use real butter

Recipe: artichoke dip

you know what’s coming
We have a new president. A shiny, new, intelligent, thoughtful, gracious, handsome president. I was in good spirits this morning listening to my public radio feed flood the kitchen and great room with coverage of the inauguration. As I whipped meringue and ground almonds, I listened to Mr. Obama take the oath of office. And suddenly I stopped, stood there, and wept into my apron. Tears of joy. It means so many different things to so many people. I can’t even begin to list what it means to me. As tired as it may sound, I have hope. Not sure what hope may mean to you, but for me, hope coupled with realism and determination gets me through life. Well, I suppose I should say they helped me wade through the emotional and physical mess of cancer. I don’t get through life, I live it whole hog. But now I’m living it with a big ass smile on my face.

are you shittin’ me?
So I’m scanning my blog feeds this morning and I see that Susan of Wild Yeast is a finalist for the Well Fed Network Food Blog Awards in the Best Food Blog – Theme category. How awesome! I clicked on the link to see what other favorite blogs of mine made it to the finals. I always hope my favorites plaster the awards. I saw Jaden and Helen and Bea and Aran and Michelle and whoa! Use Real Butter?!?! In the Best Food Blog – Overall category?!

***Are you shittin’ me?!***

**Jump for more butter**

I got an early start this morning because I had a lot going on today. After I dropped Jeremy off at the Park-n-Ride, I was turning out of the parking lot when I saw a police car racing through our town’s only traffic circle to my right, and an ambulance from the fire station coming from my left headed in the same direction as the police car.

Odd for our little mountain town.

And my busy day went as planned. Jeremy came with me to my appointment with my oncologist in the afternoon. We gathered groceries for the rest of the week, and as we drove home, we caught on the local NPR station that there was a fatal shooting at Eldora Mountain Resort this morning (Dec. 30). Eldora is our local ski hill.

We only gathered the details after getting home and hopping on the internet.

Eldora is a small hill compared to the big mountain resorts off of I-70, like Vail, Breckenridge, Copper… But we love Eldo because it’s ten minutes from our house. We love Eldo because there are more telemark skiers on that mountain than alpine skiers on a powder day. We love Eldo because it is a true family resort. They have the most professional staff we’ve ever encountered, the best ski patrol, the finest telemark instructors – good people and a good ski resort. I never knew, but the man to thank for the exceptional way in which the mountain is run is the general manager, Brian Mahon.

I’ll not get that chance to thank Brian, because he was shot and killed this morning by the gunman at Eldora. Brian is survived by his wife and two daughters. Jeremy and I are so very sad about the news.

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**