use real butter

Recipe: crème de cassis (black currant liqueur)

I have been waiting nearly a year to post this recipe. Why so long? It’s because I foraged a seasonal item and then spent a month macerating it such that when it was ready, no one anywhere was going to find it. So let’s rewind to early July of last year when I went foraging with my gal pals. I can get single-minded at times which can be a good and a bad thing. In this instance, my eyes were on black currants, because I had it in my head that I would make crème de cassis.

we found golden currants

and black currants

i love the fatties

Even though currants may be past the flowering stage now (they’re flowering in the mountains, but done on the plains), Wendy has a nice and informative little post on currants and how to identify them. These suckers are everywhere. Even my shooting partner has one in his yard, but the crows always eat the berries before I can get over there. Imagine my delight when I scored about 1.5 lbs. last year! [Pro tip: wear dark colored clothing when processing the currants.]

the loot

i plucked off all of the stems and non-berry bits

labor intensive

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Recipe: corn pudding

I was ever so slightly worried that upon our return from Crested Butte, I would be just a little less in love with our home (butter headquarters). I mean, after we were done getting the new place set up and rearranging furniture and learning how to operate and maintain various parts of the house (radiant floor heating FOR THE WIN!!!), we went walking, hiking, mountain biking – it was spectacular.

one of several amazing views

magical sunsets

and more magical sunsets

As I sat on the deck with Jeremy discussing the important items we needed to address this week, I swung my feet back and forth while looking up at the sky and mountains. “Oh man,” I mooned. Jeremy got a worried look on his face and asked what was wrong. “I just… I really love it here – our home. And I love the new place! I love Colorado so much!” I declared. He smiled and exhaled a sigh of relief. You can’t help but wonder if your mind and heart will always drift to the other place – to Crested Butte. It’s a paradise of paradises. But that didn’t happen and I know why… because my heart is always wherever Jeremy and Kaweah are.

happy faces

A couple of weeks ago, I had a hankering for barbecue. And when I say barbecue, that’s not just the chicken, or the ribs, or the brisket… it’s all of the fixins that go along with it. With all of the corn coming into the markets, I had a craving for corn pudding.

made with fresh corn

slice the kernels off carefully (use a sharp knife)

This lovely recipe comes from my trusty copy of The Border Cookbook and it happens to be gluten-free without trying to be gluten-free. I love when that happens even though I eat the hell out of gluten.

roasted green chiles, green onions, eggs, cornmeal, cheddar, corn, goat cheese, butter, buttermilk, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and baking soda

place 2 cups of the fresh corn in a food processor

make a coarse corn purée

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Recipe: french silk pie

I was packing a few last kitchen items Tuesday evening when I looked up to see a nice rosy glow on James Peak. It’s been a while since I’ve had the leisure to notice sunset because our time has been sucked up with a project of sorts.

sunset on james peak

Early Wednesday morning, we piled a bunch of stuff, ourselves, two mountain bikes, and the dog into two cars and headed west because we had an appointment at noon. Jeremy took Kaweah in the Outback (Subie) and I followed in the WRX (Roo). He told me later that she faced backwards for the first 30 minutes to see where I was before she settled down for the 4.5 hour drive.

the view from the gas station at copper mountain

road trippin’ through colorado

we closed on a great little place in crested butte!

i celebrated with a raspberry lime fizzy drink avec umbrella

This post is coming to you from the new Crested Butte branch of use real butter! Butter headquarters remains in Nederland (near Boulder), but I’ll be working periodically from the CB office too. We’re still unpacking stuff, but Kaweah really digs the new place and every window has a view of a towering snowy mountain (because we are surrounded by towering snow-capped mountains). So let’s celebrate with some pie – some French silk pie. It’s super smooth which might be why it has “silk” in the name, but if you’ve ever chomped on silk (which I have), it’s got NOTHING on this pie!

am i right?

Start with the crust. I made a chocolate cookie crumb crust. Actually, I originally crushed a bunch of organic chocolate graham cracker bunnies (Annie’s brand), but the color was too light for what I had in mind. Those crumbs went into a bag for later projects and I resorted to an organic Oreo cookie (Newman-O’s). You know the drill, split the cookies open and scrape off the cream filling, then introduce the chocolate cookies to the food processor.

for the crust: organic oreos, butter, sugar, vanilla extract

scrape away the cream filling

combine cookie crumbs, sugar, vanilla, and melted butter

press into a pie plate or baking pan and bake

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