use real butter

Recipe: asian chicken sandwich

I am totally feeling it. It was 72°F in Boulder on Friday and I had the sunroof open while driving around town to let the heat escape from my car. The hairs on the back of my neck were prickling because it was overly warm (for me). I found relief once I pulled into the driveway at home and stepped out into the refreshing 50°F air. I’m not going to fight it, but I will relish the remainder of the cooler season as much as I can. Still, all signs point to spring and it is indeed happening around here!

used a little of that rei dividend on some summer sandals with grippy tread

a budding pasque flower poking through the forest litter

catkins from (what i think is) a coyote willow

aspens fuzzing out with catkins

The plants around the mountains are not leafing out yet, which is a good thing because there are a few more winter storms coming our way. At this point, it isn’t even the skiing (but I’m totally going to ski the powder!), rather it is the moisture that we need. Yes, please… more water. In the meantime, our neighbor’s son had a birthday and we were party to his scavenger hunt around town for his birthday gift. They stored the kayak from our garage rafters for a month and this morning, our young friend came by to receive his final clue.

all parents should be so cool

Kayaks, catkins, sandals… I told Jeremy on the trail the other day that I was excited for summer despite the anticipation of a foot of snow coming our way this week. Even though summer is hot and I don’t like the heat, all manner of good things go on in summer. I love waking before the sun and walking the mountain trails in that cool air… smelling flowers and streams and dirt and trees, hearing bird songs and the zippy zooming sounds of hummingbirds. And then there are the sandwiches which come into more regular rotation with our longer days. You can never get too much sandwich – especially this incredible Asian chicken sandwich which I have asked to marry me.

start with asian cabbage slaw: red and green cabbage, rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, carrot, green onions, ginger, lime, cilantro

shred the cabbage

colorful mix of vegetables

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: quick kimchi

Have you entered the giveaway yet? Win a 12 of hearts box of chocolate truffles from Robin Chocolates to give to a loved one or keep for yourself! Get on that before the end of the day, Thursday, February 7, 2013.

sweet sweet lovin’

The other day while finishing a shoot, I had the deck door open for Kaweah to wander in and out at her leisure (she really takes her time). As I was walking back to the work area, I noticed Kaweah was pointing intently at something on the ground below. I figured it was one of my neighbor’s feral dogs. Kaweah looked like she wanted to bark. I walked out and told her it was okay to bark, figuring it would get whichever dog out of our yard. She gave a great big bark – it’s really very cute how such a little dog can produce a big dog bark – and wagged her tail. I peered over the edge and saw…

the fantastic mr. fox

This is our neighborhood fox. I immediately felt bad for giving Kaweah permission to bark. The fox didn’t seem to care about her at all. Smart fox. Kaweah got all excited and growly, so I carried her inside the house and returned with my camera. This fox traipses through our yard regularly… daily. I hadn’t seen it in a while and I realized it wasn’t because the fox hadn’t been coming around, but that I’d been completely immersed in work. It reminded me to pay attention to the little things, to take a break and look up every now and again. So I asked Jeremy if he’d like to go on a lunch date the next day. It was lovely.

oysters and sparkling rosé at the kitchen

The whole reason for plowing through the work schedule is to have a few free days to prepare for Chinese New Year which is this Sunday. In my fledgling blogging days, I referenced a handful of Asian food blogs to expand my understanding of techniques and traditions, particularly for this important holiday. Some have since gone silent, but one of my favorite resources is thankfully still going strong. Jaden of Steamy Kitchen is a wealth of information and recipes. She documents her knowledge for the rest of us on the website, in newspapers, on television, at conferences, in person, and in books. I say BOOKS because the second one just came out!

lookin’ good

Jaden’s book, Steamy Kitchen’s Healthy Asian Favorites transforms popular Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, and Vietnamese dishes into simple, easy, quick, and healthy masterpieces. The collection is also punctuated with modern fusion recipes applying an Asian twist to western fare. The pages offer Jaden’s vibrant and tantalizing food photography as well as endearing snapshots of her family, friends, and life. Sprinkled throughout her stories are Jaden’s cheeky humor and delightful enthusiasm. It’s a personal cookbook. She is sharing herself with the reader while simultaneously making several cuisines entirely accessible to the average home cook.

