use real butter

Recipe: chocolate macarons

My overhauled website is up! The gallery is not up. That will probably have to wait until after Chinese New Year because I am a paranoid Good Chinese Daughter. If you happen to find errors or broken links, please let me know via email. I got tired of proof-reading it after several hours. Sometimes I think I should just shut up.

I looked across to the Continental Divide this morning when I let Kaweah out into the yard. Cooler weather is coming back. There is a formidable bank of dark, angry clouds sitting over the mountains, screaming past overhead. The winds are up. They sound and feel violent. I love weather.

Just yesterday I was skiing in a short-sleeve shirt and a thin, hard-shell jacket, gliding down the mountain with my ladies in the sunshine. It was 50°F. Too hot for goggles, I pulled out my sunnies. Felt like spring. But anytime is a good time to offer your friends a box of chocolate macarons. Nothing works up your appetite like a morning of tele, and these betties earned it.

Recipe: chocolate caramels

First off: that puppy is not mine. She belongs to my friend’s new beau. Her name is Sonora (I like dogs named after geological provinces or features) and she is 100% mutt.

Second: My shoulder and neck issues are more or less under control now, thanks! I gave up on the marathon coding sessions and now take breaks every couple of hours – which is great because I have resumed my 1-2 hours of cardio and that makes me uber happy. In addition, it is a great excuse to get back to some baking and cooking. Oh, and I ice my shoulder a couple of times a day and that reduces the inflammation. Heat always seems to aggravate the pain.

To the topic at hand: Fellow food bloggers have often wondered aloud (or on their posts) why they bother spending hours writing up entries if people don’t bother reading them? How do they know that some folks don’t read the entry? It’s pretty obvious from the content of certain comments. I am not all that concerned with whether or not people read my posts in their entirety or at all for that matter. It’s cool. I understand that some folks just like to browse the pictures (and if you’re a Daring Baker, who the hell has the time to read over 1000 entries describing the SAME recipe?) If someone wants to comment without having read the post, then that’s fine, although I might get a tad snarky in my reply if I’m running low on patience.

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: pistachio macarons

I seem to be taking a bit of a risk blogging tonight. We have crazy wind storms raging around us, shaking our house and flickering our lights. Actually, our power went out last night right after my post, so I was lucky to hit the Submit button when I did. We’ve had several power dips throughout the day already. That and my right shoulder is jacked up for whatever reason, so hanging out on the computer isn’t such a good idea (at least not for long).

The power dips didn’t matter too much today because I was making Chinese dumplings. It’s something we eat every New Year (both western and Chinese new years). I made both the pork and shrimp fillings and cooked them into potstickers and steamed dumplings.