Happy Chinese Easter!

This is the first time in a long time we celebrated Easter instead of Chinese Easter. Usually we get a half-priced ham the day after Easter, and have it with friends a week later (that would be today). But alas, there are no gatherings at this time. Funnily enough, I had a half-priced ham in my freezer from the day after Christmas last year, so I decided that as long as we were breaking with tradition, we'd go all out and have it on actual Easter. What a shame that we could not have anyone over to share it with us. But DL was so kind as to inform me that he would happily eat an entire ham with me. He is so kind! Actually, most hams in the supermarkets today are half hams, not whole hams, which would be what Dorothy Parker was referring to when she defined eternity as "a ham and two people". :)

My first task for the feast was a pie:


And here is the ham!


For a veggie, I braised collards with garlic:


A rare photo of DL, with the ham:


There it is!


There was extra pastry dough from the pies, so I made tiny cheese empanadas. Another trick from loyal reader and meatworld friend Rena!


The finished pie!


Peach is DL's favorite. And I finally mastered a semi-healthy crust, made with half barley flour, which is less gritty than whole wheat.


Leftover ham uses!

Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches:


And now we interrupt our food reportings with a photo of the dogs cleaning their fangs!


Yes, fangs!


OK now a classic ham and white bean soup, which kale and carrots:


And finally, the last ham scraps in omelettes, which we had exactly one week after Easter:


Omelette you enjoy this photo. DL staged it:

Goodbye, Winter

Last weekend was our last weekend on the trails. The snow was already getting poor on Sunday, turning to slush in the daytime and then solid ice at night, leaving a slick crust in the morning. Over that slick ice, I have no breaking ability in my skis!

But I'm glad that winter had one last hurrah, and we were able to ski a bit more after that last warm spell.

Saturday was cool and overcast. We went down to the pond where I did the snow studies for my graduate work. I used to go there with Autumn and Linden pretty frequently.

My last cup of tea before heading out!


Look at these schweeties! They stand there so patiently while I am prepping to get out the door. They don't jump up and down and howl, the way they would at the start of a race!


Made it to the old pond!


Look how nicely Thistle holds out her line when we stop for anything. She is a true leader--a veteran of multiple Iditarods, multiple Yukon Quests, and of course many 100-300 milers. Autumn and Starbuck-A-Roo were also leaders, and you can see the commonalities in their bearing and habits, even though their personalities are quite different. They are never in a hurry and always thoughtful and analytical.

Cricket, in contrast, is impatient and easily distracted:


The hay field was looking very mysterious in the flat light:


Once again, Thistle holds her line taut, Cricket wanders around and screams. :D


That night, the clouds cleared away, and Sunday was bright and sunny! The glacier on the shed roof, which had hung on all the previous day:

came crashing down!

The girls and I headed back down to the pond. They were Very Good Girls, and held a Very Reasonable Pace the whole time. Cricket is a speed demon. When I used to skijor with her alone, I had to bend very low and snowplow very hard and remind her to slow down the whole time. I developed a chant. "Easy, easy, slow and easy. Easy, easy, slow and easy. Easy, easy, slow and easy." If I stayed quiet for a bit, she'd take that as permission to speed up again! When we got Thistle, Cricket yielded control to her, and Thistle never goes faster than I am comfortable with. A true leader!

It was so warm that when I stopped to pee, Thistle laid down and panted.


This trail to the old pond has gotten wider and wider. I'm not sure why. It connects to a larger trail system, and you can go all the way to Nenana and beyond, but I'm not sure what's changed.

And here we are at the pond:


It's easier to turn them around on a pond!


They even went at a Very Reasonable Pace going home! Going home is usually a dash. Dogs just love to race home!

I'm in awe of this sweet girl.


She reminds me a bit of Autumn, and I hope I have not smothered her too much. I love her as if she had been with us all along, but from her perspective, she just got plucked from the only home she had ever known, moved to a strange house (although seeing her old teammate Cricket must have been a comfort), and then informed that she was Home and Loved and she was the Best Dog Ever, and that we Loved her to Bits. I mean, maybe we moved too fast? :D

Safety!

In the interest of normalizing safety, I took a selfie in my new skiing helmet and posted it on Facebook:


I figure skiing with a helmet may well be like wearing a face mask during a pandemic. If enough people do it, it will seem normal. I got a lot of "likes" and encouraging comments. I'm not the picked-on little kid I was growing up. People actually kinda like me, so I have some social capital. :) I hope it is enough to make me someone to emulate!

Look how sweet these girls are though!

This photo was taken before our skijor! They don't jump up and down the way sled dogs do in teams. They are my little guardian angels on earth. :)

I also got kneepads, but much less admiration for those. But hey it hurts to fall down on ice!


They are really disciplined pullers!


And here is the last of our cheese from our Montana trip in January:


We will have to visit again when this coronavirus mess is over. They got a new puppy we will have to meet!

Look how cute she is! She is a German Shepherd, and her name is Echo:


She's got little bitty toe beans!

Food Photos, interspersed with Dog Photos

Oven-barbecued chicken:


It came out just like the recipe photo! :)


Braised collards:


All with mashed potatoes (I add carrots to mine):


Breakfast the next day then has fried potato cakes! Yum!


Breakfast on another day: a veggie scramble (bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and cheese) with refritos and tortillas:


Salmon from the local seafood dealer, from whom we purchase in bulk:


I cook almost all of them the same. I pour on whatever sauce (e.g. barbecue, teriyaki, garlic and lemon, or this simple soy and vinegar), wrap it in foil, and bake it in the oven:


So easy:


Kale:


With mashed potatoes (again, with the carrots):


Those fillets are always too much for one meal, but not enough for two, so my household classic the next day is mixing the leftovers with black beans and queso fresco, and making enchiladas. But we were out of queso fresco, and I am limiting trips to the store in the Age of Coronavirus, so this time I substituted cheddar and mozzarella:


And these cheddar-and-mozzarella-topped salmon-and-black-bean enchiladas represent my first actual coronavirus-induced privation. I am definitely, amazingly blessed (and also good at planning, if I do say so myself!):


This does not feel like privation. Nor does it feel like leftovers:


My kitchen supervisors! Thistle will accept veggies now, but she chews them up and spits them out; then Cricket vacuums up the bits. Whatever. Dogs!


Tomato-beef chow mein:


Cricket loooooooves her daddy:


Thistle is so sweet and gentle and smiley:


Do you think they are comfy? I sure hope they are comfy:


Oh, here is another breakfast photo. Breakfast enchiladas with leftover pico de gallo and guacamole from the previous night's tacos: