use real butter

Recipe: chile-lime chicken tacos

I love a good day!

1) I like waking up early in the morning and getting heaps of things done. It makes me feel like my days are fuller… I guess they ARE fuller because I don’t go to sleep any earlier (that’s the vicious sleepless cycle of summer).

2) While I did my sit ups, Kaweah sat at my feet and licked my shins. Every time I laughed, she wagged her tail and stamped her front paws because she wanted to play.

3) I tried out a new recipe that rocked my socks.

4) My lens is under full warranty for major repairs. Yay!

5) I bought another camera. The circuit is now complete. Something something Dark Side…

6) Met with Dan of Savory Spice Shop in Boulder to discuss sponsorship of the Food and Light workshop. I picked up several beautiful herbs and spices to boot. And my girlfriend, who was passing by on the street, saw me and popped into the shop to pinch my bum! Wooooo!

7) Had dinner with my buddy Jason while he helped me get my new search tool installed on the blog, and then we went to a local blogger meetup.

at the meetup (jason was still working on the search tool)

8) I brought fresh baked cranberry oatmeal cookies (and chocolate oatmeal cookies) for Jason and my pals Manisha and Kath at the meetup.

actually, these garlic fries weren’t so good, but jason liked his mojito(s)

iphone whore

9) Ran into my friends Jo and Jeremy plus a fellow Ignite Boulder speaker Peter! Met several local bloggers including a darling woman Rose (Rosie?).

lovely manisha

rosalicious addresses the group

And those were just the highlights of the day! But wait, here’s another highlight: chile-lime chicken tacos. After downing an exquisite taco from a taqueria in California’s Central Valley, I began thinking about all manner of Mexican food that I hadn’t had in a while. It’s just not the same in Colorado, you know? At least not until my friend opens his new Mexican Taqueria in Boulder – but I’ll tell you more about that later!

fresh lime juice

trimmed chicken thigh meat and chile powder

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: falafel

It is absolutely lovely to be home again. The remaining few inches of snow on the ground melted away over the weekend. Sure, spring is late arriving, but the hummingbirds are here in force. I think it’s time for me to find some decals to slap on our windows for the next month or two. While I love hummingbirds, I really would prefer to not ever have to rescue another one again (that is to say, I hope they don’t crash into our windows). I’m staying put for a little while because we’re fast approaching Colorado’s season of mind-blowing splendor. And while we’re talking about Colorado summer, the Food and Light Photography Workshop is about 2/3 full now. So if you were planning to register, I suggest doing so soon. We have an amazing crew of attendees (some of whom were my fellow Daring Bakers) and everyone is VERY psyched for late June in Boulder – a truly glorious time of year to be here.

kaweah got a bath, a brushing, and then a walkie

moon and venus setting

I’ll be honest with you all. Before this trip, I thought I was losing it. You know it – my food blogging mojo. I couldn’t think of any new recipes I wanted to try. I felt completely uninspired. I always promised myself that when the blog became a burden, became something I didn’t enjoy, then I would stop (food) blogging. When I caught my flight to California, I wasn’t sure what the fate of use real butter would be. It did not occur to me that my shooting trip would jump start my enthusiasm for cooking – but that’s exactly what it did. Part of it was getting sick of dining out or eating cold camp food (we didn’t bring a stove) for two weeks. It makes one long for home-cooked meals if that’s what you are used to. The other part was seeing the beautiful fresh produce that California boasts and thinking of ways to serve them to friends on our deck this summer. Yes, I’m a winter girl, but I love all of the seasons and summer is definitely something to get excited about. I suppose sometimes it is good to just step back and take a moment to think.

oh deer

i get a kick out of these signs

bridalveil falls

When I made tzatziki last year, some of the comments asked if I had made the falafel in the final photograph and if I had a recipe. No, I didn’t have a recipe. I bought it at the store. That had been bothering me for the past several months. Why didn’t I make falafel at home? It’s so easy! Well, I really have to be a in mood to deep fry because it makes a mess and I just hate dealing with the oil afterward.

parsley, lemon, spices, chick peas, garlic, onion

chopped and ready for the grind

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chimichurri

Chimichurri. It’s one of those fun words to say. Chimichurri. If after five weeks in Argentina, you don’t encounter chimichurri then I’d say you probably weren’t in Argentina. I have certain associations with Argentina – most of them food: dulce de leche, alfajores, membrillo, empanadas, asados, and chimichurri to name a few. I know, I know – not all of these items are particular to Argentina. But I will tell you that I believe the locals when they say their food is better. Twelve years later and I *still* get cravings.

flat-leaf parsley and i have embarked on a new and beautiful relationship

garlic and i are old lovers

How is it that I never made my own chimichurri until now? I think part of that is fear – fear of messing it up or not being able to achieve that remarkable flavor. As some of you have probably observed, I hunt around for recipes for a long time and then I sit on them for months or years. Food is like love, you can’t force it!

chop by hand

minced garlic, minced parsley, dried oregano, red pepper flakes

**Jump for more butter**