New Pictures

I'm trying out a few things on blogger to see if I can get these pics bigger! Here are a few attempts...

Catch Up

Hello friends! I hope you had a Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful one and I've spent every day since doing a lot of this.....




Yipee! Santa was good to me! I'm working on giving the blog a makeover to accommodate the new pictures - it might take a while before I figure out if it's possible :) I know we're well into winter now, but I somehow forgot to blog about 2 fun family things from waaaay back in the fall...They are both "blog-worthy" so here I go.

First - I visited the Shelburne Museum with my cousin and Grandmother. I've been before with my grandparents (they love it there), but this was my first visit for the past few years. I'm not a big museum fan (shocking I know) but I do love this one. It's a HUGE museum, with 39 exhibition buildings. Many of the buildings are historic and very unconventional - they have a ship, a lighthouse, etc. that house collections of art as well as extensive gardens. It was founded in 1947 by a woman named Electra Havemeyer Webb. For all you art history majors (Sarah that means you) this is a MUST DO on your next visit :)

We went to see the Ansel Adams exhibit, which was great, but it was overshadowed for me by the accompanying collection of Edward Burtynsky. WOW.

Here is how he describes his work:

Nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work. I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.

These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. We are drawn by desire - a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times.

It's VERY cool. He also displays the photos so that they take up almost an entire wall - I don't know the dimensions but I'd guess they are like 8 feet by 5 feet. I'm not going to do him justice, but here are a few of his pictures off his website.

I believe he started by photographing granite mines. This one is not too far from us in Barre, VT.





He also did a great piece on OIL - from extraction to the end of oil. This first pic is of an oil drilling field in California.



This one is from Bangladesh and captures what is called "shipbreaking." Once ships carrying oil are done (for whatever reason), they drive them to this place in Bangladesh. The tide carries them in and, when it goes out, they are stranded on the sand. Workers then go out and "break" the ships down for scrap metal, etc.



The other cool thing at Shelburne Museum was a permanent exhibit of Impressionist Paintings. The museum owns five works by Claude Monet, four by Edouard Manet, seven by Edgar Degas, and four pastels and two prints by Mary Cassatt. Several were first exhibited in Paris in the famed Impressionist Exhibitions of the 1870s and ’80s. WOW. It's not like going to Paris and seeing these things in the Louvre where they are protected behind glass and with guards watching. They were close enough to TOUCH, literally right in front of you. I was tempted to do it but managed to hold myself back :) When we went, we were the only people in the room. It was exciting.

There are so many more things I could tell you, but I'll spare those of you that just don't care and show you some photos of us enjoying our time instead.

View from the parking lot - not too shabby.



I told you there was a ship - it's called the Ticonderoga.







As my cousin said to me, "how many 28 year olds can say they had their grandma talk them into riding the carousel?"



Onto the second fun activity - Apple Picking at Shelburne Orchards.

Cousin and I had lots of fun here too. I'll just share photos because I'm tired of typing!











OK great - now you're all caught up :)

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Wishing you peace, love, and joy this holiday season!

I tried to put a copy of our Christmas card in but it wouldn't copy so this is my best re-creation :)

xoxo

Holiday Treats

I decided to make some holiday treats this year for Matt and me to take to our co-workers. It ended up being a much bigger project than I originally anticipated, but I think it was worth the effort.

First, I made delicious Hatcher Crackers - a recipe my mom received from a man named Hatcher who attended our church when we lived in North Carolina...hence the name Hatcher Crackers. You could probably find variations on it somewhere.

To begin, you'll need:

1(11 x16) Silverstone Cookie Sheet
(10 oz) New York State Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Saltine Crackers
Ground Red Pepper (to taste)

The directions are pretty easy:

Place crackers neatly on cookie sheet. Trim the last row and column to fit pan. Crackers must fit tightly so cheese will not run between crackers.



Sprinkle crackers lightly with red pepper (to taste).



Coarse grate the 10 oz. of cheese directly onto crackers as evenly as possible.



Turn on broiler. Place pan on bottom rack and leave door open. After a few minutes the cheese will begin to bubble.



This step is easy to misjudge so watch carefully. Once the cheese begins to dry out and most of the bubbles are firm on top, remove the pan from the oven. It takes about 12-14 minutes in my oven, but they're all different.



Allow the oven to cool. Return the cookie sheet to the oven set at 150 degrees and close oven door. Leave crackers for several hours or overnight to dry them out. (My oven's lowest setting is 170 degrees, so I set it on this and left it for about 6 or 7 hours). Crackers are best left in the oven until ready to serve (even for days).

