use real butter

Recipe: not so special roll

When Jeremy and I moved in together after I graduated from college, I cooked a lot… but I didn’t cook. There wasn’t much need to because we lived within spitting distance of more authentic ethnic dining establishments than I could shake a stick at. We were spoiled rotten. And all of the ethnic grocery stores in LA made it just as easy to get some of the homestyle goodies to take home and heat up. Very nice.

sushi rice

special nori from japan, courtesy of joyce

**Jump for more butter**

I think NaBloWriMo is sucking the creative juices from my brain.

I usually plop down and crank out a post lickity split, but today… I’ve been writing and deleting and writing and deleting all afternoon. So I’m giving it one last go and that will be it.

During my recent funk I was having a heck of a time trying to muster up the excitement to cook or bake something and blog about it. You would think I could food blog in my sleep at this point. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, I just knew I felt dissatisfied. Once out of that downward spiral, I tried to figure out what the problem was.

I think it was the culmination of various physical ailments coupled with expenditure of all remaining energy on visitors and travel for an extended period of time. Basically, I was getting zero creative input. I wasn’t able to keep up with my favorite food blogs, read my cooking magazines, flip through cookbooks, brainstorm ideas. Oddly, Art Culinaire arrived right at the time things began to settle down for me. Like a spark, it reignited my inspiration.

**Jump for more butter**

Well, there weren’t any bears. Just Kitt. But there was porridge. There was beautiful, creamy, dreamy, rice pudding porridge. If Goldilocks had come across *this* porridge, Girlfriend would have been licking the bowls clean when The Bears came home.

mushy grains for brunch

I finally handed off the NaBloWriMo Traveling Masterpiece to Kitt this morning over brunch at Lucile’s in Boulder. I didn’t realize so many of the NaBloWriMos were in Colorado. Had a slight dilemma on my hands because I love savory food, but most of the savory items on the menu were drowned in Hollandaise, sausage gravy, or other artery-clogging goodness. I opted for the oatmeal, which was delightfully nutty, chewy, crunchy (you know, that chewy pop of good non-rolled oats), and fruity. I wanted to ask Kitt for a taste of her porridge, but cream/milk is mine enemy and it would have made for a horrible Rest of the Day as I had several errands to attend to in town.

**Jump for more butter**