Hiking and Cheese Making in East Canaan

While Bruno was visiting with his family in England, Kokee and Sheri spent the weekend with Joey and Bernie.  Saturday night we made mozzarella cheese with raw milk from a local farmer.  With the fresh cheese Joey made the best Eggplant Parmesan ever! 

On Sunday Sheri, Joey and Kokee hiked to the highest peak in Connecticut, Bear Mountain.  Interestingly, this is not the highest point in CT, which is located on an adjacent mountain that peaks in Massaschusettes.

Driveway at Fontana Calda

We have two great friends, Bernie and Joey, who are featured in this blog posting.  Rather, Bernie's art is featured, as we have just convinced him to part with one of his favorite paintings to grace our home.  Its based on a scene in Italy (a driveway in Fontana Calda) and it makes us think of the outdoors, fresh air, and beautiful natural scenery everytime we see it. 

To learn more about his paintings visit Bernie's web-page at http://www.globalhome.com/, and to see some of Joey's fantastic pottery take a look at http://www.funkwarepottery.com/  We are very lucky to have such creative and unique friends!

Freshies

We closed out February in Vermont enjoying the 2-3' of snow that fell the last week of the month. We were on the slopes on Saturday at 8am and carved through powder all day.  We only just had enough energy to catch the last chair lift of the day. Temperatures were warm, and periods of sun and snow filled in and out throughout the day.  We have done well to get some riding in before our trip to Telluride.  We had a great day earlier this month with Gene and Kathy (photo below).

Sprouts from the snow

Like much of the east coast we've had snow on the ground for several weeks now.  We've avoided the large snow falls of the mid-Atlantic states, so today we were able to head out to the garden and pick a dinner's worth of Brussels sprouts.  The veggies were acccompanied by Sheri's latest culinary creation - Cowboy and Indian Pie - which is like shepherd's pie, but made with minced bison meat.  Very tasty!

Taking Cheese Making on the Road

We took our cheese making skills(?), renin and fresh raw milk from a local farm on the road to Joann and Eric's on Friday night.  You can see photos on their blog, just click here.  The cheese making was a success, and the pizza fantastic.  Interestingly the curds and final product were much different the second time around.   Presumably the milk is key?  Even more interesting was that we started with a gallon of milk and ended up with a gallon of whey and ~1pound of cheese.  We declared success in creating matter and fresh cheese.  Here at  HHR we are on a mission to use the whey, so it has gone into muffins, bread pudding, oatmeal and bread.  Horrraayy, we love carbs.

January Face of Produce

In honor of the Great Martin Luther King, and because there was a break in the subfreezing temps, we broke through the ice to harvest beets and Brussels sprouts! What a treat!  They were oven roasted and enjoyed that evening for dinner. 

Many thanks to Brenda and Andrew for the plates, they help fill in face in mid-winter when the pickings are limited.

First runs of the year

We braved single digit temperatures last weekend for a day of snowboarding and a day of XC skiing.  Abundant sunshine, really nice snow with only very light winds made for a great weekend.   So for a first trip out...all smiles, no lost gloves or trips to the ER.  We are on track with training for Telluride in March.