After a Hard Day of Skiing…Good Food and Wine Après-Ski

I spend a hard night in the kitchen!

I like to cook and I don’t mean popping a packaged lasagna into the oven, unless of course it is a lasagna I made from scratch.

We finish up skiing and might spend some time in the resort’s main lodge having a drink or two and talking with people we know or just met. Watching people and perhaps watching a football or basketball game (I have yet to watch a baseball game after skiing) and then the next stop is usually at the grocery store to purchase a few of the things we need for dinner but forgot or we find have spoiled. Maybe a bag of lettuce, maybe butter, sour cream, tonic water, or who knows?

Then it is back to the cabin and I go to work. I start off usually by mixing myself a gin and tonic, is there a better drink than a crisp gin and tonic? I do not think so. Then I direct and cook. Steaks always spend some time on the grill even in the dead of winter (however, it is more challenging in the dark), sometimes it is chicken on the menu (adobo or thyme), and other times we have fish. All three food groups, right?

Usually we have potato of some sort. Chicken goes with mashed potatoes and steaks dictate baked potatoes (always baking a couple extra for breakfast). A good dinner is incomplete without a salad and a good wine — choose your favorite — I prefer bodiful reds or crisp light bodied whites.

After this I notice the gravitational field on my chair and under my eyelids increase dramatically after such a dinner. Usually we end up cleaning up in the morning and starting right with breakfast (which is my brother’s specialty).

Sometimes things do not turn out as they should, but I really treasure those nights.

Update
Since I originally wrote this post I have changed aspects of my life. I still like to cook but because I have seen the effects of chronic alcoholism up close I have cut back on the drinking. One major change is the cleanup is usually done immediately after dinner and I find myself going to sleep in a bed instead of in the chair in front of the TV.

In fact, often times in the scene I describe I do not have any beer, booze, or wine to drink.