use real butter

Recipe: churros

I guess there isn’t such a thing as being out of the office for me, since my office is wherever I am. So the office is currently in California. There’s nothing like a quick trip to California for some work and some…

if you insist

grapity grapes

french bistro for lunch (bistro jeanty)

rabbit loin and pappardelle (bistro jeanty)

a latte and a slice of tart au citron (bistro jeanty)

i swear hobbits live here

ah, the state of perpetual blooms

mochi with black truffle bacon marmalade and hazelnuts (morimoto)

uni carbonara (morimoto)

kiwi and coconut sorbets, kaffir lime soda, boba tea dessert (morimoto)

Now you know why I ran 10 miles the other day. And it seems that I should probably run another 10 today after all of that culinary indulgence. Okay, make it 20 since there is more culinary indulgence here – but it’s the kind you can make in your very own kitchen! And you don’t have to be some world-class chef to make it or pay world-class prices to enjoy it.

it’s time for churros: flour, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, butter, salt, chocolate, cream, grand marnier

make the cinnamon sugar

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: porcini mushroom tempura sushi handroll

To summarize my weekend: my feet hurt. But it’s the good kind of hurt! We hiked three fourteeners (it’s what Coloradoans do for fun – summit 14,000+ ft. mountains): Mounts Democrat, Cameron, and Lincoln. It started out well enough, but as the morning progressed the winds got crazy insane and wildfire smoke from I-don’t-know-where hung in the air like a bad smog day in Southern California.

hello pika, you’re so cute you are

first summit of the morning: mount democrat

third summit of the morning: mount lincoln

mounts cameron (far left) and democrat (left of center) in hazy conditions

On the way home from the trailhead, we swung by the store to get more green chiles for roasting. MOAR!!! It used to be that we relied on the kindness of my in-laws who live in Southern Colorado or my aunt who lives in New Mexico to grace us with a few bags of frozen roasted green chiles at the end of summer. But fresh Hatch green chiles began to arrive in our local markets a couple of years ago every August and I’ve been hoarding them ever since. The Boulder Whole Foods has in-house roasted chiles ready to go, but I rather like the idea of roasting my own. It’s fun and it smells like the end of summer. Those of you who know that smell of roasting green chiles – you know what I mean…

covet thy green chiles

roasting on the grill – our neighborhood smelled fantastic

the ever hopeful kaweah is just hanging out because she associates the grill with steak

On Sunday morning, the air seemed to finally be clearing of that nasty, smokey haze. So we went for a trail run. I am not a runner. I don’t really enjoy running. The longest run I’ve ever done is 10 miles and that was in graduate school because we were always looking to diversify our suffering. Trail runs are different. I don’t love them, but I do enjoy them. I managed just over 10 miles, which I haven’t done in twelve years! It seemed like a good end-of-summer thing to do for, you know… getting ready for ski season. This, this is why my feet hurt.

Something else that has come to an end for me is my porcini foraging for the year. I think there are still some out there, but I unwittingly booked up my schedule and that’s that. Last Thursday, Wendy and I set off in the dark at 5:30 am for our final day of foraging together this season (she will, no doubt, continue to scour the mountains until the end of August). In the car, we tossed ideas back and forth on different ways to enjoy fresh porcinis. I had a small bag of bouchons to finish up before leaving town, so I welcomed this brainstorm session.

let’s make sushi: anago sauce, sushi rice, avocado, masago (flying fish roe), porcinis, nori

mixing ice water and egg for tempura batter

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: the roadrunner (green chile and pepperoni) pizza

They’re here! Hatch green chiles from New Mexico have arrived in our markets and I snagged a huge bag just the other day. You can tell who knows what to do with them and who doesn’t. The people who know buy a lot. The people who don’t know look at the long green chiles with uncertainty and buy like… two. Of course, those of us buying one huge bag were in denial, because we’re just going to march right back and buy more. MORE GREEN CHILES. You can never have enough. As soon as we got home, Jeremy roasted them up on the grill and then we sweated them in a plastic bag and removed the charred skins.

a bowl full of chiles

You can see the process from fresh to roasted chiles from when we made green chile cheeseburgers. Most of the roasted chiles will be squirreled away in the freezer to use throughout the year when the precious chiles are not in season. But after roasting a batch, it is customary to eat some (or a lot) of the chiles. My favorite way to enjoy them is admittedly in chile rellenos. However, I didn’t feel like frying anything in the heat of the day, so we opted for grilling pizza.

stem and de-seed the chiles

dice them up

In New Mexico, they put green chiles on EVERYTHING. A pepperoni pizza with green chiles is called a Roadrunner. The roadrunner is the New Mexico state bird and they are funny creatures, known as the clowns of the desert. Jeremy recounted how they used to perch on the 6-foot high fence of his family’s yard and taunt their dogs by leaning forward as if they were going to fall in. It is only fitting that a great pizza would be named for this awesome bird.

pepperoni, diced green chiles, mozzarella, pizza dough, pizza sauce, salt, pepper

Now, if you do not have access to freshly roasted green chiles, you can use the canned variety. It won’t be as awesome, but it’s a start. I used the same dough as I make for The Woodward pizza because it is simply lovely and super easy. We like making thin crust pizzas at home, which means not being heavy handed with the toppings.

enough sauce to coat, but not douse the dough

**Jump for more butter**