use real butter

Recipe: pad see ew

Thank you to everyone who left a comment and entered the CHEFS swag bag giveaway! It seems that the most popular summer snacks were watermelon, fresh tomatoes from the garden (omg, I’m so jealous of you people!), fresh seasonal berries, cherries, and ice cream. I’m all over the seasonal fruits and the homegrown tomatoes straight up!

Several of you have either commented or emailed asking about the next workshop. At this point, things are wide open and I haven’t had a chance to mull over which direction to take the workshop. Of course, if there is another Food and Light workshop, you’ll hear about it on urb. Thanks for your interest!

So let’s get to the winner of the giveaway… Believe it or not, Miss Kaweah’s metabolism is slowing down and the whole “pick a number/eat the treat” method has been phased out. Instead, we have opted for the “pick a toy that corresponds to a number”. It is decidedly and supremely random. When Kaweah picked a digit, we would insert a new toy to replace that digit for the next round (we’ve had issues with her returning to the same toy, so this is more fair).

first digit: 6 (the kong)

second digit: 3 (stick tiger courtesy of manisha)

third digit: 3 (giant hedgehog!!!!)

whew, that is hard work

The number is 633 mod 544 which gives us 89. SheilaM is our winner! Congratulations!! I’ll contact you shortly for your mailing address. Big thanks to CHEFS catalog for being such a wonderful and generous sponsor. Another thank you to all of you for entering!

Our yard is dotted with all manner of colors: reds, purples, blues, whites, yellows, oranges, different yellow, a greenish yellow, more whites, pinks… That’s pretty impressive considering how we do NOTHING to maintain our yard (then again, I wouldn’t recommend playing lawn darts in our yard). The afternoon thunderstorm cycle is revved up and the wildflowers beckon. When it is February and our deck is under three feet of snow, this is what I think of when my thoughts turn to summer.

kaweah inspects a handful of our wildflowers

Because it is so brief, timing is everything and I’m heading out into that there yonder. There is work to be done. Hopefully this recipe will tide you over until the next one – whenever that will be. It’s a noodle dish because I am a noodle grrl. It does require the use of heat, but I think you’ll find the brief blast of BTUs worth it. Totally. Worth. It. [Feel free to insert ZOMGs and noms as you see fit.]

chinese broccoli (gai-lan), wide rice noodles, pork, garlic

get saucy: fish sauce, thick soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar

I met with joyous success when I made Pim’s pad thai last year (oh wow, posted a year ago to the day). That was after years of crappy versions that just… sucked. It’s been a full year of pad thai bliss. A few months ago, I had a reader ask me if I knew how to make pad see ew. What’s that? I am the most pathetic kind of Thai food junkie. I love it and I have no idea what it is called. Some searching on the interwebs led me to a handful of trusted food bloggers and ultimately to Pim.

peeling the chinese broccoli stems

slicing pork

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: thai cucumber salad

The longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is coated in yellow over here. Every morning for the past couple of days and for the next two weeks, we will wake to a light dusting of pine pollen around our house. My morning ritual includes claritin, a nasal steroid spray, and allergy eye drops. So far so good.

But as most of you know, I straddle two seasons at any given time because Boulder is always warmer (nay, hotter!). So last week when I attended and photographed the grand opening for my friend’s awesome new restaurant Pica’s Boulder (5360 Arapahoe), it was hot. Not only was it hot, but the mosquitoes found me and loved my ankles to itty bitty bits, or bites. However, the hanger steak tacos were so absolutely worth it. Bite for bite, you know.

chef andy, chef trent

skewered amazing tantalizing shrimp

“you want some fire?”

temptation

Pica’s Boulder is open, kids. Head on down there to try their fabulous food, support a local business, and perhaps catch some World Cup action on the television. Authentic Mexican food has finally arrived in Boulder. Let’s show Pica’s some love.

And speaking of love… my world is blooming at last. Colorado’s high country will light up with colorful waves of wildflowers washing higher into the mountains as summer wears on. We like it. We like it very much.

the aspen leaves are getting bigger

snowfields give way to green alpine plants

alpine lakes paint their own watercolors

wild strawberry blossoms

western wallflower

Hot weather and the upcoming Food and Light workshop mean I need cooking to be simple, fast, and of low thermal consumption. I am a fool for pickles and I am especially so for Asian pickled vegetables.

rice wine vinegar, sugar, and salt

rough peeling cucumbers

I used to frequent Min’s Kitchen during my Southern California days. It is popular with the NASA JPL lunch crowd and the owner is a darling little woman who always greeted me and my friend, Squid (that’s not her real name – it’s a term of endearment), with such warmth. Once we sat down, they always brought a small dish with a pickled cucumber salad. Pickles always come in small dishes. Why is that? I could eat pickles until my stomach aches (and I have).

scrape out the insides

slice thin

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: grilled salmon panang

You will never find me lying in the sun on a beach unless I’ve died there or aliens have replaced me with a fake Jen Yu… in which case I have a predetermined question that Jeremy must ask to see if it’s really me. Aside from not liking the sand (it gets EVERYWHERE) and the humidity, I am not a big fan of the sun. I spent most of my childhood summers roasting on a boat on the water. I got enough sun to last me three lifetimes.

I recently met with some gal pals for lunch out on the patio of Pizzeria Basta. We started in the shade and as lunch wore on, the sun crept across our tables. We shifted the tables back into the shade when Beth said she’d be happy to switch seats with anyone as she liked the sun. And suddenly I looked around at my friends and envisioned them with a weatherman’s sun or a weatherman’s cloud over their head.

pizzeria basta is located in a mixed development

beth and marianne ordered a lovely salad

drea and i split the cart-driver pizza (with salami b/c they were out of sausage)

When I have lived on the East Coast, the sun was just sort of there (and in Ithaca, it was sort of not really there). It rose, it set – whatever. Living in the west, the sun dictates a lot of what we do. In summer, we make plans around the sun. Hikes start at 5 am or earlier – we run or ride in the mornings or a few hours before sundown. We all hide in the coolest parts of the house at midday.

even on the cloudy days, kaweah tries to soak up every bit of sun

but i was quite delighted to get some rain

A lot of effort goes into avoiding the heat and that includes heat from the kitchen. I swore to myself that I would focus on quick and simple recipes this summer and I think it has put me in a happier mood. Let’s do cool, fresh, quick, easy! Sounds good, right? By the time our evenings start to dip back below freezing in September, I will be ready for those beloved stews and soups and slow-roasted nommy noms. For now, I love me some grilled food. Meat + Fire = Good.

gorgeous wild caught salmon

fish sauce, coconut milk, panang curry paste, paprika, sugar

**Jump for more butter**