November 2004December 2004 January 2005

12/21 - Too Much Poultry

Well, it has happened again. You may remember our special Kaleberg report, Too Many Oysters. We had too many oysters. Our challenge now is that we have too much poultry. How did we get into this predicament?  It wasn't easy, but it seems that like calls to like. To understand how this principle applies to our current fowl state, read our new special Kaleberg report, Too Much Poultry.

Keywords: food, birds, oysters

The Kaleberg Candle Lit Cookie Tree

12/18 - Our Candle Tree

Here is our candle lit cookie tree, all aglow.
There is nothing quite like the light from a tree lit by candles. Incandescent bulbs have a certain warm beauty and LEDs are pure and elegant, but there is nothing like a flickering candle to evoke the ghosts of the winter season.

To light up our tree, move your mouse cursor over the image to the left.

To see a bigger picture of the tree, follow this link.

Keywords: christmas, winter

12/17 - Choucroute Meets Champagne

Tomorrow night is our Christmas party. It's an even year, so we're serving choucroute garni. That's French for garnished sauerkraut, and boy do we garnish. We've got four smoked pheasants, three pounds of ham, tons of weisswurst, bratwurst and smoked duck magret. It is all rather overwhelming.

You make choucroute by laying pork fat, duck fat and a few token vegetables in a matrix of well rinsed sauerkraut. We are using 6 of the 4 lb jars from CostCo, so we should have plenty. On the right you can see an early vegetable layer.

Champagne is one of the ingredients in choucroute, and you have to really pour it on. We'll probably go through four bottles on this batch alone. Click on the choucroute image to the right and see our little Quicktime movie: Champagne Meets Choucroute

 Early stages of choucroute

Keywords: christmas, food, movies

12/17 - The Snow Is Back On The Mountains

The snow is back on the mountains We were out on the Elwha Trail out of Whiskey Bend yesterday and we could not help noticing the difference.
 Snow on Mountains Seen From Elwha

Keywords: trails, elwha, high country

The new castle                   Detail of the castle

12/17 - Barbara Teufert's Castle

Barbara Teufert has finished up some old work before the new year. She has finally fire one of her works in long time progress, so we have a new castle to explore.

We've added some new pictures to her web page, so you can explore her fantasy realm.

Keywords: art

The Cookie Tree

12/13 - This Year's Cookie Tree

The Christmas trees are up and our house is becoming one big grove. We held our cookie tree decorating party yesterday and now the air is full of pine scent and gingerbread.

We hold a cookie party primarily for children, but it is the adults who do most of the decorating. The children run around and play with our K'Nex. Some of them do decorate cookies, and this should cause great satisfaction to the grinders of extra fine confectioner's powdered sugar and the folks in the food dye plants.

Now, all we have to do is hang our stockings by the chimney with care and stuff all our presents under the tree. 		 
Closeup Cookies Big Tree Closeup

Keywords: christmas, food, k'nex

12/03 - Hurricane Ridge in the Winter

Hurricane Ridge is once again open for cross country skiing and snow shoeing. This morning the road was open and there were five inches of snow at the "snow post" so we headed up to the ridge and checked things out.  The road was open and well plowed. The scenery was spectacular with an amazing lemon sky. We had to blaze our own trail, but with so little snow it wasn't much of a problem.  It was the true glory of the Northwest with white mountains and green trees. A great start for the winter season.

NOTE (for disbelievers): No, we did not Photoshop in that yellow. That is what you see. That is what our camera recorded. The sky really is yellow with notes of pink. This is a lemon sky. A buttermilk sky is similar, but the yellow is tinged with blue.

 Hurricane Ridge View 1
Hurricane Ridge View 3
 Hurricane Ridge View 2

Keywords: high country, atmosphere, food, hurricane ridge, winter, oysters

November 2004December 2004 January 2005