use real butter

Recipe: shrimp toast

I’m done processing my photos from Yosemite and I think the latter half of any shooting trip always suffers. By the end of a multi-day shoot, I’m less inclined to sit around trying to get the perfect shot and by the end of my photo processing (which proceeds chronologically) my threshold for photos to even bother processing goes way down.

foothill poppies and lupine

yosemite falls (upper and lower)

You can see selected photos from the trip on the photo blog: waterfalls, flowering trees, Yosemite valley shots, foothill wildflowers, and wildflowers within Yosemite. After Yosemite, we spent three days getting stuffed to the hilt on amazing Chinese food. I can’t keep doing that. Next time I see Grandma, we’ll have to make a deal that we only eat out once a day and nosh on fresh fruits and vegetables the rest of the time. After the third meal out, I feel as if I’m going to blow up from all the sodium intake. Of course, the menus never fail to entertain.

you can always find chinglish

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: fried shrimp wontons

I’ve been hearing/reading about the broiler weekend everyone has been having on the East coast. Something to be said for the ridge-trough-ridge systems that march through. Our mild and sunny days in the mountains this week gave way to a thick fog this morning followed by drizzle and then… snow. I know some of you will grimace at the mention of snow as we’re almost into May, but if I didn’t like snow, I’d be (even more of) an idiot to live here, don’t you think? I like my snow and drizzle and frizzle and grauple and hail and t-storms and rain and sun. I love the weather. Makes me feel alive. Okay wait, I am not a fan of the winds here. THAT I could easily do without and since our wind season is over, it’s time to sand and oil the patio furniture again!

I must plug a new site that Chuck [of SND, of foodgawker, of many talents] has recently launched. It’s beautiful! It’s craftgawker! Go check it out – nice craft porn.

Speaking of crafts… I had a little gathering of my betties for another stitch-n-bitch, but this time only one knitter. Everyone else – well, we all worked on different projects: bee keeping, drawing, beading, and sewing. Here’s what came of my distracted efforts (there was a visiting puppy running around that needed to be played with, you know):

bright and little

handy wallet

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: goat cheese croquettes

[We’ve got puppies, ski porn, movies, and food today. Does it get better than this?]

Do you ever find that time does strange things when you are really busy? I do. I like to pack things into each day and when I have several days or weeks like that lined up, time seems to slow down. Sort of the opposite of Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity. We left this past Thursday morning for Winter Park/Mary Jane and it feels like it was over a week ago. The whole region got a good bit of snow – something we desperately need for the health of our forests, wildlife, and our water supply. It doesn’t hurt the skiing either.

Jeremy and I spent all of our time in the glades (super soft powder), on the bumps, and in the bowls. Amazing. We usually head home after a day of tele, but this time we spent the evening with my friend who lives near Winter Park. He drives dog sleds. Actually, he doesn’t just drive dog sleds, he runs the business. We got to meet his sweet and beautiful wife, baby girl, and their 80+ gorgeous Huskies. I spent a little time with the sled pups in the morning before we hit the slopes on Friday.

mesmerizing eyes

majestic

**Jump for more butter**