Grouse Hollow Journal for December 31, 2015 by Greg Koelker

Ellen and I don’t disagree about much: she takes cream while I take mine black; she loves mowing the lawn - me, let ‘er grow; I like action flicks with lots of shoot ‘em ups and intrigue - she prefers thoughtful romances or nature films; it’s beaches for me - she prefers mountains.  Anyway,  we have come to an impasse that has no solution but time - snow.  I love El Nino; she hates it!  My better half and a lot of you skiers and snowmobilers and snowshoers and other winter lovers out there like the snow and cold.  We do both want to spend time with our kids at this festive time of the year, so  what does one do when there is no snow and cold or kids here?   

We took our third trip to the Rockies this year a couple of weeks ago.  We went to celebrate Christmas with our mountain kids in Colorado.  I remembered I forgot my smart phone in a coat pocket at home in Winona.  El’s brother Brian in River Falls has often offered to drop us off at the Minneapolis Airport, so we called his bluff.  Our nephew Cory was at Brian’s in River Falls when we pulled in, so we got to catch up a bit on the fishing and hunting report.  El had made a Christmas box for Brian with her famous homemade cookies, candy, and one of her homemade apple pies.  Our daughter-in-law Whitney flew to La Crosse from Connecticut for a few days, so El asked her if she would get my phone in my old coat on the porch before she flew out for Colorado.

We flew Frontier for the first time.  Flying with them isn’t so much of an issue, but thinking about it beforehand is necessary.  You pretty much pay extra for everything you take along, like we paid $70 extra round trip for one carryon luggage bag and we each carried on two smaller personal bags for under our seats.  The flight is shorter than the drive to River Falls, and we had smooth sailing, arriving at Denver International in about an hour and a half.  I had set up a bundle deal with Expedia that included the flight, hotel, and car.  We were able to upgrade our Budget rental to a four-wheel drive Subaru Forester for no charge.  You gotta have 4wd this time of year to travel in Colorado due to changing weather conditions in the mountains and Act 15, a state law that requires all passenger cars traveling on I-70 in the winter over mountain passes to have snow tires or four-wheel drive.  Just getting through Denver on a Friday at almost rush hour was another thing altogether.  We spent the next hour maneuvering across three and four lanes of slow moving trucks, cars, busses, and even motorcycles being held in check by miles of their cousins.  It was nearly dark by the time we rose up into the mountains; the road was clear and the going was smooth.  It took a couple of hours to summit Vail Pass and our destination at Avon.

We were invited for dinner at Ben and Christine’s.  We were welcomed at the door by our son and their very happy and friendly dog, Scout of the West.  Their kitchen smelled delicious.  Ben was cooking or helping cook anyway, making some unique stuffed peppers while Chris got a shower.  We had good old midwest hors d'oeuvres with sausage and cheese and lots of veggies and dip plus chips and deliciously spiced hummus.  Mark came over and a friend from high school days, Nick also dropped in for dinner, bringing treasure from Wisconsin, Spotted Cow.  (We missed our global event planner daughter-in-law Whitney who would fly in on Saturday.)  Ben and Chris have a colorful “sideways” Christmas tree, hung high up garland style to keep Scout and the cats, Spanky and Milo out of trouble.  We admired one of Ben’s beautiful mountain prints on canvas taken by Marble Lake.  Later the kids would give us a Christmas present of that picture and several others that Ben has taken, printed on ceramic tiles.  (Check out Ben’s mountain photography gallery at: benkoelkerphoto.com.)

On Saturday morning, Mark drove us out to Eagle to show us where Ben works.  Ben and his buddy Drew, are setting up a factory to manufacture custom skis and elk calls.  The skis are branded Grace Skis and the calls are Elk Reel.  Ben’s farmer and handyman granddads would be proud to see him designing and using so many different tools, running a drill press, and even welding.  We all went out for lunch at our favorite valley eatery, Moe’s Original Bar-B-Q.  I needed a nap after that but we had more stops to make.  Mark was looking for a gift for Leila, his goddaughter, so we stopped at the Nearly Everything Store in Eagle.  What a cool little store; the front was full of Christmas decor and gifts and such; it even had a pharmacy.  While shopping, I froze for a second when I saw a man in the back holding up an AK style rifle; they sell sporting goods too.  There was fishing gear and outdoor clothing as well as hardware.  We loved the place.  

While the boys were working that afternoon, Christine drove El and I to Vail.  There was a light snow falling and it was frosty.  Vail Snow Daze was going on, so there was a huge music venue set up in downtown.  Some snappy jazz was wafting over the crowd.  We enjoyed the colorful sights and holiday decor.  There were colorful and happy people coming and going from skiing and shopping.  We stopped by John Elway’s restaurant where people were enjoying S’mores and hot drinks over an outside fireplace.  In the Olive Fusion store, we sampled some fabulous flavored balsamic vinegars.  You could have drizzled the raspberry one over ice cream.  They also had truffle butter popcorn.  The evil clerk gave me a sample warm out of a popper.  It tasted slightly odd, but good I guess.  I’ll stick to good old dairy state butter and salt for my corn - maybe I’ll dry some morels and try them in my popcorn butter in May.  My favorite stop at Vail is always Fuzziwig’s Candy Factory.  I bought some of their fantastic chocolate covered caramels with sea salt.  Three words: to die for.  There is a Fuzziwig’s in Wauwatosa, so two words: road trip!

