Ski Trip: Ober Style

As I mentioned yesterday, we eventually made it to Gatlinburg so here's the rest of the story....you can read the first part of our adventure here.

So excited we finally made it!

Lucky for us the ice melted early Saturday morning and we were on the road by 9:30.  Unfortunately 1/5 of our party was a couple of hours behind us and had to turn around and go back home Friday night due to the weather.  Since they were planning on going home on Sunday anyway they abandoned the trip all together.  What we hadn't thought about was the couple riding with Eric and I was supposed to ride home with them on Sunday.  After a quick detour to rent a car for them in Chattanooga to send them back home in we finally pulled into Gatlinburg about 2pm.

We decided to opt out of skiing Saturday evening since the temps kept threatening to drop below freezing and we hadn't eaten since breakfast, so after we got settled into the condo and made a grocery store run for the next morning we headed out in search of food. We ended up at the Chop House right smack dab in the middle of the outlet mall--I wasn't complaining =) We had an amazing steak dinner that was right on time and managed to sneak in a little shopping.  I scored a sweater for $7 from the Loft Outlet so I was a happy camper.  It was still early so we headed to a bar recommended to us by the concierge.  Every time we've gone on one of these trips I always ask the concierge for their recommendations of restaurants and hangouts...so far they have been 2 for 2 on their recommendations (last year the guy recommended Laundry when we were in Steamboat Springs). Bluff''s Bar and Grill was tucked behind the Olive Garden and the Longhorn Steakhouse in a very unassuming strip mall.  We were very pleasantly surprised when we walked in and saw a very laid back but modern looking place with lots of tables and my favorite part: an entire section with bar games to play.  They had 3 pool tables, shuffleboard, corn hole, and even a ring game (that was broken but any place with a ring game in totally legit in my book).  I've never been much for the bar scene because you stand around in the dark, yelling over loud music, and all there is to do is drink.  I told Eric I might actually want to come to a bar regularly if we had one like this near us.  We spent nearly 3 hours there before calling it a night.

BTW I totally dominated at shuffleboard, sign me up for a Senior's cruise!

Sunday morning Eric and I were up early--we didn't even have dogs to wake us up--guess that's a sign we're getting old, and he cooked an amazing breakfast for us before we headed to Ober Mountain for some snowboarding and skiing.  We were a little anxious driving up the mountain, and not just because there were crazy tight switchbacks without guard railings most of the way up, but because the rain that had fallen all day Saturday had melted what little snow had fallen in the area Friday night.  We had no reason to worry because the slopes had a nice 4-5 foot base of snow they had been working on all winter.  We had a blast snowboarding and skiing.  Ober was a quite a bit smaller than the slopes we were on last year in Colorado (obviously), but it was perfect because we could get separated on runs and all meet up at the bottom of the hill.  It was much closer in size to Sugar Mountain where we went the 2 previous years (recaps here and here). We played on the slopes all day and made the most of our single day of boarding.  I think we finally turned our boards and skis in around 7 when we were completely worn out and soaked to the bone.  

Our ski crew

 Left: the bottom of the hill (before the fog rolled in). Right: Top to Bottom: Repping the little bro's Alma Mater with my Michigan Tech t-shirt that I always wear when I go snowboarding; Katie's nose got cold toward the end of the day so Eric graciously swapped head gear with her...doesn't he look precious with her ear warmer on?

 Clockwise from top left: The view from the lift, it got crazy foggy as the day went on and you could barely see the ground below at some points; Our first trip up the lift!; the boys up ahead of us...as you can see the surrounding snow was almost completely melted; the girls on the lift!

Trying to take a group picture while the guys threw snowballs at us.  

Upon the recommendation of the bartender at the ski lodge we ventured down the mountain to a restaurant called Cherokee Grill in the heart of Gatlinburg. I was a bit steaked out from the night before so I was glad they had a variety of delicious dishes. I had their Maryland Crab Cakes and they were to die for!  We decided the best part about this place was their side dishes: baked spinach mac and cheese, steamed broccoli with beer cheese, and Neva's potatoes (twice baked) were our favorites, but the best thing we had was a cup of boursin cheese that one of the guys got to put on the steak.  I think we all had a dip of it...I added to to my potato and it was amazing. 

After we'd stuffed ourselves silly again we headed back to the condo.  We had high hopes for the evening since it was our last night there but we were all exhausted and our full bellies had us in coma-like states when we got back.  It was probably for the best since we had to head home early the next morning. Little did we know, Gatlinburg had one last surprise for us when we woke up...a beautiful light falling snow the morning we left.  

We had such a wonderful time and I only wish we could have spent a couple more days there. Eric and I were saying we wish we could go back again this weekend.  That one day of snowboarding only left us hungry for more and we are already thinking about next year!

Birthdays are the Best!

