Dinner at Elaia

Dad was in town last week for some work stuff, and even though we had just spent six days together, we decided we could handle a little more.  We met up one night for dinner with one of the new kids in town: Elaia.  It is part of the duo Elaia & Olio, where the head chef is Ben Poremba of Salume Beddu fame.

Our dinner was delightful!  We shared charred haricot verts as a starter, then each had a small pasta plate: his was beef ragu, I had winter squash ravioli.  We both had the same main: Berkshire pork with - lemme see if I can remember - farro root mash and grilled onions.  I think?  I meant to write it down, but I've been busy, and their menu changes all the time.  In any case it was delicious!  Oh, and we shared the aforementioned carrot cake.

And the best part about it was that everyone was so nice.  You want a half-plate?  No problem.  Wine flight?  Sure.  Half a glass of wine?  You got it.  A starter as a small plate and a small plate as an entree?  Whatever you need.  It was, as Dad and I discussed, an experience in sharp contrast to the one we had at Little Country Gentleman a couple months back.

For their tasty eats, interesting wine list, and willingness to accommodate, I'll go back to Elaia.  In spite of their potentially good food, I won't be back to LCG ever.

Goal #6

Goal #6: computer number 2.

I am currently the owner of four home computers, all laptops.  I have the one I use every day, plus my three prior laptops (at least two of which actually work).

The reason I have all these old computers is because they still have data on their hard drives that I want to back up before I get rid of them.  This week, my goal is to clear off at least one of the drives.  (One step at a time, right?)

Recap of goal #5: So, it turns out that I'm not great at not eating sugar.  That actually doesn't surprise me; maybe I'll have to try this one a few times this year and see if I get better about it.  Slip-ups:
 - a chocolate when I was visiting G&G on Tuesday morning; 
 - I split a piece of carrot cake with Dad on Wednesday night after dinner;
 - after my party, I froze my leftover house cookies, and I had one for dessert on Thursday;
 - I split a piece of strawberry/raspberry tart with T at dinner on Friday (stay tuned for notes about both dinners this week).  Then I got home and this happened:

So I had to eat a few of the mints to make myself feel better!

One major note of success: I didn't put any sugar in my coffee all week!  Given that I'm a crazy sugar fiend, these are impressively few transgressions.

I Grew!

T measured me the other day, and I was 5'4"!

All my life, I've wanted to be taller, and IT'S WORKING!!!

What I Watched -- The Bourne Legacy

It's cold in Colorado, so sometimes (okay, frequently), it's inviting just to stay inside and watch a movie.  In addition to The Man Who Would Be King, we also watched The Bourne Legacy, the new one with Jeremy Renner (who is not a terrible substitute for my boyfriend, Matt Damon).

It's usual Bourne movie stuff: confusion, explosions, lies and deceit, smokin' hot men who are heavily armed and know how to handle themselves.

Bottom line: what's not to like?

What I Watched -- The Man Who Would Be King

It's late and I want to go to bed, so I'll just say that this is a classic movie with a small but recognizable and stellar cast.

The basics: men, adventure, political incorrectness, humor, sadness. 

The line that made me laugh out loud: "The problem is: how to divide five Afghans from three mules and have two Englishmen left over."  Great question.

Breckenridge, Days 5 and 6

My last day skiing got off to a great start of pancakes, bacon, and sauteed apples.  That led to a late start on the slopes, but it was just fine that way.  It was Super Bowl Sunday, which meant that everyone who wanted to get back down to Denver for the game was going to ski early and then head out.

We got on the lift around 11:15 or so, and had short lift lines and fairly empty hills.  It was windy (again), so by then most of the remaining powder had blown off the slopes.  That made the surfaces a little bit tough - a combo of thin spots, scraped ice, and occasional pockets of powder still hanging around.  It was a little hard on the legs, because you had to be ready for who-knows-what.  We three skied a few runs, then Dad and I skied the rest of the day, having some fun on the runs over on Peak 7.

We got back just in time to make all the unhealthy food we were planning on eating for the Super Bowl, and only when we were finished cooking it did we decide it probably would make us more legit (and make us feel slightly less bad about our dinner) if we actually turned the TV on.  Ravens 7, Niners 3 when we joined.

My last day of all, skiing or otherwise, turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, so Dad and I took Keystone and headed back up the same path we had cross-country skied up a few days before.  This time we had stunning views of Baldy and Mount Guyot.

And that, as they say, was that.  We trekked back to the car, had lunch, packed up, and drove out of the mountains to Denver, where we were greeted with this little bit of amusement:

Heh.

