Killington peak against
a powder blue sky on a beautiful
summer day - July 24, 2006. 

It is very difficult to describe how beautiful it is in Killington today. Between the puffy clouds, the powder blue skies, the comfortable mid 70's temperature, the light winds.... it is all coming together today at Killington.

As luck would have it, I'm in my office today. I did sneak out for a few minuted to take today's picture, but being a perfect convertible day, Mary has escaped the inn for this afternoon... tooling around town in her Mustang with the top down. No need to feel sorry for me, however, as I do have several tee times already booked for later in the week.

If you have a chance to get away to Killington, we are coming up on prime vacation time in the Green Mountains. August is usually punctuated with very comfortable days and cool nights in this part of Vermont. By the end of the month, as we head towards Labor Day, there is usually a hint of fall in the air. But for now, hopefully we will have a few more sunny summer days just like today.

Bird Feeder Damaged by Bear
Photo by Connie 

The weather pattern from yesterday persisted through mid day today with light showers and a drizzling mist. That did not have much of an impact on todays activities however, as brunch today centered around the TV in the Great Room watching Tiger Woods win the British Open.

Humming birds pray at the red sugar water god. Photo by Connie

Last week, we had a blog post about hummingbirds at the inn. Our friend, Connie, sent me 2 pictures following that subject. The first one concerned a bird feeder that was identified by a local bear as a tasty summer treat. Evidently the bear decided to bend the support rod holding the bird feeder above the ground. The result is todays blog picture.

On the topic of hummingbirds, Connie also captured a nice picture of 2 birds sitting on the feeder evidently praying to the red sugar water god. Their prayers seem to be effective, as the local bear has not been attracted to the hummingbird feeder as yet. Ah...the perils of living in Vermont. Lions and tigers and bears...Oh My!

Black Forest Soup 

It is a relatively quiet day here in Killington. Some unexpected summer rain showers are blanketing the area. With the heat of last week, however, a little bit of rain is a good thing. But the quiet is allowing me to catch up on a little housekeeping.

Last weekend at our wine dinner, we served a special concoction we called "Black Forest Soup". It is a combination of a chilled Chocolate and black cherry soups. We have had several requests for the recipe... so here goes:

Black Forest Soup - A dessert
This is a combination of a Chilled Chocolate Soup and a Chilled Cherry Soup. Portioned to serve 8

Chocolate Soup - Makes about 16 oz
Ingredients
1 1/2 Cups Whole Milk
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
4 OZ Bittersweet Chocolate, Grated
1 Egg Yoke
1/3 cup Sugar
1/2 TSP Vanilla
1 OZ Creme de Cocoa

1. Using a double boiler, scald 1 cups of milk. Set aside
2. Over low heat, melt Chocolate with 1/2 cup of milk. To this mixture, add in the scalded milk, blending until mixed well.
3. Beat the egg yoke, sugar, and vanilla together until frothy and lemon colored. Add in the warm chocolate mixture, beating gently to mix completely. Return chocolate mixture to low heat.
4. Add in the Creme de Cocoa and Heavy Cream. Blend together over low heat until surface forms a foam, but do not boil. Set aside and chill until service.

Cherry Soup - Makes about 8 oz
Ingredients
1/2 lb. of cherries
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
1/4 stick of cinnamon
1/4 lemon peel cut into strips
2 OZ Kirshwasser of Cherry Liquor

1. Wash and de-stem cherries. Remove pits and set aside.
2. Combine cherries, sugar and water. Heat to boiling point. Remove cherries. Set aside.
3. Crush the cherry pits with a nut cracker, mortar and pestle, or in a blender. Add them with the cinnamon stick and the lemon peel to the boiling liquid. Let boil for 5 minutes.
4. Put cherries in blender. Add liquor and puree. Return mixture to boiling liquid and simmer for 2 minutes to cook off alcohol.
5. Using a fine cheese cloth or a chinois, strain the mixture to remove solid matter and cool.

Serving preparation.
Just before serving, check consistency of each soup.
1. If the Chocolate soup requires thinning, place in a blender and add heavy cream. Stir until reaching desired consistency. The chocolate soup should have a consistency such that when you dip a spoon into it, the soup adheres in a solid film on the spoon.
2. If the Cherry soup requires thinning, stir in a small amount of water to reach desired consistency; If the Cherry soup requires thickening, reheat. Mix in a small amount of corn starch and water. Add to the warm cherry soup to thicken as desired. Re-chill.
3. Into a 3 oz shot glass, put in 1 oz of Cherry soup (use a squeeze bottle, or measuring cup with pouring spout to get soup into center of glass without coating the sides)
4. Float 2 oz of Chocolate Soup on top of the Cherry Soup by gently pouring down the side of the glass.
5. Garnish as desired. (We served this with a chocolate dipped cherry and a handmade chocolate truffle.)

Service note: if you do not want to float the two soups together (it makes a good presentation but it does take some patience), just before serving blend both soups together and serve as one. Also, if you find yourself with extra soup and you have an ice cream maker at home, you can use this soup to form the base of a dynamite chocolate-cherry ice cream!

The 11th green, the Quechee Club, Lakeland Course 

Sometimes you just get lucky.

