use real butter

Recipe: tomato soup

It WAS cold outside. Today the weather is bounding back up to a balmy 24°F around here and that means wind – lots of wind. But before the winds came howling through, we had a couple of incredibly peaceful and calm days. It even snowed (thank goodness). It’s a morning ritual when snow has fallen to check the mountain stats at Eldora, our local ski hill. They reported almost a foot of new snow and a current temperature of -6°F. Normally I wouldn’t go near the mountain if they were below zero because our typical winds would make that a less than pleasant experience. But it was a completely calm morning and the sun was shining so… -6°F didn’t sound so bad!

glorious morning

so the black runs are still roped off

We had a solid first day of the season. I know it’s rather late, but if someone can find my snow… thanks. Eventually, the cold did get the better of us and it was time to head home. As my toes endured the painful thawing process in the car, my thoughts turned to some leftover soup I had waiting in the refrigerator. Last month I had posted about a grilled steak sandwich which I love to pair with a bowl of hot tomato soup. So many people asked about the tomato soup! In all honesty, I buy Pacific Natural Foods’ organic tomato soup. It’s one of the few that doesn’t have milk products and actually tastes good to me. But you people shamed me into making my own tomato soup because it seems ridiculous that I have never done it before.

dice an onion

and some garlic

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: vietnamese beef pho

NaBloWriMo day 14. I’m blogging daily and trying not to lose it.

Eat on $30 day 4. I’ll cover what we ate on day 4 tomorrow since the Daring Cooks challenge usually goes live at midnight. This posting date was set in stone millennia ago, but I made it (and we ate it) last week, so it isn’t part of the Eat on $30 challenge.

It’s my Dad’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Baba! I hope you have an awesome day. Love, JenJen.

Did you see the giveaway for 2 $25 Macy’s gift cards? Go! Go enter! Then come back because this recipe RAWKS!

daring cooks – we slice, we dice, we sizzle, baby!

It’s time for the Daring Cooks again after last month’s hiatus. Let’s pay proper homage to the ladies of the kitchen… the DARING KITCHEN, that is: lovable Lis of La Mia Cucina and irresistable Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice. Our hostess this month is one of my favorite chicas of the food blogging world, Jaden from Steamy Kitchen. I had the pleasure of meeting her in person last month at the BlogHer Food conference in San Francisco – such a sweetheart.

Here’s the official line: The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

The challenge for October was Vietnamese pho. Jaden gave us a lot of options to choose from, but I went straight for the long version of the Vietnamese beef pho recipe. I have been wanting to make beef pho for years and this was the kick in the patootie I needed. I only made a half recipe since we had to empty our fridge of perishables before starting the Eat on $30 challenge. The first step was to roast the ginger and onion in the oven. While that was roasting, I parboiled the beef bones ten minutes for the precious broth then drained them and cleared the pot of scum.

halved onion and ginger

beef bones

I’ve never made broth with this combination of spices before and I was so excited! The parboiled bones went into a fresh pot of water and were brought back to a boil. I placed the spices in a little mesh pouch and chucked those in with the ginger, onion, fish sauce, sugar, and salt.

spices

my favorite brand of fish sauce (oddly enough, three crabs)

into the pot the onion goes

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chinese cellophane noodle soup

NaBloWriMo day #10.

Before we get to Colorado pictures and the recipe…

You’re probably noticing a theme here with the Quaker Oats-Good Bite promo to fight hunger, my participation in Eat on $30 starting Sunday to raise hunger awareness, and now… Macy’s has launched a massive campaign called Come Together to Fight Hunger. Their goal is to raise awareness, raise money, and feed 10 million people suffering from hunger by involving the public in local events and matching individual donations dollar for dollar. The donations go to Feeding America.

There are three ways to be a part of this effort:

1) You can host a dinner party and request that instead of host(ess) gifts, your guests make a donation to Feeding America. Go to Macy’s Come Together page for more deets.

2) You can donate $1 directly at any Macy’s register. One dollar can feed dinner to SEVEN people.

3) You can shop for the cause at any Macy’s and get special in-store savings on October 17 (Saturday). A portion of the $5 in-store ticket sales will help Feeding America. [Why not all $5? I don't know - I encourage you to ask.]

Oddly enough, I went to the Macy’s in Boulder a few days before BlogHer Food 09 and picked up a hoochie mama leopard-spotted shirt (it’s not THAT hoochie mama, but it’s comfy and I can photograph people, dance, and hold a white Russian in my hand while wearing it) which you can see on Susan’s post. I figured my typical Patagonia attire in the sticks was not going to cut it in San Francisco. While purchasing the shirt, I also bought a $5 ticket for a special event in the store next Saturday, October 17. I hate shopping, but someone in the house (not I nor Kaweah) is in need of a wardrobe update and because part of the $5 ticket went to Feeding America, I figured it was a good thing. I had actually forgotten about the sale until Tami mentioned Macy’s Come Together campaign to me.

But there is one more minor detail.

********* GIVEAWAY *********

Because I’m spreading the word about this on urb, I have received TWO (2) $25 Macy’s gift cards to give away to two (2) of my readers! The rules are as follows: Tell me the name of your favorite food charity or the name of a local food bank or local organization that feeds the hungry (even if you don’t know of one, it’s easy to google). Leave one comment on this post before midnight (MST) Friday, October 16. If you leave multiple comments you will disqualify yourself from the drawing. I will select two winners using some scientifically approved random and ridiculous method – most likely involving The Dog. I know I have several international readers, but Macy’s does not ship internationally nor do they have stores outside of the US. However, the cards can be used by anyone. If you live outside of the US, you can still use the cards as long as your purchases are shipped to a US address (good time to get chummy with your stateside pals). Good luck!

Our deck was reading in the low teens this morning and there was an inch of fluffy, light, dry snow. Friends in Boulder were tweeting that they had 2-3 inches on the ground. UPSLOPE! Typically, our weather comes from the west, over the Continental Divide. It usually rides on a hellish wind too. But on the occasions when we have an upslope, the weather comes from the east and sometimes Boulder gets more snow than we do. Jeremy and I can always tell when it’s going to snow in Boulder – it’s when you can smell Greeley (to the northeast) on the air. What does Greeley smell like? Cow shit.

wanna go for a walk?

It was the perfect morning for a walk with Kaweah. There wasn’t any ice on the ground, just lovely, powdery snow. The sun hopped in and out from behind the clouds and snow continued to rain down in that friendly, gentle way that reminds you of the holidays. It’s only October and I am getting very excited about the holidays in no small part because of this glorious weather.

the aspens are done

ducks were swimming about in the distance

happiness is…

It is officially soup weather! I love soup of any kind, the hearty soups, the noodle soups, the puréed soups, the bean soups, the thin soups, the broths, the borderline soup-stews, the heady soups. They’re all great in this weather which will last up to and sometimes into May for us. My favorite soups are the ones that remind me of my mom’s cooking. My mom worked a full time job, raised two daughters, cleaned the house herself (kept it like a museum it was so spotless!), and cooked dinner every night after she got home from work. Mom made homemade chicken broth so that I still cringe when I taste canned chicken broth to this day (some chicken broths are better than others). When I met Jeremy, he was Mr. Picky Eater. Made me crazy. These days, his eyes light up when I tell him I’m making this soup for dinner. Progress.

making pork meatballs

boil them in water to cook (and save the broth!)

**Jump for more butter**