Valentine's Day to Winter Storm Olive

Just before Valentine's Day we finally got to try one restaurant in town we had wanted to. They offer a four-course menu that changes weekly. And it's part of a wine bar. We even had to dress up to meet the "casual elegant" dress code. Well, it's the UP. Thank goodness, plaid shirts are allowed. To say the least, the whole experience was amazing. Not often can a meal blow your mind. Even better we were able to share the evening with P & J from Ironwood.

For our actual Valentine's Day, we ended up cooking a gourmet meal at home. We tried a new venison recipe: Grilled Venison Backstrap, served with Cauliflower Puree and Balsamic Reduction. Joe had never cooked his venison like this before and was blown away. 

Overall, this February has been milder than usual. In fact a sled dog race event was canceled due to the lack of snow and the icy conditions after some rain. Even so, we still had plenty of snow to snowshoe in the woods this past weekend. It was so nice to play in the sun!! And now we are getting 20 inches of fresh snow from the Winter Storm Olive. We are very fortunate just to deal with lots of fluffy snow, the element that we know well. Our garden gnome is deep under the snow... and it's not quite done snowing yet. 

Frozen!!

It's been cold for a week or so... not much snow, but subzero temperatures. We have probably seen more sunshine this week than all of January leading up to this super cold weather. The trees in the pastel morning light from our kitchen window sure looked inviting and warm... but it was only -9 °F.

Naturally our potted basil plants on the window sill is not too happy about winter, either. And even more traumatized every time I snip off some leaves for cooking. Today we had a pizza night to eat up leftovers, which turned out to be quite a nice spread. 

"Corona" Party

Exactly a year ago we both came down with Covid. To remind ourselves to stay healthy, I wanted to have a "Corona" themed dinner today. Naturally the menu was Mexican. I cooked Birria tacos with Joe's venison roast, which turned out fantastic. Sorry we didn't share it with friends.

Like last January we had to get snow off the roofs, especially when the weather was switching to rain. This was Joe's second time to shovel our roofs this season. 

The manual labor of moving snow in the cold does make our beer taste better. We hope everyone is staying healthy in this new year!

The New Year

We received another fresh batch of snow this week, which gave us this picture perfect winter wonderland outside. Today we went out for a walk in the magical woods. 

Fresh air made us hungry... so we had our favorite combo snacks. Getting back to our normal weekend routine felt right.

For dinner we had sukiyaki, to mark the beginning of new year. Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve

unfortunately this is my normal working weekend.  Joe grilled our steak and shrimp for dinner, and it was very tasty. 28 degrees is a grilling weather in winter. 

I didn't make a special dessert, but we toasted with Manhattan a couple hours before midnight. We aren't sure if we can make it to midnight. Happy New Year!!

WHITE Christmas

This year has flown by so quickly... so did this holiday shopping season for my work. We both worked one last day yesterday and started our super WHITE blizzard Christmas weekend. We are staying home and chilling. Our front window is currently white nothing, and the blizzard is supposed to last all day. It feels like a continuing tradition from the Covid years. 

As busy as we have been, we somehow managed to check off essential things on our holiday to-do list. We probably would have gotten more done... if we didn't stop for treats and libations here and there while running errands.

Also we hear that nasty flu bugs are going around. Wherever you are, whatever weather you are having on this Christmas, have a wonderful time celebrating! 

Hawaii Vacation to Deer Season

Just like that! It's deer season again... and Joe shot a 4-point on the second day yesterday. He didn't wait around this year, since his work prevented him from taking too many days off. 

And what a month! Exactly a month ago, already, we had over a foot of wet snow and left for our vacation on the Big Island. Our time in Hawaii feels like a sweet warm dream, so far away.

We indeed had a great adventure, exploring as much of the unique and diverse island as we could in a short week. We watched a sunset from the highest point in the US, on top of Mauna Kea, 14000ft above sea level. Though unexpected weather with cold mist and snow later on made our star gazing impossible, the Volcano goddess let us have a clear view of Milky Way briefly. 

Even just driving around the island, our mind was blown how quickly the landscape changed, from the powerful and massive volcanos...

To tropical paradise. 

So much more to explore, not enough time! Finally the last two days of our stay, we took it easy and enjoyed relaxing and floating in the lagoon at our hotel. 

We miss our wonderful view of the ocean to wake up to each morning. But what we miss the most would be all those colorful fish we could watch from the shore... even on our morning walk to grab a coffee. Well, Joe did not win the lottery, so "a hui hou," till we meet again, Hawaii.