After a 45 minute walk in, there is a cosy Rasthaus that does a mean goulasch soup (how do I alsways get back on to the subject of food ?!?) and homemade schnapps. Its well worth a visit next time you’re in the Arlberg

To roast the lamb, heat the oven to 230 degrees. Make a paste of garlic, anchovies, rosemary, freshly ground black pepper and drained capers and rub all over the shoulder (or leg). Bake at 230 for 1/2 an hour, beofre truning down the heat to 120, puor in 1/3 abottle of white wine and cover with foil. Bake at this temperature for 5 hours. When tender, pour off the juices and reduce rapidly until you have a delicious gravy. Pull the meat apart with your hans (wearing gloves) and serve with ballymaloe’s delicious homemade apple and mint jelly.

For the polenta, bring to the boil 1 litre of milk with 2 bay leaves, 2 whole peeled cloves of garlic and plently of salt and pepper. Add in 200g fine polenta and stir over a medium heat until it starts to thicken. Near the end, add 75g butter and 75g parmesan and stri. Pour into a tin and leave to set for an hour. You can then cut it however you like (I use rounds or cut into triangles). Reheat in the oven as necessary. I had never really cooked polenta before, but its such a great accompaniment to something like roast lamb as it soaks up all the juices but doesnt leave you feeling as heavy as potatoes can. Its also very good for you.

For the salmon and rice, its really all about the Thai green curried rice and the Asian salad. For the rice, chop up an onion and sautee in a little oil. Add 200g rice, and sautee until its all covered in the oil. Add a tablespoon of green curry paste and stir. Add 1 tin of coconut milk, the same quantity of water, a little vegetable bouillon and some salt. Stir until dissolved and place a lid on the pan. Turn down the heat and cook for about 35mins, or until the rice is tender. You will have to stir it every now and again to make sure it doesn’t stick. Add lemon juice and cream to taste. Serve with a very simply baked piece of lightly seasoned salmon. For the Asian salad, I make a dressing of 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sugar, juices of 2 limes, 2 tablespoons oil, and 1 tablespoon water. I then throw together some rocket, chopped spring onions and sesame seeds..

I promise that all these new recipes (and more) will be in Alpine Evolution cookbook 2 (available in 2013/2014!!!)

Since Friday the Arlberg has seen a massive amount of snow fall. In my ten years of living in St Anton, I have never seen this quantity of snow in resort, or the relentlessness of a storm. I was lucky enough to get out on the Friday just as it was coming in and get some amazing runs down Maienwassen and Jungsbrunntobel. Since then lots of the lifts have been shut, and although Jason and myself haven’t been able to make it out due all the behind-the-scenes-extra-jobs that crop up when this amount of snow falls, all our guests are coming back beaming, saying that the runs that are open are great and even the visibility isn’t too bad.

St Anton has been working round the clock to clear the roads and apart from the road into St Anton being shut on Friday night and the train line still not working, the town is pretty much functioning as usual. Gradually, it does feel as though we are living in a snow world, with tunnels as roads and burrows as homes. However, the storm is meant to cease tonight and the sun is due to come out early next week and stay shining until next weekend. On Saturday there was an estimated 480cm of snow on top of  Valluga, which is impressive as it was only just over a month ago that the mountains were still bare.

I’d suggest that any of you powder hounds who are coming to stay over the next few weeks, or even any one who would like to give powder skiing a go for the first time, get in touch as I would highly recommend getting a Piste to Powder guide to show you the area and give you some helpful hints on technique. This is not something to be missed!

I have been very busy in the kitchen, having fun creating a few new dishes for this season… celeriac remoulade and speck salad with a herb and garlic crostini, slow cooked lamb shoulder (cooked for 5 hours) with a herb, anchovy, olive and sundried tomato tapenade, polenta and ratatouille, and a chocolate tart with pomegranate ice cream. If you happen to be browsing through Red magazine over Christmas you will see us in their features section about where to spend New Year’s Eve. We thrilled with it, as we all agree that St Anton is a super special place, especially at New Year when it turns ultra-magical.

Go to go now as my pork belly is crackling away in the oven… will keep you posted on the snow conditions as we will go up on Wednesday on our first day off – yay!

Town was alive last night, with everyone out in the pedestrian zone to watch the Krampus parade. The vibe was buzzing as we were being snowed on, drinking Gluewein, trying not to catch any of the Krampus’ attention. It’s an old tradition in Austria which marks the 5th December when Saint Nikolas comes round (Santa Claus equivalent) to give children gifts. He is accompanied by Demons and white witches, who, instead of giving gifts, act as evil ‘claws’ who scare children with their costumes, bells and broomsticks, frightening them so much they wont be bad the following year…and it works! I know a few Mum’s in St Anton who just have to mention the word Krampus and their children will run a mile.

They have got some really scary costumes these days, very Lord of the Ring-esque.  It seems none of the Alpine Evolution team were naughty this year as we all got away scott free! Until the next time.

