use real butter

Recipe: heirloom tomato and corn salad

It’s good to be back in Colorado. It’s good to be home. I had a lovely and exhausting working trip in Maine last week and will write that up for you shortly. I know some people think these trips are vacations, but 1) I never relax and 2) I never relax. You knew this, right? Right! Now that I no longer feel like everything around me is rocking back and forth, I’m trying to get back into the groove over here. Kaweah was super waggy to see me again, sniffing my bags and my pants to figure out where I’d been. It was nice to cuddle my pup, hug my guy, and sleep more than 5 hours (in my own bed!).

kaweah hanging out in the yard

the house got a new stain while i was away

It is now officially September, The Month of Awesome. Awesome for so so so many reasons that I can’t even list them all here. Awesome because we still get the last dribbles of summer splendor in the markets. Awesome because the light and the weather has changed subtly. Awesome because our leaves will turn at the end of the month. Awesome for the birthdays, and the crisp cool nights, and the smell of fireplace smoke on the air, the stillness, the arrival of my favoritest season ever: autumn, which sounds a lot like awesome. So yeah, there’s all of that and more. But I won’t shock you with apple cider and pumpkins just yet. We’re going to milk summer for all it is worth. I’m talking tomatoes.

heirloom tomatoes, corn, and basil

I hope you aren’t sick of tomatoes by now, because I am never ever ever sick of tomatoes… EVER. Aside from eating tomatoes straight up like you would an apple, another way I’ve been enjoying them this summer is in a non-lettuce salad. It takes no time to prepare and it is fabulous enough to serve to dinner guests. The corn could be optional, but I can’t resist those sweet ears as the season winds down. You could serve the corn raw, but I like to either give it a quick nuke in the microwave (30 seconds) or a blanch in boiling water.

cut the kernels off the cob

slice the tomatoes

Slice your tomatoes however you see fit – wedges, rounds, chunks – it’s ALL good. Personally, I’m a fan of the shape that can easily fit into your mouth. Then chuck them into a bowl or arrange them on a plate or platter, drizzle some balsamic vinegar, some olive oil, and sprinkle the corn on top.

arrange the tomatoes

drizzle olive oil

add the corn

**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: chinese tea eggs

If I go without enough sleep for several days in a row, I start to get a little stabby. But I have been pretty chipper despite my paltry sleep hours of late, because the days have been filled with The Crush of Awesome. Here’s a visual sampler:

our monsoons have begun!

we had my parents and close family friends up for dinner

enjoying the evening on the deck

dramatic sunset clouds

fireweed and monkshood blooming in the mountains

hiking the rockies

cute little pika taking a peek at us

jeremy on the continental divide (aka “another great morning in paradise”)

a stroll around a local lake

kaweah still loves her walkie

My problem is that no matter what time I go to bed, I almost always wake up with the sun. That’s somewhat problematic considering it is summer. I also suffer from the general problem of being both a night-owl and an early bird which translates into cranky pants. All this to say – it’s gonna be a quick post… on Chinese tea eggs!

gather some eggs, ginger, green onion, soy sauce, star anise, chinese five spice, black tea

hard boil the eggs

Chinese tea eggs or marble eggs have a more delicate flavor than Chinese soy sauce eggs. I love both, but the tea eggs are just so pretty. Crack the shells after hard-boiling the eggs. You can do this by tapping the eggs on a counter or work surface, or by smacking the back of a spoon or the flat of a heavy knife on the shell. Then simmer them in the heady black tea mixture to create the beautiful eggshell pattern.

cover the eggs with cracks

place the eggs, spices, tea, and water in a saucepan

simmer for an hour

**Jump for more butter**