Happy Hockey New Year

July first is Canada Day, the NHL & AHL's UFA Day, and the unofficial Hockey New Year in the North American pro leagues.  July fourth is the equivalent national holiday south of the 49th.  Therefore today (the fifth) seems like an appropriate day to really kick off the new year of hockey.*

Happy Hockey New Year, Everyone! (All Photos Credit: M. Richter)

I'm also going to apologize now - this post is going to be a bit of an info-dump, designed to catch things up to the present.  There's a bit of personal, a bit of rec league antics, and a bit of Caps-related news.

For Posterity: Where I Stand

Allegiances This Spring (Obligatory & Remnants):

NHL

Capitals (I write for Capitals Outsider. Enough said)

Kings (I'm a bandwagoner of the Richards Era - as a group, they were nice to me when they came & practiced at my rink for most of a week last October.  I've been casually following them ever since)

AHL

Hershey Bears (no longer in the running, but they didn't get swept - that counts for something)

Toronto Marlies (I blame a friend for this - she's spent much of the year campaigning on their behalf)

ECHL

South Carolina Stingrays (Made it through to the second round, which was pretty impressive all things considered)

Eliminated From Playoffs:

Blackhawks

Bruins

I Love the Playoffs, I Hate the Playoffs. Rinse & Repeat.

As the title suggests, I'm of mixed mind when it comes to the playoffs.  I've also been run absolutely ragged, tracking the whole kit & kaboodle, which is why things have dropped off here temporarily.  Once the situation with the Capitals resolves (the Bears & Stingrays are both out already, though the Caps have shown they're not to be taken lightly this year), my life will slip into a blissful off-season lull.  Or something to that effect, at any rate.  I'm sure I'll be going nuts by the time the draft comes around.

This is the first time I've been quite so caught up in the bigger playoff picture, following teams at all 3 of the affiliation structure, and it's definitely had its pros & cons.

HBC Attempt #3 - Oatmeal Cookies

Every standard cookbook has an Oatmeal Cookie recipe, and the Hershey Bears Cookbook is no exception.  Each variant is a bit different - every author or editor likes to include their own little unique bit of flair.  My mother's been looking for a good oatmeal cookie recipe for a while, so it seemed like a solid idea to test this one out.  It looks like I'll be able to put her out of her misery.

Oatmeal Cookies (HBC-Style)

The recipe is credited to Patrick McNeill, one of the current stars of the Hershey defense department.

HBC Attempt #2 - Skillet BBQ Chicken Pasta

After a weekend in Hershey with a friend, I took today as a recovery day.  In the interests of getting something done, I pulled out the HBC and tried to figure out what I had the ingredients to make.  I ended up with this:

Skillet BBQ Chicken Pasta (side of lemon broccoli)

Submitted to the cookbook by Tomas Kundratek, most recently the winner of the Milton Barland Award for Best Defensemen on the 2011-2 Hershey Bears.

HBC Attempt #1 - White Cake & Berries

A few nights ago, I started my cookbook project with White Cake & Berries (source: Kevin Marshall, defenseman acquired in February via trade with the Adirondack Phantoms).

General Verdict - Success.

2 slices of cake, from opposing orientations.

Culinary Adventures, AHL-Style (A Summer Project)

Last weekend, the Hershey Bears Wives & Girlfriends put the first batch of a 2011-2 Bears Cookbook on sale.  They're selling another (larger) batch this coming weekend, for a total of 800.  If you're handy in the kitchen, there are some interesting recipes included (and it's fun to flip through and try to infer things from who submitted what (or got their wife/mother to submit for them)).  However, many of them are a bit light on the instructions, so an idea of what you're doing is essential.

I've been needing to get more active in the kitchen - it's relaxing, and you always feel like you've accomplished something at the end of the day.  Enough of the recipes in the cookbook looked like fun that I'm embarking on a summer project that's only peripherally related to hockey- I'm going to cook my way through the book.  I'll have to give away large portions of the dessert batches at work, but it'll be worth it if I come away with a few good "keeper" recipes.  Not a Julie & Julia situation, just someone intrigued by the idea of Czech Crepes and Death By Garlic.