use real 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

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Recipe: campari mimosas

Winter can’t make up her mind. Sun? Snow? Both? The “both” is usually accompanied by insane winds. Around my ‘hood, you’ve got to keep your eye on the weather for that perfect combination of recent snow, light winds (under 35 mph is pretty good), and decent ski temperatures. What’s decent? My GP says she likes to ski in the 40s. Um… ice MELTS starting at 32°F on the Earth’s surface – pah! My perfect temperature for skiing is probably around 20°F, lower if it’s not windy.

lovely day = no ground blizzards

Our local hill has expanded their open terrain from the White Strip O’ Death (you know, when only one run is open and it’s mostly man-made snow) to three complete runs top to bottom. Every morning, I wake up and check the snow report on about… five mountains. When you have afternoon appointments, you have to forgo those 8 inches of freshies at Vail two hours away in favor of 3 inches of freshies just ten minutes away. It’s the adult thing to do.

jeremy skis a line that connects all of the untouched powder patches

and we ran into my friend, james (nice pants, man)

By the time we left, the powder was pretty much skied up. Our work there was done. Not a bad start to the morning. I certainly can’t complain. It’s good to unplug and often! But there’s always work to be done back at the office…

officemate with her assistant (that’s mr. hedgehog, to you)

If you will recall the tea I hosted a few weeks ago, we served mimosas to our guests in addition to tea. When I consulted with Manisha on the mimosas, she sent me to a recipe for Campari mimosas. Sure, why not? I could buy some Campari and champagne.

simple is good: campari, prosecco, oranges

getting a nice strip of orange peel

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