use real butter

Recipe: chocolate pistachio cake

Boy, I have been posting a lot of sweets lately. I try to mix things up, but I wanted to get this cake recipe up because it’s so pretty and a great dessert to serve for a holiday weekend. Tomorrow is the fourth of July – the quintessential summer holiday here in the States. My favorite part? The fireworks. I am a visual creature and nothing dazzles me like pretty colors and bright lights. I am drawn to lovely sparklies like Lite Brite (remember that toy?) and gummy bears and shooting stars and… fireworks! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

a mountain of dry ingredients

batter in the pan

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chocolate-dipped orange peel cookies

Cooler than most of you, anyway! We are nearly a week away from the summer solstice and it is snowing outside.

and this is why i live here

Perfect timing as I have a double batch of lentil soup simmering on the stove. All of the barbecue I’ve been making over the past few weeks has me craving non-terrestrial animal foods. I say non-terrestrial because I don’t think I could ever EVER tire of seafood, our lovely, tasty, wonderful aquatic pals… We hit another sushi bar yesterday, but I won’t post on that right now because I don’t want to freak my dear Graeme out with too much fish.

these are not fish: chopped candied orange peel

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chocolate raspberry cake

I live in a snowglobe! It’s snowing beautiful, white flakes outside right now and for once – for once it’s falling vertically instead of flying past on its way to Kansas. Lovely. Really lovely.

looking up valley this morning

Folks may be sick of seeing pictures of the weather around here, but for me, weather is an integral part of nature and I love it – love to read it, study it, feel it. Weather is beautiful to me. If you don’t understand and respect the weather, you really have no business climbing in the mountains.

**Jump for more butter**