use real butter

Recipe: pink grapefruit-champagne sorbet

Where I live is notorious for its winter winds. And by winter, I mean autumn, winter, and spring. Our NOAA forecasts gusts up to 45 mph as “breezy”. Up to 70 mph is “windy” and beyond is finally granted “very windy”. There was a pretty severe wind storm back in mid November… the one that clocked 115 mph at Breckenridge. I never found out what it was in our town, likely exceeding 100. Over the past few months as we’ve hiked, walked, and skied around our local mountains, Jeremy and I have seen evidence of that storm’s passing again and again. Mostly, it’s in the form of windfall: rooted, topped, or split trees. Not just dead trees, but plenty of healthy, large pines.

one of the smaller examples, trailside

It bums me out because I love trees. The wind here can be so oppressive, violent, and depressing. For me, I guess it’s depressing because when it’s “very windy” it usually means changing whatever outdoor plans we had. I’ll curse it more often than not, but it’s also responsible for some amazing atmospheric displays. Sitting just a few miles east of the Continental Divide, we get a lot of orographic clouds overhead.

lenticulars along a huge wave cloud paralleling the rockies

A lot of times, the winds will come when there is a big temperature swing like going from 40°F to 15°F or the other way around. So far, we’ve had some wind but mostly sunshine and warmth. It’s not that I’m unappreciative, but… I’m unappreciative.

the snow is crapping out – we need more pow

Okay, it’s not ALL bad. Had it been our typical single digits the other night, I might not have been as willing to stand outside scoping out the Quadrantids meteor shower in the lonely hours between moonset and sunrise. 20°F is all right by me.

two-fer

the brightest one of the night (that i saw)

Weather has such an influence over my food moods and this ridiculous (and completely unnecessary) heat wave in Colorado has me downing salads, cold noodles, citrus, and now… sorbet. You’d think it was summer.

all you need is some bubbly, grapefruit, and sugar

juice the grapefruit

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chinese sweet red bean steamed buns

This past week was officially my little vacation. I mostly avoided my in-box, Twitter, the Book of Face, and the blog. Snowfall this autumn has been pretty paltry by Colorado standards and so we take what we can get. Last week, we were graced with a coveted snow dump at the local hill in which we christened our new skis in a foot of fresh powder.

frosty!

Jeremy and I spent the holiday in southwestern Colorado with his family including four of his cousins and their parents. It was a raucous good time and Kaweah was in doggy heaven considering the dog toys, dog beds, and cuddling with her grandma. We were keen to explore the local cross country trails as well as clocking a day at Wolf Creek which consistently boasts the most snow in the state (average annual snowfall is 465 inches).

cross country with the fam

We were home by Monday when the accidents began happening. Accidents as in Kaweah and her little puppy bladder. She had just finished her second course of antibiotics for an infection and so we didn’t know if the situation would improve with time or if this was Kaweah getting old. Normally, Kaweah doesn’t drink much water, but ever since her infection she had been tanking up quite a bit and we would let her out to potty every few hours. Our vet had explained stages of kidney decline and failure to us. His words hung in the back of my mind all week.

As Jeremy and I packed up for a backcountry ski, we decided to bring Kaweah along. This meant we would only cover a fraction of the distance we normally do, but this was really for her more than for us. And she loved it. She acted like her puppy self again: romping in the snow, bounding back and forth between us, shoving her schnoz in the powdery white drifts and sneezing with delight.

flopping ears

patiently waiting for her treat

Kaweah was exhausted that evening in a good way. But the accidents kept happening. Our vet asked us to restrict her water for a day and bring him a urine sample. She looked so sad and confused when she kept searching for her water bowl. I was feeling quite low and so was Jeremy. Of course, when we arrived at the vet’s office, Kaweah practically dragged Jeremy into the building. And when Doc Newton entered the room she was all wiggles and waggles. The infection was gone. That’s good news. The inability to concentrate her urine means her kidneys are now in decline. He gave us a medication to help with her leaky bladder and Jeremy asked what sort of signs to expect when her kidneys begin to fail.

Doc Newton has a kind smile and his voice reminds me of Baxter Black, the Cowboy Poet. He is the best vet we’ve ever had. He squinted at us and said, “By the time you see symptoms of kidney failure, it’s usually too late.” I blinked quickly while my hand rested on Kaweah’s rib cage. She continued to wiggle, her attention shifting from Doc Newton to the treat jar to Doc Newton to the treat jar. “Why don’t we do a blood test for a baseline and to see what stage her kidneys are at?” he suggested.

An hour later, the phone rang. “Her blood is perfect! She’s a healthy girl and we’ll test her regularly so when we start to see signs in her blood work, we can adjust her diet to make it a little easier on the kidneys. Have a happy new year!” We love Doc Newton so much.

my happy girl

So we broke into the champagne a little early to toast Kaweah’s health and a happy start to the new year. I have nothing profound to say. I’ve already recapped 2011 in photos. I don’t do resolutions. I’m not interested in what’s hot. 2012 is going to be awesome because that’s the best option.

fizzy bubbles

Even though the tradition applies to Chinese New Year, we’ve always done so with the western New Year as well. We eat something sweet first thing in the morning on New Year’s day so sweet things come out of your mouth all year. I don’t claim that it works, I just do it. I made Chinese sweet red bean (azuki) steamed buns for us to eat this New Year’s Day.

flour, yeast, baking powder, shortening, sugar, warm water, red bean paste

warm water between 105° F and 115° F

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: pumpkin tea cake

In December, I go through the process of reviewing my photographs from the entire year. I do this to gather a compilation for our New Year’s greeting card, but the exercise is a great way to take a jog down (short-term) memory lane. I’ve been cranking out a digital photo card for the past seven years such that I don’t feel I’m ready for the new year until I’ve summarized the one that is coming to a close. Reflection is good and this time spent pondering the last twelve months means I am psyched and ready for 2012. Please visit our Year in Photos for 2011.

happy new year from me to you

Back in October, Celia, who runs Star Acre Farms had come to the Denver Botanic Gardens cooking workshop that I taught with Manisha, Todd, and Diane. She gifted us several gorgeous heirloom squashes from her farm after the class had ended. One of the pumpkins I chose was this beauty:

a winter luxury pumpkin

Thoughts of what to make with this special pumpkin ran in the background of my mind for several weeks. It wasn’t until I was in California, meeting up with Lisa, when she put the idea in my head. We were talking about Tartine and how we love the bakery and how we both have the cookbook. Lisa asked if I had tried their pumpkin tea cake before. No. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she ordered me to make this pumpkin tea cake. There is a reason her blog is called Lisa Is Bossy (I love her!).

flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, pumpkin, vegetable oil, sugar, salt, eggs

mix the dry ingredients

I was mentally ready to use the heirloom pumpkin for this tea cake when I read that pumpkin purée from scratch tends to be watery and not as good as canned pumpkin. Huh… Luckily, I had some canned organic pumpkin purée in the cupboard. I guess it’s good that I buy groceries at random for no reason – at least it was this time.

combine the pumpkin, oil, sugar, salt

beat the eggs in one at a time

**Jump for more butter**