Strong Like Bull, Cook Like Magic

I can't even tell you how excited I am to be the chef for SLB. At first the idea made me nervous, that's a lot of people. But I got lots of practice over the past 6 months and I know that I'm going to be more than fine. It might be hard to believe but I've cooked more than I ever have in my life over the past 6 months and I haven't had a single thing go wrong in the kitchen. That's amazing to me. I've even invented most of the recipes. You may not know this but I've never attended a cooking school. I call myself an "intuitive chef" and I'm also great at problem solving. So, as you can see, I'm confident that my cooking will be a success (even with a very basic and small kitchen at the cortijo). I sound like an egomaniac right now, and maybe I am!

Normally, the focus of my cooking is on various levels of health and nutrition. With SLB I can't do that. People's digestive systems need to adjust to my normal style of cooking and adjusting while riding for hours over mountains in Spain is not going to go well. So I've learned various tiers of healthy cooking. At SLB I'll be cooking traditional training style meals and of course I can't help but sneak in some extra healthy ingredients wherever I safely can. I would say that the breakdown would be about 60/40 %.

I also have the greatest assistant chef I could ever ask for. John's dad and I have a great relationship and he is here to help me. The man knows his way around a kitchen and I love spending time with him.

Today, one day before campers arrive, we did our first shop. We bought supplies for the next 2-3 days and will go back to the store regularly to keep things fresh. It took quite a bit of research to locate everything we needed, but we really got lucky with a walmart/costco type store. It was super awesome! I'm also going to let the campers come into the kitchen once in a while to learn a few things, as if it were a cooking class. I'm also more than happy to be total holistic health counselor if they'd like to pick my brain while we cook.

Everything has gone perfectly thus far with the camp. All the way from packing our bags, to the most perfect 60 degree and sunny weather (I know, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to rub it in about the weather ;))

Now I'm off to do some food prep. I am so amped to get on my bike and ride over mountains with an awesome group of people.

(Photo: our first shop filled 3 carts!)
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How to Annoy People When it Snows

This video is HILARIOUS. You'll especially appreciate it if you've been dealing with the insane crazy amounts of snow this winter.

Click here.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

(Photo: A pretty one from SLB 2010)

Me and John went snowshoein' last weekend! I had been dying to try it and it was super fun! The best part was when John spotted a log to cross an icy cold stream with. He told me he was going to cross it in his snowshoes, I thought he was jerking my chain. Lucky for all of you, I pulled out the camera and got it on video. Watch it to find out if John survived his treacherous journey across the snow covered log.