use real butter

Recipe: thai tea ice cream

Howdy from beautiful Crested Butte, Colorado! I am chasing wildflowers, hiking the high country, befriending local fauna, and getting zero sleep. Okay, that’s not true. We’re not befriending the local fauna, we’re just encountering a lot of local fauna, including a black bear early Thursday morning!

talk about local color

marmots are everywhere

While I’m wrapping up this shoot, I thought I’d leave you with something for the weekend. When we had our food-blogging friends over for dinner before the workshop, one of the ice cream flavors I served for dessert was Thai tea ice cream. If you’ve ever had Thai iced tea, then you know it’s a natural translation into ice cream.

thai tea

and the bag it came in for those who wanted to know what it looks like

The inspiration came about because I was making several Thai meals one week as the weather was warming up. I thought Thai iced tea would be a perfect accompaniment to the meals. Actually, I crave Thai iced tea and was delighted to discover that my local Asian grocer carries it in large bags.

mix the thai tea into the warmed milk

steeping the tea will turn the milk a bright orange color

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: cherry granita

I’m up to my elbows in swag, random dishes, glassware, and food styling props. Our great room looks like a warehouse as we get ready to host the food photography and styling workshop next week. I’ll do my best to post about all of the great people and fun stuff we’re doing, but… someone’s gotta drive the bus! And it’s hard to drive and shoot at the same time, see.

not recommended

Summer is here and it has punched me full on in the face. Yeow. I have some friends who love the heat. [No wonder he was the perfect companion to go shoot Death Valley with me.] The benefit of a “dry” heat is that the shade can be quite pleasant. So we found a compromise earlier this week when we went to Pica’s Boulder for lunch and Jason was all, “Ooh! Let’s eat out on the patio!” Mine keen eyes scanned out the only corner of shade covering a third of a table. That’s where I parked myself while Jason happily roasted under the sun like a big chicken slowly turning golden brown.

tacos al pastor – zomgodelicious

Any recipe you see here that involves the application of heat to food was prepared at least two weeks ago, because I’m nearing that state where I am perfectly happy to sit down and eat cold watermelon for dinner until my tummy becomes a giant water(melon) balloon. When it’s really hot, my mind locks onto a few key items: ice, raw fruit, raw vegetables, cold water, iced tea, sushi. The marriage of fruit and ice is especially comforting since I am intolerant of ice cream (well, lactose).

cherries are in season

luscious, deep reds

I had tested a so-called cherry granita recipe earlier and it wound up being a cherry sorbet of sorts. Not what I was looking for and a heck of a lot of trouble to boot. This recipe is quite straightforward with the fruit front and center – the way I wanted it to be.

simple syrup

into the blender

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: passion fruit ice cream

I was commenting (read: whining) about the heat to my girlfriend the other day when she replied, “I want to kick the sun in the nuts.” That about sums it up. It was the hottest day of the year thus far. But then a lovely cool-down (literally) blew into town and we woke up to misty mountains and that chill on the morning air. Sunny days are beautiful and plentiful in Colorado, which is why I cherish those cool and cloudy moments when we can get them. Perfect hiking weather for a black dog.

clouds descend on the valley

happy dog

high runoff means parts of the trail were flooded

what is normally a lovely cascade is currently a torrent

June is the month of major upgrades here at urb. Oh wait, you thought I meant the blog? Ha! I’ll get around to editing that code in about 6 months. No, I’ve been making upgrades for my work (this blog is not my work, people). Upgrades like:

my second shooting body

and my desktop

There are more upgrades, but these are the biggest offenders. And by offenders I really mean these are my babies… my workhorses. So expect the next 3000 recipes to be some variation on how to eat dirt.

I’m kidding.

I have a really fabulous recipe for you today. It’s fabulous because I have been obsessing over it for a few years now. I’ve been obsessing over passion fruit which is prohibitively expensive here in Colorado. I was on a mission to find them in order to flavor buttercreams for passion fruit macarons. I started with a passion fruit syrup/nectar/concentrate from an Asian grocer in California’s bay area. It was decent. Then last year I received a package of goodies from my dear friends, Todd and Diane.

remember these beauties?

the passion fruits were more precious than gold

I scooped the guts of the passion fruits into a little container and popped it into the freezer. On my most recent trip to California, Jeremy and I were returning from Yosemite to the bay area when I sent my pal Lisa a text asking where she found the passion fruit concentrate for her passion fruit macarons (I had one of those macs, by the way, and they were out of this world). Whenever you ask Lisa for information, you are going to get ALL of it. That’s one of the reasons I love her. We’re both just a little OCD. Just a little.

i managed to snag the last container (and i defrosted the pulp i had in the freezer)

**Jump for more butter**