Nisei Ski Club

by Karen Soo, Newsletter Editor

Get Inspired. Take Action. Be part of the green revolution.

Earth Day is April 22, 2023

What can we do to preserve the planet?

CLIMATE LITERACY – Every learner in every school in the world should receive fully integrated, assessed climate and environmental education.

END PLASTICS – Plastic pollution is one of the most important environmental problems facing us. Break free from single-use plastics.

PLANT TREES – As little as 1-dollar plants a tree. Donate to the Canopy Project today.

VOTE EARTH – Use your voting power to protect our environment.

GLOBAL CLEANUP – The great Global Clean Up is a worldwide campaign to clean up our communities, beaches, rivers, lakes, trails and parks.

SUSTAINABLE FASHION – Behind every piece of clothing in the store, there is a destructive industry stripping the Earth of its resources, Fight fast fashion.

Do your part and let preserve Planet Earth. Home to all of us. https://www.earthday.org/

by Karen Soo, Trip Director

Stoko is a Black Diamond Sponsor of the Federation.

They are offering a 25% discount to all members

Stoko’s products integrate medical-grade support into athletic clothing. Each product provides uncompromised support, comfort, and movement so you can overcome injury, eliminate pain, and have confidence to get back to the activities you love

As a member of the NSCF you receive an exclusive industry professional discount on all Stoko products. Use the code NSCF at checkout for 25% off. Click here to shop.

by Armand Gutierrez, President

This has been a most unusual ski season. Tahoe has been slammed with record-breaking snowfall and great skiing conditions. Of course, sometimes the problem is getting up to the Tahoe area. Along with major snow dumps there are also dicey road conditions on I-80 getting to the north Tahoe area (think Palisades Tahoe, Alpine Meadows, and Northstar), and US 50 getting to the south Tahoe area (Heavenly, Sierra-at-Tahoe). But, timing is everything. If you plan carefully to avoid adverse road conditions and get up to Tahoe on favorable road conditions then you will be rewarded with great ski conditions. Don’t wait; the ski season is half-over so get up there now!

NSC Website Updated

There has been an update to the Events & Ski Trips page that now shows the upcoming ski trips sponsored by BAC and upcoming ski and adventure (non-ski) trips sponsored by FWSA. As an FWSA travel assistant for the FWSA International Ski trips let me know if you have any questions (president@niseiskiclub.org).

2024 NSC Ski Week

The 2024 NSC Ski Week will be at Jackson Hole with a tentative date from January 27^th to February 3^rd. Mark your calendar and start planning on a ski week to what is known as “a skier’s mountain”. Yes, plenty of challenging runs for you ski warriors, and a few milder runs for the ski bunnies (do we have any ski bunnies?).

Board Nominations

Now that it’s March it’s time to think about Board Nominations for the 2023-24 season. If anyone has an interest in joining the board for the next season and has questions about what it entails then just drop a note to any of the current board members, or perhaps you have someone in mind to nominate for the board. Please keep in mind that the Nisei Ski Club relies on volunteers to be on the board and undertake the running of the club. It’s not all work and no play. Board meetings this year have been online using Zoom. It is a convenience to attend a Zoom board meeting from the comfort of home, but I do miss the face-to-face interaction and the lunches afterward.

QotM:  Trust is like the soul, once it leaves it never returns.

by Jeanne Katsuro, Vice President

Hi Nisei Ski Club Members!

The Nisei Ski Club Board is looking forward to presenting you with many new activities for this year.This is the basic activity schedule (subject to change as we confirm the dates).

April 

Golf Outing – Lead by David Schultz (Board Member)

June 10, Saturday , 11:00am to 3:00pm

Mah Jong Classes – Learn the rules and play Mah Jong Plus Potluck at Judy Hom’s backyard

Lead by Judy Hom and Janet Gee (Former Board Members and Current Nisei Members)

July 22, Saturday / Nisei Ski Club Picnic – Las Palmas Park, Sunnyvale 

Lead by Karen Soo (Newsletter Editor) and Curtis Otaguro (Board Member)

August 20th, Sunday

Bowling at 4th Street Bowl & Meal

                  Lead by Frank Chang ( Treasurer)

September  / Car Rally & Meal

                  Lead by Carolyn Wong (Current Nisei Member) (Porsche Club Member)

October / 65th Anniversary Dinner Lead by Jeanne Katsuro (Vice President)

                       TBA Golden Palace Restaurant

                       1148 S De Anza Blvd

                       San Jose, CA  (Borders Cupertino)

Month to be Announced

2nd Bocce Ball Activity & Meal Lead by Hoyt Nelson (Board Member)

Each of  these events have limited capacity so if there is a favorite activity you like

SIGN UP EARLY!

