use real butter

Recipe: korean barbecue pork lettuce wraps

Spring is just around the corner. In fact, I can see it from where I stand. The R-word is even in the forecast… RAIN. That kinda kills the snowpack, but then it is supposed to turn to snow. Whatever form of water falls from the sky, we have promised ourselves to enjoy this time – the end of winter. It’s been such a lovely season that we thought it fitting to say farewell to winter from Crested Butte.

mount whetstone

paradise divide and the slate river

blowing snow on mount emmons at sunset

The last time I was about to leave the Front Range for Crested Butte, I had a grocery date with Wendy at the new HMart in Westminster. It’s a Korean/Asian grocery store that is closer to me than its Aurora branch in southeast Denver. We wandered around checking out all of the products on offer, catching up on all manner of gossip and cooking and life stuff. As we passed into the meat department, a little Korean woman was grilling marinated pork samples. We each tried it and smiled at one another. Good stuff. The woman placed her hand on a stack of packaged marinated pork and said, “For sale!” Since I was leaving town soon, I declined. Walking toward the fish tanks, Wendy and I leaned into one another and whispered, “I could totally make that at home!” And so I eventually did.

pork shoulder, black pepper, sesame oil, soy sauce, pear, onion, green onions, garlic, ginger, sugar (not pictured: gochuchang)

chopping the pear

pear, onion, garlic, ginger

puréed

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: baby bok choy with miso ginger dressing

It’s been an exhausting few days while Jeremy was out of town. I’m running on fumes here, so this will be a quick post. I’ll just say there was a major poopocalypse Tuesday that was in essence: Kaweah pooped on wall-to-wall carpet, stepped firmly in poop, wandered all over wall-to-wall carpet and dog bed while I was in town running errands… yay. I spent four hours scrubbing pretty much everything and now I have a date with a rental steam cleaner this week.

Let’s look at some snow porn, because I really need it.

trail markers (blue diamonds) are normally 7 feet above ground, this was as high as my thigh

ripping ten fresh inches of powder

I know I’ve inundated you with heaps of indulgent posts lately, so I’m going to switch gears to something healthier and far easier to make. Sometimes I wonder if I love green vegetables in part because I love the color green. I’d like to think that the visual component plays a role in my enjoyment, but then how does one explain refritos? In any case, baby bok choy is mildly sweet and tender. I used to only find them at the Asian grocery store, but now you can find a few varieties in western grocery stores.

bok choy, miso, ginger, garlic, lime, rice vinegar, sesame oil, vegetable oil, sriracha, mirin (ignore the soy sauce)

cut the baby bok choy in half

beautiful cross-sections

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: miso-roasted cauliflower

Winter storms are marching across (or around) Colorado this week. We had a short 1-day window between storms to zip over to Crested Butte. There’s so much powder being dumped that it’s enough to make a girl’s head spin. So she might be forgiven for suggesting getting a handful of first tracks in the morning before packing everything up to drive 5+ hours. And now we’re about to celebrate our first Chinese New Year in the new place! I guess it isn’t so new anymore, but it still feels new. The important thing is that we all love it here, including Kaweah. Of course, she sleeps most of the time and it tugs at my heart that she can’t enjoy the high country, trails, town, or even the neighborhood with us the way she could just a few years ago.

old pups need lots of naps

i brought “fu” (luck) to hang upside down on our front door

Chinese New Year will be just a tad simpler in Crested Butte than normal, because the kitchen is smaller and the groceries around here aren’t so great for traditional Chinese cooking. I prepped several dishes in Nederland and will make the rest here on Thursday (Chinese New Year’s Eve) after we ski the powder. Yes, there is powder and a lot of it in the forecast for CB! We took a break from work on Wednesday afternoon to squeeze in a nordic ski and the snow was already falling. Getting outside is the very best medicine for me.

me, my sweetie, and large fluffy flakes!

along the slate river

I can tell that the Crested Butte kitchen is slowly coming up to snuff because the types of meals I prepare here are converging with the types of meals I prepare at home. We ate a lot of simple dishes when we first moved in – boiled things, grilled things, roasted things. We still do a lot of roasted vegetables because it’s a lovely way to enjoy Brussels sprouts, broccoli, butternut squash, asparagus, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and cauliflower. I have always loved cauliflower and all vegetables thanks in no small part to my mom’s great cooking. Most of the time she would stir-fry or braise the vegetables, but now I’ve added roasting to that list of favorite techniques. It concentrates the sweetness and flavor so nicely, and it’s pretty easy to do. Roasted cauliflower is a real winner of a dish, but the other day I thought to add miso to the mix… because how could it be bad?!

pretty purple and orange cauliflowers

so pretty

**Jump for more butter**