The Keystone Culinary Festival

This past weekend, my husband and I and some friends indulged in some of the less expensive events of the Keystone Winter Culinary Festival. We had a great time talking to chefs and sampling their wares. First, we went to the kitchen demo at the Alpenglow Stube, the highest AAA 4-diamond dining experience in North America. Below are photos of the entrance sign and my group.


Executive Chef David Scott talked about the restaurant, how he trains staff, and the appetizer that he was going to make for us to sample: Ragout of Blue Crab, comprised of lump crab meat, sautéed shiitake mushrooms and leeks, and lemon chive beurre blanc. The first photo below is of him making the beurre blanc sauce, the second is of the plating process, and the third shows the final product. Was it yummy! After devouring that, Chef Scott took us on a tour of the kitchen.



The next event we attended was a pastry demo performed by Ned Archibald, Keystone's Executive Pastry Chef. He made burgers, tacos, and spaghetti, all constructed from pastry, chocolate, and marzipan ingredients. The first photo shows Chef Archibald constructing a dessert burger. The bun is yellow cake, the meat is chocolate cake, the mayonnaise is buttercream frosting, and the ketchup and mustard are raspberry and apricot marmalade. The lettuce and tomato are fashioned out of marzipan. The second photo shows him topping a dessert taco with fake sour cream (more buttercream frosting). The next two photos show the results of his work. These were absolutely delicious and whimsical desserts!





After the pastry demo, we rushed over to the North American whiskey tasting that included Bulleit Bourbon, Bulleit Rye, George Dickel, Barrel Select Tennessee Whisky, Crown Royal Black, Crown Royal Reserve, and Crown Royal Cask 16. Accompanying the drinks was a lovely platter of crackers and cheeses. These events proved that you don't have to spend a lot of money to have a great time at the culinary festival, but from what I saw of the preparations, and from what the chefs were saying about it, the Grand Tasting Saturday evening must have been spectacular!

Summit County Senior Winter Games

Earlier this week I participated in the Summit County Senior Winter Games, an annual affair that attracts seniors not only from the Colorado high country, but from all over the US. The friendly competition began with a spaghetti dinner at the Summit County Senior Center on Sunday evening, where we registered for events and picked up our racing bibs. We also bid on silent auction items, and the proceeds benefited needy seniors in the county.

Also, there were door prizes galore from generous sponsors. I won a performance tune from Keystone Sports on my skis, which was very timely, since I've been hitting rocks on the slopes all season so far, due to lower snowpack levels. After carbo- and wine-loading, we all went home to psych ourselves up for the ice-skating events at Keystone Lake (which I didn't participate in) and the alpine skiing events at Keystone Resort on Monday.

I competed in the Giant Slalom (that was also a Nastar event), the Rally Race (where we try to match a time set by a games official), and the goofy Obstacle Race. Below is a photo of me in my race bib, free-skiing between events.


Tuesday was a full morning and early afternoon of nordic events at the Frisco Nordic Center. I competed in the short, 1 kilometer snowshow race there. Then at 3:00 that afternoon, we reconvened for more food and wine and the long, long award ceremonies. Why so long? For every event, competitors were divided by sex and 5-year age groups (A=50-54, B=55-59, etc.), and gold, silver, and bronze medals were awarded for each group.

I won a bronze medal in the alpine Obstacle Course Race and a silver medal in the Short Snowshoe Race and a silver Nastar medal in the Giant Slalom Race. Below is a photo of me with my "bling." The Senior Winter Games were a great way to get us "seniors" (50+) outside and moving and were a lot of fun to boot!

Why I Love Breckenridge, Colorado

My second home is in Breckenridge, Colorado, and my husband and I hope to make it our only, permanent home soon. Sure, we love skiing in Breckenridge in the winter, and I even had one of my mystery novels, To Hell in a Handbasket, take place in Breckenridge in the winter. But summers are absolutely gorgeous in Breckenridge and the surrounding mountains and valleys in Summit County.

I thought I'd share with my blog readers some of the activities we engaged in during our most recent visit. The two photos below are from a long 8-mile, round-trip hike we took to the Kettle Ponds in the Eagle Nest Wildernest area. What a beautiful area! I hope you'll agree.



The small towns in Summit County and nearby Eagle and Park counties seem to take turns sponsoring festivals, so there's always a fun time to be had on the weekend. Last weekend we visited Fairplay, Colorado for the Burro Days festival. We watched the racers prepare and start for the burro race up to the top of Mosquito Pass and back.





Other festival events included a staged gunfight (see three photos below).




We also watched the town parade, which included some of the llamas that had raced the day before, and watched the outhouse races (see photos below). The teams thought up appropriate names for their entries, such as "The Princess and the Potty". Between events, we wandered among the arts and craft booths and I indulged in my favorite guilty pleasure festival food--kettle corn. Yum!





Lastly, the photos below are from a visit we made to the Alpenglow Stube restaurant at the Keystone Ski Resort in Keystone, Colorado. It is the highest AAA Four-Diamond™ dining experience in North America. We enjoyed the breathtaking views while riding two gondolas to the top of the North Peak at 11,444 feet. Then we sampled wine, appetizers and desserts on the outdoor patio (see below).






After stuffing ourselves, we poked our heads into the Der Fondue Chessel restaurant next-door to see what the fondue offerings looked like. We wound up getting caught up in the chicken dance song performed by the German band (see below). What fun!



So, have I enticed you to visit the high-country of Colorado during the summertime yet?