No Friday

Two weeks ago, I went on my second heli-boarding trip, this time in Mazama, Washington with the North Cascades Heliskiing. (The virgin adventure was in Panorama, BC two years ago).

It would be an understatement to state that the trip did not disappoint. Fantastic snow (the 18″ earlier in the week + cold temperatures helped), perfect weather, gorgeous views, a great crew, and a chopper (piloted by the veteran maverick Seamus) to take you wherever you pleased are hard to beat.

JJ and I did the 5 hour drive on Wednesday afternoon, and our advance scout Peter took one for the team by learning firsthand and warning us exactly where a cop might happen to be. I’d feel bad if I didn’t get a ticket in Montana the previous week!

Upon arrival, we chilled in the luxury mountain cabin at the Freestone Inn, enjoyed some wine and fine beers before resting up for the start of the adventure.

Thursday morning, we awoke bright and early. Breakfast, weigh-in, avalanche and helicopter safety briefings. After signing our lives and future earnings away, we geared up, and hit the slopes.

Blue skies, fresh powder, and epic views reigned supreme throughout the trip. The North Cascades are a really beautiful part of the world. Guide extraordinare and NCH co-owner Ken shepherded us through some great terrain throughout the day.

Thursday night, we headed down to Winthrop for some pizza, retired to the condo for some beverages and to watch some Olympics, but we all passed out pretty early. We did, however, learn the benefits of aerating PBR beforehand for optimal drinking pleasure. Peter and JJ also invented a new cocktail, the Flaming Adirondack Chair, the wonders of which the world will have to await (perhaps the next heliskiing trip).

Friday – more of the same, this time led by Scott. There were a few hiccups getting going in the morning, and we had a mid-morning problem with the starter on the helicopter that left us in limbo for an hour while the backup chopper flew in the “Auxiliary Power Unit”. Fortunately, we had a little advance warning so we stopped in a sunny spot, and JJ and Scott had the brilliant idea to dig a snow pit so we could learn a little more about snow safety.

Turns out, there was a moderate weak layer about 18″ below the snowpack, which Tim had the misfortune to set off later in the day on a boulder drop.

Apres was a fantastic group dinner at the Swann abode, with more than enough food and wine, etc, to go around.

Starting Saturday morning, team JJ, Joe, and Peter had used up 19 of our allotted 21 heli-drops, but we weren’t going to let that get in the way of fun. Joined by Tim, guided by Michelle, we rode till we dropped, racking up a total of 30 runs for the 3 days. Play now, pay later.

Saturday evening, we hit up the restaurant at the Freestone Inn, rested the legs and fueled up on food and spirits. After dinner, we hit up the other house for some post-dinner relaxation. Everyone was in a decidedly more mellow post-skiing mood.

Descending back to reality, on Sunday we packed up and made the beautiful return drive back to Seattle.

Thanks to our awesome guides, Ken, Scott, and Michelle; to Seamus for being able to put down the beastly machine time and again; to Matt and crew for organizing the trip and inviting us along; to Peter and JJ for being a great riding team and for taking top billing in the total run count for the trip; and to everyone else for a great time.

Fantastic trip, one I hope I am lucky enough to repeat.

My Pictures (Smugmug): http://nofriday.smugmug.com/Travel/North-Cascades-Heliskiing/

My Videos (YouTube): http://www.youtube.com/user/nofriday1#p/c/999497F88D843B9F

A high school teacher emailed a bunch of alumni (in his weekly “survey”) and this week’s question was “What is your New Years’ Resolution?” I thought this would make a cheap blog post.

My answer: I don’t really have one per se – I am more “continuous improvement”
than “new years resolution” focused. That said, a few themes that come
to mind: simplify, don’t hold grudges, stay active, be positive.
It sounds a little cliche and almost like something you’d find on a
Lululemon bag, but those are things running through my mind and which
I seem to be reminding myself often, and for me at least they’re often easier said
than done.

(This was originally going to be a Tweet about the veggie torta, but since I couldn’t fit it easily into a 14o character post, it turned into a much longer blog post.)

Happy New Year!

