use real butter

Recipe: pistachio ice cream

The groundhog has spoken, so to speak. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and according to lore, we shall have six more weeks of winter! Just six?! I’m calling it a reprieve because I have blown (literally, figuratively) the past week of potential skiing due to my cold. Six more weeks merely takes us into mid-March, and March is when we in the beautiful state of Colorado (at least the western half – I know, I’m a mountain snob) get some of the best big dump snowfalls. Where I live, winter can start as early as September and ends sometime in May. All of the other seasons get crammed into the remaining months.

a local cousin of phil’s: a marmot

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Recipe: french yule log

It’s that time again… time for another Daring Bakers Challenge! This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

daring bakers: we knead to bake!

I very much have a love-hate relationship with the Daring Bakers these days. I love learning new techniques and skills that I would otherwise never think to try on my own and there are some really fantastic bakers in the community who inspire me to keep coming back each month for more punishment. I’m almost always glad to have completed a challenge no matter how many disastrous steps along the way, I just don’t know how long I will continue to keep it up.

At first blush, I rolled my eyes when I read that our challenge was a yule log. We did that last December. However, after reading up on the difference between this month’s French yule log and its jellyroll cousin, I was game. It’s a more complex assembly and required some fast thinking when various components didn’t work out. I felt the instructions were overly simplified in many places and just plain vague in others. In the end, it came together nicely, but I won’t lie to you and say I didn’t do a fair bit of cussing along the way.

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: pumpkin ice cream

Happy Halloween! I can hear the voices of my neighbor’s little kids outside. All of that excitement. All of that anticipation. I feel it too! It’s starting to get dark now and I have our bowl of candy at the ready in the mud room. Kaweah just came back from a brisk walk around the neighborhood with Jeremy while I was manning the door for early trick-or-treaters. She was so excited she ran up to me and gave me the sniff down as if she hadn’t seen me in days (she was gone for all of 15 minutes). See, when kids ring the doorbell, Kaweah thinks they are UPS or FedEx delivery people. All of our FedEx and UPS peeps in our neighborhood carry dog treats. Add to that, the fact that kids are closer to eye level with Kaweah and she is so excited you think her bottom half is going to wiggle off. I’ve eaten three baby Twix already. I’ve got to stop now.

at the ready

So there is some good news to share. I have a nice deal from Fine Cooking that allows me to give gift subscriptions at nearly half the rate. Tell you what I’m gonna do: I will award TWO subscriptions to Fine Cooking! And, since some folks can’t seem to get their deadlines straight, I will grant amnesty and allow all comments up until the time we hold the drawing. I don’t know when we’ll get to it – so if you haven’t commented yet, do so now by clicking here.

**Jump for more butter**