use real butter

Recipe: sweet onion dip

I let blogging get away from me these past few days. In truth, I kind of left it there – abandoned it, if you will. The weather was cold, snowy, even foggy at times. I just had to get out into it!

as did kaweah

We had a freezing fog blow in one morning. It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does happen, it’s quite amazing because it coats everything in rime ice. This one was short-lived. Due to the flow of the fog, the ice crystals developed on one side of everything.

nature’s bad hair day?

branches that resemble candy

There was also the requisite “scoping out” of the snow. It’s soft, fluffy, and deep in places… windswept in others. We did *a lot* of postholing, which I guess is an effective form of the Ass Reduction Plan (ARP). Note to self: bring the skis until June.

heading into a squall

jeremy scouts the weather to the west

Jeremy is counting down the days until the solstice, because he can’t wait for the days to start getting longer. He’s a big fan of daylight. Me? I like daytime, nighttime, anytime. The short days don’t bother me at all. I have plenty of things to get done after the sun goes down.

our local sunset is around 4:30

latest acquisition of quilting flannels

While most folks kick entertaining and social functions into high gear come December, I’m actually trying to stay under the radar. I am keeping our social calendar pretty empty. Instead of indulging in the copious calorie-laden goodies, we’re eating simple fare that centers around what needs to be cleaned out of the freezer. And I’m exercising regularly because of Todd and Diane… or rather because of Todd and Diane’s sweet onion dip.

a baguette, cream cheese, mayonnaise, parmesan, sweet onion, and black pepper

I call it spreadable crack and damn it if they aren’t the pushers! They served this at the dinner party they threw when I was visiting them in Southern California. It’s so unbelievably good that even my friend Jack, a man sworn against white condiments, gobbled it down.

slice the baguette

brush with olive oil (both sides, please)

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: apple cider doughnuts

Autumn is when the nights drop below freezing and we throw the big flannel quilt over our bed. In the mornings, Kaweah is slower to stretch out because the cold makes her hind legs stiff. When I look south from our third floor loft, I can see fresh snow mantled over 13,294-foot James Peak turning pink as the sun breaks the horizon in the East. The changing season is invigorating and I find myself making mental notes of things I want to do now that the weather is cooling down.

our resident fox scouting the yard at dusk

the skeletons of summer’s glory

A modest little parcel found its way into my mailbox the day before I set off for San Francisco. Lara Ferroni’s new book Doughnuts had been sent to me by her publisher. I smiled because I would be having dinner with Lara in just over 24 hours. Travel, dining out, and cool temperatures conspire to make me long for cooking or baking after having avoided the stove and oven for most of summer. What better way to get reacquainted with the kitchen than making some doughnuts?

totally counterproductive to the ass reduction plan

Choices! Choices! The book offers all manner of doughs – raised, baked, fried, cake, gluten-free, vegan, and then some. You can pair those with various glazes, flavors, styles. If I weren’t obsessed with a specific kind of doughnut, I would have had an awful time deciding which recipe to try first. Malasadas: I had those in Hawai’i and nearly went BLIND eating them. Sopapillas – ubiquitous in New Mexico and a necessary ending to any proper New Mexican meal. Crème brûlée – because it’s so brilliant! Bavarian cream – my favorite. French crullers – my other favorite. But I had to try the apple cider doughnuts first because I have been plagued with the most frustrating failure from last fall when I attempted to make them from a different source and had to throw the entire endeavor in the trash.

add cinnamon

egg yolks taking a dive

The only deviation from Lara’s recipe was the apple cider. Instead of straight apple cider, I reduced mine to concentrate the flavor from one cup down to a quarter cup. Having never eaten an apple cider doughnut before, but always craving one at the very mention of it – I knew I wouldn’t regret that step.

pour in the apple cider (or in my case, the reduced apple cider)

stirring the dry ingredients in

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: italian meatballs

It snows here in June. It snows, it rains, it thunders, it sun showers, it gets misty.

it’s gorgeous

and we love it

miss kaweah especially loves it

And people get married. It’s like a conspiracy, but June is the time. Take my friend, Kitt, for instance. She got married this weekend. It’s June. I rest my case.

lookin’ good!

the gals get ready

the flower girls share a laugh with kitt’s mom

vows

congratulations, you two!

Since it is wedding season, I could not think of a better time to tell you about the book my friend, Lorna Yee, has written. It would make a fabulous gift for any couples getting married.

the newlywed kitchen

The subtitle is Delicious Meals for Couples Cooking Together, but I’ll tell ya – Jeremy and I don’t really cook together. 17+ years and the formula is as follows: I cook and he does some prep and washes the dishes. I figured the book wasn’t really meant for us (and by us, I mean me), but I was willing to flip through and see what it had to offer. I sat down for what I thought would be fifteen minutes of perusing. It turned into an hour reading the delightful interviews with well-known food couples, including two of my favorite people on the planet, Shauna and Danny. And don’t let me forget the recipes. I have about two dozen pages dog-eared; they all look so fresh and good. But there was one recipe that I just had to try.

start with bread soaked in milk

let’s make meatballs: beef, pork, veal, egg

Italian grandmother meatballs. The recipe looked authentic (I checked it against this meatball recipe from my dear Susan), quick, and easy. Remember, I am a fan of quick and easy right now!

egg, garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, flat-leaf parsley

add the parmesan and mix

**Jump for more butter**