Sometimes no matter how well you plan, your plans will get derailed. When this happens, you usually have 2 choices: you can sulk and feel sorry for yourself or you can pop open a bottle of Sangria, find an empty hotel lobby and play Celebrity and Phase 10 with your friends and enjoy yourself.  The latter is what happened to us on Friday night.  For my birthday, we decided to take a weekend ski trip getaway to Gatlinburg, TN with a group of our friends.  We headed out of town around 2pm, hoping to make it to TN by dinnertime. However, we were not counting on Winter Storm Quantum covering North Alabama with a blanket of ice...while we were trying to get from South Alabama to Tennessee. Long story short, we made it to the booming metropolis of Fort Payne (home of a little country band called Alabama..you may have heard of them) and found ourselves in the last 2 available rooms at the Holiday Inn Express, so I'm basically an expert at life now. Since the impending ice storm had everything but the Waffle House shut down in town we spent the evening playing games in the hotel lobby. It was a birthday I will never forget and I am so thankful that I had a wonderful group of friends to spend it with to made it that much more special!

Getting the weekend started off right!

Just an old 30-something couple!

The good news is that we eventually made it to Gatlinburg...just a day later than we had planned...more on that tomorrow!

The End of an Era

Today marks the end of a hugely monumental time in my life...the end of my 20s.  As of today I have officially crossed over to the dark side (and hopefully not the grayer side) known as my 30s.  I've been somewhat apprehensive about my upcoming birthday, but the closer it gets the more comfortable I am with it.  And then I think, shouldn't I have myself a little more together at this age? Because I don't feel I'm much more mature than I was back in college.  

I've been at a training all week for work--what a way to ring in your 30s, right?--and got a slap in the face when talking with a new coworker who mentioned she was born in the 90s.  It took everything I had not let the shock show on my face and hold back the OMGness you were born in the 90s comment slip out because it finally hit me....I am no longer the young one there.  I am the experienced one now...I am someone's boss for crying out loud, yet a lot of the time I still feel like that lost 22 year old wondering how the heck I was going to sit at a desk for 8 hours a day like an adult.  Side note: I still have not figured that one out yet. =)This decade has been wonderful to me: I met Eric; graduated from college; lived on my own for the first time; became a dog mom; got a big girl job; ran a 10 mile race; got married; we bought a house; I became an aunt; found my way back to tap dancing; traveled some amazing places: London, Jamaica, Maine, New Mexico, Colorado, Chicago, the U.P., etc; made some amazing, lifelong friends; and learned a thing or two along the way.

                         

                         

I am so agree grateful for all of the wonderful things the past decade brought my way and I cannot wait to see what the next 10 years holds! So BRING IT 30....I'm ready for you!

Slow Cooker Beef with Sweet Peppers for Two

Like most people, Eric and I resolved to eat better/exercise more/yada yada yada this year as we usually do and we've done pretty well so far. But 6 weeks in, we've grown tired of the spinach salad with chicken every night.  Granted we had a crazy week last week, but we opted to eat out twice which was 2 more times than we had the entire 5 weeks prior. I came to the conclusion that I needed to add some new recipes to the rotation and pulled up my trusty old friend Pinterest. With the latest cold snap we've had I was craving some warm comfort food but without the major carb overload that usually comes with it and I managed to hit a home run on my first try.  I started with this recipe, but tweaked it based on our likes and what I had on hand already and came up with this gem of a dinner that got 2 thumbs up from Eric.

What you Need:

1 - 1.25 lbs beef stew meat

1.5 cups Italian sweet pepper, seeded and chopped into 1" pieces

1/2 medium sweet onion, sliced into chunks

2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 cups water, divided

3 beef bullion cubes

1/2 - 1 tsp Sriracha sauce (depending on how spicy you want it)

2 tsp corn starch

How to Make It:

1. In a small sauce pan, dissolve bullion cubes in 1.5 cups of boiling water. Stir in Sriracha  and set aside. Note: I used about 1/2 tsp of Sriracha and ours was not spicy at all (and I am a complete wuss when it comes to spicy foods).

2. In a crock pot, layer meat, peppers, and onions.  Sprinkle with garlic, salt, and pepper. Pour bullion/Sriracha mixture over meat and veggies in crock pot.

3. Cook on low heat for 8.5 hours. Note: I put mine on when I left for work at 6:15am and didn't get back to it until about 5pm. I just set the timer on my crock pot and it turned out perfect.

4. In a small sauce pan mix remaining 1/2 cup of water with cornstarch. Add 1 cup of the juice from the crock pot and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Let boil for 2 minutes to thicken and pour sauce back into the crock pot.

5. Serve over rice or potatoes.

This stuff was so good.  We had maybe one serving leftover, so this is definitely a recipe just for 2, but you could easily add more meat and veggies if you need it to go a little further.

Enjoy!