use real butter

Recipe: coconut macaroons

It’s the Fourth of July holiday weekend for me and my fellow Americans, but we kicked off the celebration with pyrotechnics of sorts earlier this week!

need a light?

flowers bursting

ignite boulder 5

milling about before the show while live tweets come in

Ignite Boulder 5 was the fifth in a series of community events (founded by Andrew Hyde) featuring talks with a twist: each speaker has 5 minutes to deliver a presentation of 20 slides that advance every 15 seconds. Perfect for the minimal attention span population or for anyone in need of a good laugh. They should require this format at scientific conferences. My three favorite talks from the evening also taught me something new: Larkin Carey – Surviving Free Fall from 30,000 ft without a Parachute: A DIY for the unfortunate airline passenger, Bruce Wyman – Marine Mammal Biology, Garret Smith and John English – World War Corn.

And several good things have been landing on our doorstep of late including a package of dried organic rose buds from my dear Susan (thank you, hon) and a high-angle rescue harness for Kaweah. She didn’t mind the harness much at all and even wagged her tail several times as Jeremy took her for a test drive around the house.

smells like a garden

some folks have child carriers, we have a dog carrier

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: bakewell tart

Just under the wire! I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it this month, but luckily it turned out to be a relatively straightforward challenge. Whew!

the daring bakers knead to bake, damnit!

Here’s the official line: The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England. And of course, the unofficial line is that our founders, Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, are goddesses. I marvel at how those two women do it, but they do it – and they do it well. Thanks for the pastry love, ladies!

This dessert was not only straightforward (thank goodness, or someone would have been pitching a fit at 8500 feet) it was delightfully almondy and moist with bright hints of fruit. I’ll have to be quick here before I nod off and wake up with little keyboard marks on the side of my face…

grating cold butter into the flour for the crust

whisking egg yolks and almond extract together

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: matcha green tea passion fruit macarons

Snow. We have lots of it. You’d never know it from the bloody 80 degree weather down in Boulder today. There is a ton of snow in the backcountry still. It’s starting to get sloppy (i.e. posthole city), but the other day we caught it on a cold morning so the slopes were nice and frozen climbing up.

i accessorize like any other girl… just that i accessorize with crampons

On our way in, we encountered a couple with their dog while we put our crampons on. They were in no way prepared for the conditions. The gentleman asked if this was the way to Mount Audubon. Well yes, and no. There are some great cross country routes to Audubon from there and if that was the intended route, then yes it is. But those two… they were not going cross country. Based on the short conversation we had, I wouldn’t really trust them to find Audubon when the trails were free of snow let alone when they were under several feet of snow. So no, they were on the wrong trail (it actually helps to read the sign at the trailhead, but whatever). They told us they’d just head to Mitchell Lake instead. Okay! Have fun and be safe!

A little while later, we got sidetracked and passed a smaller unnamed lake. There they were, posing for pictures. That wasn’t Mitchell Lake, but I think they thought it was. No matter, as long as they keep from getting themselves killed. We made our way up to Blue Lake basin and well – Blue Lake was completely white and gorgeous. We should have brought the skis because it was fabulous corn snow on the way out.

jeremy traverses an icy slope

following a small backbone

**Jump for more butter**