Breckenridge, Days 3 and 4

Really, day 3 in Breck was actually a day in Vail.  While we were getting great snow in Breck, Vail was getting the same.  So up we got early on Friday, had some breakfast and coffee, and set off over the the oft-closed Vail Pass.

Lucky for us, today it was open.  The snow wasn't so bad any more that it required closure, and if they did any avalanche control they must have done it overnight.  (They have to close the highway to do it - the charges send snow tumbling down across the interstate, and the front-end loaders [or whatever they use] have to clear the decks before cars can get through again.)

We arrived at Vail, suited up, and hit the slopes.  We skied the front side in the morning - the lines for the lifts up to the back bowls were loooong and we were still getting our ski legs (heh) under us anyway.  Even on the front side the snow was great, and the lift lines were basically non-existent, so it worked out splendidly for us.  We broke for an early lunch at The 10th, the new restaurant at Mid-Vail, which is classy as ski lunches go.  The coat room has loads of cubbies and hooks for coats, helmets, gloves, and boots, and there are fuzzy slippers for you to wear while you eat.

My lunch was a slice of leek, Gruyere, and bacon quiche, plus I scammed some truffle fries, a taste of a Kobe burger from Dad, and of a tuna burger from D.  Really, I did pretty well.  And we all split a chocolate bread pudding for dessert.  Not too shabby.

After lunch we headed over the top to the bowls.  The snow was deep but pretty well broken up.  That alone would have been okay, but the light was f-l-a-t, and it was impossible to gauge the terrain.  Honestly I sort of lost track of where we spent the afternoon - I was more of a follower than a leader - but apparently the enormous lunch didn't slow any of us down.

Me and Dad

Then, wonder of wonders, we're on the way home and I emailed a friend of mine who's been living in the Middle East (but loves to ski) that I just had a great day in Vail - and it turns out he's been over near Beaver Creek, just a little bit past where we were!  Too bad we didn't figure that out in the morning!

Day 4 was another day in Breck - pretty good snow, but not as good as the last couple of days.  I skied with Dad and D in the morning, then alone in the afternoon.  It was good practice, time to work on the stuff G and D had been trying to get me to do over the last two days on the slopes.

We had a simple but delicious dinner of spicy chicken with onion and green beans over rice, and ice cream!  Have I mentioned before that they sell Graeter's ice cream in the grocery store here?  I feel like maybe I've shared that, but it's worth sharing again!

Goal #5

Goal #5: cut out the added sugar.

After a week of vacation and using the Super Bowl as an excuse to eat unhealthy food, I need to detox. I'm not going to do something silly like a week-long juice fast (ahem), and I'm not going to go overboard by saying I'm only going to eat green vegetables for the week. This needs to be achievable. So I will endeavor to stop adding sugar to my coffee, eating sugary snacks when almonds will work just fine, and having dessert (unless it's truly necessary, which sometimes it is).

Recap of goal #4:
1. Does denial count as deep thought? Fail.
2. Success!
3. I totally would have done this, except that I forgot in my frenzied packing fit to pack the extra notecards I needed. Oops.
4. More success! I have read all the magazines I brought (or will have done by the time I get home - I have two to go).

Quote of the Day

“I tried not to think about my life. I did not have any good solid plans for it long-term - no bad plans either, no plans at all - and the lostness of that, compared with the clear ambitions of my friends (marriage, children, law school), sometimes shamed me. Other times in my mind I defended such a condition as morally and intellectually superior - my life was open and ready and free - but that did not make it less lonely.”
  -- Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs

Breckenridge, Days 1 and 2

Welcome to Colorado, where it's bitterly cold but finally snowing!

Day 1 in Breckenridge, and I believe the high temperature we reached was 14 degrees.  It was about 5 when I got up, with significant winds that drove the temperature well below zero.  So what better to do than go play outside?

I had my first (mis)adventures with cross country skiing, which we opted for as the warmer alternative to downhill.  It was indeed warmer - so warm, in fact, that I unzipped my coat part of the way.  Go crazy, folks!

Seriously though, cross country skiing is a lot of fun, a good workout, and you get to see some beautiful places.  And to boot, I only got my skis seriously crossed twice.

Dinner was a hearty and delicious venison stew with fresh-baked bread to sop up the goodness at the bottom of the bowl.  Hard to beat, though I have to apologize for my lack of pictures.  Will try to do better.

Today, day 2, took us out on the mountain for the first time, and it was glorious!  It snowed all night and there were anywhere from a few inches to a foot of new powder on the slopes.  Dad scheduled me a lesson for today, so I skied with G, my instructor, through some of the most fun snow I've ever had the privilege of playing in.

It snowed until early afternoon and was very cloudy most of the day.  The sun managed to peek through a few times, and we had a lovely view of town at the end of the day after the snow stopped.