January 2, 2012

Wide West Mania!

Filed under: Bakery,Bari Nan Cohen,equipment,photo,Skiing — Tags: , , , , , , , — Bari Nan Cohen @ 10:25 am

I’ve said it before—skiing gets the grumpies out.

There is no question we headed out to the mountain in snippy moods.

In spite of the promise of my shiny new boots, I was a little grumpy myself—for no apparent reason.

We took so long to get out of the house (add that to the reasons we were grumpy), that by the time we got to the mountain, it was lunch time. Baked Potato soup did a great job setting me straight, let me tell you!

Soon, I was back in Jans getting my boots fitted to my ski bindings. Boot Dude would not let me slide into the boots without parking them on the boot heaters for 5 minutes. Then, a quick review lesson in how to put them on. Apparently peeling them open from the collar, stuffing in the foot and then stomping down, hard, is NOT the preferred method. Nope…one should pull apart the leaves of the boot at the ankle, and the foot will slip into place, no problem. Yes, a quick kick-down on the heel is permitted. I’m now ruined forever for cold boots. I’m even considering splurging on a heated boot bag. Hear me out—Boot Dude said you can toss in boots, helmet and gloves, plug it in and it will dry and warm the whole lot. You can even plug it into the AC adapter in the car. Which is perfect for my ski days without the family—I really, truly prefer to boot up at the car, for reasons I can’t even explain.

Let me just say, the boots did not disappoint. The purple color made me smile (and ski better, I’m sure of it.) And the ski day, overall, was a huge success. Sunshine and sweet smiles of accomplishment from my kids go a long way to erasing a foul mood.

We tried out every obstacle on the hill—from the race course to Candyland, to a bumps area and even the new SunKid conveyor lifts. What a hoot! Plus, as the day wound to its end, Bucky made a surprise appearance. Apparently, he’s camera shy, so I couldn’t grab a photo at the top of the flower-pinwheel racecourse he and his pals had set up. My kids were thrilled to earn a prize just for agreeing to run the whirling “gates”—bubbles!

And the day ended in smiles!

 

December 5, 2011

Dessert Recipe For Your Holidays

Filed under: Bakery,Emily Summers,Food & Beverage,Guest Bloggers — Tags: , , , , — Emily Summers @ 3:54 pm

This holiday season; surprise your guests with delicious Deer Valley Lemon bars. Executive Pastry Chef Letty Flatt, shared her recipe for Deer Valley’s President Bob Wheaton’s favorite sweet treat at the resort.

Lemon Bars
2 cups plus ¼ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup plus 1 ½ cups sugar

8 ounces unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces

½ teaspoon baking powder

4 eggs

4 teaspoons grated lemon zest

½ cup lemon juice

Confectioners’ sugar, to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix the first 2 cups of flour with the first ½ cup of sugar. Cut in the butter, mixing until the dough resembles sand. Press evenly into the bottom and a little bit up the sides of a 9 x13-inch baking pan. Bake about 15 minutes until the crust loses its shine and barely begin to show a hint of color.  Cool.

Sift the remaining 1/4 cup of flour with the remaining 2 cups of sugar and the baking powder into a large mixing bowl.  In another bowl, beat together the eggs and lemon zest and juice; then mix into the sugar/flour mixture until the ingredients are homogenous. Pour over the pre-baked crust. Bake until the filling has set and the edges are light golden—about 20 minutes. Cool. Chill. Cut into 2” squares. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Makes about 24 lemon bars.

 

Letty Flatt, Deer Valley Resort

November 22, 2011

Thanksgiving in the Bakery

Filed under: Bakery,Bari Nan Cohen,Food & Beverage — Tags: , , , — Bari Nan Cohen @ 1:18 pm

Thanksgiving Day? How about Thanksgiving LIFE?

