Cheese and Chocolate!

Since about Tuesday, I've been hanging out with my roommate, Kara. She is saving me from myself, and from cabin fever. Thank goodness!

We've also been hanging out with her friend, James, who... went to CULINARY SCHOOL! ... Yes!





Friday night, he made mac and cheese with ham and broccoli. Now, this isn't boxed mac and cheese... OHH NO. The "cheese" was actually two different types of cheese melted into whipping cream and heavy cream with some butter... Add some blanched broc, ham, chili peppers and noodles, pair with ciabatta bread and Voila! Everyone agreed that it was the best mac and cheese they've ever had in their lives...


Tonight, James came over and suggested philly cheese steak... I think B is in heaven, cause cheese is SO his thing. Again, more cheese and more cream. Pretty sure I just gained 10 pounds. mmm

While the boys cut the veggies and meat and cooked them all together, Kara and I worked on the CHOCOLATE CAKE FROM SCRATCH!


If you've never made or had chocolate cake from scratch, I emplore you to buy a box of Hershey's semi-sweet cocoa and take the recipe from the back of the box... I promise you that you will make the richest, moistest, best-est chocolate cake you have ever eaten. (ever)

We are the Champions, My Friend - Ullrfest 2010

Founded in 1963, Ullr Fest is an annual week-long festival held by the town of Breckenridge. It "pays homage to the mythical Norse God of Snow, known as Ullr (pronounced Ooh-ler)."

Monday night, B and I went to the Ullr bonfire. It met at the Nordic Center at the Breck Golf Course. We get there and there are a TON of people EVERYWHERE... We were the youngest people there. I'd say the average age of these peeps was like 60... But, we made the best of it with their free appatizers and drinks - I had a hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps and B had a Crown and Coke. Then, I met up with Ullr himself (pictured to the right, lol).

After about 30 minutes, we walked from the Nordic Center for what seemed like FOREVER along a snow-covered trail with tiki torches on either side to the Ullr Bonfire. The bonfire was a little smaller than expected, but the ambiance was awesome. It was really cold outside, so the bonfire was a relief to whichever side of your body that was facing it. There were people, young and old, families and friends all standing around. There's something about bonfires that put my soul at peace.

I signed us all (myself, Brandon, roommate Kara, and Kara's friend James) up for the Ullympics. On Wednesday night, we left about five minutes before we had to be there, didn't know where we were going, got turned around, and finally used the "call a friend" feature and found our way to Carter Park about 10 minutes late - luckily everything in Breckenridge is close. We hurried inside to sign our waiver, promising that we would not to sue if a large cast iron object randomly struck us in the head...

We were the first team in the first event of the night, and I was the first person to throw the skillet... Ohh the pressure! Object of the game: slide the cast iron skillet to the center of the orange bulls-eye.

Team Avalanche threw our practice round: I accidentally threw two in a row, Kara broke a handle off hers, and after the boys went, we were ready for the real deal... Brandon is pictured to the right, mid-throw of his perfect bulls-eye. Altogether, we scored a high 30 points, which would prove to be the best throw of our heat, and the second best out of the 18 teams competing.

After we were done and watching the other teams, we sent Kara and James on a beer run. They got back before we moved to the next round! Score.

Next, we walked around the dog park to the tennis courts. Here, we competed in the team ski... Teams of four climb atop over-sized wooden skiis to cross country ski up and around and by the competing team. You can see the bottom of one of the skis in the photo to the left... Our team heaved and hoed and left and righted to a time of 1:30, barely stopping to push and heckle the other team in the middle. We beat the competitor by like 30 seconds and came out second overall in this competition.

After standing around drinking and watching for a few, we made our way to the third and final round. The most ridiculous of the games, this one required one person to spin five times around a ski poll then go rag doll while their teammates dressed them in a one-pieced snow suit, ski boots, googles, and lei. Then, they spin around the poll five more times and run across the snow field in their new gear, grab a bowl of flower, run back to their team and fish a piece of gum out with their mouth, chew it, and then spit it in their palm... Hilarious to watch! We only sat out for one round, and chose James to be our team member of honor... :) We prepped, worked out the strategy and in a couple seconds the whistle was blown! Turn, Turn, Turn, Turn, Turn, Ragdoll, pant legs up, ski boots on, WAIT the right foot won't go in! Suit up body and over arms, boot in, goggles on, lei placed, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, RUN! Get the bowl! There it is. Come BACK! Fish... Gag. "BEEERRRRR" Gag. Drink. Find Gum, Chew, DONE! Horray! Now can someone lead him to the bathroom before he pukes!

Finally done! We're all frozen, James can't see or breathe, so we go into the club house and wait for the results of the evening. We're buzzing around, laughing and talking, and finally the moment arrives! The scores are to be revealed. Third place goes to (drum roll) Bumble Bee Tuna! CHEERS. Second Place ...... Peak 11. This is the biggest Ullympics ever. Thank you sponsors blah blah blah and the winner is.........AVALANCHE!!!!! RAAHH RAHHH!! WHOO HOOOO!!!! Come get your four cases of beer, bottle of Ullr Schnapps and huge goody bag. We totally made Breckenridge history!

Gorge-ous

A couple days after Christmas, B and I went up to the Royal Gorge. You know? The huge hole in the ground in Canon City, Colorado. We bought a season pass - which just so happened to be cheaper than a day pass. Not sure how that works...

It took us a couple hours to get from Breck to the park. Once we got there, they almost didn't let us in without printed tickets because their internet was down and they had no way of checking our confirmation number... I didn't accept that possibility and they reluctantly let us pass anyway. ...

Once inside, we went straight to the incline railway and down to the bottom of the gorge. This one is the WORLD'S STEEPEST railway, at a 45 degree incline. It took about 5 minutes to get to the bottom and we enjoyed a beautiful view of the canon walls on both sides all the way down.

The Arkansas River rushes below the lookout, so we thought about jumping in and seeing how long it would take us to get back home to T-Town.

We took a quick pic and B's favorite sunglasses fell about 150 feet to the ground... :(

After mourning the loss, we rode back up to the top and made our way over to the Aerial Tramway. It is "1,100 feet above the canyon floor and is the world's longest single-span Aerial Tram." - They're all about the "world's largest and longest" at the Royal Gorge.

The ride to the other side was majestic. It took us about 15 minutes to get over there. Once there, some passengers got out to walk to the animal park, but we decided to drive instead.

We got back to the main part of the park and drove through the small "town" and over the "world's largest suspension bridge" to the other side of the gorge. Over there, we drove through the small animal park. We saw elk, American bison, and bighorn sheep. I felt bad that they had to be caged in, but they were busy eating and didn't seem to mind.

The bridge was cool. It hangs "1,053 feet above the Arkansas River and is the world's highest suspension bridge. A legendary feat of engineering renowned the world over, the bridge was built in 1929 for $350,000. The cost today would easily exceed $15 million."

Cool stuff. Definitely worth the trip to Canyon City. :0)