BecAndKyle.com

Sad state of affairs here in Bend. This past week it was 60 F most days. There is NO snow. I seek solace in the rock gym. They have the Christmas spirit, but without snow, I’m not feeling it…

Because we haven’t been skiing, there has been time to work on the go-kart. Progress is slow, but we keep moving it forward.

To keep busy, I’ve been doing quite a bit of baking. I made a golden flax loaf (that’s right Papa – you’re not the only one who can make it!)

…And, I served it with a sausage, cheese, and potato frittata that I made for dinner.

One night, the Mother went to a wine and sip. While she was gone, Dad and I had pork burritos and watched Goldeneye. Here is her ‘masterpiece’.

This weekend we had ski team practice. Here is a picture of practice. Anything look wrong to you?! Still no snow.

This weekend we went to Katie and Brad’s to watch a Christmas movie and hang out. I made focaccia.

I’m getting pretty good at this baking thing, but I’d much rather be skiing.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a nice holiday. I had the week off from school, and I spent it with Pop!

He taught me how to play backgammon. Now I can play with Nan at the beach.

We played tennis, basketball, soccer, and football.

We did some drone flying. Aerial photo.

And a little archery.

We also did some construction.

AND. We went go-kart driving. I got faster every lap.

We also celebrated The Mother’s birthday with dinner at Zydeco.

We also did a lot of cooking and baking. But first we had to replace the oven that, literally, blew up. Overuse, perhaps? Now the microwave needs to break – so The Bigs can get one that matches the stove and fridge :).

We made Pop pork pies – no picture because we ate them all so fast. We also made italian sausage with lentils and kale. I contributed a beer bread to that dinner.

For Thanksgiving, I pulled out all the stops.

And all the measuring tools.

Pop and I made a pan co santi (walnut and raisin boule).

Dad made a mushroom and leek galette with gorgonzola, and …

sous vide prime rib. The Mother made a charred shaved brussels sprouts salad…but lets be real, who wants to see that?!

I made dessert – an autumn apple and pumpkin galette.

This week, we also made tallarines verdes (peruvian green noodles)

and Dad roasted all the squashes we had decorating our front porch.

We also went to get our Christmas tree. There is NO snow. I am starting to get a little antsy waiting for ski season.

The tree was a little taller than our ceilings.

After removing about four feet from the bottom it fit just right.

I do sit still sometimes. Everyone reads like this, right?

On Veteran’s Day, I spent the first half of the day at basketball camp. It was fun.

Afterwards, we had lunch at Strictly Organic. The Bigs had breakfast burritos.

I had a mozzarella, tomato, and pesto grilled sandwich. Yum.

I was back in the kitchen again this week,

making salmon chowder.

It was delicious.

The electric go-kart is progressing. We got the motor mounted and repurposed a plastic chair from Goodwill for a seat.

While Dad and I were hard at work on the go-kart, The Mother went to basket weaving class. They were weaving with ponderosa pine needles. Supposedly it was 5 hours. This is what she came home with. Hmmm…

I was a robber for Halloween:

Before trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, we went down to the river to see the Witches Paddle:

The sunset while I was trick-or-treating was pretty amazing:

A couple of weeks ago, I made Zen Noodle Bowls with seared Ahi tuna. Delicious:

We went for a walk with Nana near Dillon Falls. It was a beautiful day:

We got to see some kayakers running the falls:

Rainbow:

Nana took us to dinner at Spork:

This week’s dinner was a pappardelle with a lamb ragu.:

The Mother made some pork pies. She accidentally put more that double the water the recipe for the dough called for, but they were delicious anyway:

We also had kimchi breakfast sandwiches:

This week we had some beautiful, warm weather, and one day I went out to Tumalo Reservoir to fly my drone.

I’m getting pretty good at flying it and taking aerial photos.

We had to pick up a gift certificate to Spork for a teacher appreciation give away at my school, so we used it as an excuse to eat dinner there too. I had the Korean BBQ short ribs. Yum yum.

I carved my jack-o’-lantern.

And we went to the Central Oregon Symphony. Violinist Linda Wang joined them for Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major and then they played Dvořák’s “New World”. I like the music, but it was a little long to sit still if I am honest.

I also tried out my new skis. They are fast. Or maybe I am fast and the skis are skis.

AND Nana is here! We started a white and black puzzle. Nana and I think this is silly but The Mother seems unbothered.

Dad made pretzels for an Oktoberfest feast of sauerkraut, brats, and pretzels.

The Mother and Nana made Moroccan chicken tagine with couscous and some green beans.

I’ve not really appreciated some of the meals The Mother has been planning for us lately – lentils and spinach, seriously? So, I took matters into my own hands this morning and made everyone breakfast. I made scrambled eggs, toast, and fruit and yogurt cups.