I left them in the oven for a few days while I was getting my materials ready. The biggest challenge was trying to keep Matt (OK and me too) from eating them :)

I bought some of these bags and some pretty holiday cardstock at Michaels that I cut into squares.



I printed out the Hatcher Cracker recipe and then glued it to the cardstock squares.



I filled the bags with Hatcher Crackers...



Then I put them into another festive holiday bag and tied the recipe to it with a ribbon. I added sugar cookies too but didn't take pics of those :)



Seems pretty easy right? I wish!

Weekend Update

It's been a while since I've done a weekend update so here you go. Now that it's snowing and the ski resort is open, we've done A LOT of skiing :) This weekend we went for fun on Saturday and had our final on-snow Vermont Adaptive training on Sunday. Matt is so thrilled to be able to ski that it's hard to tear him away, but we squeezed a few other things in too...

Dinner on Church Street with some friends. Isn't it pretty all lit up? We do have lots of snow on the ground, but they take a special brush sweeper thing to clear Church street - note the piles of snow around.



We also did a little bit of a downtown lights tour.




Fun in the snow out at the lake for Nug.





Annnnnd opening Christmas presents early with cousin Jess.

Felt Ball Decorations

I've seen these festive felt ball creations a bunch of places out in the blog world the past few weeks....I want one! I wish I had time to make one this year but it's just going to have to wait until next Christmas. Check it out.

First, Anthropologie sells this garland....for $68! Wow - cute but no thank you for that price. I think it's on sale now but still too expensive.



I saw this one over on Oh Happy Day - she made her own - for much cheaper I'm sure and super cute!



How awesome is this wreath?!



Finally - my friend Sarah made one of these garlands out of pom-poms (she made those too - how crafty!). I LOVE how she used it...never would have thought to put it on the staircase railing!

Supper Club

We're in a supper club up here with some new couple friends...an idea I got from my friend Maegan :) so thank you! We hosted at our house this weekend. I had to set 2 tables so everyone would have a comfortable place to sit. I was a little bit upset because they didn't match but made myself get over it :)







I made this recipe that I received from my mom and it was delicious!

Chicken Lasagna Florentine

6 lasagna noodles -- uncooked
1 10 oz pkg. frozen chopped spinach -- thawed
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese -- 8 oz.
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 can cream of mushroom soup -- undiluted
1 8 oz carton sour cream
1 4.5 oz jar sliced mushrooms -- drained
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese -- 4 oz.
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 cup chopped pecans

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Drain spinach well, pressing between layers of paper towels. Combine spinach, chicken and next 11 ingredients (cheese, onion, nutmeg, cornstarch, salt, pepper, soy sauce, soup, sour cream, mushrooms, mayonnaise). Stir well.

Arrange 2 noodles in a lightly greased 11x7baking dish. Spread half of chicken mixture over noodles. Repeat procedure with remaining noodles and chicken mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat; add pecans and cook 3 minutes. Sprinkle nuts over top of casserole. Cover and bake at 350°F for 55-60 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

I made a few alterations. I hate mushrooms so I left those out and used cream of chicken and mushroom soup instead of just cream of mushroom. I chopped the chicken in a food processer which I think made the chicken mixture more consistent. I also used 9 noodles instead of 6. 3 for each layer. The noodles on top tend to get a little hard, so I used a little extra soup and spread it over the top noodle layer before topping with cheese and pecans.

It's really labor intensive but delicious! Yum!

All I want for Christmas...

Is this!



This summer, I decided I needed to step up my digital camera from my trusty point-and-shoot to a bigger annd better model. I know it's going to be much larger and more to carry around with me but I'm ready to take the plunge. I did lots of research and narrowed it down to the Canon EOS Rebel T2i and the Nikon D90. They both do it all. Video, high quality pictures, great reviews, etc. I've hemmed and hawed for months and months (which is fairly typical).

Santa informed me yesterday that he was packing his sleigh and I needed to got on with it. How did I finally decide? I saw them in person. I went to the store and picked them up. The Canon just felt better in my hand. The end.

Christmas Decorations

It was feeling a lot like Christmas around here...all the decorations were up inside and out...snow was falling...the temperature was dropping. That all came to a screeching halt the past two days as we've had temps in the 40s and rain. Goodbye snow. I think Matt cried himself to sleep over it last night. Good thing we're still all decorated and expecting that rain to change back to snow tonight :) You've seen the tree and the outside but here are some more pics.

