use real butter

Recipe: pandan ice cream

[Today is the last day to get the early bird registration discount of $50 for the Food and Light food photography and styling workshop in Boulder, Colorado this summer. We are so looking forward to working with you!]

P is for party! In my case, a dosa party hosted by my favorite little blogger down the road, Manisha. She has ruined me, ruined me. I dare not set foot into an Indian restaurant lest I be disappointed that it’s not as good as Manisha’s cooking. [I’m sorry, I don’t have good photos of the dosas because I was too busy EATING them… Priorities, man.]

manisha tops the little papads (which i kept sneaking)

mango panna cotta with cardamom and pistachios

Did I mention that I love having friends who cook? It seems to be a problem that plagues many of my food blog friends who happen to be phenomenal cooks – none of their friends cook. Sure, people eat, but few people actually know and prepare their food at a fundamental level these days. I’m guessing this readership is in the minority when we consider our society of convenience and junk and corporate-mystery-crap-peddled-as-nourishment. But back to friends who cook… Just the other day I was having a pleasant catch-up with Lisa over breakfast and she bemoaned that all too familiar plight of the avid cook: no one invites you over for dinner. Foodies (I know some people hate that word – so call them food enthusiasts or whatever, I really don’t care) are always told “I can’t cook like you.” That’s not really the point. Both Lisa and I agreed that being invited over for take out pizza would be terrific because it’s about spending the time together, not going head to head to outdo or impress. At least, that’s not what my friendships are based on.

(from left to right) great cooks: kitt, manisha, birthday girl dana, and teri (not pictured: kathya)

I was lucky in grad school because I had two girlfriends who were great cooks and we took turns inviting each other (and partners) over for big bash meals – something to take your mind off the grind of research for an evening. I bond with people over food. My dad had a rule in our house: we all sat down to dinner together as a family and the television was turned OFF. And you know what? It was nice (except when the topic turned to SAT scores, college admissions, and why the heck I insisted on playing field hockey). It took a while, but after a couple of years in Colorado I have found a great gaggle of gal pals who love to cook and love to feed one another. We go to ethnic grocery stores together like fifth graders on a field trip. So it was a few weeks ago that Kathya and I were cruising around H-Mart in Denver.

p is also for pandan

defrosted

Truth be told, I didn’t know what pandan leaves were. I just knew that southeast Asian bloggers loved the stuff and made pretty green desserts with it. I held the bag in my hand… a mere two dollars or such. “What is it?” I asked Kathya. Her face melted into a big smile and she told me she loves the stuff and it’s a little nutty, a little floral. I put the packet in my cart thinking I would enlist the help of the interwebs later to figure out what to do with the leaves.

tie into a knot for ease of retrieval

milk, sugar, cream, and a pinch of salt

steep the leaves in the hot cream

Pandan is screwpine leaf and the flavor is nutty, floral, and a tad piny, if that makes sense. It’s subtle and lovely. I was always drawn to it because it’s green and I’m a sucker for green foods. What I learned was that the green color comes from pandan extract, which I didn’t have. So I chanced a visit to my local Asian grocer and found it. I picked up a bottle for myself and another for Kathya.

pandan extract

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: matcha tea slushie with boba

I am pleased as punch to finally announce Food and Light 2011! I’ve spent the past couple of months working through a lot of spaghetti to get to this point – where things really start happening. We have a phenomenal team of instructors ready to work with YOU for two days this August in stunning downtown Boulder, Colorado. The first day we’ll be at the Rembrandt Yard Art Gallery and the second day we’ll have The Kitchen Upstairs entirely to ourselves! But I must warn you, only sign up if you’re ready to learn and have fun – A LOT of fun.

***Register before March 1, 2011 with the discount code: earlybird11 and get $50 off the registration fee.***

summer is just around the corner

Summer really is just around the corner for a winter-loving girl like myself. I start to get antsy right about now because there are only TWO more months left of the official ski season. You know how quickly two months can fly past, don’t you? Like *snap*! But even when all but the highest peaks have melted out from their blanket of snow, I can still enjoy water in its solid state, but in a glass. Actually, I like iced drinks year-round. Some of us like iced drinks in winter just like some of us like hot tea in summer.

can’t decide if i love matcha for the brilliant green color or the lovely flavor

boba and matcha

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Recipe: milk tea boba

I did not expect the volume of comments and emails in response to my last post. At some point, I plan to sit down and reply to you when I can carve out a chunk of time and clear some space in my brain. I suppose that is the main issue – time… okay, time and priorities. All of the other gobbledygook just feeds into the priorities (which ultimately translate into time allocation). Hopefully changes, if any, will be implemented behind the red velvet curtain and relatively transparent to you. But thank you for your kind words of support and well wishes. It was not my intention to alarm anyone, just to vent some observations (frustrations?) that have been bugging me like floaters in my eye. I think it’s healthy to regularly assess where you are, where the heck you’re going, and why.

This past evening, like every evening, we let Kaweah out to do her business in our yard. And like every evening, we put her glow collar on before letting her outside. Black dogs in the black of night who like to dawdle in the blackest of shadows scavenging for inedible things to eat get glow collars in this house. I did a few long exposures to see what manner of light trail Kaweah would create for giggles.

at first, she didn’t (jeremy’s figure(s) to the right)

but look what happens when you say “treat”

Kaweah reacts to the word “treat” the way Jeremy does to the word “coffee”. One of his favorite places for caffeinated beverages in Boulder is Atlas Purveyors. That’s pretty convenient as I tend to have meetings at Atlas and grab a latte to go for Jeremy if I’m going to pick him up from work. I like Atlas. I like the people who run Atlas. I like the people who work at Atlas. I like the patrons at Atlas. They were one of the sponsors of the Food and Light photography workshop we held last summer.

But I don’t drink coffee. Couldn’t tell you the difference between the worst coffee and the best coffee. The first time I stood at the counter trying to find something non-coffee to order, Chris – one of the owners and a really swell guy, rattled off all manner of teas that might interest me. I spied boba on the chalkboard. Oh, I love me my boba. A milk tea boba, please (also known as bubble tea). And I’ve been hooked ever since. Atlas is where I go to get my boba fix and Chris has been sneaking in bits of tea education to boot. I wanted to make my own milk tea boba, so I asked Chris if I could purchase some of that lovely black tea.

black tea from atlas purveyors

5-minute boba

**Jump for more butter**