You may notice that I have the “You are Special Today” plate. That is because not only did I score my first goal of the season in yesterday’s soccer game, I scored THREE goals!

It was another gorgeous fall week here. We did some rock climbing at Smith Rock.

We went to the Textbooks area of Student Wall and climbed a route called School’s Out:

And, we did more work on the go-kart.

The Mother made Calabrian chili white beans with almond romesco and

sausage polenta. We think Grandma Marie would approve!

It has been a little while since my last update. Let me get you caught up. I did another cross race. This time, I knew what I was doing, so I pushed to the front right away.

I didn’t stay there, but I had a great ride and a lot of fun.

So much fun that I decided to turn our yard into a cross race course one day after school – doing laps between the front and back yards while The Bigs made dinner.

I also did some climbing at Smith Rock:

And I worked on my latte art.

Dad and I got serious about the go-kart construction.

And, inspired by the book ‘The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind’, I built a wind turbine.

This past weekend it was time to buy my ski equipment for the year. Now that I am moving up an age group – Coach Mario said I needed a race suit. I’m not sure how I feel about this.

Finally, The Mother made a sunken ginger plum and spelt cake.

And we had pizza night, with some new variations: a pesto pie and a signature pie with anchovy butter sauce.

I did my first cyclocross race this week. It was awesome. I’ll be racing again this week.

Dad raced too:

Highlight of the week for us all: I finally finished my Viking ship (it only took a year and some pressure from The Bigs):

I ordered a front axle steering assembly for the go kart I am designing, and I made an early prototype:

I put together the magnetic puzzle from Great Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Jim:

I’ve been mastering my barista skills on The Bigs’ new espresso machine:

This weekend, we rode the Crater Rim trail around the volcanic crater in Newberry Volcanic National Monument. There are two lakes in the crater. This is Paulina Lake:

And this is East Lake:

After biking, I made some beer bread:

while Dad made plum, habanero salsa:

The Bigs have finally decided they need to learn how to can.

Another new recipe for the week, tamates a al provencale:

Things have been quiet lately. School cramps our style. Uncle Chris sent us out for dinner to celebrate The Bigs 18th wedding anniversary. Of course we went to the Yacht Club.

I’ve had two soccer games. We are not good.

I made dinner. Pan-seared shrimp garlic-lemon butter.

The Bigs made roasted eggplant with curried yogurt

and pea, za’atar, and feta fritters. Thankfully, I was at Jameson’s house for dinner.

I was at home the night they made a tomato and bread salad with anchovies and capers. Yum!

Dad made pizzas, I definitely approved of this meal.

I set one goal for summer. Climb South Sister. This is a 12 mile hike with 4700 feet of elevation gain. We got started around 7:30 am and were cruising.

As we started to all the last part of the climb, we noticed some cool clouds moving by the top of the mountain very fast. Hmmm…must be windy up there we thought.

As we climbed, the sun disappeared and we were immersed in clouds.

Then it started to pour and The Mother stopped taking pictures. It got really windy, it was pouring, and eventually we got worried we might not be able to see the trail and/or get hypothermia. So…800 feet from the summit we turned around and hiked down as fast as we could in the pouring rain.

In other news, our plums are ready. The Mother and I picked soooo many plums.

We pickled plums.

We made plum compote.

We dried plums.

I made a sweet pastry crust. Normally I put flour everywhere and measure my dough with a tape measure but Great Auntie Cheryl sent us this awesome rolling mat. So much easier!

I used the crust to make a plum tart.

The day after we got back from Westport, Great Auntie Cheryl and Uncle Jim arrived!

I planned out a ‘pick our own adventure’ itinerary for them.

They visited Shevlin Park and

saw me off on my first day of school.

We played The Game of Life

and had a picnic dinner at Smith Rock.

Mom took them to the High Desert Museum

where Jim was definitely a Golden Eagle and so was Cheryl.

Cheryl and Jim took us to Ariana for a delicious dinner.

All the dishes were super yummy and beautiful. For example, Dad had the lamb neck. The menu description: Anderson ranch lamb, cumin, carrot-harissa purée, labneh.

I was particularly tickled to be served my kombucha in a wine glass.

Their visit was too short and there was only a little bit of time at the end to visit Tumalo Falls.

I was sad to see them go, but I had plenty to keep me busy. I needed to test my new waders out fishing in the Crooked River. The waders worked, but I didn’t catch anything :(.

I didn’t get a chance to make a bar for Uncle Jim and Aunt Cheryl, so I made one for The Bigs. They were particularly impressed with my appetizer plate. I used celery tops for garnish!

The next day, we were back at Smith Rock for some climbing (and to use my new helmet!)

It was another great week.