Vermont weekender

Hi bloggies!!  I’m BACK in the big apple now, after a SUPER fun weekend in Vermont.  It’s so nice to get out of the craziness that is NYC every once in a while – and the ‘burbs of Vermont were just the place to relax and unwind.  It’s so small town.

So, back tracking a bit to Friday…Kyle’s boss generously let us use his cabin (which sleeps 13) so we decided to head up to Vermont for the weekend for a fun little skiing getaway with another couple.  Hooray! SO FUN!  But, very very cold.

I couldn’t get pics of everything since I was with peeps who don’t know about the blog (and I was obvi not going to bring my camera out on the slopes)…

Starting with Friday:

I hit the gym early in the AM, made a pot of coffee, and then we were off!  I made myself a BIG ‘ol thermos of coffee for the road.  Ok, I may have glossed over a few points there.  At the car rental place, we were faced with a bit of a predicament, my license is out of state, and Kyle is under 25 years old, soooo (apparently) because of that combination we couldn’t get the 4×4.  Picture all 4 people, skis, poles and luggage smashed in a Kia Rondo.  It was a bit on the cramped side to say the least…And yes, to answer the obvious question, I am the only over 25 year old (cradle robber, holla!).  Anyways, eventually we got the car sitch settled and smashed everything in (barely) and hit the road.  The early technical difficulties aside, the drive was pretty easy.  We stopped a few times for gas, food, and bathroom breaks, but we made great time and arrived by 4 pm. 

Kyle actually ended up driving (well worth the extra $$$ for underage drivers) – you would understand if you knew:  A)  how I used to drive back in my So Cal commuting days,  B)  that I haven’t been behind the wheel in a few years, and  C)  that they DON’T have STARBUCKS in Vermont (whaaaaa)!!!!  I seriously found that last one hard to believe, so if there are any VT readers out there who can defend this horrible situation, please speak up – otherwise Starbeezies, get your SHIZ together?! 

Back to the weekend food…some odwalla bars and an apple for the road.

Check out my red lacoste snow boots (I feel like rainbow brite in them).

Sabra roasted red pepper hummus with pretzels.

And some veggies for the rest of the hummus not used on the pretz. UNPICTURED: coffee, water, apple, a bag of dried edamame, and a bag of dried pineapples.

The cabin is AWESOME.  Seriously, I can’t wait to be a grown up and have money to get vacation homes (yes, plural, I’m dreaming big).

After unpacking, we went vegged out and had some wine and then went into town to eat.  We went to dinner at a place called Sam’s Steakhouse.  Yeah, the name was a bit daunting to me, since clearly I’m not carnivorous.  But the boys were in a meat eating kind of mood…so Sam’s was the place.  Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  They had a salad bar, so I was in the clear.

Above is salad bar plate #1, which has chickpeas, marinated ‘shrooms, grape tomatoes, baby corn, yellow couscous salad, cukes, etc. 

Below is slice #1 of 3 of the most fresh and deliciously moist bread ever.  It was hot and straight out of the oven, and because they let you slice your own mine were pretty obscenely large.  I literally could have made a meal of this bread alone.  To DIE for good.

I also had a side order of BN squash, which came pureed in a big dish, so I was kinda freaking out that it was made with lots of butter.  To ease my mind I sucked it up and asked the waitress and she assured me it wasn’t made with any dairy (apparently several others have had similar concerns because she was very educated on the cooking process).  We also mamanged to guzzle down a few bottles of vino.

Back at the cabin we started a fire and continued the drinking…

Don’t worry, we got to bed at a decent hour…after all we had a big day on the slopes ahead of us.

Saturday:

AM coffee with sugar in the raw (not my first choice, but whatevs) and plain silk.  Mmmm…the perfect fuel for a whole lotta skiing. 

I love love love skiing.  Such a fun day. 

We breaked at 1 for lunch and I had a mediocre veggie burger on a kaiser roll and an apple.  The lodge was packed so it was really a matter of getting in and out, definitely not about the dining experience.  After lunch we were back on the slopes until the lifts closed at 4.  We literally skied home since the cabin is merely yards from the base of the mountain.  Just another one of the 4 million amazing things about the cabin. 

After hanging up our skis and taking off our boots, we walked down the road to a bar called the Loft for some beers.  I got a Vermont microbrew and even though it wasn’t my fave, the cold and frosty flavor was so refreshing I pounded it. 

Once back at the cabin we started another fire and busted out the rest of the groceries and booze

…cue Elise’s carbo loading sesh.  It was like I was eating my last meal!  Clearly a day on the slopes left me famished.  I couldn’t get the food in fast enough.

I had a few hundred plates of these babies, along with a pound of garlic hummus with any and every thing I could dip into it.  Multiple kinds of crackers, pita chips, whole wheat tortilla chips, and french bread. 

I actually KNOW I single handedly ate the bag of pita chips. 

I was in a zone, grubbing by the fire, and nothing could have been better after a long day of freezing my butt off on the mountains. 

These also helped 🙂

We chilled out watching tv, playing cards, drinking and munching for hours (we were pretty exhausted).  Finally we decided to get dinner under way.  I took on the role of head chef :)  We made a big salad with baby arugula, tomato, bell pepper, red onion, and avo, to which I added these morning star “chik’n starters.”

We also had french bread (the others had cheese tortellini with pesto) and a lot more wine.

We played couple vs couple Catch Phrase…Kyle and I were SO in sync, we seriously dominated, not that I’m biased. 

More Vermont Weekender cont. later