Spring Training 2010

Some highlights from Florida 2010 Spring Training. The first is that I got my first foul ball on the last day. The lowlight was the temperatures, they were low, too low for my liking.

The Phanatic

Jayson Werth Sporting the beard

Jimmy Rollins in St. Patty's Green

Ryan Howard up to bat.

Tailgating on St. Patrick's Day.

Breakfast at Lenny's. So I had the sampler with 2 eggs, homefries, one bacon, one sausage link, one sausage patty, and one Canadian bacon slice, all with Rye toast.

Yes he's admiring a good golf shot.

Freezing in the seats.

Slice, Hook, or straight? Your guess is as good as mine.

Capitals beat the Lightning at the St. Pete Times Forum. A little non-baseball fun.

Breckenridge Dog Sledding

Coming out of the woods.

Mushing up the hills.

Some short dog-sledding video.

High Altitude 3-Bean Chili and Lentil with Flowering Kale Soup

So it turns out that feeding 17 people can be quite a challenge and for an additional test of skill, do it at altitude (10,000 ft) in a rental house kitchen with dull knives. Well we pulled it off. With my two friends, Megan and Jenn (Jenn doubles as my sister), we cooked up quite the feast. On a few scraped knuckles later, we had a triumphant meal for 17 with Grilled cheese with Fontina, White Cheddar and spinach, 3-Bean Citrus Chili and Green Lentils with Flowering Kale Soup.

It became quite hard to predict the amount of ingredients needed to pull of this feet. But sticking to the basics of creating a good foundation with the Onions, Celery, Peppers (the trinity) for the chili and a mirepoix (carrots, celery, and onion) for the lentils, we pulled it off. I added jalapeño to both as well as garlic and diced tomatoes.

The hightlights were definitely the flowering purple kale in the lentils, the zest and juice of 2 oranges in the chili, and the perfect grilled cheese with spinach. And of course my two cooking companions, Jenn and Megan.

Megan and Jenn

Another highlight was mushing this team of dogs!