Meagan is off to Casper, Wyoming for six weeks for her surgery clerkship, making me home alone with the dog. My friends have dubbed the period “The Winter of Joe” (ala the Seinfeld “Summer of George” episode), under the presumption that more snowboarding and debauchery will happen. While perhaps somewhat true, the truth is that I miss my girl already. (Google Video Chat, however, is coming in pretty handy.)

I also have several more holistic goals in mind for the next few weeks. One of them is to cook more vegetarian dishes. I doubt I’ll ever give up meat, as I simply enjoy it to much, but since reading Mark Bittman’s “Food Matters” book about a year ago, I’ve had the nagging desire to shift towards a more plant-centric diet, for health, environmental, and ethical reasons.

The start of the new year seemed a great time to try it. We just got back from visiting our families over Christmas, and both the Philly and Boston excursions included lots of delicious but overwhelming amounts of food. (We’ve started dubbing these trips as “the eating Olympics”).

So, like seemingly everyone else, eating better and getting back in shape is high on the priority list, and this is my attempt to do something about it. I’ll likely continue to eat as I normally do when I am dining out, but my goal is to cook mostly vegetarian most nights of the week. By mostly vegetarian, I mean using meat predominantly as a flavor or a side instead of as the centerpiece.

Tonight, I started with a vegetarian torta from Food Matters. I added some Guanciale from Salumis for a little flavor but otherwise followed the recipe, using farro (which I love) as the grain. Unfortunately, I made a few mistakes, and the torta didn’t really hold together very well, ending up more like a veggie pilaf than a torta.

At least one of the problems was that I halved the recipe, which wasn’t a good idea for this dish, since less volume gave it less structure (I didn’t really think what a “torta” was when I decided to halve the recipe, and realized it was a bad idea when the recipe called for assembling everything in a cakepan). I likely needed to bake it longer too so it would set up properly. Despite the fall-apart consistency, it still tasted really good.

It’s somewhat ironic that this shift coincides with Meagan being away. She used to be vegetarian and generally prefers to eat less meat than I do. We started dating a little while after she started eating meat again, and I think I might have accelerated that trend!

Time will tell whether this effort will be a short-lived personal fad or not, but at the very least, I am hoping to expand my cooking repertoire and eat a bit more healthily.

I believe our office is upgrading the printer/copier machines. There have been a handful of them sitting in the hallways for close to a month now, with big “DO NOT MOVE OR RELOCATE” signs affixed to them.

Apparently a few people were wondering if these things would ever be installed, leading to a bevy of additional signage.

I am partial to the “Do Not Ride Like a Mechanical Bull” sign, myself.

I recently upgraded to Thunderbird 3, and so far I like the switch.

One of the plugins that I relied on, GmailUI, isn’t compatible with Thunderbird 3 and doesn’t seem to be actively maintained.

I was able to find a way to replicate the main feature I use – using “y” to Archive emails to a specified Archive folder. (I’m a big fan of Inbox Zero and GTD in general and tend not to categorize my email much – more on that later.)

Here’s how:

1) Download and install the “Archive This” add-on.

2) Go to Tools -> Add-ons. Click on the “Preferences” button for Archive This.

3) In the “Presets” tab, specify the archive folder you wish to use.

4) In the “Key” tab, associate “Preset 1″ with the Y key.

5) Voila – you’re Presets tab should now reflect the Y key as mapping to the Archive folder you specified.

I also am a big fan of the Nostalgy add-on (go the development site for a Thunderbird 3 compatible version), which allows keyb0ard-based tagging of messages (which I use very much like gmail labels) as well as keyboard-based folder moves (which I only use for my “!ACTION” and “!WAITING” folders).

Hope this helps other Thunderbird/Gmail/GTD users.

Most who know me would say that I am a pretty good cook. When they inevitably ask how I learned, my stock answer is “from my mom…indirectly.”

You see, I didn’t really cook much growing up. About the only thing I can remember making was the occasional bacon double cheeseburger on the grill in the summer when I was a teenager. My brother and I would refer to my operation as “Fitzgerald King”.

