use real butter

Recipe: miso salad dressing

Triage. I am in triage mode right now. But it’s all good. Except for the lens that is en route back to California right now – to the Nikon Service Center. Here’s some useful advice: don’t drop your 105mm macro from 3 feet above the ground unless you want your aperture blades to play like a kaleidoscope. Yup.

yosemite dogwoods

redwoods and ferns

Whenever I return from a shooting trip, I crave fresh and simple food. I think most folks who enjoy cooking can relate to that. What I really wanted was a salad with miso dressing – the kind you get at a sushi bar. During the shoot, my mind kept wandering back to the dressing. I definitely tasted vinegar. And it was slightly sweet. By the time I got home, I couldn’t wait to give it a try.

miso paste

mix with mayonnaise

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: falafel

It is absolutely lovely to be home again. The remaining few inches of snow on the ground melted away over the weekend. Sure, spring is late arriving, but the hummingbirds are here in force. I think it’s time for me to find some decals to slap on our windows for the next month or two. While I love hummingbirds, I really would prefer to not ever have to rescue another one again (that is to say, I hope they don’t crash into our windows). I’m staying put for a little while because we’re fast approaching Colorado’s season of mind-blowing splendor. And while we’re talking about Colorado summer, the Food and Light Photography Workshop is about 2/3 full now. So if you were planning to register, I suggest doing so soon. We have an amazing crew of attendees (some of whom were my fellow Daring Bakers) and everyone is VERY psyched for late June in Boulder – a truly glorious time of year to be here.

kaweah got a bath, a brushing, and then a walkie

moon and venus setting

I’ll be honest with you all. Before this trip, I thought I was losing it. You know it – my food blogging mojo. I couldn’t think of any new recipes I wanted to try. I felt completely uninspired. I always promised myself that when the blog became a burden, became something I didn’t enjoy, then I would stop (food) blogging. When I caught my flight to California, I wasn’t sure what the fate of use real butter would be. It did not occur to me that my shooting trip would jump start my enthusiasm for cooking – but that’s exactly what it did. Part of it was getting sick of dining out or eating cold camp food (we didn’t bring a stove) for two weeks. It makes one long for home-cooked meals if that’s what you are used to. The other part was seeing the beautiful fresh produce that California boasts and thinking of ways to serve them to friends on our deck this summer. Yes, I’m a winter girl, but I love all of the seasons and summer is definitely something to get excited about. I suppose sometimes it is good to just step back and take a moment to think.

oh deer

i get a kick out of these signs

bridalveil falls

When I made tzatziki last year, some of the comments asked if I had made the falafel in the final photograph and if I had a recipe. No, I didn’t have a recipe. I bought it at the store. That had been bothering me for the past several months. Why didn’t I make falafel at home? It’s so easy! Well, I really have to be a in mood to deep fry because it makes a mess and I just hate dealing with the oil afterward.

parsley, lemon, spices, chick peas, garlic, onion

chopped and ready for the grind

**Jump for more butter**

My friends back home reported several inches of snow that fell a few days ago in Colorado. I might have felt that I was missing out except we got snow in Yosemite early this week. It melted out quickly enough, but spring is a little behind schedule as the blooms in the valley aren’t nearly as far along as they were this time last year. Regardless, the dogwood blossoms are starting to peak, the waterfalls thunder as the high volume of runoff cascades in feathery sheets down the granite cliffs of Yosemite valley, and there are delights at every turn.

dogwoods dotting the forests

blooms

jeremy walking in the woods

pinks (these weren’t in the wild, but i can’t resist pink dogwoods)

morning mist along the banks of the merced river

some sort of berry flower (not salmonberry)

stellar’s jay

among the pines

new lupine in a burn zone

snacking streamside

The western foothills are starting to transition from green to gold. Driving west from the Sierra Nevada through California’s central valley we passed fruit stand after fruit stand. Each one entices with hand-painted signs boasting juicy, fresh-picked strawberries and cherries. We rejoiced in a taqueria that served solid Mexican food and partook of some wine tastings. It’s been a good trip, but I’m looking forward to getting home soon. See you on the flip side. Have a great weekend!

oaks in the foothills

perfect weather

the zin bin

roses adorn the rows of grape vines