Ski Event

We stopped downtown today to watch this event. Some of the streets in Hood River are really steep, they filled this one with snow and added some rails and the local (and I think some non-local) kids competed on both skis and snowboards.


This kid was my favorite, he was probably 7 and really good. He won his heat. We had to leave early to meet the firewood guy, who never actually showed. No call, no answering his phone, nothing after talking to him for the last 10 days to arrange a time. Very weird, I don't know what that was about.


Here's a view from the bottom.


We kept busy in the kitchen during the time we would have been unloading wood. I baked bread! I don't know if it was beginner's luck or if I have a knack, but it turned out wonderful, even though I tweaked the recipe. I know that baking is a whole new ball game from cooking, but I did grow up making bread so I think a lot of that was ingrained and filed away. (The Kitchen Aid helped too)



We are in the process of a lot of life overhauls - mainly driven by money, but also by trying to live the lives we want to live. We are trying to cut food costs, food is super expensive here. The kind of prices we are used to paying for organic, local for regular food. The highest priced organic milk we've seen was $13 for a gallon, who can afford that?? We haven't priced it out yet, but we want to start making our own bread. If nothing else it tastes better, less plastic is used and we know exactly what went into it - including our own honey. We are also buying in bulk and freezing, preparing dried beans instead of canned, that kind of thing. We are still working through those apples, 2 more batches of applesauce - it is the best applesauce I've ever had, and SO easy. Fill the crock pot with apples, our's is a 3.5 quart. It will fit 10-12 large apples. We have been using granny smiths, I think that is the secret. Add half a cup of sugar, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon, and add 1/4-1/2 cup of water. Low for 8-10 hours, high for 3-4. Using an apple peeler/corer is key, super fast and easy.
We will be making hot sauce again soon with the rest of our peppers and I'll post the recipes then. The first ones need to be adjusted.