Skiing 101

If you're like I was a few years ago, you don't know (or care) about the huge variety of skiing that exists today. I'm married to a ski and ski gear fanatic, so I'll probably be posting about that topic a lot this winter. Of course, you need different types of equipment for each type of skiing so Matt takes full advantage of that to feed his gear addiction. I thought I'd give you a quick ski 101 lesson based on how I understand things so you'll be up to speed for the future :) I'm having Matt check this first so he won't correct me later!

First a quick definition: A ski binding is what you use to attach a ski boot to a ski. It is mounted on the ski and clips in some way to a ski boot at both the heel and toes. There are many different kinds that I mention below.

Downhill/Alpine Skiing
This is just regular old skiing where you wear boots that are attached to skis via a fixed binding. It is usually done at a ski resort where the resort maintains the trails to cover hazards and prevent avalanches, etc. You usually ride a ski lift up the mountain and then ski down. Here are some old Jackson pics...





Backcountry Skiing
There are several types of backcountry skiing. You can either backcountry ski by leaving from the boundaries of a ski resort or you can access a more isolated area either via hiking or touring (see below). The main thing about backcountry skiing is that the trails are unmaintained and unpatrolled. That means no one is responsible for keeping the trails safe. It is up to the skier to practice safe skiing in the backcountry, never skiing alone or when conditions are dangerous. When we lived in Wyoming, backcountry skiing areas were prone to avalanches, etc. Backcountry skiing required use of avalanche transceivers, devices that allow for search and recovery of a person if they happen to be buried by an avalanche. From what I understand, avalanches are not as common in Vermont (so Mom - don't worry). Dogs are allowed (and encouraged) when backcountry skiing so we're pumped to bring Willow!

This is a picture of somebody (not Matt) backcountry skiing on Mt. Mansfield, VT.



If you're hiking, you wear your skis strapped to a backpack like this.



Alpine (or Randonnee) Touring
This is a type of skiing done usually to access the backcountry. In Vermont, many hiking trails encourage alpine touring and are often well traveled. Instead of riding a lift uphill, you propel yourself up on your skis. In order to do that, you use a special type of alpine touring binding that allows the heel to be free to move up and down when climbing. In order to prevent sliding down the hill, you need to have climbing skins. Skins are removable pieces of nylon fabric with a special type of nap that keep you from sliding backwards but allow you to move uphill. You can use regular alpine ski boots or you can purchase touring boots (my next purchase with Christmas money) that have a flexible walking mode for touring and a more rigid ski mode. When you get to the top, you take off the skins and clip down the heel.

Here are some people having fun touring :)



See how the whole binding lifts up in the back?



Here is an example of the boot. It has a switch you turn from Walk Mode to Ski Mode.



This is what skins look like.



You peel them off the skis at the top like this.



Telemark Skiing
This is a type of skiing done both at a resort or in the backcountry. Only the toe is attached to a binding while the heel is allowed to remain free. The boots for this are VERY flexible. To me it looks like you're lunging down the mountain. See below.



Cross-country Skiing
This is another type of ski touring, where the heel is also free. The skis are skinny and the boots are softer and more comfortable. Cross-country is usually done on more flat terrain and many places have what's called "Nordic" centers with groomed cross-country trails. People often go cross-country skiing on ungroomed terrain as well. Here are some cross-country pics - see how the skis are much less wide?






Skate Skiing
This is a type of cross-country skiing, usually done with shorter skis where the technique is more of a pushing motion. Most often done on groomed trails.



You also always have the option to ice skate or snowshoe. If you live somewhere it snows and can't find something you like to do in the winter then there's something wrong with you :) We're excited to do more touring starting this winter with Willow. I'll let you know how it goes!

Images:
http://www.alpinetouringskis.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/alpinetouringskis1.jpg
http://www.sxriore.com/s/marker+duke
http://www.traversecity.com/cross-country-skiing--51/
http://www.dskendall.com/skiing_backcountry_ec.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/gallery/2009/jan/20/skiing-in-vermont-usa?picture=342000442
http://www.backcountry.com/black-diamond-glidelite-nylon-sts-skins
http://campus.greenmtn.edu/greenmap/Equipment_Room/tele.asp
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/i/2787M,,2_Scarpa-Diva-AT-Ski-Boots-For-Women.html
http://skiing.about.com/od/telemarkskiing/ig/Telemark-Skiing/Telemark-Skiing.--4-.htm