Sunday, December 28, 2008

Word of the Day: Rental Rodent

Rental Rodent: A kid on a rented snowboard or skiis. From Bart King's The Pocket Guide to Mischief

Usage: You can't seriously be going to Park City this today, the mountain will be overrun with rental rodents.

Confession: I've never heard this before, but thought it still might be a fun word of the day. We don't have so many rental rodents at Beaver. You're more likely to have a tike zoom past you on his/her older siblings' gear.


Yule Log!! December's Daring Baker's Challenge

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

The challenge it to make a log that includes ALL 6 of these elements
1) Dacquoise Biscuit
2) Mousse
3) Ganache Insert
4) Praline (Crisp) Insert
5) Creme Brulee Insert
6) Icing

The hosts have made all sorts of recommendations for using different flavors for the layers. I may have to make two so I can try out my favorites. I'm thinking of making one following the hostesses' first choice flavors and one with alternative flavors, leaning toward the tropical.
Chocolate
1. Almond Dacquoise Biscuit
2. Dark Chocolate Mousse
3. Dark Chocolate Ganache
4. Praline Feuillete
5.Vanilla Creme Brulee
6. Dark Chocolate Icing

1.Coconut Dacquoise Biscuit
2. Mango Mousse
3.Dark Chocoalate Ganache
4. Coconut Crisp
5. Chocolate Creme Brulee
6. Dark Chocolate Icing

This month, I am not going to make the mistake of trying to write the entire blog in 15 minutes sitting in a friend's kitchen. I throghoughly enjoyed last month's and I'm not sure if that came across. This months' looks like quite the challenge. So many parts! Luckily I have family coming at the end of the month, so I'll have someone to share it with.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Ruby Pipeline

An Idaho ABC affiliate is reporting that the Cache County Council has taken a neutral position on running the Ruby Pipeline through the county. This reverses an earlier decision by the council to no allow the pipeline. The buried line will run from Wyoming to Oregon and serve California and Oregon.

I attended a Cache County Council meeting several months ago in which a representative from a local government in Wyoming gave advice to our County Council members on making decisions regarding the pipeline. The major message of this gentleman was that the county could position itself to gain from the pipeline, but that it would have to be well organized to do so. The impression I was left with was that the pipeline company could be quite forceful. If the county isn't careful, we could end up with a pipeline that served no one but the citizens of California and Oregon. If the pipeline company is able to get federal approval for a route and a private landowner along the route will not sell, it will be able to use federal laws to condemn the land.

It seems that the Cache Cache route was considered after several obstacles arose for a route through Idaho. The reasons cited at the Council meeting for considering the Cache route were a prohibition of locating the pipeline too close to (within eyesight of) the Oregon trail and cost savings. The BLM doesn't want the pipeline going through national forest with out road access as would happen on the northern route. Additionally, it sounds like there are many pipelines in a cooridor along the norther route, so it may be getting a bit crowded.

The original reasons cited for the "no" vote on the pipeline were environmental impacts and a disrespect for the private landowners. The reason for the reversal seems to be that no one spoke against the pipeline in an October public hearing. If you've ever had to follow an issue through the county council, you'll know how difficult it is to find out whether your issue is going to be on the agenda. The agendas are not published in advance. The most recent agenda published on the website is currently from September. You basically have to subscribe to the Herald Journal where I assume they publish at least the public hearings. Or you can call every two weeks on the day of the meeting and ask what's on the agenda.

I do hope the county saw to resident's concerns regarding preservation of the national forest, private landowner rights, and reduced natural gas expense for the area before reversing their decision. But I am skeptical that this has occured. The minutes from the December 2nd County Council meeting don't reveal much.

The proposed route is through the Cache National Forest, southwest of Hardware Ranch, North of Porcupine Reservoir, near Avon, then north of of Mantua, over to Brigham City. You can see the topo maps (and perhaps make more sense of them than me) at the Stop the Ruby Pipeline Coalition website. A newsgroup ariticle explains the case against the proposed route.

Since it seems that these pipelines seem to be constructed in utility cooridors, I wonder if this is the first step in establishing a new cooridor.

Friday, December 19, 2008

More Snow Vocab

Courtesy of the Herald Journal's article on snowboarding.

aggro: aggressive
Betty: female snowboarder
crater: to land a jump badly
duck-footed: in a stance when the toes point outward
dude: any person
eggbeater: bad fall
grommet: young snowboarder
huckfest: when riders compete trying to catch bigger and bigger air
Jibber: a freestyle rider
old school: primitive techniques
spew: talk a lot about oneself

Opening Day!

The Beav will be opening on Monday December 22. Hours are 9am-4pm. This is the day we've been waiting for since the first early flake fell in September. My ski rack is on. My skis are tuned up. At last! I probably won't get any skiing in at the Beav until after Christmas, but it's good to know it's there.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Word of the Day: Pow

Being new to Utah, I've had to get used to some new terms.

Pow: Short for powder, the fluffy white stuff.

Usage: 2008 was an epic pow year.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

New Brew Pub in Logan

The past couple of weeks, Logan has been a buzz with talk of a new brewpub opening downtown. Mikey at Utah Beer summed up it up in his blog. The biggest concern at present is whether or not the brew pub will smell. Sounds minor and sounds like Logan will have a brew pub soon.

I believe the current issue before the city council is a an ordinance change that will allow a brew pub. Then individual proprietors will have to go through the process of opening a new business under the ordinance terms.

*edit*
The proposal passed. And Mikey's summary of the history of brew eastablishments and prohibition in Logan is pretty interesting.