january 2nd. snow day #2 =)

so, snow day #2.  I woke up in the morning and had some coffee, and then hit up the goodwill looking for some better fitting snow pants.  no luck on the new snow pants, but did however find a nice snow jacket from the 80's in lavender.  i met up with my cousin danielle, and we started driving east, on I-80.   we stopped for breakfast at a small dive looking place called "The Miwok Diner Inn".  i ordered the same ever so delicious bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, eggs and sourdough toast meal with coffee.  danielle ordered the fruit plate, and some coffee. 

We filled up our coffee mugs, and left Colfax, CA, and continued our trip.  We arrived in the snow around Soda Springs, CA and found a nice long snow track for cross country skiing.

We attempted to make some snow cones with organic vanilla extract, and sugar in the raw, and fresh powder.  however, i did not eat mine because the vanilla was too strong and tasted too much like alcohol for my liking....  next time im going to stick to tried and true Kool-Aid.  danielle ate hers though =)

On the way home we played at Cisco Grove, CA grabbed some coffee, (i got the mexican hot chocolate and forgot to take a picture) and drove home. After i got home, my parents had already put dinner away.  They saved me some leftovers so i had that for dinner.

We had shish-kabobs, with chicken garlic meatballs, pineapple, yukon gold fingerling potatoes, red onion, yellow and red bell pepper and brussel sprouts.  i spread my kabob out over some brown wild rice. and washed it down with the some of that wonderful apple hill cider.



now the shish-kabobs were great, but this stuff my mom made called "quinoa" was really good.


Quinoa (pronounced /ˈkiːnwɑ)  a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds. Its leaves are also eaten as a leaf vegetable.

The Incas, who held the crop to be sacred,^[4] referred to quinoa as chisaya mama or 'mother of all grains', and it was the Inca emperor who would traditionally sow the first seeds of the season using 'golden implements'.^[4] During the European conquest of South America quinoa was scorned by the Spanish colonists as 'food for Indians',^[5] and even actively suppressed, due to its status within indigenous non-Christian ceremonies.^[6] In fact, the conquistadors forbade quinoa cultivation for a time^[7] and the Incas were forced to grow wheat instead.

my mom made some of this amazing nutty grain. (that does look really weird with that white tail that looks like worms) it includes, onion, cilantro, sunflower seeds, celery, bell peppers (all colors) basalmic dressing, and anything else random we had in the fridge.  let me say, it was so good, i took it for lunch and shared it with my lunch compadres to introduce them to this very interesting dish.

they both were pleasantly surprised.  no desert tonight, i was too tired.  and work was coming way too early, waking up at 4'oclock AM.