      Example: We had people on the waiting list for Pickleball this past October!

For members, who are only interested in eating and socializing, we are providing potlucks or meals with each event so you can still join us!

Let’s Get Going!

Ask your Friends to Join Nisei Ski Club and Join in all our Fun and Activities

There will be Member Prices which will always be lower than Non Member Prices at each activity.

Nisei Skl Club Membership is still only $25 before May 31 and $30 after June 1st.

Nisei Ski Club Fiscal Year is June 1 to May 31.

Our Membership Fees are still super low.  These fees are the same as when I was President in 1986-1987!

This is the New Rule!

    First Come, First Serve!

    When Sign up forms and Checks are received on the same day and we hit capacity for the event.

    Registration Forms that are received on the same day.  A Nisei Member will take precedence over a Non Member to fulfill the sign ups for the event.

Please send the following Nisei Ski Club Registration Form to your Friends!

Let’s Build Our Nisei Ski Club Membership!

Nisei Ski Club Membership Form – CLICK HERE

Thank you so much!

Jeanne Katsuro

Vice President

by Tina Woo, Membership

Save the Date! Mark your calendars for Saturday, May 6 from 2pm – 5pm for our end of the season dance social and potluck.

We have reserved the Cupertino Senior Center Arts & Crafts room for the event.

As part of the social and a special treat, Sandy Kiyomura will offer, free of charge, three 15-minute ballroom dancing lessons. Sandy has been an instructor at the Mastick Senior Center in Alameda for several years. Come practice, get tips and refresh your dancing skills.

You’ll have the opportunity to learn about Nisei Ski Club, meet club members, find out about future events this summer as well as next year’s planned week-long ski trip!

We encourage you to bring a friend and/or prospective members and some potluck refreshments to share. The Club will provide drinks and paper products/ utensils.

An evite will be sent out as we get closer to the date.

The Cupertino Senior Center is located at 21251 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino.

More information will follow.

Cost is $10 for Nisei Ski Club members and non-members.

We hope to see you there!

by Sandy Kiyomura, Board Member

What a week, 10 skiers and 1 boarder (Rick Dumlao) ventured out to Breckenridge! Although this was the smallest ski trip I’ve attended, the size of the group made it even more fun. There were 3 condos and everyone got to ski with everyone sometime during the week.  Breckenridge has lots of blue runs for cruising and some challenging Single Black and Double Black runs. Jason Ku, his daughter Carolyn and Dan Lew were our “Double Black” diamond skiers. Armand (the skier) and Rick (the boarder) also ventured onto various black diamond runs (including “the Burn”, a steep run in the trees). Carolyn is our newest and youngest member. She is also probably the smartest…getting her PhD in Bioinformatics at UCSF.

Breckenridge has the highest ski lift in North America, the Imperial Express Super Chair lift at 12,840 feet above sea level. Before the week ended, all 11 of us had skied it! Since we were all Epic Pass holders, some of us were able to see where others were skiing by using the Epic app on our phone “Follow my friends”. This is a “Ski Technology” for you.

After seeing the Black diamond runs, I decided to take a lesson. It was well worth it. My teacher was a Korean fellow. Excellent skier and great teacher. We worked on moguls and turning on them one at a time. (Rolling the knees and ankles). Because of his instruction, I was able to ski some of the black diamond runs without getting hurt! I encourage you to take a lesson sometime (this is a former ski instructor speaking).  I believe proper form makes for more enjoyable and safe skiing. At my age, I can’t afford to get hurt!

After 5 days of skiing, Jason decided to get a massage. I followed his advice and felt so much better afterwards. We both had a massage intern who knew exactly which muscles to work on. It was the perfect ending to 5 days of skiing.

We happened to visit during the annual Breckenridge Ice Sculpting Contest. There were some fantastic entries. Some of us saw it during the day, some at night when the lights made the sculptures more dramatic. Jim Tanaka and Gary Kitagawa were there when the bulldozers took them down…the finale for the week.

What would an NSC trip be without mentioning the food. For our potluck, I made “peanut butter jelly” salmon, David Tom made a yummy chicken stew and Armand’s condo had his wife’s famous spaghetti with meat sauce. In my condo, Dan Lew made homemade scones. They were perfect: crusty on the outside, soft on the inside. Check out the recipe posted this month. And don’t forget the Girl Scout cookies from Amelia (my granddaughter).