After college, when I was living in a crappy apartment in the suburbs of Boston, I realized I was on the hook for feeding myself. After a few weeks, takeout pizza was getting old, simple pasta was getting boring, and supermarket TV dinners weren’t quite cutting it. I was getting nostalgic for the food I grew up with. I needed to learn how to cook.

I figured a cookbook was a logical place to start. I browsed Amazon and Mark Bittman’s book “How to Cook Everything” seemed to be the most popular and well-reviewed general purpose cookbook. So I ordered it.

It was exactly what I needed to get started. It’s a comprehensive book, and it emphasizes good technique (make sure the pan is hot before cooking) and it focuses on simplicity in recipes without being too dull. It taught me how easy it is to make pesto, for example. It was a good buy, and I still refer to it quite often. The jacket cover now has a large burn mark from accidentally being left on a hot electric burner several years ago. Coincidentally, it was my first Amazon.com purchase.

I complimented this book learning by watching a lot of the Food Network. I didn’t really use the recipes but the shows gave me inspiration and reinforced the importance of technique and good ingredients. Mario Batali’s “Molto Mario”, Ming Tsai’s “East Meets West”, and especially Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” quickly became favorites. I liked Emeril too.

For the most part, I was successful on my own with these resources. Once you learn the basics, cooking isn’t really that hard. But occasionally, in the early goings, I’d run into trouble. I remember calling my mom and asking whether a clove of garlic was “just a part or the whole thing”. I assumed it was the whole thing – I am glad I asked.

My wonderful coworker Dale was also a great help. The first time a recipe called for “bay leaves”, I left the supermarket frustrated that the produce section didn’t seem to have them. The next day, she kindly informed me that the spice section would be a more fruitful place to look. Dale, coincidentally, is one of the few people who has made a lasagna on par with my mom or my grandmom’s.

And this gets me back to my original point, that I learned to cook from my mom. I am sure I took it for granted at the time, but my mom is a great cook, and it left an indelible mark on me as to what constitutes good food. As a result, when I was learning how to cook, I think I cared a lot more about “doing things right” and living up to a high standard.

Since then, I’ve picked up a few more books, developed a somewhat unholy devotion to Cook’s Illustrated and the America’s Test Kitchen PBS show, and have a number of friends who also like to cook. But I think the core of my culinary foundation is having been raised in a family who appreciated good food. And for that, I can’t be more thankful.

My friends Matt and Cori recently had their first kid, a beautiful girl named Layla. To ease their ordeal into parenthood, I made a large batch of a chicken and red pepper dish, which was one of my favorites growing up and which was one of the first recipes I asked my mom for when I was first learning how to cook. A few people have asked me for the recipe over the years. When Matt recently did as well, I figured it was time I publish it here.

So, without further ado, I present “Janet’s Chicken and Red Peppers”.

Thanks for teaching me how to cook, Mom!

Janet’s Chicken and Red Peppers (or Chicken Valerio)

* 1 1/4 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into approx. 3/4″ strips (cut long pieces in half)
* 2 red peppers, cut into approx. 3/4″ strips
* 1/2 stick butter
* 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press
* 3/4 cup heavy cream (substitute half/half or milk if you like)
* 1/4 cup italian parsley, chopped
* 1 cup grated parmesan cheese (the real stuff, Parmigiano-Reggiano)
* Olive Oil
* Salt
* Fresh ground black pepper

1) Heat 1 TB olive oil in a 12″ skillet on medium heat until shimmering. Add red peppers with salt and ground pepper and saute until cooked and slightly browned. Remove peppers from pan and set aside, leaving oil in pan.

2) Season chicken with salt and and ground pepper and saute in pan over medium heat, adding additional olive oil if necessary. Cook chicken until brown on both sides but leave slightly underdone.

3) Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium low heat until melted and slightly browned. Add minced garlic and stir and cook until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds. Do not burn the garlic.

4) Add the cream to the pan, and stir to mix in the butter and garlic mixture. Cook until mixture is warmed, about 2-3 minutes.

5) Add in the grated parmesan cheese, about a 1/4 cup at a time, and stir until it is melted into the sauce. Repeat for the rest of the parmesan cheese.