Living in Park City is an exercise in daily gratitude… for my life. That I am raising two boys with a love of the mountains, a love of skiing, alongside a spouse who appreciates it as much as I do is a gift. It’s always touching and amusing to hear the “I’m Thankful For…” moments at our Thanksgiving table, because they may include things like, “fresh powder,” and “new skis,” and “Star Wars Lego sets!” which perfectly offset my emotional mush ball moment of praising the virtues of each of my children—I’m generally overwhelmed with gratitude for their health, their dad’s, my own, and all eight of my children’s grandparents and two great-grandparents. The blessings are plentiful—and it feels like bad luck to count them.

However, it doesn’t escape me that the blessings are many outside my home as well. Like the fact that I get to make friends with likeminded folks—from my ski-buddy-moms to Deer Valley’s celebrated pastry chef, Letty Flatt.

Yesterday, I walked into the buzzing Snow Park Bakery, and found four bakers hard at work. Letty took time out of the pie-making rush to introduce me to her hardworking team–-including a new-to-DV baker, Sung Yup (favorite Thanksgiving tradition: “Playing football with my friends.”) Given that the team had 58 pies on order when I arrived (and 60 when I left, since my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner is ordering the pies), the hands were much-needed.

Letty (favorite Thanksgiving Tradition: “Skiing Snowbird on fresh powder.” Deer Valley, of course, doesn’t open til December. See below for Letty’s DV favorites.) was quick to offer me a ginger snap cookie—made from the gingersnap pie crust she uses for the pumpkin pies. “The recipe is my sister-in-law’s,” she told me. “Gingersnap crust and orange zest in the filling. Look, Dana is rolling out gingersnap crust over there, Sung Yup is working on regular crust—wait, let’s get your order, now.”

What’s amazing to me about Letty, who has worked at Deer Valley since Day One, is that she isn’t frenetic in her demeanor. Everything is organized, matter-of-fact. “I like people, so I like the bakery when there are about five people, each with their own project, each with our own space,” she said, reaching for a bowl of cream that was poised to go into a test wedding cake for a bride and groom. “But some days, we’re so busy we have six or more crammed around the work stations.”

Back to my pie order—she and Debbie who heads up the Snow Park bakery operations, gently guided me to their favorites.

“You should try the Apple-Cheddar pie, it’s something special,” said Debbie.

“No pumpkin?” Letty wondered, as if to say WHY?

“Chocolate silk,” I said. “It will make my eight year-old so happy.”

“He’s the one who likes the chocolate cup at the Seafood Buffet, right?”

Letty’s love for people is evident in her recall of certain people’s dessert preferences.

Nervous my family would revolt at the idea of cheese invading their favorite pie, I ordered a simple apple pie, instead. Still, as a Vermonter, the idea of some cheddar in there was appealing.

Debbie then handed me a wrapped-up bundle of Snow Park Bakery dog treats. “It’s Bark City,” she said. “We bake for the whole family here.”

Needless to say, I was very popular when I arrived home later that night. Letty had sent me off with a care package of Deer Valley cookies. Once all were plied with treats, I floated the idea of the Cheddar Apple Pie. The notion was greeted with a resounding, “Yum!” I made a note to call Debbie the next morning and change my order. And when I did, she didn’t laugh—she sounded, however, utterly pleased.

And, dear reader, I did not leave without getting Letty Flatt’s Deer Valley

Ideal ski day: “I’m with my husband, of course, and there is 8” minimum of fresh powder. We’re on the first chair. We ski Empire, because it has the best snow—it’s the only part of the mountain that gets the Lake Effect snow from Salt Lake City. And we go, go, go until about 11:30And then home.”

Crack of Noon Club: “We have very social ski days, too. We meet friends, but we compete to see who can arrive the latest.”

Favorite food: “The whole wheat crust pizza at Silver Lake—it’s vegetarian, and I love it.”

Favorite DV indulgence: “Mariposa’s desserts. And, I have to say, I tend to always gravitate toward the Seafood Buffet. We have guests who will go there more than once during a vacation, so we make sure to mix up the menus a couple of times a week.”

