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