Snowshoe WV Monday

From the moment I took the dogs out on Monday morning around 6 am, before the sun got up over the mountain behind us (if we could have seen it through the clouds), it was clear that there would be no morel hunting that day. The ground was covered in frost and the mist was so thick around that it seemed that it was nearly raining. That was a harbinger of a cold, gray, and rainy day, an inside day.

Although I was looking forward to foraging for morels, given how tired I was from a year without a vacation and from an incredibly busy week before we closed, I was OK with a day of doing little to nothing, of worrying about what to eat and drink and nothing more serious than that.

Later morning found us all sitting around the table in the bay window in the kitchen taking in the day and sipping coffee while chatting and catching up on life. Now that Mark and Kelley live three and a half hours from us, chances to visit are few and far between. Now that the resort is closed between ski season and the summer season, Mark and Kelley are kicking it, waiting for work to pick back up in a few weeks, and it was a good time to catch up. During the seasons, they are extremely busy doing ski patrol, guiding bike rides and hikes, and working in the bars and restaurants up on top of the hill.

We finally got motivated to make breakfast,  closer to lunch time than to breakfast time, and it was a group effort with all of us pitching in.

Cooking Bacon

Bacon and Ramps

Beating Duck Eggs

Duck Eggs with Ramps

I had brought along a dozen duck eggs from the restaurant because we were drowning in them: the girls are laying hot and heavy now. We slowly caramelized chopped ramp bulbs in duck fat and then scrambled the eggs to which we had added chiffonaded ramp greens. The plate of eggs, bacon, and slices of Ann's bread made for a wonderful late breakfast/early lunch.

Scallop Seviche

By late afternoon, I am sure that a little bit of wine had been consumed and we were starting to get a little hungry. I had brought some seafood from the restaurant, 3 scallops and 8 crab cakes, that needed to be eaten and eaten soon. The seviche came as the answer to the question, "How can I feed four adults with three scallops?" I knew there was leftover cilantro from the chili the night before and with Kelley's help, I had soon gathered a lime, some grape tomatoes, some celery, and some garlic together with some chile flakes. Quite a tasty little nibble or two if I do say some myself.

Asparagus and Crab Cakes

For dinner, we ate the asparagus and the crab cakes that I brought from the restaurant. We used Mark's big 14-inch cast iron skillet to cook all of the crab cakes at one time. Brilliant! More board games ensued after dinner and more wine was consumed as we discussed going on a hike and a picnic in the morning, to take advantage of the forecasted sunny weather.