Interview with Jodie Rogers Executive Chef of Snow Park and Empire Canyon Lodges

Filed under: Bakery,Dining,Food & Beverage,Guest Bloggers,JF Lanvers — Tags: , , , , — JF Lanvers @ 9:38 am

JF: First Jodie, remind us what’s your philosophy at Deer Valley Resort?

JR: The biggest thing we’ve done in the past two year was to turn to three fundamental principles: Local, sustainable and fresh ingredients. Fresh ingredients have always been a big concern for us. This year I was lucky enough to be invited on a couple ranch tours, in Bear Lake and in South Dakota. We work with Niman Ranch where traceability is available and easy to check. They work very closely with us and make the effort to understand our needs. For instance, all of our lamb, in all in our menus, comes from Bear Lake. Our beef comes from many of the Niman associate farms. We’re staying away from unnecessary antibiotic, steroids or things like that. Freshness is paramount with us.

 

JF: Do you treat seafood the same way?

JR: Absolutely! Heather, our seafood chef at the Seafood Buffet, has been leading that way for many years already. She follows the “Seafood Watch” at the Monterey Bay Aquarium daily and purchases accordingly. For instance, we can trace back all of our oysters to their origin and to the actual fishermen. Now, our guest have come to expect this kind of quality from us! Not only are we doing the right things, but our guest expect us to keep that lead.

JF: So tell me, what’s new this winter at Deer Valley?

JR: First at the Grocery~Café, we are working very closely with Copper Moose Farm for our field greens, beets, herbs and other vegetables that can be grown in our harsh environment. As far as the Seafood Buffet is concerned, Heather having  her crew go back to the roots of some classic dishes. As an example, this season Heather had the idea of serving Pazole with the DV twist. Instead of buying ready-made cans of Hominy, she’s taking the dried corn and making it from scratch. The seafood Buffet chefs will continue to follow what’s sustainable and we’ll advise the chefs be creative within that parameter. The Day Lodges will continue with Niman burgers and homemade bratwursts. We’ll keep everyone focused on these goals so that our chefs understand our local sourcing, make sure it remains a priority and use it as creatively as possible.

Fireside Dining is opening an extra night, Saturday, and that will go from three to four nights. All the lamb will be sourced locally, from Bear Lake. We’ve also gone local with some of Salt Lake’s Creminelli cured meat instead of importing them; Creminelli is really good, they source Berkshire pork and other high quality ingredients as local as possible… The Mariposa is going to offer a great southwest sturgeon dish this winter to continue our quest in trying to stay sustainable. Royal Street Café is focusing on using lots of local cheeses, like Beehive, Rock Hill Creamery and Gold Creek. Our Day Restaurants will incorporate all of these into our other menus as well. Royal Street Café will also still serve their fabulous homemade meatballs, that by the way are also sold at the Deer Valley Grocery~Café…

Our big focus as far as management is to see even more consistency out of our three Days Lodges. Now that we’re Number One for the fifth year in a row, it behooves us to maintain our lead, ahead of the competition by continuing to strive for culinary perfection.

We’ve had a lot of construction going on this summer and some of it involved rebuilding the whole employee dining area at the Snow Park Lodge as we had outgrown it. Since it caters to our own staff, it also gave us the opportunity to offer an extended menu along with faster service, and this is not small stuff as, if we’re able to make our own people happy, we can be sure that they will make our guests even happier. That may sound like “back of the house” but it will have a huge impact on the “front of the house” and their interaction with our guests!

On the cocktail front, the Park City Area Restaurant Association had upped the ante by organizing a cocktail contest twice a year and we’re participating along with the other Main Street establishments. We’ll be featuring the winner of the last contest, the Easy Street Cocktail, that will be on all our menus. We will also feature more seasonal drinks and cocktail and we’ve also upgraded our wine and liquor list. Finally, we’ll be offering more live entertainment in the afternoon at the EBS Lounge, during weekends, with some of our best local musicians…

 

JF: Sounds wonderful! Where do you get all that inspiration?

JR: Our guests drive us to become better, especially when they do vote us continually Number One in Food and Beverage, on-mountain dining, specially. The good comments we get from our guests make us want to be better. Our chefs are also a very creative team that is always on the lookout for new things and are key in keeping our lead. I want to give them every opportunity to try something new and wow our guests.

