Archive for the ‘Truckee’ Category
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Happy Memorial Day everyone. The holiday weekend is usually a sneak preview of our upcoming season. While summers here can be brief, they are in a word: spectacular. If you have never truly spent any time in our fine area, this weekend might just be the time to come up and see all that the area has to offer.
In getting ready for this busy season, I’ve updated the *About page so that you know a little bit more about me personally. I’ve also added a new page *Homes for Sale. While the blog is mostly about enthralling you with the Tahoe Truckee lifestyle and all that we have to offer, the *Homes for Sale page are my listings of current properties for sale and some pending or sold properties. While this by no means is the full breadth of the properties I am selling or have sold, they are a compilation of the most recent. I’ll be updating the page as new properties become available and others are sold.
More information and photos on all of these properties can be seen on my website. Links are listed under each property on the blog.
Here are the direct links to the new and updated pages (or you can just click on the menu tabs above)
https://yourfriendinhighplaces.wordpress.com/about/
https://yourfriendinhighplaces.wordpress.com/homes-for-sale/
So enough about business. There are a few fun things to do this weekend.
May 24 & 25, 11:00am – 7:00pm – Made In Tahoe Festival, Squaw Valley
Join us in celebrating our local arts, culture and music. The festival includes a vendor village, community stage and sidewalk sales. For more info: http://squaw.com/things-to-do/events-calendar/made-tahoe-festival
Sunnyside Celebrates 27 Years
Here’s to another ring on the tree – Sunnyside is turning 27! Celebrate the official start of the Tahoe summer at the Sunnyside Deck Opening and 27th Anniversary Party on Friday, May 23, 2014.
Mountain Grill Opens at 11:30am | Live music from 3 – 9pm. For more info:
http://www.sunnysidetahoe.com/events
Opening Day at the Lake –
Memorial Day Weekend is always considered the official opening of Lake Tahoe’s Summer Events Season. State and Federal Parks gear up for the season, Restaurants open up their patios and folks start opening up their summer cabins and getting their boats in the water. For more info on what’s happening in the area, go to this link:
Calendar of events
So come up and see us this weekend. The Lake is calling…
Share this: Lynn Richardson, Your Friend in High Places
Contributed by Michelle Portesi
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Tahoe Oil and Spice
In my travels here and there, I have often come across what has become a prolific and popular food trend: high end oil and vinegar purveyors. Always intrigued with new twists and creative flavors in standard recipes, I bought my first bottle of fancy flavored, high end olive oil at the quaint little beach town of Ventura in Southern California, and I was immediately hooked. My purchase of a blood orange infused oil added a wonderfully subtle yet flavorful addition to any number of baked goods and pancakes, and I was soon adding it to everything, until my bottle of oil was soon gone. Not wanting to make numerous trips to S. Cal. just to feed my new oil fetish, I sought out local purveyors closer to home, soon becoming a connoisseur of oils sporting what has become one of my favorite go to flavors. Some hit the mark, others didn’t, and I became familiar with my own personal favorite players in the field. But I still had to do some traveling to get them, even if it was a trip to Reno or Grass Valley.
Local gourmands (and myself) can now rejoice! We finally have such an oil and vinegar store right here in town. Situated next to what was at one time an old vintage style gas station in Old Downtown Truckee is Tahoe Oil & Spice. Think of it as a tasting room for oils and vinegars instead of wines. I was treated to one of the store’s favorite combination for salads: Blood Orange Olive Oil with Dark Chocolate Balsamic Vinegar. Odd as it sounds, it was truly amazing with just a touch of richness and decadence. Just the ticket to dress up any salad and take it from the mundane to fantastic.
