use real butter

Recipe: banana peanut butter pupsicles

We’re back home in Nederland and it’s been ass hot here on the Front Range. Not only has it been ass hot, but pine pollen season is in full swing. We haven’t had any rain to wash away the pollen such that when the winds blow, giant clouds of thick yellow blegh go swirling into the air for miles. So of course the windows stay closed during the day and the house just gets plain old angry hot (or perhaps that’s me?).

i bet this fox was running for the nearest stream to cool off

Kaweah’s susceptibility to the heat has increased with her old age. After seeing how much she enjoyed the scoop dog frozen treat in Crested Butte, I decided to make some at home for her. I didn’t want to make it dairy-based as we try to keep her dairy intake to a minimum because it gives her gas. So I went with my favorite non-dairy ice cream recipe: single ingredient ice cream. The ice cream base is made entirely of bananas, which she loves, and I added some other goodies to sweeten the deal for her.

ripe bananas, peanut butter, bacon, carrot

slice the bananas

place them in a vessel and freeze them

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: strawberry frozen yogurt

Another week, another snow storm. There was a December a couple of years ago when we had snow storms hit every Friday for the entire month (which was awesome). Except this is now May. Better late than never, I say. And it’s still very awesome! In true Colorado fashion, the big dump snow day always has a sunshiny chaser.

wednesday afternoon

dark-eyed gray-headed juncos clowning around (sequence: 6 photos)

thursday morning in all her glory

I love snow as much as the next gal (okay, more), but let’s be realistic here… come August, I will be whimpering and wilting under the summer sun. I don’t do well with the heat despite having grown up in the wet, hot blanket of southern summers. It’s not even all that hot here in the mountains, but I still shrink from the sun for the fifteen hours of the day it is up in the sky. One of the best ways for me to cope with the heat is to drink a lot of ice water. That can get a little dull after a while, so I like to mix up my cool downs with fruity frozen treats. Ice cream is the obvious choice, but it upsets my stomach. Frozen yogurt, however, doesn’t bother me.

strawberry fro yo: strawberry vodka, sugar, yogurt, lemon, strawberries

You don’t have to use vodka in the recipe at all, but I like to include it otherwise my frozen yogurts and sorbets becomes giant blocks of fruity ice. I use strawberry vodka because I happen to have some in my freezer, but regular vodka works just as well. My initial intention was to use Greek yogurt, but as I approached the yogurt section of the store I saw Noosa, which is my favorite yogurt (made in Colorado!). Noosa doesn’t make a plain yogurt, so I chose the next closest thing which is the honey yogurt. Since it is already sweetened, I reduced the sugar added in the frozen yogurt recipe.

slice the strawberries

add the sugar

and the vodka (if using)

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: key lime pie ice cream

It’s snowing outside the house right now! In fact, there are a few storm tracks marching through to see the month of February out. I’ve been busting ass to get work done these past several non-snowy days so I can be ready if Ullr should bless our mountains with the pow pow. The weather dictates my work schedule (well, the weather and paying clients). Kaweah has been by my side the whole time. If I’m in the kitchen, she is a low and furry center island in the middle of the kitchen. If I’m shooting in the studio, she’s under the table, nearby, or walking in and out of the room onto the deck. If I’m in the office, she likes to curl up on a stack of her three dog beds. Don’t ask how we figured that one out.

she loves it

Tuesday morning, we spent a little time cuddling with Kaweah on our bed. She likes to be squashed between the two of us and lately we’ve been exchanging a few minutes of extra sleep for a few minutes of QT with the pup before we start our day. It was that Tuesday morning when we realized that she is going deaf. We did a lot of tests like calling “treat!” from around the corner only to have her come when it reached a certain volume. I had a good cry over that, but Kaweah has been spunky, happy, affectionate, and sweet. It doesn’t seem to faze her at all and her vision and especially her sense of smell are excellent. Most of our voice commands have been accompanied by hand signals, so the communication is fine as long as she can see us and as long as she feels like obeying.

pork adobado wet burrito at pica’s

So I had a business lunch meeting with Helliemae’s at Pica’s in Boulder earlier this week. There was a natural pause in the conversation after discussing business plans, business solutions, and flavors. My mind wandered to the next kitchen project I had in the queue. “You wanna know what I’m blogging next?” I asked Ellen. Her eyes got that Texan sparkle and the edges of her mouth curled up. “Yes,” she said leaning in, “tell me.” “Key lime pie ice cream.”

here’s what a bag of key limes looks like sans bag

Oh yes I did. I walked past the bagged Key limes in the grocery store a few weeks ago and all I could think about was key lime pie. Key lime pie. I’ve always made Key lime pie with regular limes – hence it was regular lime pie. When I finally got my grubby paws on Key limes, I didn’t feel like making a pie. I felt like making ice cream. Pie-ce cream?

key limes, sugar, eggs, salt, cream, milk, graham crackers

zest some limes

juice a dozen or so to get a half cup

mix the sugar, salt, juice, and zest together

**Jump for more butter**