6) Add the cooked peppers back to the skillet with the chicken. Stir in the parmesan cream sauce, scraping the bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 2-3 minutes or until the peppers are reheated and the chicken is fully cooked (no pink on the inside).

7) Stir in the parsley and adjust the seasoning of the salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a good, crusty bread and something green.

Winter is bearing down upon the mountains, with a foot or two of snow falling in the Cascades over the last few days. It’s not quite enough for the ski resorts to open yet, but it was more than enough to have a some fun up at Stevens Pass.

Meagan, JJ, the dogs, and I headed up there yesterday. There were about twenty other cars in the parking lot – not bad considering the ski area isn’t open yet.

Lots of folks were playing up on the hill – kids sledding and building snow forts, teenagers hitting snowboard jumps, dogs frolicking around in the snow. There was more snow than I expected – probably a good two feet – I wish I had brought along the snowboard. But then I wouldn’t have taken as many pictures.

Here are a few highlights:

View the rest of the pictures on Smugmug.

It won’t be long till winter is in full effect – Mount Baker opens on Thursday!

I’ve driven the Sea to Sky Highway between Vancouver and Whistler many times and often wished I had my camera with me. The few times I did, I was generally in too much of a hurry to get to Whistler or to head back home.

So, on a recent bike trip to Whistler, I decided to leave some time to take pictures on the way up.

I drove up and back a few parts of the highway several times, searching to find good shooting locations and waiting for ideal light conditions. Unfortunately, many of what I thought were the best vistas along the highway, between Lions Bay and Squamish, didn’t seem to have a safe place to turn off, as much of the road is in a “falling rock” hazard area. I was tempted to risk it but decided not to.

My favorite spots were near some train tracks in Brittania Beach (just south of Squamish), along the water in the Furry Creek development (a little past Brittania Beach), and at a turn-off just north of Horseshoe Bay. I have a feeling there are some good places to shoot in the hills of Lions Bay, but I didn’t have time to explore all the roads.

On my final lap, heading back to Whistler, I passed a gorgeous pink sunset at the Tantalus lookout (between Squamish and Whistler) but when I turned around to pull over (no more than five minutes later), it was gone. Oh well – hopefully another time.

It’s really an amazingly beautiful part of the world and though I am happy with the photos, I feel they don’t do the place justice. Maybe if I get around to stitching together a few into a Panorama…but that’s a project for another day.

View the rest on Smugmug.

I was up in Whistler this past weekend for some downhill biking action with Ming, Matt, and Shawn. As always, a fun trip to the Canadian mecca of good times.

A few pictures from the last day highlight the changing of seasons – these were from just below Roundhouse Lodge on a snow-bordered trail. It hopefully won’t be long until snowboarding season.

My body is definitely beat up, but not nearly as bad as it was after the Panorama trip.

A few trip highlights:

• Border crossing with a Nexus pass
• Scoring a sweet deal at the Pan Pacific – kickass location in the village
• Riding through a beautiful mix of summer (sunny), fall (foliage), and winter (snow) conditions
• Hot tub beers and tunes and the Eucalyptus steam room (don’t knock it…) at the Pan Pacific
• Mongolie Grill (can’t believe Ming and Matt hadn’t been there yet)
• Saturday-night bar hopping (huge lineup at the Beagle with 3 people inside…classic)
• Hendrick’s martini with a cucumber twist
• Zog’s “Asian” Poutine (with spaghetti sauce)
• The “ideal for Sunday” 3-run sampler rate (they need this for ski season!)
• Watching several bikers in a row wipe out on a seemingly mellow snow-covered trail (including me)
• The crash-inducing, accidental double-black (I think it was Goat’s Gully)
• Wiping out ten feet from the bottom of the last run, clearly with my mind on…
• End of day beers at the GLC (and catching up with Louise)

This was my first trip to Whistler for biking, but won’t be the last. The park closed for the season today, but next season I hope to hit up the WB earlier and more often.

On the way to Whistler, I stopped by Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. I was in a bit of a hurry and did a bit of a “hit and run” visit, quickly hiking to the coast to take some pictures of the Vancouver skyline and the lighthouse. There were lots of other trails to explore, however, which I’ll have to save for a future visit.

View the rest on Smugmug.