Gutsy Cooks Club #25 part 2 on The Mountain

Today is the official first day of spring and we've just returned from a weekend spent in blizzard like conditions on the mountain. Days left for skiing are limited now and the weather forecast was calling for the perfect conditions so we were happy to accept the invitation to stay up at Crystal mountain with G's teaching buddy at his cabin for the weekend at the last minute. I had planned to make the remaining 2 of 3 recipes of the Gutsy Cooks Club Menu this week on Friday night so plan 2 kicked into action. We decided we'd make dinner for our generous friend Frost when we arrived. So accomplished the Thai Noodle Stir-Fry part of the menu but decided deep frying shrimp toast at someone elses cabin that we had never been to before might be a bit much so we decided to skip the shrimp toasts part of the menu.

We both hustled directly home after work Friday. G started prepping the veggies for the Thai noodle dish while he waited for me to get home. We weren't exactly sure what to expect as far as kitchen equipment so our goal was to make it as easy to put together when we arrived as we possibly could. We also decided that since we were skipping the shrimp toast recipe that we'd use the shrimp instead for the Thai Noodle Stir-Fry in place of the chicken.

We finally hit the road shortly after 6 p.m. with a few last minute stops along the way. The drive to Crystal Mountain is approximately 2.5 hours usually. But we never expected to hit a blizzard just outside of the Greenwater. From Greenwater to the hill it was absolutely dumping snow. Snowflakes that felt like they were the size of snowballs.

Driving in the blizzard!

We finally arrived to Frost's cabin on the mountain about 8:00. And we had hike back to it with all of our stuff on our backs but it was well worth it.

We arrived and immediately started making our first course. G had been craving a favorite summer dish that we make and he was determined he wanted to make for Frost. Mango & Avocado with Crab and a Sweet Chile Vinaigrette. It didn't match the setting or weather but oh well. Before we left home I made the vinaigrette; 3/4 Mae Ploy's Sweet Chile Sauce to 1/4 Rice Vinegar and a dash of salt. Up at the cabin we sliced the mangoes and avocados. Put them on a bed of greens and topped with fresh lump dungeness crab and dressed with the vinaigrette. It is a wonderful starter.

We enjoyed our starter with a reoccurring white lately Oregon Savoureux Pinot Gris.

We then chopped our onion & red pepper the only 2 veggies we didn't pre-prep.

I sauteed the shrimp and set them aside and then stir fried the veggies and added the sauce and shrimp back to the pan.

We opened our second bottle of white wine to go with our dinner, a Townsend Bay Pinot Gris that was quite sweet it complimented the spicy stir fry well.

We enjoyed our dinner for three anticipating a great day of skiing on Saturday.

We ended our eventing telling stories, drinking more wine, eating dark chocolate laced with bacon, telling more stories and drinking more wine.

 This wine G was determined would be fabulous Coda made by Cadence winery. It's made with his favorite Tapteil grapes from red mountain. But sadly G was the only who actually thought it would be as good as he expected. Frost & I were both underwhelmed with it. I eventually had to convince the guys it was time to go to bed I think they would of kept telling stories all night. But I also knew they'd want to hit the mountain pretty early and I needed to sleep for that to happen.

We woke up to this:

 9 inches of new and blue sky, a rarity in March for Washington state. It was a fantastic day. I've become very much a fair weather skier at my old age of 43 and this was the type of day that makes me want to ski.

We had a great time. We met another couple of friends up there as well and skied the day together enjoying powder and blue skies.

Mt. Rainier

It was so fantastic we dogged out of our supper club commitment to stay one more night and get another day in.

We had dinner in the lodge and watched the snow continue just teasing us with a great day to be had on Sunday too.

Sadly we woke up to supposed winds in the 80mph range and most of the mountain on wind hold.

My gear stayed right where you see it in the picture on Sunday morning. High winds do not match my fair weather skiing attitude. G & Frost went up for a few runs though and came back before noon.

It was great weekend with some good food and wine and great snow, on Saturday at least.

 It made me love skiing again,which makes G very happy. We will make the shrimp toast recipe though because I'm very interested to give it a try just couldn't pull it off this week.