use real butter

Recipe: chive dumplings

daring cooks – you got the onions chinese chives?

This month I’m not just a Daring Cook, but I’m the host of the Daring Cooks June challenge! First, let me pay homage to our most revered founders: Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, because we love them and they make the world a better place. I chose a recipe that was versatile enough for all manner of Daring Cooks: Chinese dumplings and potstickers. The recipe I gave for the challenge is a family recipe that I’ve blogged before. However, I wanted to push myself beyond the familiar and attempt a gluten-free version.

[EDIT] So there have been a few folks making noise about wheat starch and how it is not gluten free. Sources give conflicting conclusions on whether or not wheat starch is safe for consumption if you are celiac. So let’s be clear here – you need to make your own decision and you need to be responsible for that decision. If you think there is ANY risk, then you probably shouldn’t use it unless you enjoy playing with fire. If you aren’t affected by gluten, then you can probably safely consume wheat starch. This is a traditional recipe, it was not developed as a gluten free version – it is a type of dumpling that people make in Chinese cuisine. [END EDIT]

use wheat starch (not wheat flour!)

chinese chives (garlic chives)

If you’ve ever had dim sum, you have probably feasted upon many different kinds of dumplings. My favorite to order when I’m in a good dim sum joint is the chive dumpling. While I was looking up a gluten-free version of the Chinese potsticker for our alternative Daring Cooks, I ran across several recipes for chive dumplings and knew I had to try these at home.

chop the chives

sauté

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: rose green tea-infused panna cotta with passion syrup

**There are still a couple of days left to enter the $100 giftcard giveaway. If you somehow haven’t entered yet, then get on it!**

I’m tickled, really. My nose has been feeling ticklish for the past couple of days and so I know pine pollen season is here for the next few weeks. I love Nature and apparently she is loving me right back. So beautiful and yet so sniffly…

larkspur bask in the sunshine

chickweed is going gangbusters

green season underway at last

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chocolate espresso pecan pie

My passport expired last year. I didn’t rush out to renew it because I wasn’t going anywhere, I had no hair for several months, and didn’t want security trouble because of a bald photo ID when I would later have hair. Even when my passport is renewed (with new curly head of hair – thanks, chemo) I’m pretty content to stay put this summer. Our summers are brief in the mountains, but they are oh so amazing. Places with long drawn out summers are absolutely miserable to me: 1) too hot 2) too much sun 3) humid (that is the worst) 4) buggy 5) too many people. Jeremy and I looked at one another this weekend, bikes paused as we overlooked the expanse of green pine forests draped on the flanks of giant snow-capped mountains and asked, “Why on Earth would we want to leave THIS?” As we rode our bikes down a dirt road back toward home, we passed a gentleman walking his dog. He waved hello and shouted, “Another beautiful day in paradise!” That is where we live. Paradise.

melting out slowly

a very happy place

Summer looms on the horizon and I am relishing having my health back this year. There are still various issues to deal with, but they are minor compared to last year’s medical clusterfuck. We’re trail running, hiking, biking, and living what my pal, Cindy calls, “other people’s vacations”. While some can’t stand to stay put, we are more than happy to have the opportunity to explore more of our backyard, our home. Some people get that. Others don’t.

she gets it

**Jump for more butter**