Month: February 2023

On my Monday off I went to lunch with Mom. I ate the all but one slice of the pizza you see i front of me and two meatballs. Can you say growth spurt?

I also made Victoria Sponge from Paul Hollywood’s cookbook.

It turned out pretty well. Unfortunately, I decided I don’t like whipped cream, so not too much got eaten.

Mom needed some help getting ready for lab class, so I did some wiring and programming for her.

On Saturday we had one of another bluebird day.

It snowed all week, but they weren’t able to open the Summit Chair due to weather. Looking at the back of the lift house, you can see why…

Because they couldn’t open the lift all week, when they did open it on Saturday, that meant there was fresh powder to be skied. The Bigs dropped me off at MBSEF and took off to see if they could enjoy some before it got all skied off.

After MBSEF we skied a run together so I could show Dad my moves.

While we had an amazing, sunny Saturday, Old Man Winter is not done with us yet. Here we are on Sunday.

After skiing The Bigs had some work to do, so Mom asked me to find something to do. I decided to do some experimenting in the kitchen (silly Mom – be careful what you ask for). I made up a recipe for a biscuit and then baked it and, then I decided to try making creme patissiere from Paul Hollywood’s cookbook. The clean up was intense. Mom was not happy.

Watch out Rafa. Four tennis lessons in and my forehand is looking good.

I come home and teach The Bigs everything I learn, because, in my opinion, they know nothing and are not very athletic.

I actually went to school all week, so there isn’t much to report. The good news is that I have tomorrow off and big plans for another Paul Hollywood recipe, so next week there should be some good pictures.

Besides tennis, I did some swimming and some skiing.

And Mom went spiralizer crazy…

She made a lot of Mediterranean sweet potatoes with avocado and tahini sauce. She learned an important lesson…

Don’t double a recipe before trying it.

I have been polishing some rocks with my rock tumbler (thanks Uncle Jim) for the past few weeks and they are finally done. I made myself a necklace with my favorite one.

I was sick on Tuesday, so I stayed home and watched Heidi and Mary Poppins while The Bigs worked. I still had some time to kill so Mom gave me Paul Hollywood’s (of The Great British Baking Show) cookbook and told me to make something.

I made scones.

And enjoyed them with butter and jam. I think I would not have to leave the tent.

After many snowy weekends, we had one of these days.

It was pretty great. I practiced skiing GS on Saturday morning

and then skied with The Bigs in the afternoon.

Sunday we had another gorgeous day for nordic skiing.

I grew a LOT of lettuce this month.

I made myself some pretty sweet salads

and let The Bigs use some to make asian lettuce wraps.

I also made egg tamago rolls with wasabi mayo and mom made sweet potato cakes with kimchi mayo one night.

I had to make a mailbox for my Valentines. The Bigs had to twist my arm to do it, and only after much grumbling, did I make this.

I made a pretty cool card for Great Grandma Marie, so I just copied the design for my school Valentines. Here is the front.

You have to use the back to figure out what it says.

Here is Dad near the end of the Great Nordeen last weekend. It was 9 degrees when he finished.

We were in school for two full weeks since our last day off, so we clearly needed this Thursday and Friday off. On Thursday, I went to Cold Weather Survival Camp. We pretty much built igloos, but it was fun.

This is all of us inspecting the course before our race this weekend.

This me during my slalom race. I love it.

I made salmon with miso-orange sauce (from the “What is Umami” section of The Complete Cookbook For Young Scientists from Great Auntie Cheryl), for dinner this weekend. It was a hit.

I’m watching The Great British Baking show. Last night we saw them make vol-au-vents. (A vol-au-vent is a small hollow case of puff pastry typically filled with a savory mixture). So, imagine my surprise when I went to buy a cookie at Thump and they had ‘savory squares’ – which were, in fact, vol-au-vents.

On occasion, The Bigs still do things around the house. This week they made Forbidden Rice Salad with Blistered Broccolini and Miso Dressing (also from a cookbook from G.A. Cheryl):

and Kung Pao cauliflower.