use real butter

Recipe: pumpkin crème brûlée

Pumpkin season is upon us and I’m not referring to pumpkin spice lattes, although they are certainly out there. I’m talking about cute chubby toddlers staggering around pumpkin patches like small drunk people. Or carving your Halloween pumpkin into The Death Star. Roasting pumpkin seeds to snack on later. I don’t overdo it in our house because I understand the dangers of pumpkin fatigue – it has to last through the holidays. But I do get excited about trying something new and pumpkiny every autumn. And don’t you think they should have been named plumpkins?

eggs, vanilla bean, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin, cream

I know it is de rigueur to break down a whole pumpkin, but I have a lot of canned pumpkin in my pantry throughout the year because I make Kaweah’s dog treats from scratch every few weeks. It’s especially handy when you need just a little bit of pumpkin to make pumpkin crème brûlée, and Kaweah didn’t mind sharing because she’s sweet like that.

scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean

steep the vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg in the cream

whisk the yolks and sugar together

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: tahini-date salted caramels

I’m no vegan. I’m not vegetarian. I eat gluten. I eat (some) dairy. I eat nuts, shellfish, seafood, soy, meat, fats, sugar. I try to avoid processed foods although I can’t help a little treat every now and again in moderation (hey, I’m a child of the 70s). I also enjoy dishes that are vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free… as long as the ingredients are wholesome and real. Crazy ingredient substitutions with substances that are unnatural make me wince. Fake butter, fake sugar, fake gluten. Heebie jeebies. It isn’t often that I seek out vegan recipes, but I really do like the idea of vegan snacks as long as they use real whole foods. So when I saw this recipe for vegan caramels pop up in my feed, I began scribbling down the short list of ingredients to pick up from the store.

dates, tahini, coconut oil, cardamom, flake salt

pit the dates

I love me some caramels. Call it a weakness. Thankfully, I only need nibble on one to satisfy any craving. This recipe fascinated me. Really? Vegan caramels? It’s mostly based on dates, of which I am a fan. They are the vegan glue that binds my favorite homemade blueberry muffin LÄRABAR together. I had to procure coconut oil, which I’ve never used before. Coconut oil implies a liquid, so it was quite a surprise when I scooped it and it was solid and somewhat brittle.

just a little coconut oil

tahini

cardamom

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: elder fruit salad cocktail

I don’t make birthday wishes, but every year I do hope for snow. This year I awoke to frosted windows on my birthday. Not only did we get below freezing overnight, but it snowed down to around 9500 feet!

this is the kind of birthday gift i love

To be honest, Jeremy and I stopped with birthday gifts about a year or two into our relationship. Neither of us were into things per se. The real gifts were every day – a heartfelt, “thanks for being so wonderful” or giving a much needed hug without being asked. As I age, I weigh what is important based on how much it will mean to me on the day I die. Useless crap is not going to rank high on my deathbed priorities. What matters most? Relationships and the people you love. My birthday would have been fine as just another beautiful day in Colorado with my favorite guy and my favorite pup, but there was a little something extra this time… a visit from two very dear friends.

After their fly fishing trip in the mountains, Todd and Diane drove out to Crested Butte to spend a few days with us, arriving on my birthday. We took them around to favorite restaurants, the local homemade ice cream shop (twice!), the local (bestest) coffee shop, hikes, the neighborhood, the towns of Crested Butte and Mount Crested Butte (yes, they are two different towns), and a scenic road trip to Paonia to pick organic peaches, apples, pears, and heirloom tomatoes. So strange to wake up to snow and frost in the morning and be picking the last of the season’s peaches in nearly 80°F sunshine in the afternoon. All the while, a running conversation catching each other up on lives and the latest news.

precious colorado peaches

todd is an expert picker

rome beauty apples

ever the photographers at work

bartlett pears

picking fruit in the shadow of the snowy white mountains

farm kitty

on beckwith pass

todd is so happy when he’s in the mountains

Todd and Diane are family to us. They love and worry about Kaweah as if she were their own pup. We are always learning new things from each other, always sharing, always laughing. The best meals were the ones we cooked together at home after a long day exploring the area, admiring the landscape and aspens, and picking fruit in the hot sun. While prepping dinner, I served Jeremy’s latest favorite cocktail. It has a lot going on, but it is utterly refreshing and delightful if you’re a fan of fruit… and gin. I call it the elder fruit salad cocktail and it got a big thumbs up from Todd and Diane. So I’m dedicating this drink to those two (also so I don’t have to write the recipe down for them).

lemon, lime, cucumber simple syrup, grapefruit bitters, saint germain, gin

**Jump for more butter**