use real butter

Thanks for teaching me to sail when I was 9 years old.

Thanks for taking so long to explain math theorems to me that I got impatient asking you for help and learned the material myself.

dad as graduate student

Thanks for being the silliest one of us all.

Thanks for making me sit and watch all of those NOVA series with you so we could learn about science together.

Thanks for those 3am fishing trips in which we caught the BIG striped bass!

Thanks for teaching me not to take BS from anyone.

Thanks for bringing home those Mars Viking Lander photos from work for me to daydream about space exploration.

dad makes his specialty lion’s head meatballs

Thanks for cooking all of those special meals whenever I come home to visit.

Thanks for outfitting me with fly fishing gear when I moved to Colorado.

Thanks for being my moral support when that company didn’t have any ethics.

Thanks for raising me to stand on my own two feet.

thanks for being my dad

Recipe: cream cheese brownies

[A huge thank you to Fine Cooking for highlighting use real butter in their newsletter as one of their favorite food blogs. I find myself in truly stellar company. It’s no secret to my readers that Fine Cooking is my favorite cooking magazine and a source of inspiration for urb.]

The excitement never ends over here at urb headquarters, but first… some proof that I am keeping off the streets this summer:

we are back to sunny weather here – great for a ride

or a romp in the high country

the snow is melting fast

kaweah wanted to go for a swim in the icy water

and she did!

See all of that blue sky in the pictures? That’s right. Blue Colorado sky, bright green aspens, dark green pine forests, white snow, and in a few weeks – multitudes of brilliant and colorful wildflowers. This is the place to be and if you sign up for the Food and Light photography workshop, you’ll be here to enjoy Colorado, a fantastic group of fellow food photographers, and all of the great things our sponsors have lined up for us. Speaking of sponsors, I am *really* excited to have the following companies (many of them local) supporting our workshop: Pro Photo Rental, Atlas Purveyors, Culinary School of the Rockies, Izze, Savory Spice Shop Boulder, Chocolove, Stonyfield Farm, New West KnifeWorks, Earthy Delights, and Nations Photo Lab.



And before we dive into the recipe, I’m psyched to be a judge for the Threadcakes Contest which is now live through Monday, August 16, 2010.

What’s Threadcakes? I’m glad you asked! It’s a competition where entrants bake and decorate a cake based on a Threadless t-shirt design. Some of the designs are absolutely stunning – as are the cakes! Here are the rules and you can follow Threadcakes on Twitter @threadcakes. You should go to the Threadcakes website to see last year’s winners. I was totally impressed and I know some of my readers and blogging pals have the talent to bring the smackdown this year. Check it out!

Last week when the weather was decidedly cooler and rainier than it is now, I baked four batches of these brownies for friends, neighbors, visitors, and Jeremy. Ever forget about a recipe for a while and then rediscover it? I actually got this recipe from Jeremy. Okay, I got this recipe from Jeremy’s mom. Jeremy told me these are his grandmother’s cream cheese brownies and he *loves* them. I never knew his maternal grandmother as she had passed away before Jeremy and I met, but I hear many loving and hilarious stories about this wonderful woman.

cream cheese and butter

making the cream cheese batter

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: italian meatballs

It snows here in June. It snows, it rains, it thunders, it sun showers, it gets misty.

it’s gorgeous

and we love it

miss kaweah especially loves it

And people get married. It’s like a conspiracy, but June is the time. Take my friend, Kitt, for instance. She got married this weekend. It’s June. I rest my case.

lookin’ good!

the gals get ready

the flower girls share a laugh with kitt’s mom

vows

congratulations, you two!

Since it is wedding season, I could not think of a better time to tell you about the book my friend, Lorna Yee, has written. It would make a fabulous gift for any couples getting married.

the newlywed kitchen

The subtitle is Delicious Meals for Couples Cooking Together, but I’ll tell ya – Jeremy and I don’t really cook together. 17+ years and the formula is as follows: I cook and he does some prep and washes the dishes. I figured the book wasn’t really meant for us (and by us, I mean me), but I was willing to flip through and see what it had to offer. I sat down for what I thought would be fifteen minutes of perusing. It turned into an hour reading the delightful interviews with well-known food couples, including two of my favorite people on the planet, Shauna and Danny. And don’t let me forget the recipes. I have about two dozen pages dog-eared; they all look so fresh and good. But there was one recipe that I just had to try.

start with bread soaked in milk

let’s make meatballs: beef, pork, veal, egg

Italian grandmother meatballs. The recipe looked authentic (I checked it against this meatball recipe from my dear Susan), quick, and easy. Remember, I am a fan of quick and easy right now!

egg, garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, flat-leaf parsley

add the parmesan and mix

**Jump for more butter**