Author: becandkyle

Looks like I’m helping The Bigs clean, right?

Wrong! I’m curling.

This week we returned to Mexico for Baja shrimp tacos with lime crema, rice and beans, and fried plantains.

I decided to spend my allowance on another soldering kit. Here I am getting started.

This one is going to take a while. Can you guess what I am making?!

We had another powder day today. It was a real Pacific Northwest kind of day. Wet, wet snow. It was tricky skiing. I managed, falling less than The Mother…

and even did another black diamond (Grotto) not once but TWICE.

I have a loose tooth, but it wasn’t the tooth fairy who came this week. The ski fairy came and left a pair of skate skis.

I tried them out on Saturday. We had great conditions and lots of sunshine. Everyone was spent by the end. Here are two videos The Mother took.

On Sunday we had our first powder day since Christmas break. It was pretty great despite the Presidents’ Day holiday crowd.

Here’s another video. That woman just won’t let me do anything without shoving a camera in my face.

All my activities make me hungry. I wanted a ‘small’ snack last night after dinner.

Just in case you can’t see – it’s fruit salad with chocolate chips in a TWO CUP container.

This week our country was Panama. We had Panamanian stew.

We also had a Thai Crunch Salad one night:

Valentine’s Day is coming, so I made a mailbox for school. The Bigs made me put hearts on it. Not sure why.

I made cards for my teachers from a shiitake mushroom:

It has been warm here, really warm, end-of-days warm, but the skiing is still good.

I’m back to skating on my too-short classic skis.

My friend from school, Quinn, came over to play Saturday afternoon. We did some archery, some trapeze swinging, and here we are making lego lugers:

Our culinary travels took us to Greenland (!?) this week. Baked cod loin and hot potato salad:

This week, I made African peanut stew.

The picture does not do it justice, it was very good.

I have some complaints about my wardrobe. My underwear aren’t right, the pants mom bought me are for toddlers, and I am SO over the sneakers without LACES.

That’s better. Now about my underwear…

We did not have school on Friday. Why not? It’s not like The Bigs have jobs or anything. Mom took Hazel and me to the rock gym.

I climbed to the very top every single time.

I did some cross country skiing on Saturday. I said I was tired, but I just kept going.

And then on Sunday, I did some ‘pine.

We were all having fun, until…

I decided it was time to conquer my last lift. NORTHWEST EXPRESS. The Bigs conferred. They felt confident there had to be one reasonable run off the lift. Incorrect.

So, we chose this one.

Oh, yes, it was an icy black diamond.

Even The Bigs admitted it was terrible. They said it was a ‘character building experience’. I guess that is another way to say BAD PARENTING.

I made it down and was all smiles. Maybe, just maybe, they were right.

Some other things we ate this week:

Teff waffles:

and injera bread.

Self-efficient man gets a snack. M&M’s on the top shelf are no problem.

Mom forgot my nordic boots on Saturday, so The Bigs rented me skate skis! I skied 9.5 miles over 3 hours!

Here is a video of me attacking:

It clouded up on Sunday. Maybe it will finally snow.

Our country this week was Brazil. We had Brazilian fish stew.

I made fancy drinks to accompany the stew.

We also made kalua pork. It was steamed in banana leaves

and served with cabbage and rice.

Guest blogger this week. Everything (except for this bit) was written by this guy:

we are just going down olympian it’s one of my favorite trails.

this is my ski class.

this is me and my dad. we are measuring pipes for my fort.

I am building my fort .

this is what it look with no roof.

this is wen the fort was finished .

this is broken top

ski ski as fast as you can you cant catch me i’m the skier man

sunny lunch that was to day .

I drew this guy I call him Evan Callistrictor Jeff Bezos

this is smoke salmon

Ethiopian lentil stew .

mom made lentil m’eat’ balls

roasted portobello mushrooms millet pilaf

Some things I have been up to lately.

Cleaning those hard to reach places – only requires a stool on a stool.

Making my own snacks (and the recipes). This one is 1/2 cup dried goldenberries, 1/4 cup dried apples, and 1/2 cup dried figs.

And skiing. I knocked off another lift this weekend. First ride on Outback.

I also put my nordic lessons to work and hit the trails on Sunday.

It was warm enough for a tailgate.

This week The Mother decided if it could not be made in a crockpot, we couldn’t eat it. Lazy, I tell ya!

Our country of the week was Morocco. We enjoyed Moroccan lamb stew.

Tortilla soup.

And creamy cauliflower soup.

We were out of school for a 10 day quarantine, went back for 4 days, then went on the two week Christmas break and then after only being back in school for 6 hours school was closed for snow.

This week’s country was Japan, so we had ramen.

This was a big week as it was my first time on red chair.

After lots of snowy days (Batchelor received 66 inches of snow in the last 7 days), Sunday was a sunny day

check out the trees…

Here I am working on the scratchables Uncle Jim sent. It took lots of quiet concentration. I really enjoyed it, but I think The Bigs enjoyed it even more :).

I tried to keep busy this week. I went ice skating,

built a race car,

learned how to solder,

and used my new skills to build a Christmas tree,

built a few log cabins,

shot all The Bigs’ frozen peas with my new slingshot,

learned how to play mancala, checkers, chess, and Monopoly,

this is what I look like when I take all your money,

helped Mom make dinner (shelling pistachios is boring so I threw on a podcast to listen to),

and skiied.

Uncle Martin sent us fish for Christmas, so this week we had mahi mahi with capers and tomatoes,

salmon with sauteed cabbage and roasted kabocha squash with maple and sage,

and bass with roasted veggies. Yum!

Our country of the week this week was Costa Rica, so we had gallo pinto (beans and rice) with tostones (fried green plaintains).

And for New Year we had roast chicken, roasted red potatoes, and brussel sprout salad.

I have to make my lunch for school, but I get rushed. The Bigs are always saying ‘finish up, time to brush teeth’. But now that I am on break, I’ve had time to relax and create some culinary magic.

One day I had a smoked mozzerella and salami sandwich, fruit salad, and some pita chips.

Another day I decided to make a ‘board’ with some smoked salmon, cheese, and cuties.

I also decided we should try a recipe from a different country each week. This week? Mexico. The Bigs made me make the dinner – chimichurri cauliflower bowls with Mexican slaw.

Dad and I made a gingerbread house too.

I don’t just cook for myself. I made our neighbors granola as a Christmas gift.

I even designed the label.

I don’t spend all my time in the kitchen. Lately, I’ve been hanging out in the garage a lot. Why? Because Dad built me a trapeze.

I also produced a few works of art.

And made a Christmas display for us to enjoy while we opened our gifts.

We also did some skiing and Santa brought some powder.

After all that skiing it was nice to have a warm bowl of smoked eggplant soup for Christmas Eve dinner.

And I was more than excited to have lamb shawarma for dinner on Christmas Day. The mashed potatoes and root vegetables and roasted butternut squash and red onions were less exciting but ok.

I am so in the lamb.

I left a teeny tiny bit of room for fresh fruit topped with mango and raspberry coconut creams.