Disclosure: I received a review copy from Jaden’s publisher, Ten Speed Press. I get to say what I want.

There were so many recipes to choose from, but I was ultimately drawn to the quick kimchi. I’m a bit of a kimchi fanatic, although I’ve never made it myself. Jaden’s quick kimchi was a good baby pool introduction for me before I dive into the deep end of traditional kimchi. Bonus: the quick kimchi doesn’t make people wonder what died in the refrigerator (I personally love that smell).

simple as: napa cabbage, salt, sugar, ginger, garlic, green onions, rice vinegar, sambal oelek (chili paste)

shred the cabbage by slicing it into thin strips with a sharp knife

salt the shredded cabbage

toss it together

You can pretty much make this in under a half hour. Salting the cabbage helps to draw the excess liquid out of the vegetable and that takes 15 minutes. While the cabbage gives up its water, you can prep the rest of the ingredients.

grated ginger, minced garlic, chopped green onions

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: hot giardiniera pickled peppers

Over the past several years, if I’m not out shooting the fall colors on my birthday, I’m out on recon for the fall colors on my birthday. Sometimes my birthday coincides with the first day of autumn and I’ve always loved that. I couldn’t wait for the heat to GO AWAY in southern Virginia. Luckily, I have more pleasant associations with it now: fall colors, cooler weather, sometimes a freak early snow storm (yes please!). But I’m almost always working through my birthday and this year was no exception. Jeremy decided to drive 5.5 hours to Crested Butte this weekend to nominally celebrate my birthday, see the fall colors with me, and get a little mountain biking in. It was a lovely weekend and a most happy birthday.

birthday morning near red mountain pass (iphone)

working on building a respectable layer of dirt on the car (iphone)

Dinner is always a moving target and dictated by the whims of the weather. It just so happened that sunset was a bust on my birthday, releasing me a little earlier than usual. My thoughts turned to what was good to eat in town. In Crested Butte, there is a lot that is good, but my favorite restaurant is The Lobar for sushi. So we went there to celebrate with a low key, but fabulous dinner.

hamachi sashimi

dragon scales (spicy tuna wrapped in shiso leaves and tempura fried)

seared scallop slices with lime, cilantro, sriracha

With Jeremy’s return home on Monday, I’m pretty much back to my quick, affordable, and convenient meals of cold salads, sandwiches, and fruit. I come prepared with a cooler, nalgene bottles (for ice and water – especially when the motel rooms don’t have refrigerators), dishes and utensils for one, sponge and dishsoap, dishtowels… What I failed to bring was a jar of my pickled hot peppers, the stuff that makes sandwiches magically delicious.

celery, carrots, red bell peppers, jalapenos, serranos, olives, cauliflower

you’ll also need: white vinegar, pickling spices, sugar, and pickling salt

My obsession with pickled hot peppers has been in the making all my life, but the peppers that really pushed me over the edge were the hot giardiniera from Snarf’s. Snarf’s is my favorite sandwich shop in Boulder (they have several stores in the Denver metro area) and it’s in no small part due to those tantalizing peppers. I have been researching different recipes for the past couple of years, but didn’t start making them until this summer… because I learned how to can.

chop, chop, chop

spicy chop chop chop

The first recipe I tried was one that had the intention of imitating the Snarf’s hot giardiniera (I don’t know about you, but giardiniera always makes me think of the word giardia, which is unfortunate). I doubled the recipe in crazy anticipation of pickled hot pepper love. Step-wise it is easy. Most of what is involved is chopping the vegetables and brining them. And when you brine the vegetables, you essentially do nothing for 12-18 hours – right on!

make the brining liquid (salt and water)

add the vegetables to the brine

**Jump for more butter**