use real butter

Recipe: feta artichoke sandwich

I’m going next door… to Utah. It’s just a quick trip for the Evo Conference taking place in Park City. I’ll be teaching a photography workshop with a panel of supah fine laydeez including the funniest one of all. Additionally, I’ll be shooting Todd and Diane in action during their photography workshop at the conference. I guarantee they will have some good beta to share – which is why it’s so awesome that they’re teaching Food and Light with me and Matt Wright in Boulder this summer! Solid.

utah back in 2005… hopefully it will be tens of degrees cooler this time

Our monsoon season is here. Every afternoon the clouds build like a furrowed brow on the sky. In the distance there is a low rumble and a breeze begins to pick its way through the aspen leaves. We typically get a few strikes of lightning out yonder, then closer. The boom of the thunder nears until that big flash overhead and a crack so loud you feel it in your bones. There is the rush of air from the updraft and then the rain – glorious rain for the parched ground – drenches everything. I love it.

zing! (that one was kinda close)

Up here in the mountains, afternoon thunderstorms in summer are the norm. The orographics make for some incredible weather. However, down on the flats, the topography or lack thereof creates some dramatic weather in its own right. As the storms clear off and head east from our house, I watch with longing as the thunderheads billow high and set up pretty light shows for my friends in Boulder and Denver. You know what else they have down in Boulder and Denver that I long for? Snarf’s. It’s a sandwich shop. My favorite sandwich shop in town. [Of course, if you're in Williamsburg, that would have to be the Cheese Shop which makes THE best sandwiches. EVER.] If sandwiches are my favorite class of food and Snarf’s is my favorite sandwich joint in Boulder, then that sort of says something about their sandwiches. But I don’t go to Boulder every day and well – you know where this is going…

bread, artichokes, feta

pickles, prosciutto, lettuce, tomato, pesto

I’m hooked on Snarf’s. I even say it the way Snarf says his name in Thundercats. Ever watch Thundercats? I was an 80s cartoon junkie. Anyway… these sandwiches are so good that I’m willing to wait the THIRTY minutes it takes for the staff to slap it together. Everyone is willing to wait the THIRTY minutes which is why there is a line out the door at lunchtime. After standing around for my second thirty minutes, watching the staff and marveling at how slow they could possibly be, I punched their number into my phone. Now I call (way) ahead. Problem solved. I usually get the pastrami and Swiss – hold the onions, please. Snarf’s size. Toasted with mayo, mustard, pickles, hot peppers. That’s because it took too long for my old iphone1 to load the menu so I could peruse my other choices. I go with what works. But my buddy Jason sings the praises of Snarf’s feta and artichoke sandwich. I happened to have both feta and artichoke at home the other day.

choppy choppy

pesto is the new mayo over here

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chinese dry-cooked string beans

It’s the last day of spring and there is a winter weather advisory issued for our mountains until 6:00 this evening.

I am not complaining.

3-8 inches of fresh snow in addition to the 30+ feet in the backcountry is our reprieve for the zero (0, nada, nil) days of skiing we managed in March when so much glorious powder fell at the big ski resorts. We were busy, we were traveling, I got sick… We’re still busy, but we’re not traveling (at least not in June) and thankfully, we aren’t sick!

yes, still skiing

the lower alpine lakes are thawing

Yesterday was Father’s Day. On Mother’s Day you expect every brunch joint to be packed out the door. On Father’s Day, we brace ourselves for the onslaught of families who want to take Dad to the mountains for a hike or to burn things (I really do not understand the obsession of people from the flats who come up to our mountains to burn stuff). But this year, the campgrounds remain under snow in late June. The trails are under snow. Even the parking lots have a few feet of snow lingering about where cars would normally be. I like it like that, for obvious reasons…

putting the skins away after the climb up

the anticipation of skiing out makes my mouth water

wooo! jeremy gets his turns in (in june!)

Also, this is my 1001st post. 1000 is a nice round number, but it was a special post for my dad, so I didn’t want to detract from it. 1001 is a palindrome, which I love more than round numbers – so there. The only significance of my 1001st post is that I clearly never shut up.

String beans (green beans) are in the markets and they’re looking pretty good. I’ve been wanting to make Chinese dry-cooked string beans for a while, but it always goes to the bottom of the list because Jeremy has a slight allergy to string beans. They make his throat itchy. That’s a real shame because my mom cooks them up better than any one or any restaurant I know of. Oh well… more for me.

string beans

trimming the ends

I suppose the name “dry-cooked” refers to the fact that there isn’t much liquid used in the recipe. I found that a little confusing considering that the beans are essentially fried in oil – a lot of oil. But you don’t consume all of that oil, thank goodness. Aside from the beans, the other main ingredients are ground pork (this is optional), dried shrimp, and Sichuan preserved mustard green tsa tsai. The dried shrimp and preserved mustard greens you’ll most likely have to get at an Asian grocery store.

dried shrimp and sichuan preserved vegetable

cut the beans into 3-inch pieces (i just cut them in half)

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: calabrese sandwich

Weekend comes. Weekend goes.

Even though we have plenty of snow in the backcountry, it’s really started greening up around here in the last week. I can’t tell if summer is our shortest season or if it only seems like it because that is the time when you want to do everything. Okay, that is the time *I* want to do everything as the sun tracks high overhead. Hard to believe that in three short months, the newly minted aspen leaves in our mountains will be turning gold. In the meantime, summer is on the menu.

In my last post, I wrote about these wonderful pink pickled red onions I had made and sort of fell in love with. Even if you aren’t an onion fan, I suggest giving these pickles a chance. Awesome sauce.

remember these?

Pickles go great in all manner of foods. My very favorite class of food has got to be the sandwich. I have a sandwich addiction. Pickles and sandwiches are like best friends. They so totally belong together. After making the pickled onions, I knew exactly which sandwich I wanted to make.

thinly sliced calabrese

ciabatta rolls, calabrese, mozzarella, tomatoes, pickled onions, pesto, mustard

**Jump for more butter**