I’m in the land of “ini,” you know: linguini, zucchini, tortellini –Italy.  Skiing here is real sweet.  The race venue is in this tiny town perched on the edge of a sweet mountain range, littered with ancient castles and family farms.  This beautiful Italian town does have its downsides however, foremost being the lack of internet access.  Supposedly due to tough anti-terrorism laws, it is very difficult to gain access to the internet and those luck ones would lose their privilege if unauthorized personnel (namely us) were to use their internet.  To get around this, we have to drive to nearby Switzerland to poach off of unsuspecting hotels and cafes.  The other downside to this conundrum is that my computer’s battery only lasts for roughly ten minutes, so these few and sporadic posts will be short and sweet, but I promise more depth and pictures will follow with my return to the states at the beginning of March.  Until then sorry to leave you hanging…

Just learned today that the U23 and World Junior Championships, which due to lack of snow in Poland were suppose to have already been completed, have finally been rescheduled (again) and moved to a small town in northern Italy. The new dates for the races are the 23rd-29th of February with a slight change in race format with the 30km pursuit race being switched to a 30km freestyle. This means that myself, along with fellow Sun Valley ODT members Mikey Sinnott, Reid Pletcher, and Morgan Arritola, will be departing on Thursday the 14th to get our ski on and show the Euros we can ski, snow or no snow. More to come with travel and race updates as we cruise around Europe in search of snow and rock and roll…

Mikey getting his patriotism on at last year’s U23 Championships

Well, the lack of snow in Poland has left me stateside as I cross my fingers and hope that the two-week postponement of the races will bring snow to the Szcyrk countryside. In the mean time, I’ve been keeping myself occupied in various tasks. Bowling tournaments (man am I a terrible bowler), skittle matches (only the greatest game…ever), and a new breed of cooking contests have been my vents for my endless competitive nature.

Most recently the entire ODT team came together for a Monday night muster, where yours truly, with the help of his faithful sous chef, Mikey, challenged –and beat no less –the dynamic duo of fellow teammates Taylor Sundali and Scott Krankkala in a Iron Chef competition. The secret ingredient was sweet potatoes, and we each had a fifty-dollar spending limit to create the best four-course meal one could concoct. The other members of our team served as judges for the heated battle, judging based on taste, creativity and appearance. Taylor and Scott put up a salad with sweet potatoes, spaghetti and chicken with a sweet potato sauce, sweet potato fries, sweet potato pie and an interesting but delicious sweet potato s’more. Mikey and I fought back with five courses. Starting off was our fried sweet potato shaves rolled with pancetta and manchego cheese, second came our roasted root medley stew in homemade bread bowls, followed by homemade ravioli with a sweet potato and citrus filling in a sage butter sauce. Next came our main course of pork tenderloin stuffed with sweet potatoes and dates with a cranberry mustard glaze, and rounding out our feast was a sweet potato crepe with fresh fruit and a sweet potato pie demi-glaze.