A friend of ours invited us to play golf with him at the Quechee Club in Quechee Vermont just east of Woodstock. What a beautiful setting. The Quechee Club features 2 golf courses, the Lakelands and the Highlands courses, spread out in a 5000 acre complex. We had 9:12 AM tee times at the Lakelands on a beautiful, sunny, mid-80 degree day.

The Lakelands course, as the name implies, is built around a large lake in the center of the Quechee complex. My guess is that the area that the course occupies was once part of the riverbed structure of the Ottaquechee river. We were told that the large lake in the center of the complex was manmade when the complex was constructed, probably to collect ground water and direct it away from structures in the complex, but I am only guessing here. What ever the reason for it's existence, the lake now provides a home to countless water fowl and other wildlife in a very natural setting.

Today's picture shows the green on the 11th hole, with part of the lake system in front of it. For the record, my drive landed on the peninsular in the picture. I then hit a 6 iron about 180 yards, landing in the small sand trap to the left of the pin behind the green (the pin was just about 1 pin length from the back of the green to the right of the trap). From there the hole turned rather ugly from a score standpoint, but the setting was so nice and the day was so beautiful, you won't find me complaining at all.

A very nice day to be in Vermont.

Hummingbird coming in for a landing on the feeder at Birch Ridge 

Part of the enjoyment of living in the mountains of Vermont is all of the "flora and fauna" that abound all around us.

When we moved to the inn, the buildings, since they were previously unoccupied, had been taken over by barn swallows. With all the activity around the inn these days, the barn swallows have retreated, but hummingbirds have stepped in the fill the void.

The gardens Mary has planted around the inn attract hummingbirds in large numbers. You can look in almost any garden and see the small birds darting in an out of the flower beds. We also have a small hummingbird feeder set up on the railing of the front porch of the restaurant. Some nights, you would think that we would need an air traffic controller to direct the hummingbirds into the flight pattern to land on the feeder.

The hummingbirds themselves are quite comical to watch. In addition to darting in and out for position in the flowers and the feeder, if you sit on the front porch you will hear them talking to you. Sometimes they are clearly telling you that you are in their space. Other times they are telling you that the feeder needs to be refilled. But most of the time the hummingbirds just seem to be happy buzzing around enjoying the scenery in their home in the Green Mountains of Vermont....something we all would benefit from if we did it more often.

The more things change... the more they stay the same!

I have had my head down the last week or so, working with our Chef on our wine festival dinner, then taking a day off to spend some time with friends...So I have not been paying too much attention to rumors spreading around town...but there are more than a few. And it just goes to show that laws of physics regarding inertia are still in play. Bodies in motion stay in motion. Bodies at rest stay at rest....

Interesting news has filtered east from Killington's parent company ASC (American Skiing Company). It appears that they have retained an agent to sell the Steamboat resort, according to the Rutland Herald. For those of you following ASC, you will remember that ASC had negotiated a deal with the Muellers of Okemo to purchase Steamboat several years ago, only to walk away at the last minute. ASC payed a penalty on that one... But it would appear that it's time to try this again.

Then there is a feud going on in Utah at the Canyons. It appears that the leaseholder of the Canyons (Wolf Mountain) has some issues with ASC, claiming that they are in default of the lease. The lease holder asked the court to have the lease negated and take back possession of the property. ASC asked the court to issue an injunction to stay the procedure to allow time for discussion. The court has apparently ruled for ASC and issued the injunction... But it is more turmoil at an ASC resort.

Is there a pattern here yet...

Now to Killington. Rumor has it that Centex has backed away from SP Land and Killington to develop the Killington Village. Centex is a large real estate company that primarily develops residential properties. They had been retained by SP Land to develop the residential segments of the Village. A letter to several condo associations reportedly penned by John Dithmer, VP Lodging at Killington quotes Allen Wilson saying that Centex has decided to not move forward with SP Land and Killington on the construction of the Killington Village. The land planning firm of Hart Howerton has been retained by SP Land and Killington to complete the final design. Nothing has really appeared in public yet, but the word is definitely getting out around town.

Finally, Killingon's email publication, the Drift came out early last week. "We start making snow in 101 days!" was added as a PS to the email. That would put the start of snow making season at around October 16th... with ski season soon to follow.

It is way too early to conjecture the meaning of all these separate actions and how they will impact Killington and parent company ASC. But turmoil does have a way of distracting people from their main focus. Let's hope the Drift is correct, and the focus stays on providing the best mountain experience possible (summer or winter) to visitors to Killington.

Williston Golf Course 

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid day sun!

The hottest day of the summer season so far and Mary and I had 10:30 AM tee times with some friends a the Williston Golf Course just outside of Burlington VT. The temperature on the course, per the thermometer in my Subaru, registered 98 degrees. Ouch!

The golf course was quite nice. Very well manicured with lots of flower gardens spread around the course. This was our first time playing at Williston. It was a very nice layout and we can recommend it if you are in the area.

A quick bit of housekeeping on the blog from last week. From all indications the Killington Wine Festival was a success. Our wine dinner at the inn on Saturday night went very well. The dishes we prepared and served perfectly matched the wines we selected to go with them. Two of the dishes stood out as being very unique. One was a vine ripened tomato stuffed with a Vermont sweet corn polenta. The other was the dessert: a Black Forest soup with a hand dipped cherry and handmade chocolate truffle.