 

JF: How do you gather that feedback?

JR: Our guests are pretty verbal, and we get lots of comments, phone calls and emails, helping us to steer our offerings in the right direction. We’re are labeling our menus to indicate all the gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian items as we get these questions all the time, and it’s sometimes hard for waiters to keep up with all these details even though we keep on educating them as well on all these issues.

We have an eight-day rotating menu for our kids ski school, and while we’ve always cater to Kosher, this year our menus will also display the gluten-free options. Further, our ski school menus are all nut-free and we take all the necessary care in the kitchens to avoid cross-contamination so kids can eat with total peace of mind. The bottom line is that if anyone has some special needs, we’ll take care of them!

 

JF: Is the improving level of the Park City, Main Street restaurant benefiting Deer Valley?

JR: We all help each other. The more demand we place on certain ingredients, the more choice we get from suppliers and the more that quality improves. That’s a huge help from all of us. When I first came to Deer Valley I couldn’t get coconut milk; you know, I come from Australia and I couldn’t get any of it and I got so frustrated! Because we have such a diverse and talented pool of chefs between Main Street and Deer Valley, there’s a friendly and highly productive emulation that elevates the quality of the food served and benefits everyone. Our guests too are very diverse and come to us with pretty sophisticated tastes and a fine palate that push us all to become better!

 

JF: You’ve wet my appetite; when can guest samples all that wonderful food?

JR: Very soon! While our Grocery~Café is always serving food, Royal Street Café will open the last weekend of November and then the weekend of December 3, all Day Lodges will welcome the skiing public. Then on Friday, December 9, our Seafood Buffet will be available to diners, followed by Fireside, the last one to open, on Wednesday, December 14. Mark your calendar and come sample our wonderful food!

Check out this blog post on Park City Magazine by the lovely Kristen Case sharing her experience at the Deer Valley Winter Menu Tasting.

November 21, 2011

Lucky Locals

Filed under: Bakery,Bari Nan Cohen,Dining,Food & Beverage,Weather — Tags: , , — Bari Nan Cohen @ 9:15 am

Yesterday, I felt like a very lucky local. I can sum up the reasons in three little words: Turkey Chili Nachos.

I know what you’re thinking: Seriously, folks, what took you so long to come up with THAT little gem? Well, it’s just what happens when Deer Valley’s crack culinary team gets to spend the off-season…at work. The fact that the Deer Valley Grocery Café is open year-round is a boon to everyone—locals and visitors alike. Because not only can it taste like ski season, even if the lifts are not operating, but the culinary team has a little breathing room to get a boost of creativity. Of course Turkey Chili Nachos are a genius idea. It’s a new twist on an old favorite.

Before I ate the nachos, though, I had a chance to chat with sous chef Ben Stevens, who heads up the kitchen at the Deer Valley Grocery Café. He poured me a cup of coffee (yes, I had already had a meeting over coffee an hour earlier, but I am incapable of saying no to a steaming mug of Millcreek Coffee Roasters coffee at Deer Valley.)

It turns out; the Deer Valley Grocery Café is always going to cook up a little twist or surprise. In part, because Ben and his team really want to cater to their crowd, and use the café to showcase not just the Deer Valley signature meals and desserts, but the local purveyors who make the food possible. “We want to hear people’s comments, get their suggestions,” he told me. “The more we hear what people want, the better we’re able to cook up a surprise or two.” In fact, one of the things that surprised me is the fact that entire catered dinners for a crowd can be ordered from the café—“It makes it more of a vacation if you can eat comfort food without having to cook,” Ben said. For some of us, just a day off from cooking can feel like a vacation, so I’m all in.

A few other secrets: The pot pies are healthier than you think. “We don’t use cream,” Ben says. “It’s a vegetable volute that gives the pie that creamy texture.”

Still, I couldn’t resist needling Ben to spill a little bit of his “My Deer Valley” secrets.