There was the daily Hot Tub Group: Armand, Rick and David Uyeda, Jason and Dan, Gary and Jim and Greg.  

Matt of Summit Express did an excellent job picking us up from the Denver airport and stopping at City Market before delivering us to Beaver Run Resort. On the return trip, he was kind enough to drop us off at two different airlines. He said their company stresses customer service.

Thanks Armand for another great week. Looking forward to Jackson Hole in 2024.

Sandy off the Falcon chair. The part of Falcon chair under the chair is used for World Cup Downhill race.

Carolyn and Jason on top of Imperial lift, tallest lift in North America

David Tom, Jim Tanaka, Greg Wong, Gary Kitagawa

The Gang:

Greg, Gary, Jim, Armand, David Tom, David Uyeda

Photo Credits from Sandy Kiyomura and David Uyeda

by Karen Soo, Trip Director

While 11 NSC members jetted out to Breckenridge for a week of skiing, another 10 NSC members planned a week trip to Park City, Utah. February 4^th to 11^th.

The last time I skied Park City, Canyons was called Park West. Geez, what year was that? The XIX (19^th) Winter Olympics was held in 2002.  Park City and Canyons merged in 2015, making its mark as the largest ski area in the United States.

One nice thing about Park City is that you really don’t need a car for the week unless you’re skiing Alta, Snowbird and Solitude. You probably need another week for those resorts.  Amy arranged the pickup shuttle from Salt Lake International and took us to our respective condos.

During the week, we used the Park City Transit as our means of transportation. Assigned numbers and color shuttle buses are free and they came often during peak times. I don’t where my head is at, but I always end up on the wrong bus going the wrong direction. Almost all the shuttles go to Main Street and Deer Valley. My 5-minute ride turned into a 45-minute ride. By the time Friday arrived, I finally understood the bus system. OYE.

Janice and Jim Sanchez, Curtis and I stayed together at the Silvertown condo which was a 5-minute bus ride to the Park City Village. Amy, David, David Tom and sister Carolyn stayed at the Marriot Mountainside, a Ski in, Ski out accommodation. David Tom flew in from Denver and joined us for a 2^nd week of skiing. What a stud, back-to-back ski trips. His skiing legs were still going strong.

We skied the first 2 days at Park City. We met at the Payday lift chair in the morning between the 9:00-9:00am

Carol and Lennie Kwok drove from Folsom with their pup Dewey and stayed at a doggy friendly Airbnb in Salt Lake City. They joined us during the week. We explored the mountains, taking the blue runs and took pictures and videos along the way. David, Curtis, Jim and Lennie tried the Black Diamond mogul runs and met us at the bottom of lift chair. This was pretty much the way we skied together as a group.

If anyone got separated, there was always a lunch plan in place to meet. First one there grabs the largest table for 10. Being Epic pass members, we were able to get 20% off of lodging, rentals and food at the resort.

On Tuesday, blues skies came out and we decided to try out the runs at the Canyons Resorts.

We all met in the morning at Park City and took the connecting Quicksilver Gondola. The ride was scenic and relaxing. After a hour and 10 minutes ride, we finally took our first run of the day.

After trying this once, our condo mates decided to take the 5-minute shuttle ride to the Crayons base. We met up with Amy’s crew at the bottom lift chairs Tombstone or Saddle back Express.

There was more skiing terrain at the Canyons. The Canyons is about 2/3 in size and Park City was 1/3 of the entire resort. We skied 3 days there. We didn’t get the 2 feet powder but we did have the blue skies and great weather.

No ski trip is complete without planning the meals. Instead of the traditional pot luck and shlepping the food from condo to condo, Amy and I decided to do a host dinner. Amy hosted dinner one night and my condo hosted the next night.

You know what that means. One less meal planned for the week. Hooray.

On Sunday night, we went over to Amy’s condo at the Marriot. The theme of her dinner was Greek OMPA. As always, there was so much food. Greek Pastitsios and mezzes ranging from Greek kamata olives, Greek eggplant dip, dolmas. tzatziki, hummus and walnuts. David Tom made the flan with caramel sauce. I was impressed. He said he made this at Breckenridge. The secret recipe came in a box from Royal. Ha ha. I’m going to bring this on my next ski trip.

The next night Amy and her crew came over to our place for dinner.

