-:- go skiing

I can't believe we're already into the second week of January - it seems like it was Christmas just yesterday. So forgive my late post, but in my defense, isn't 2013 already moving a bit too quickly?

For Christmas this year, my in-laws rented a ski condo in Colorado for the whole family - it was such a wonderful trip - and I was able to accomplish #20 on my list of things to do.

If you are going skiing for the first time and have to rent your equipment, let me give you two pieces of advice that your husband might not think to tell you because he's a boy. When you go to get your boots and skis, make sure to shave your legs and don't wear skinny jeans. Trust me.

picture by Mr.

And I'll give you one more piece of advice - even if you're a natural skier and you learn how to ski pretty quickly, do not go to the top of a mountain after having just a couple of hours of experience under your belt (even if the slopes are all green - ahem). That's what I did - and after that little episode, I was happy to leave skiing to the experts and spend the next couple of days hanging out with my in-laws and nephew instead.

He's pretty stinking cute, right?

It was really fun to be on the road again with Mr. and I hadn't been back to the Rockies since my childhood, so I was happy to see those mountains again. We all ate some great food (thanks to my MIL for planning and fixing), played board games into the night, collectively ate approximately one million Cuties, and I have never been more focused on hydration in my life - my skin thanked me for that.

But the best part was getting to spend time with this crew - and next time, I'll definitely be ready to step up my skiing game. Kokomo, here I come!

xox

-:- neep and tattie scones

Scotland will always have a special place in our hearts. We honeymooned there - and though we were on somewhat of a shoestring budget, we had an absolutely amazing time.

For Thanksgiving this year, we made neeps and tatties instead of plain mashed potatoes because we loved them when we had them in Scotland and because we feel a little bit better about eating mash if there are some turnips thrown in there too.

But instead of making a normal sized pot, we overestimated how much we'd need to feed our guests, made a humongous pot of them, and had a ton leftover. Not quite literally a ton, but close. And although we love them, there's only so much of one thing you can eat before you never want to see another helping of it again in your life. I definitely didn't want to get to that point with mash.

So back to Scotland for a minute - because we were on a shoestring budget, most of our lunches and dinners came from the grocery store. But our full-service Scottish breakfasts were usually complementary from whatever hotel we were staying at - and they usually included tattie scones. This, I discovered, is the ticket to preventing a mash overload. A variation on the tattie scone - neep and tattie scones.

Here's what to do:
Warm your leftover mash slightly in the microwave - 30 seconds should do it.
Mix two tablespoons of flour in with your mash and then continue adding and mixing in flour a tablespoon at a time until you have a nice dough. It's okay if it's a little sticky, but you don't want it to be so sticky that you can't handle it. You may need more or less flour than the recipe calls for, depending on how thick your neeps and tatties were originally.

Flatten into a disk and put flour on both sides.
Then, press into a circle until the dough is about 1/4" thick.
Cut a cross in your circle so you end up with four scones.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and cook the scones for about three minutes on each side over medium heat. I have found that the second side needs less time than the first.

Serve with a fried egg, a fried tomato, or some leftover cranberry sauce.

xox