That evening we all had dinner at Mark and Whitney’s.  Whitney had an hour or two to rest up from her snowy drive over the mountains from Denver, and still was up for hosting us all.  She and Mark had a great salad and savory southwestern chicken soup for us.  She also had my phone; what a great kid!  Mark had put up a Christmas tree while Whitney was away and their place was warm and homey for us all to be together, the reason we came.   

There was excitement on our trip too.  That night at around 3 a.m. we were awakened from the best sleep either of us had in a few days by of all things, a buzzing annoyance - the fire alarm.  We both asked at the same time, “What do we do now?”  I noticed then that it was pitch dark outside and that the power was out.  I looked in the hall and there were people all over wrapped in blankets wondering what to do.  My teacher/fire drill instincts rose up at that point and I authoritatively told them, “It is a fire alarm so you’d better get out.”  Anyway, we quickly got some warm duds on and left.  Fortunately, we had LED flashlights on our smartphones to light the way down the stair well because the safety lights weren’t on!   Also fortunately, there was no smoke or acrid smell anywhere.  No fire engines either.  Outside it was 10 degrees.  Finally a policeman told us we could go back in because there was no emergency and that the alarm goes off when the power goes out.  Anyway, I bet you can guess how much sleep we got the rest of the night, yeah.  We learned the next morning that a main transformer somewhere had shut down the entire town.  

The next day, Mark was off to work and Ellen and the girls were planning for a baking day together, so Ben and I went off on a photo trip.  He drove us high up above the valley where I took some shots of the mountains and of Scout bounding about in the snow. The light wasn’t great, but we had some time to visit and catch up a bit at least.  When we returned to his condo, the aromas emanating from inside made me think I was home in our kitchen.  We all settled in to watch the Packers fail to score and finally put some spurs on.  We enjoyed watching Lacy and Starks and Rodgers ride roughshod over the Cowboys for a nice win.  It has been awhile when we could all do this together.  Go Pack!

The next day, we had breakfast with Mark and Whitney and our nephew Tyler Hauk at the Westside restaurant.  Tyler moved up to Colorado from Arizona a few years ago and he is a hooked on snowboarding mountain man now.  I had the best ever chicken fried steak served over perfect hash browns with sausage gravy and fried eggs over easy plus thick buttered rye toast.  (My heart still hurts.)  Later, we met up with Mark at the shop he works out of up in Bachelor’s Gulch.  Our pro driver son hired on with them a month or so ago and is now plowing snow in some of the ritziest neighborhoods on some of the gnarliest streets in the high country.  

The snow finally got serious in Avon on the morning we were supposed to head for Denver.  Fortunately our rental had a snow brush and scraper to get the 6 inches of powder off our SUV.      Ellen had put together her famous French toast casserole at Mark’s request, and we had breakfast with the kids at Mark and Whitney’s.  It was tough leaving.  Still they had to go to work and we wanted to make Denver in daylight, so we wouldn’t miss our early morning flight on Wednesday.  

The snowy drive over the mountains was an adventure, but traffic moved along.  There were some, how shall I say it, uh, daredevil drivers; no, I’m going with idiots, trying to drive 70 plus up the snow packed lanes of the passes just because the sign says they can I guess.  Down the mountain in the west bound lane, we saw squad cars, a wrecker, and police looking over the guardrail into an abyss.  Whoo boy!  Anyway, the trip home for us was uneventful except for the guy who said Packer fans have “no couth” because I was wearing a Packer cap in Minnesota and more positively, the great bar burgers we had at the Mainstreeter Bar and Grill in River Falls with Brian before we headed south.  

Until next time, get out - as I finished this up, it is 40 degrees, raining with thunder and lightening, and more like March 23 than December 23.  To be honest I would take a minor snowstorm over this dreary stuff, but don’t tell anyone.  By the time you read this, 2015 will be mostly memories.   We hope most of yours were good ones.  I know most of ours are.  May the new year bring peace and kindness for all.  From all of us here at Grouse Hollow, Happy New Year!  Enjoy.

I put Ben and Christine’s Orzo-Stuffed Peppers recipe in case you want to try iit; it was truly amazing.

8 oz orzo (we used wild rice)

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar or mozzarella cheese

1 tomato, diced

1 small onion, chopped

1/4 cup total of fresh chopped herbs: parsley, basil, chives

1/2 cup plain yogurt or low-sodium stock (we used honey-vanilla Greek yogurt)

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 medium-large bell peppers, washed, halved

Optional additions:

2 oz goat cheese or low fat cream cheese

5 ounces canned tuna or salmon

1 cup cooked garbonzo beans

1 lb ground turkey (we used lean ground turkey)

Heat oven to 375. Cook orzo or rice according to package. Drain, toss with a little olive oil if using orzo

Brown and fully cook ground turkey

Combine orzo/rice and remaining ingredients except peppers, adding salt & pepper to taste (plus any additions).  Stuff each pepper with the orzo/rice mixture and top within a little extra cheese and fresh herbs

Set peppers upright on an oiled oven-safe dish.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and let bake 5-10 minutes more, until tops are slightly browned and the peppers are tender.