One last time to the road

 

First tracks into the North Bowl - Powder!

A couple of weeks ago we had a warm storm that melted a lot of the snow at the pass and I thought that we were past maximum snow pack.  And I was pretty sure that I was done with skiing all the way to the road for the year.  But it turns out I was wrong.

Over the weekend we got a cold storm that pasted Pyramid with snow and even deposited a few inches in the yard in town.  WOW!

So for the last two days I skied all the way to the road. Yesterday when I started up the mountain it was still lightly snowing.  Then the sun came out and it got hot!  It was still all powder snow on high, but down low it quickly turned to mush.  In the strong sun with the warm ground underneath the snow started to quickly melt.  I doubt I'll be able to ski to the road today.

In the North Bowl I had one of my best ski runs of the year.  Almost a foot of dry powder and no other tracks - it was all mine! One glorious run.

Patrick

Monday Afternoon

This was Sunday afternoon at the pass

The bottom half of the north bowl run

My garlic - buried again!

Monday morning - snow in the yard!

Canned Salmon Pot Pie Recipes

 

Salmon Pirok

The canned deer meat pot pies worked out so well that I decided to make canned salmon pot pies.  I also can (or in reality glass jar) a lot of salmon, and a good pot pie recipe for my canned salmon would come in super handy.  And I loved how easy it is to use the pre made pie pastry to cover the pies!

Rather than the corn starch I used to make my deer pot pie, I made a béchamel sauce for the fish pies (flour in butter with milk added). I basically adapted this recipe (click here for recipe) for my canned salmon. This recipe worked out GREAT, but I forgot to take any pictures. 

This is the béchamel sauce pot pie recipe I used (from https://www.amummytoo.co.uk/salmon-pot-pie/)

But I did not stop there.  Kodiak is famous it's own local, Russian influenced, variety of salmon pie known as 'Pirok'.  It is basically a salmon pie made with rice and root vegetables.  Click here and here for 2 good Pirok recipes. I decided to use the more traditional of the 2 recipes. 

Basic Pirok recipe that I used (from https://ediblealaska.ediblecommunities.com/recipe/recipes-russian-pirok/)

Since I had 2 pie crusts and the 10 inch pie plate, I also decided to just forego the pot pies and go by the recipe for the first time.  Next time I will make pirok pot pies, but this time I just made salmon pirok.

Next I adapted the recipe somewhat.  Generally I don't like to add bacon to recipes because I think it tends to overpower everything else, but both of the recipes called for bacon.  And so I used bacon, but not the ONE POUND suggested for the recipe.  I used 4 slices of thick cut bacon instead (or around 1/2 pound), and a dollop of bacon grease from a jar where I pour the drippings (I don't save bacon drippings but do put them in a jar so the grease does not clog my pipes).

I also do not have any rutabagas - so I used one of my garden potatoes instead.  I also have a lot of fresh carrots from my garden so I added more than called for - I also used a whole head of garlic from my garden because it is weaker but more flavorful than the store bought soft neck garlic. 

I did not add the hard boiled eggs because I was lazy, but did add more onion to make up for it. I had a lot of leftover rice on hand too. In any case, I basically mixed and matched, substituting this for that, and came up with the same general proportions called for in the recipe. Then I put it all together and cooked it following the directions in the recipe (I did NOT do well with the egg and water on the crust).

And it all came out GREAT.  It tasted just like (or better) than the pirok I have had in the past. Stuey and I gobbled it up for dinner!

Patrick

Great Week of Skiing

This past week was a glorious ski week.  The sun came out every day and there was powder on the mountain.  It felt like the skiing we usually get in March. We generally don't get such good powder skiing in April.  But it is April, and so the sun is very strong.  So the only place to find the good powder was on the shady North facing slopes.  

There was some wind too.  The wind blew the powder away in places and in other places created a hard crust on top.  So all this week it has been a game to find shady slopes with wind protection that nobody else had already found and tracked up.  Yesterday I found the perfect run just below a snow drift that went up and down the mountain.  I got in a vertical run of about 500 feet in a foot of dry, undisturbed powder.

The dogs thought I was a ski god.

Patrick
 

This is looking west - on the left snow does not melt on the north facing slopes while it does on the right on the south facing slopes

Dale was liking it too!

Snow in the Yard

Yesterday I woke up to another surprise overnight snow fall, and it was pretty substantial too.  This might be the most snow we have gotten all winter in my yard.  Of course by noon it was gone everywhere with sun exposure. But even this morning there is still snow in all the shady spots.

It was pretty beautiful and I walked around in the yard taking pictures because I knew it would not stick around for long.  It is mid April after all.

Patrick

Red alder catkins

salmonberry bushes