Tahoe Oil & Spice
My penchant for baking and searches for interesting salad dressings aside, there are also herb infused olive oils that are great for everything from dipping oils for breads to sautes for pasta dishes. Towards that end, Tahoe Oil & Spice also carries gourmet pastas to compliment your oil and vinegar purchases. You can substitute balsamic vinegar as the acid component in dishes, or use them to create a demi glaze for sauteed meats and vegetables. Think outside of the box and you will find dozens of uses for these wonderful oils and vinegars. Extra Virgin Olive Oil has also been attributed with a wide range of health benefits from ancient times through today.
Did you know that the ancient Greeks used olive oil as a personal cleanser instead of soap? Their process sounds like a rather messy endeavor, so instead, our modern day equivalents are soaps and lotions made with olive oil, reaping the oil’s benefits without the muss and fuss. Tahoe Oil and Spice also carries a wide range of soaps and lotions so your outside can benefit as much as your insides from this wonderful oil.
Tahoe Oil & Spice also carries spices and rubs, in addition to many other products.
Visit their website for more recipe ideas and to learn more:
http://www.tahoeoilandspice.com/
Or better still, stop by the shop, and be sure to pick up one of their brochures for a list of all of their oil and vinegars, in addition to suggestions for pairing combinations and uses.
Tahoe Oil & Spice is located at 10091 Donner Pass Road, Truckee, CA 96161
Hours: Monday-Saturday: 10-6, Sunday: 11-6
FLUFFY ORANGE FLAVORED PANCAKES
Original recipe makes 8 pancakes
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons cranberry pear balsamic vinegar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons blood orange oil
- blood orange oil for griddle
Directions
- Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to “sour”.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and blood orange oil into “soured” milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with blood orange oil. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.
Share this: Lynn Richardson, Your Friend in High Places
Living here in the High Sierras, we’ve come to understand that ‘Spring’ as a season is a relative term. More often than not, we go from winter to summer within a week, with a few ‘teases’ of bright but brisk days that passes for spring in between March and July. A few crocus and daffodil blooms punching up through the soil and warmer temperatures soon has us salivating for long sunny days and gardens of riotous colors in bloom.
Alas, we know those lovely days probably won’t last for long until we hit the 4th of July. And those riotous colors in bloom? They’re more than likely still several more months away…
True to form, our recent snow storm proved that point all too well. We here in California need the water, so we’ll take it! But still, I look at my summer garden trying to peek up amidst the snow, and all I can think of is ‘Not yet! Not yet! You know you’re going to get frozen somewhere between now and summer!’
Donner Lake, Spring snowstorm 2014
But before we throw off those last vestiges of this winter, it’s time to start thinking about next winter.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, and no, I don’t need my head examined…and before I hear a collective groan rise up throughout the land, realize, I’m just trying to save you some coin.
April and May is when most of the local ski areas have their deepest discounts on next years ski passes, so now is the time to buy them if you were planning on skiing next years powder days. (And let’s all hope we have more snow next year than we did this last one!)
Northstar, Heavenly and Kirkwood are now all owned by Vail, which means you can get a local pass for all three resorts. Have a bit more money and time to travel? You can get their Epic Pass that also includes access to all of their Colorado ski areas as well.
Squaw Valley and Alpine have been linked together for a few years now, but a pass for that area can now include 4 passes to Sugarbowl next winter as well. Other ski areas may be offering some sweet deals as well.
On the left hand side of this page are the quick links to most of the local ski area websites for your ski pass purchasing pleasure.
You can thank me later.
Powder Day at Squaw Valley’s last open weekend for the season
While some of us rather enjoyed the light shoveling duty and lack of the white stuff this season, deep down, we all know these warm winters and lack of snowfall hurts our local economy, impacts water storage for both California and Nevada and makes for some very dry conditions that begets forest fires. So let’s all suck it up and pray for snow – NEXT winter!
In the meantime, it’s time to enjoy another lovely, high country, spring day. Here comes the sun!
Blue sky spring day at Donner Lake
Share this: Lynn Richardson, Your Friend in High Places
YOUR FRIEND IN HIGH PLACES 