use real butter

Recipe: porcini pizza

I’m back in Colorado. That was a quick less-than-48-hour trip in which we managed to get not a whole lot of sleep. But the reason we got so little sleep was because there is always plenty to cram into a day when we’re in California. I mean, not only are there just too many fun things to do (and great food to sample), but there are always some very wonderful friends to see. Our second day went like this:

visiting a little bakery in napa

enjoying the art while eating a strawberry croissant

pretty glass at a tasting room

client meeting and engagement shoot

a late dinner with elise and guy

Jeremy and I returned home Wednesday morning on a 6:20 am flight. Then we proceeded to gather our pup from Camp Crazy, give her a suds session, and prepare our place for house guests arriving that evening. You may know Chuck as the Chief Gawker (he runs foodgawker among many other sites), but I first became friends with him and Hungry Bear years ago when they blogged at Sunday Nite Dinner. They visited for less than 24 hours, but I managed to show them a little bit of my Colorado.

picking up our kaweah girl

chuck and hungry bear hiked up to a lovely alpine lake with me

appetizers at the kitchen (quintessential boulder)

he is still a food blogger at heart

Did I mention the freshman and their parents are in Boulder this week? Well, they so totally are. It takes twice as long to get anywhere in town right now. I had a lot to do between saying good-bye to Chuck and Hungry Bear and meeting up with my parents to celebrate my mom’s birthday. I suppose the upside to this is that dodging all of these out-of-town drivers helped raise my heart rate and keep me awake.

picked up some lilies for mom

of course, my folks decided on frasca

beautiful cured salmon starters

jeremy’s primi (rigatoni with tender veal cheek)

During dinner, one of the servers recognized me from a delivery I had made the previous week to Frasca. I promised Mr. Bobby Stuckey some fresh porcinis if I ever found enough nice bouchons to bring to him. Well, I did and so I was good for my word. I had handed the bag to this young woman and asked that she send it along to Bobby as he was busy in the kitchen and I was in a rush for a meeting. She told me that he gave it to the kitchen and they made him a nice dinner from the mushrooms. “He was very happy,” she smiled. So glad to hear it. I had my own bag of fresh porcinis at home to polish off before heading out of town earlier this week. There was no way I was going to waste these babies. Jeremy and I decided to make some pizza.

there is no such thing as enough porcinis

keep it simple: garlic butter, salt, pepper, mozzarella, porcinis, pizza dough

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: fresh porcini mushroom pasta

Hey kids, it’s August. You know what that means, don’t you? It means we’re that much closer to winter. I admit that I’ve had moments lately when I lapse into memories of gliding through soft champagne snow. I’m excited. July is the hump for me and now we’re on our way to winter. That’s not to say that I’m done with summer. Truth is, I’ve been enjoying the hell out of summer.

cloud front overhead

mammata sunset

double whammy bloom: red cereus and night-blooming cereus!

a hungry marmot, mowing down the plants

jeremy identifies distant peaks we’ve climbed on south arapaho peak’s mountain dial

I’ve spent nearly every day outside in the mountains – hiking, trail running, and… foraging. Yes, I am a little obsessed with finding porcinis (boletus edulis). It’s not just the finding that I love, but feeling like I am really getting to know these mountains. I mostly nab a few to give to my friend and foraging mentor, Wendy, because I don’t want to deal with drying them as I have enough going on over here as it is. Oddly enough, she’s more than happy to take them off my hands, so we are in essence a match made in heaven!

lovely little porcinis for my friend

i saved a few for dinner

Wendy always asks me, “Are you sure you don’t want any? Just take some!” and I always said no, until one day I hauled enough that I could siphon off a few of the bouchons – the smaller, pristine (i.e. not wormy), champagne cork-shaped porcinis. They are the cutest things ever. Wendy was thrilled and called me a dork for even asking if it was okay. I was inspired to make a recipe she described on her Facebook page because it sounded so perfectly delectable.

fresh pasta, white wine, butter, cream, lemon, garlic, parsley, and porcinis

slice the porcinis

lovely, perfect

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: spinach cheese empanadas

A lot of our time seems to revolve around friends and food of late. I guess that’s no surprise, but it hops onto an accelerated pace in summer when the weather is nice and we don’t have to worry about insane winds scaring our dinner guests off or snow and ice closing the canyon. Game on! On Sunday, Trent (who owns Pica’s in Boulder), his family, and a mutual friend came up to escape the heat and enjoy some burgers. These aren’t just any burgers, but California roll burgers. Trent spends so much time feeding and taking care of others that I felt it was his turn to be spoiled – just a little bit.

that’s a tall burger

it cooled down nicely in time for ice cream, strawberry daifuku mochi, and french macarons on the deck

trent and his darling little girl

being silly

Ahhh, I love good eaters… good eaters who appreciate good food. Those are the best guests! They also make for great dinner companions. One of my all-time favorite dinner guests is Erin, who turns the big 3-0 (that’s 30) in a few days. Jeremy and I took her out Monday night to The Kitchen’s Community Night dinner for an early celebration. I mean, everyone knows the 30s totally rawk.

mushroom flatbread

brawn

our neighbors

birthday girl and jeremy

When we hosted the astrophysics retreat last week, I planned Argentine empanadas as part of the lunch menu one day. As two of the guests do not eat beef, I figured I could offer a vegetarian version. This spinach and cheese filling sounded pretty good, but I had no idea how popular it would be among the carnivores as well!

the filling: spinach, chile powder, garlic, ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, olive oil, butter

chiffonade

everything prepped

**Jump for more butter**