Ski haunt: “Empire—it’s like the hidden gem, with Mayflower on one side and Empire on the other.”

Ski lunch: “Fish tacos at Empire Canyon Lodge.”

Ski timing: “First chair—working at the Café got me in the habit of being up at 5am. Suddenly, first chair at 9 feels like a whole day off, even if I’m just getting in a few runs before I start the lunch shift.”

 

 

 

 

November 16, 2011

Thanksgiving Feast

Filed under: Bakery,Emily Summers,Food & Beverage — Tags: , , — Emily Summers @ 2:30 pm

Don’t forget to choose one of our delectable made-to-order pies for your Thanksgiving Feast this year.  Choose from old fashioned pumpkin, sweet potato pecan, apple cheddar, traditional pecan or chocolate silk.  We also offer apple ginger bread, pumpkin walnut bread and cranberry orange pecan bread.

We peeked into the bakery to see the staff getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Be sure to order by Monday, November 21.

Deer Valley’s food and beverage team is here to also help with some Thanksgiving favorites for your holiday dinner. Our Thanksgiving menu includes; Deer Valley roasted garlic mashed potatoes, steamed green beans with shiitake mushrooms, roasted acorn squash, house made struan stuffing, lemon thyme sauce, cranberry chutney.

Pick up is on Wednesday November 23rd by 6:30pm or November 24th by 11:30am at the Deer Valley Grocery~Cafe.

Please call 435-615-2400 to place your orders for turkey dinner sides and 435-645-6625 for Bakery orders.

November 10, 2011

Gourmet Winter – Part 2

Filed under: Bakery,Dining,Food & Beverage,Guest Bloggers — Tags: , , , — Emily Summers @ 2:15 pm

Recently we asked some of our chefs to share what they’re looking forward to this winter. I don’t suggest reading this blog on an empty stomach!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Letty Flatt serves as executive pastry chef for Deer Valley Resort where she prepares and oversees production of the breads, cakes and desserts for all 10 mountain dining establishments. Working at Deer Valley since 1981 Letty joined the bakery after two seasons on ski patrol. In addition to creating delectable desserts for the Resort, Letty is the author of the cookbook Chocolate Snowball: And Other Fabulous Pastries From Deer Valley Bakery.

 

Here is what Letty is looking forward to for the upcoming season:

1. A great team of bakers. We have our core, year-round pastry chefs and assistant pastry chefs, as well as a strong group of returning bakers from last season.  Our head pastry chefs, Steve Harty and Debbie Swenerton, have hired a bunch of really capable bakers for the positions we had open.  Also, each year we hire culinary externs from around the country and we are excited to welcome those that are coming for their externships this winter. In addition, we hire bakery counter attendants through a college exchange program in South America. These kids are always very smart, bilingual and studying for careers as lawyers, engineers and scientists in their home country. I love the diversity they bring to the bakery and that we are giving them the chance to polish their English-speaking skills. All in all—the bakery team we have assembled for the upcoming season looks to be world class.

2. Our new gluten-free and vegan offerings. Over the summer we developed a delicious chocolate chip cookie and a simple, elegant almond agave cake that we hope our gluten-free and vegan guests will love. Cookies are available any time right now at the Grocery~Café . We also made the Healthy Heart Muffin vegan this year by taking out the eggs—I think we made this daily muffin twice as good and hopefully it appeals to twice as many guests!

3. Both Steve at Silver Lake/Empire and Debbie at Snow Park/Grocery~Café have been dreaming up and working on new winter menu items. Each season the Mariposa dessert menu features several new desserts and among Steve’s latest is a dessert with a twist on the cheese course—a mousse with all the flavor of Barely Buzzed, the flavorful cheese rubbed with coffee and lavender from Utah’s Beehive Cheese Company. Steve is pairing the mousse with an olive oil cake, with grapes and late harvest wine. I love it.

