use real butter

Recipe: chocolate bag

Ahh! Finally, I can sit down after a whole day of cooking. In the morning, I baked. Starting from noon until now, I’ve been slicing, dicing, mincing, wincing… Chinese New Year’s Eve is tomorrow, yo. That means I must dedicate at least 24 hours of my time to chopping vegetables and tofu and all manner of Chinese ingredients for the big feast. I guess it’s to preserve my Chineseness since my Mandarin is in the shitter.

Okay, two points.

1) I know a lot of bloggers have this problem and it crops up from time to time for me too. While I was searching online today for a good wine recommendation to pair with Chinese hot pot, I found a PDF with recs from Simon Tam who I think is in Hong Kong. Great! I open the PDF and what greets me is a collage of MY PHOTOS from this post on Chinese hot pot. The fuck?! What is it with folks who ignore the copyright notice, don’t have the decency to ask permission (I usually say yes if you ask first), and then post my photos without giving credit? Jerkwad fuckheads. *Edit: Turns out it was Macau Closer – a glossy magazine – who stole my photos and not Simon (Simon is a nice fellow – he emailed me). That’s great – magazines stealing from bloggers. You assholes.*

2) In my about section, I have a few guidelines about interaction on this blog. The fifth one down states, don’t be rude or nasty. My litmus test is: if your comment was said to my face in my house and my reaction was to 1) haul off and punch you 2) give you the verbal smackdown or 3) kick you out of my house, then you probably violated the fifth guideline. You wanna be an asswipe? Get your own blog and be an asswipe there. That’s what I did.

Yesterday was a squirrel day. I covered a lot of ground in search of ingredients for our Chinese New Year’s celebration. It was a tad frantic at the H Mart in Denver because we were on time constraints and it’s a Korean market, so when I asked where x, y, and z might be, the little Korean employee smiled and then asked me to ask someone else. I say we, not in the sense of the royal we, but as in myself, Manisha, and Kitt. Oh yeah, that same little Korean employee flagged me down and asked me to help another customer… it turned out to be Manisha! Hi-larious. Yeah babe, I know where the dried shrimp are.

kitt was immediately drawn to the crazy gadgets

**Jump for more butter**

Things were not right with the world yesterday. It was too warm – like 60s in Boulder! And I got a flat tire in the canyon where there is no cell reception.

Just as I began to loosen the first lug nut, a nice gentleman in a huge truck came and changed my tire for me in ONE MINUTE. I tried to get his info so I could send him a bottle of wine or booze or a cake and he said, “M’am, I do this everyday, you don’t need to thank me.” Well, I did thank him verbally. I only noticed the AAA on his door as he pulled onto the road. Huh, I guess that makes sense since most people don’t carry pneumatic drills in their vehicles. But I might start to because I *love* it.

This morning… we have snow. Good. Good and Bad. Good, because I love snow and the local slopes were starting to show a little gardening (i.e. vegetation) on the black runs, which is uncool.

okay, okay… i feel better now

Bad? Well, bad, because Subie is at the service center in Boulder waiting for four new shiny tires and I have to go to Denver today… in Roo. Should be alright, me thinks, as long as the roads don’t get socked in (which I doubt they will).

Yup. So most things that were not right are now being set straight. Except for one.

Remember those chocolate macarons from yesterday? That post would not exist without the help of the one, the only Tartelette. She’s so popular, she was nominated in TWO categories for the Well Fed Network’s Best Food Blog awards. She is currently in second place in the Chef category. She is within striking distance! I am asking every damn one of you (damn in a good way, not the bad way – I’m cussing because I love you) to please get over there and vote your brains out for Tartelette before January 24, 8 pm EST. That’s tomorrow, kids!

I don’t know who Book the Cook is. Dude seems nice enough. But he is goin’ up against my girl and he has got *nothing* on Tartelette. He doesn’t have a French accent, probably doesn’t have her sexy legs, pics can’t hold a candle to hers, apparently doesn’t have a bad puppy who chews holes in the closet walls, and can we talk about artistry? Have you SEEN her blog? I mean, COME ON! Go – go now! Vote for Tartelette! Vote your ever lovin’ brains out for our girl!!! PLEASE!

I’m done shouting. Thank you.

Recipe: chocolate macarons

My overhauled website is up! The gallery is not up. That will probably have to wait until after Chinese New Year because I am a paranoid Good Chinese Daughter. If you happen to find errors or broken links, please let me know via email. I got tired of proof-reading it after several hours. Sometimes I think I should just shut up.

I looked across to the Continental Divide this morning when I let Kaweah out into the yard. Cooler weather is coming back. There is a formidable bank of dark, angry clouds sitting over the mountains, screaming past overhead. The winds are up. They sound and feel violent. I love weather.

Just yesterday I was skiing in a short-sleeve shirt and a thin, hard-shell jacket, gliding down the mountain with my ladies in the sunshine. It was 50°F. Too hot for goggles, I pulled out my sunnies. Felt like spring. But anytime is a good time to offer your friends a box of chocolate macarons. Nothing works up your appetite like a morning of tele, and these betties earned it.

i am in love with dutch-process cocoa

**Jump for more butter**