I’m totally loving the explosion over twitter, facebook and blogs today reporting the snow that has fallen across the Alps. After a long summer, we’ve all got something to sing and dance about. It is fantastic to see the beautiful (but not quite what we want just now) autumn colours turn into a thick coat of the white stuff… and just in time for the lift openings and the first Alpine Evolution guests on Thursday 8th December.

It always amuses me that there is this debate at the begining of every season of  ’will it/won’t it snow’, as the start of a season does not necessarily predict how the rest of the winter will turn out. Last year for example had an epic December, and then not much after that. I can recount numerous seasons where the snow has arrived only just before Christmas, but then has dumped every few days and remained very cold right until the end of March. Understandably, November has been hotter than avaerage this year – but the weather is there to keep us on our toes and remind us that there are still a few things in life that we can’t predict or control… Let the season begin!

And on that note, I’m heading into town to see the Krampus… definitely something unpredictable and uncontrollable (especially if they’ve had one too many schnapps). I’ll make sure I’m near a door way so I can run in and hide! For those of you at a loss as to what I am talking about, I’ll be taking photos and let you in on Austria’s scariest annual event tomorrow. Watch this space.

I haven’t written the blog for a while, so many apologies… as always it’s just been busy busy busy!  Now the upcoming season is just around the corner, (I know this as the Van Man has been to valet the minibus and I’ve been informed once again that I am NOT allowed to drive though any puddles), I’ve got the chance to get you up to speed before we see you this winter.

This year we got married in June, which was clearly the happiest day of our lives. I am very proud to now be Mrs Gonifas (if you’re having trouble pronouncing it, we’ll have lessons in the chalets!).

As usual for me, lots of the summer revolved around food. My private chef work takes me all over the globe and I love moving around, cooking with different produce in different climates for varying people and parties.  I spent 5 lovely weeks in Corfu, cooking for a gorgeous private villa. You can’t really helped but be overcome by the scents and smells of all the fresh herbs and vegetables there which you don’t really have to do too much to in order to transform them into something delicious. I also have a new wonderful client who I cook for in Kent who has 2 donkeys, 10 chickens, 5 ducks and 2 dogs to keep me busy and entertained. I cook largely from her organic vegetable garden, and only with seasonal British produce so its sometimes quite challeging to think of lunch and supper menus for 2 weeks on the trot, but I love it. She had been watching the Great British Bake Off and wanted to try the Mary Berry Pork Pies, so I gave them a whirl and have to say, they were pretty tasty! This month, I cooked for a great stalking group up on the Kyle of Localsh, which was fantastic. It was exciting for me to be back in Scotland cooking with such amazing produce… Saturday night was a Scottish version of Surf n’ Turf… the starter was lobster sized langoustines followed by venison from the hill, which I cooked 3 ways; I made a casserole with the shank, roasted the haunch and seared off the fillets. Its just incredible to taste such fresh wonderful Scottish produce again…LURVELY!

As always, the office side of Alpine Evolution keeps us very busy indeed. We  put as much as possible into every aspect of our guests’ stay, and that includes the pre-arrival administration as well. From the initial booking through to organising your ski lessons, transfers and anything else you can think of. You may have noticed that the website got a bit of a sprucing this year, which is always fun to do! We have also been doing some photo shoots with some of the National glossies, so we’ll keep you updated as and when the articles and photos come out.

In addition to this, Jason has been busy fixing up our little cottage in the Cotswolds. He’s put in huge raised beds for our vegetables and herbs. Although we haven’t planted any vegetables yet, the herb bed is already looking on the ‘wild’ side and we did manage to pop in the first of our garlic last night which should be ready for harvesting in mid summer.

And now, yet again it’s time to gather everything together and make the annual migration to the mountains. We are heading out in the minibus on Thursday, along with our two new staff members Darren and Dom,  and cant wait to get to resort. We were out there for the Piccadilly opening 2 weekends ago (which was brilliant!) and the anticipation ‘vibe’ can already be felt. It’s what we all feel as we know our seasonal ‘clocks’ are shifting once again and that our next 5 months are going to be filled with new challenges, powder days, fun times and lots of adventures!

I’d never really thought about gathering, cooking and eating them before. But thanks to sound advise from a friend, my week has been transformed by my shiny new finds. What’s more, when I went on to look at the nutritional value of them and it turns out they are extremely good for you, good for the heart and an outstanding food source. Unlike most nuts, they are low in fat and oils and high in complex carbohydrates. They are also low in protein but the protein they do have is of a very high quality – like eggs. In addition, they are high in all sorts of minerals – iron, zinc, vitamin c and potassium.

Cooking them is easy peasy, bring a pan of water to the boil, and then cook them for 4 minutes. You need to peel them with a sharp knife (including the furry bit) and then they are ready to eat whole or add to soups, salads, stews etc.

I can’t believe no one has ever told me about these new little friends before – all those Autumns wasted! However, now you may well see them on a few of our menus in St Anton this winter.

My friend also cleverly pointed out the difference between sweet chestnuts (edible) and horse chestnuts (conkers – semi-poisonous). Sweet chestnuts have a little point at the tip and come out of a prickly burr whereas horse chestnuts are round and larger and should be saved for tying with string and going into battle!

Annabel