Thanks to Jim for his special dried rubbed, St Louis ribs. It was so good that you didn’t need any BBQ Sauce. Don’t tell Jim, but a few of us did dip the ribs into the BBQ sauce. To accompany the ribs, we made Supreme nachos, Chinese chicken salad, rice and garlic bread. Janet made a Cherry pie from home and we served it warm with vanilla ice cream.

It was nice to sit together for dinner and chatted about our ski day, with the fire place warming up the room.

On our day off on Wednesday, we walked around the Canyons Village and Park City Main Street. We stopped off at Tina’s Bakery for their Argentinean Empanadas. I think we all agreed we like the Empanadas from Spain.

We did our restaurant research and came across Sammy’s Bistro which was featured on
Diner, Drive-in and Dives. Amy and her crew went there at 6:00 pm and the wait was 2 hours. Sammy’s does not take reservations.

Bummers, they left the restaurant and ended up at The Boneyard Saloon. The chicken wings appetizer got great reviews from Jim and Janice who went there for lunch.

We went to Sammy’s after our hot tub dip. We hopped on the wrong bus (again) and got to Sammy’s Bistro at 8:00pm. By that time, there was no wait and we were seated and they took our order.

We had the Cioppino and the Mahi Mahi Tacos that was feature on an episode on Diner, Drive in and Dives. We were not disappointed.

For the remaining rest of the week, we had enough leftover ribs and salad to keep us satisfied.

We had an early departure on Saturday morning (6:00am), so staying in on a Friday night to pack was nice.

Overall, we had a fun time skiing and eating with good company. No accident reports.

See you all next year at Jackson Hole with NSC in 2024!

Photo Credits from Karen Soo, Curtis Otaguro, David Tsuhako

Videos

https://youtu.be/p6q7ZfHZEGQ

https://youtu.be/E4QfRuPSR_g

https://youtu.be/1Z2vBUPQro8

by Karen Soo, Newsletter Editor

Hey Fellow Bakers,

This month’s recipe came just in time to honor Saint Patrick’s Day on March 17, 2023

During the Nisei Ski Club weeklong trip to Breckenridge, everyone raved about Dan Lew’s scones that he made for the pot luck party. Check out the pictures below.

At Breckenridge, he did NOT grade the butter but just cut it up with a big knife. He froze the butter for just and hour or so. There’s definitely less clean up if you cut it versus grading the frozen butter.

He also used at least a ½ cup of dried cranberries and added a lot frozen blueberry too.  See the gooiness?

The best part of this recipe is that you don’t need a mixer, just a large bowl and some muscle power to mix the flour mixture.

Sounds like an easy recipe to follow.

Enjoy!!

Bon Appetite – Julia Child and Karen Soo shares the same birthday.

Prep: 20 mins

Cook: 22 mins

Total: 42 mins

Servings: 12 Scones

Ingredients

• 4 2/3 cups (1lb 8oz/680g) self-rising flour (plus extra for dusting)
• 3/4 cup(6oz/170g) butter (frozen)
• 3 level teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup (4oz/113g) sugar
• 1/2 cup (4oz/113g) Raisins or dried cranberries or blueberries
• 1 1/4 cup (10floz/300ml) milk
• 2 eggs (beaten)

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, add your self-rising flour.

• Using a cheese grater, grate the butter in until it is all gone. (Alternatively using a pastry cutter, cut/rub the butter into the flour until fully crumbed and resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

• Stir in Raisins or dried cranberries or blueberries, baking powder, and sugar.

• In a small mixing bowl, whisk eggs and milk and until thoroughly combined. Pour the mixture into your flour mix and stir until a soft dough is formed. Transfer dough to a floured surface and press to 1 1/2 inch thick. (If your scones are not forming a dough add a little more liquid.)

• Cut scones out with a round 3-inch cookie cutter.

• Place cut scones onto a baking tray lined with parchment.

• Gather remaining dough in a ball, re-flatten then cut scones from dough. Repeat until the entire batch of dough is cut into scones. If you have a little excess dough left, just pat it onto the top of the scones.

• Bake at 425°F (210°C) for roughly 22-26 minutes. In the video, I said 12 minutes but to get them really golden brown you will want to bake for longer. Cool on a wire rack.

Serve warm or fully cooled with butter, jam, or fresh cream

BAKE TIME: In the video, 12 minutes was mentioned, but to get them really golden brown you will want to bake for longer. I ended up baking for over 20 minutes — but due to differences in ovens and elevations, your timing may vary! Just keep an eye for the perfect color.

https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/best-ever-irish-scones/