 

Clark Norris serves as executive chef of Silver Lake Lodge which includes The Mariposa, Deer Valley’s premier fine dining restaurant, and Royal Street Café, the resort’s only winter and summer a la carte restaurant . Norris joined Deer Valley Resort’s internationally recognized food and beverage team in 1985 as a line cook and rose to become executive chef in 1988. Clark was also the recipient of Salt Lake Magazine’s annual Best Chef Award in 2006.

Here’s what is looking forward to this winter…

1. Having so many talented chefs and cooks returning this season. This makes training the new cooks so much easier, efficient and thorough that re-opening our winter operations is seamless.  From the first day of the season we are ramping-up for working full-tilt through the busy holidays and with experienced staff it is relatively painless. Thanks to all our dedicated kitchen managers, supervisors and cooks returning this season! I may get more powder days :)

2. Our ever-expanding house-made products. Here, in the Silver Lake kitchen, we make all the Bratwurst and Veggie Burgers for the entire resort — tons of them, literally. (Thanks for the new Hobart Mixer/Meat Grinder and mac-daddy Smoker, Bob!) We also make our own

Oak-Smoked Maple Cured Bacon, Pancetta, Chorizo, a variety of Salamis, Kielbasa,

Fresh Ground Bison Burgers, Huckleberry-Duck Sausage, Lamb Sausage, Italian Sausage, Juniper-Venison Sausage, Blackstrap Molasses Smoked Ham, Lamb Gyro,

Smoked Habanero Sauce…the list goes on.

We pride ourselves on using all-natural Niman Ranch Pork, Beef and Lamb. Their animals never get hormones or anti-biotics and are raised with care by small, sustainable, family owned and operated ranches. Myself, Jodie and other DV chefs, have visited Niman ranches and are very impressed with the natural, humane and sustainable ranching practices being followed. Our lamb comes from the local Willis Ranch near Bear Lake.

3. A season to best all others, earning us a 5th consecutive #1 ranking!

November 1, 2011

Gourmet Winter

Filed under: Bakery,Dining,Food & Beverage,Guest Bloggers — Tags: , , , , — Emily Summers @ 12:15 pm

We caught up with Jodie Rogers, Snow Park and Empire Lodge Executive Chef and Clint Strohl, Deer Valley Resort Restaurant Operations Manager to see what they’re looking forward to this winter; and to share some secrets and recipes from Deer Valley’s restaurants.

Jodie Rogers serves as the executive chef of Snow Park and Empire Canyon Lodges.  Rogers’ job as executive chef entails operations of all Snow Park and Empire Canyon Lodges restaurants and food events, including breakfast and lunch cuisine in the Snow Park Restaurant and Empire Canyon Grill; cuisine for the child care and ski school programs; après-ski appetizers in the Snow Park Lounge, the evening Seafood Buffet and the new Deer Valley Grocery~Cafe.  In addition, she oversees Fireside Dining at Empire Canyon Lodge.  Rogers also spends her summers overseeing all banquets at the Resort. Rogers boasts a 15-year cooking career that includes stints in several hotels in Sydney, Australia and working as head chef at Australia’s Charlotte Pass Resort

Jodie Rogers

The 3 things I am looking forward to in our restaurants this winter are:

1. @ Seafood Buffet Heather is working on a twist the to traditional Pasole,  a Rich Pork and hominy stew that originated in Jalisco, in the middle of Mexico’s Pacific Coast region. It is traditionally served at Christmas time. Come and try our version, Lobster Pazole.

2. @ Fireside Shane and Ryan are working on Homemade Lamb Bacon that will be used in numerous applications. See the recipe below to find out just one of them. Our Niman lamb is from Clark’s Farm in Bear lake. The chefs were lucky enough to visit the farm this year so we could see just how well the animals are taken care of. Just one of the many reasons our Fireside Lamb leg tastes to wonderful.

3. Apres Ski is now available at 3 locations, join us at Royal Street Cafe at Silver Lake Lodge, the EBS Lounge, located at Snow Park Lodge or the DVGC, located at the Plaza after a long day of skiing to try one of our new cocktail concoctions from our fabulous bar tenders, The “High Apple Attitude” and the DVD ( Deer Valley Diablo) are just two that come to mind.

