Of Snow and Crocs

Woke up this morning to snow... which is ok, but the weather forecaster dude on the tv said nothing about snow last night. It's lovely nonetheless.

Here are a couple short videos taken from different windows.

While we were deciding what snow activity we should do today, tsk amused us with his morning activity 'Bite the Shoe'. He bites the heels of our running shoes (I'm sure it makes us faster!) and these old orange Crocs.

And a short video of tsk in action.

So after all that excitement we decided to head out. There wasn't quite enough snow to ski so we got the snow shoes out and took a walk about our neighborhood. Here are some photos from our outing.

Mr & Mrs Goober, bundled up.

running, and kicking up the snow

snowy creek

hippity hoppity! many critter tracks in the snow

a snowy vista

Dana in the snow

another vista

The aspen grove, sans the golden leaves

Another nice day in the mountains, and the best part was our kitty greeting us at the door.

Baking on a Stormy Winter's Day

A short time ago I was chatting with my friend on twitter...not sure how the conversation came around to it, but I had mentioned that I was 'yeast challenged' when it came to baking. And I do love to bake but when perusing recipes if it calls for yeast it gets tossed out. So my friend sent a link to a recipe of theirs which sounded really good. 

I gathered up all my courage and thought today with it's howling winds and blowing snow was a good day to attempt to 'conquer the yeast'. Of course, with the added difficulties of baking in high altitude.

Here is the link to the recipe: Pull Apart Sweet Potato Pie Cinnamon Roll with Orange Liqueur Icing

There are many good recipes there so I hope you take a look.

Ok, here we go......

Ingredients have been gathered

 

Sweet potatoes peeled, cubed, steamed... ready for mashing.

 

 

Ready to add ingredients together

Jim helping out with the kneading. It's hard work for sure!

Ready for the first proofing

Holy Cow! It worked! It doubled in size!

Dough rolled out, filling added to top

Rolled up and sliced

Ready for second proofing!

After second proofing, has risen more! ready for baking!

Hot out of the oven! Smells so good, now for some icing.

Iced with some chopped almonds on top.

A warm piece of Sweet Potato Cinnamon Roll..... Bon Appetit

So all in all I would say that this recipe was a success! In the difficult conditions of high altitude with yeast it turned out really well. You can taste the spices and the orange and it's not an overwhelming sweet kind of roll either. I'd make it again!

Since it is just the two of us we cut it in half and wrapped it up. Jim bundled up and in the howling blowing storm ran it over to our neighbors the Sherpas. Hope they like it as much as we do.

Thanks @yassysgdk for sharing your recipe!

Snowy Mountain Bike Ride

Even though it hasn't snowed in over a week here, it's been so cold the snow we got hasn't melted. In spite of that we thought we would check out the trails in the neighborhood....

I will tell you now, we need 4-wheel drive for our 2-wheeled bikes!

Jim trying to stay upright. Snow is so slippery!

Even with these knobby tires, no traction!

Soon we will be Nordic skiing to this hut.

 

 

Paw prints a-plenty

Even the beaver pond is starting to freeze over.

Our other activity today was wrapping up all the small and young trees around the house. Soon the snow will be at least to the bottom of that window!