We went to the lake this weekend hoping it would snow and be pretty. It was. There wasn't much we could do outdoors due to the subsequent cold weather after that, however. So I cooked some goodies in the kitchen (see photos below).

It was nice to have snow in Alabama for the first time in ?? years. I can't recall. It wasn't much; just a light dusting, but in comparison to nothing, it was a lot.

This is the new dam that was built to create a second lake. It had a lot of snow on it.

Mr. Snowman doesn't have arms. Sorry, Mr. Snowman.

The jacuzzi tub looked awfully inviting. This lakehouse is not campy.

What would be a trip to the lake without taking a picture of the lake? We did not do any fishing. They were probably at the bottom, trying to stay warm.

Very pretty walk along the gravel roads that lead to the house. I was making snowballs and rolling them, and Ruby would chase the snowball and then eat it. She didn't like being cold and wet, though.

So Ruby made it back to the house way before we did.

My first attempt at creme brulee. I decided not to make the sugar coating on top because we forgot the blowtorch. It was still very delicious. I used a vanilla bean, which makes a huge difference over vanilla extract. And with a million grams of fat per serving, it is bound to be tasty.

My current mission is to make an energy bar that tastes good and has decent nutritional value. The mass-produced bars tend not to taste that great. I can stand a Clif Bar, but it isn't delicious. I love Cup of Golds, but after perusing the ingredient list, I discovered that it (a) contains corn syrup and other simple sugars, (b) is somewhat closer to a candy bar than an energy bar, other than the protein content.

So the photo above was my first stab at it, and they turned out very tasty. However, not so healthy either, with too much fat and only simple sugars. I stopped by Whole Foods yesterday and bought some ingredients to create a healthier energy bar. I plan to hand out bars to folks at this weekend's training camp to get some feedback. I'll post an update on my energy bar project soon.