4. Lets not forget the huge amounts of snow!

Fireside Dining Bacon Pancakes

At Fireside these pancakes will be made from our homemade lamb bacon and served accompanied by seared venison, homemade elderberry jam and lemon chive butter.

For home use I would suggest this as a great appetizer. Make small bite size pancakes and top with your favorite artisanal jam and a lemon chive whipped cream.

Ingredients

2  Cups All Purpose Flour
2  1/4 Cups Buttermilk
2 Eggs
1Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Olive Oil
1Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Sugar
2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/8 Cup Water
3-4 Bacon Slices

Directions

Slice the bacon up into small pieces and fry it over medium heat until it is the crispiness that you desire. When finished drain on a paper towel.
While the bacon is cooking mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
In a separate bowl mix the dairy, water, egg, oil and vanilla.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated.
Over medium heat, pour the pancake batter onto the pan.
Immediately after you pour the batter, sprinkle a hand full of bacon bits onto the pancake. You could mix the bacon directly into the batter, but I have found that you get better distribution if you sprinkle it on this way.
Once you see bubbles forming and bursting on the top of the pancake it is time to flip. Only flip pancakes once.
Another minute or two later the pancake is cooked. Remove onto a plate and either eat, or place the plate in the oven on warm to keep the pancakes hot until you are finished cooking all of them.

That recipe will make about 24 small 2” pancakes

 

From Soiree Productions

Clint Strohl

Clint Strohl  was recently promoted to Deer Valley Resort Restaurant Operations Manager.  He is responsible for all front-of-house restaurant services at the Snow Park, Silver Lake and Empire Canyon Lodges, including The Mariposa, Royal Street Café, Seafood Buffet, Fireside Dining, the Empire Canyon Grill, Snow Park and Silver Lake Restaurants, Bald Mountain Pizza in Silver Lake Lodge, Snowshoe Tommy’s and Cushings Cabin. Clint has been working for Deer Valley Resort since 1984.

Clint’s 3 high points for the upcoming season:

1. Restaurant Reservationists will be available 9am to 9pm, 7 days a week starting on Friday, December 2 and continuing through Saturday, April 7. This will add an additional 4 hours each day where  guests can make reservations. Of course, restaurant reservations can always be made at www.deervalley.com. Also, by early December guests will be able to reserve a table at our restaurants through Opentable.com

2. Fireside Dining will be open most Saturday nights this coming season. Most recently Fireside has  been open  Wednesday through Friday with an an occasional Saturday during the Holiday periods. By opening another evening I believe our guests will find it easier to visit us at their preferred times.

3. Mamete Prevostini wines at Fireside. So much of the food at Fireside is linked traditionally and culturally to the area where  Italy and Switzerland intersect. Mamete Prevostini produces wines in the region of Valtellina, which is as well at the intersection of  Italy and Switzerland, of 100% Nebbiolo from steeply terraced vineyards. I believe that these will be wines to be enjoyed with all savory courses at Fireside.

December 7, 2010

My Celebrity Skifest Recap

Filed under: Bakery,Bari Nan Cohen,Dining,Events,Skiing — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Bari Nan Cohen @ 3:17 pm

I ski for lunch, JUST LIKE FAMOUS PEOPLE

You already know so many of my favorite edible indulgences. Here’s what some of the competitors at the Celebrity Ski Challenge had to say:

What is your favorite Deer Valley treat?

The turkey chili…that’s an easy question – Joey Pantoliano 

We had some pizza here that was pretty fantastic. And I love the cookies here–I had some dipped in chocolate fondue. I mean, I’m working out, right?–Cheryl Hines

Oh, it’s the bacon at silver lake lodge. There is little out there that is worse for us to eat, but the bacon has like a honey pepper flavor and they cook it to perfection so it’s irresistible — it’s ridiculous. –Ian Ziering

 

Petite moms, take note. There are great deals to be had on gear for us in the kids department. I learned this the easy way, scoring a sweet deal from the clearance rack on last year’s junior gear at our local children’s gear outfitter (it’s called Kindersport and they have a retail location at Snow Park Lodge), just last week.

