our little mountain ski chalet (or so we like to call it - a bit of a stretch? perhaps, but it is waaaay more fun to come home to a ski chalet than any other option).
A big winter storm moved in this weekend so I pretty much bought food and then made food. Both kids had sleepovers on Friday night, so we relaxed at home and slaughtered this week's crossword puzzle. I took a solo trip to Montrose on Saturday to provision ourselves for the coming week as well as backpacking trips on the horizon. I finally stopped at Ray's Jerky and was pleasantly surprised by both the generosity of their free samples (worth the stop alone) but also the quality of the jerky. I guess I have only really had the dry, super chewy, tear-a-piece-off-in-the-corner-of-your-mouth-using-primarily-your-molars variety of jerky, but this kind was moist, dense, soft and flavorful. I don't care what is in it. I want meat on my backpacking trips and I have found my brand. Jalapeño was my favorite flavor, no, wait, maybe the spicy teriyaki.
I then immersed myself in making food. I think I was in the kitchen for at least 6 hours over the next 24, putting groceries away and making:
- salsa
- party nuts
- homemade pasta (yes, for real)
- apple turnovers
- Meyer lemon juice to freeze
- fresh squeezed orange juice
- Carmola Granola
- 2 dinners and a huge lunch salad
Here's the thing: if the weather is bad and we are home, I like to stay busy and try new things. Like homemade pasta. I have wanted the Kitchen Aid pasta roller attachments for quite some time. I finally ordered them a few weeks ago and thought a snowy stormy day would be perfect for trying my hand and fresh egg noodle spaghetti.
The "cookbook" that comes with the attachments led me to believe that crafting the noodles would be incredibly easy, and in one sense it was. The dough was a breeze and rolling out the sheets of pasta was not difficult, although there were some specifics that were noticeable absent, like the exact dimension of the cut pasta. Not knowing this resulted in my pasta sheets being literally 3 feet long. Yes, I could have cut them but the kids and I decided it would be super cool to make spaghetti noodles that were longer than my arms could reach.
One crucial piece of information that could have saved the whole affair was how to actually maneuver the noodles as they emerged from the spaghetti attachment. We all got so excited at the sight of spaghetti emerging from the rollers, I just let it kind of pile up on the cookie sheet. As the pot of water came to a boil, I realized with a sinking heart that the noodles had joined forces, and had become one. One giant clump of damp noodle. Whatever. It will still taste good, right? Yes and no.
It was at this point that I leaned over the stove and caught my hair on fire, not a lot, just enough to make the right side shorter than the left and to cause the kids to come to the top of the stairs and say, "Is something burning? It smells weird."
I then tried to peel apart the puff pastry I had thawed to make the apple turnovers and I guess I left it too long and it became gluey and unmanageable, but I was able to pull apart enough to make 4 triangles, which actually came out nicely.
Sunday I squoze (yes, I made that word up but isn't it fun to say?) 2 bags of Meyer lemons, which were a nice surprise at the grocery store. If you have never had a Meyer lemon, you might want to consider making it a point to experience one at some point in time before you die. They have a floral-y scent and a sweetness to them that is unbeatable. I wisely decided to juice them, and save the frozen extract for a recipe at a later date when I was less hazardous in the kitchen. Bud I did squeeze 10 oranges and half a bowl of almost-too-ripe clementines for us for breakfast.
Sunday was super snowy and I continued on the same track while the kids played with their friends, making snow forts and such. They went back to their mom's this morning. JC is in Ophir at band practice, I taught a super fun backbend class, then we are planning our weekend getaway for our 1-year anniversary. We hope to leave after yoga on Thursday, get to the desert by 10pm, then do a backpack trip in the desert.
If you want to see all the photos from the kids camping trip click here.
And before I forget: I know Nicholas Sparks wrote "The Notebook" and I know women think the guy in the movie is hot, but PLEASE. Johnny brought me "Safe Haven" from the FreeBox, not knowing anything about it but thinking he kind of recognized the author and maybe I would like it? All I had to do was open the back cover and show him the author's photo, and he said quietly, "I'm sorry." Did I read it? Of course! I had to get out of the kitchen before I caught something besides myself on fire. Was it torturous in its trite, schmaltzy, over-simplified, stereotypical prose? Why, yes. To be honest, I felt compelled to read it out of pity for the super-rich sap who wrote it. When I finished the last page, lying in bed last night, I slowly closed the cover and threw it across the room. Now that is how to finish a New York Times Bestseller. What a travesty.
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