use real butter

Even though Jeremy’s cold is nearing an end, the final symptoms are pretty miserable. His eyes are watering a lot today and the drainage from his sinuses is never-ending – add to that incessant sneezing. Of course, Jeremy has been a total sport about the whole thing, never complaining and even offering to drive me into town if I wanted to run errands. I told him to just stay put and rest up. And Miss Kaweah hasn’t been feeling all that hot either with a random episode in the yard this afternoon. My team is under the weather!

I am still waking at the crack of dawn each day. I think it must be the increase in daylight hours, I have real issues with sleeping while it is light out. At least I’m letting Jeremy sleep in while I get up and take care of stuff around the house. I had a lot of leftover shrimp filling for potstickers, so I resumed using it up today.

two pounds of filling will yield about 6 dozen potstickers

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We had invited some of our closest friends in Boulder/Ned to dinner this weekend, but had actually picked a bad weekend since some were out of town already, others were going fly fishing, some had visitors, and one was sick. That’s okay, because we’ll try to catch them for the big hoo-ha party later. And it meant more to me to schedule it for a weekend when I knew Beth and Nicole would be around… because they’re my best pals here and I love cooking for them.

appetizers
shrimp pot stickers
dinner
grilled marinated salmon with lemon and dill
green salad with dried cranberries, feta, candied pecans in balsamic vinaigrette
sweet corn cakes
sautéed asparagus and garlic
dessert
flan
fruit salad with lime syrup
truffle sampler

What a lovely feeling it is to prepare a meal in my own kitchen without that diss hanging over my head. It’s a subtle difference, but a happy one.

fresh and luscious berries

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Our third class in the pastry skills series involved enrobing truffles in tempered chocolate, making chocolate decorations, and working with lots and lots of tempered chocolate. Surprisingly, half of our class was missing tonight. I realize things can come up, but for the amount of money we pay for the course that is a hefty price for missing out on a class.

making parchment cones for piping

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