I felt superstylin” in my new chocolate brown jacket and chocolate brown pants with a black, white and green glen plaid. I also felt empowered to use words like superstylin’. For reals.

So imagine my delight when I bumped into an adorable nine year-old girl, whose mother glanced at my outfit, pointed across the way and said, Great minds think alike. Yup, we were sporting the same ski pants! I was at the spectator area in front of the VIP tent at the celebrity ski challenge, bumping into someone from college, hanging out steps away from ski legend Stein Ericksen, and taking Olympic gears Phil and Steve Mahre by surprised when I addressed them by the title they hold In our house: Mary Ellen’s Uncles (Mary Ellen was our baby-sitter for years, and is practically a member of our family. Which means, of course, that we are practically related to her uncles, right?)

Anyway, Adorable Pants Twin turned out to be Tu, daughter of actor and Celebrity Ski Challenge competitor Rob Morrow. Naturally, we got a photo together, ensuring that my already overinflated sense of my own youth would be, well, immortalized.

As it turned out, Tu and I had lots more in common than our BRILLIANT fashion sense. We share a love for the hot cocoa at Deer Valley, and for skiing with our dads in order  to show them up. “I love to ski at Deer Valley with my dad,” Tu said. “He usually starts out ahead of me, and then I catch up to him, pass him and call him a slowpoke!”

When I was Tu’s age, I once skied down to where my dad had just set up a Yard Sale, and upon ascertaining he was ok, ditched him in order to beat him to the bottom. He’ll be here in a few weeks to initiate what I’m sure will be a healthy dose of payback.

November 16, 2010

I Ski For Lunch- Part 1

Filed under: Bakery,Bari Nan Cohen,Dining — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Bari Nan Cohen @ 9:40 am

This is not the last time you will read that particular line in my posts. I often say that the cookies at Deer Valley, consumed at lunch on my first ski trip to Park City, were a deciding factor in our plan to move here. Letty Flatt, Deer Valley’s inspired executive pastry chef, and her team have probably heard that particular gem before.

The Vermont day lodges my youth offered fare with little allure, aside from a candy counter with a seemingly unlimited supply of Charleston Chews, which my erstwhile ski buddy and best friend Nancy and I buried in the snow banks before “lunch” (read: hot dog of indeterminate fillings) and took great joy in literally cracking open on the armrest rail (we called it a safety bar, back then), on that first post-lunch run, for the true culinary delight.

So the variety of dining options at Deer Valley (each of which I’ll tell you about, extol the virtues of, rave over, and generally create raison-du-drool, in this space in the weeks to come) never cease to impress or delight me.

But here’s what I’m loving this week. We’re getting ready for Thanksgiving—which is a fabulous holiday, and also part of the most excruciating period of the ski season: The part called, WAITING FOR DEER VALLEY TO OPEN.

That’s not exactly the love part. Patience isn’t something I possess in abundance.

But this is: My husband is a great cook. And he, blessedly, works alone. Leaving me to take the kids hiking on Thanksgiving morning (along with my in-laws, who will be visiting this year) and then set the table. In theory, I’d handle dessert. He doesn’t really bake (though he could). I do—but not in an awesome way. Just well enough, you know? Which would be fine. But I’d have to reserve time in the kitchen. Which could be an issue. But then my husband mentioned, just this morning, that he saw an ad in the paper in which Deer Valley pies were advertised. Which kills several birds with one stone. He gets to keep the kitchen to himself, and we get awesome pies for dessert. Total crowd pleasers. And, thank you, it makes the seemingly interminable eight-day wait from Thanksgiving to opening day at Deer Valley, just that much easier to bear. After all, it only takes closing one’s eyes while taking a bite of pecan pie to imagine you’re après lunch at Snow Park Lodge.

More information about the Deer Valley Bakery can be found here: http://www.deervalley.com/dining_shopping/snow-park-bakery.html

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