use real butter

Drizzle came down steadily as we made our way into the fog on a familiar route. We were hiking Echo Mountain, the trail behind our old house in Altadena that we used to do twice a week. I know that trail better than any trail… every turn and hill and switchback and even where certain plants bloomed. We were supposed to go with Ro, but the poor thing has been exhausting herself working like a madwoman on research, wedding, moving, in addition to the daily stresses of being an OCD. She slept through her alarm and decided she needed to sleep. So after our hike, we met Ro at a local coffeehouse to chat and juice ourselves up. It’s important to get QT with your pals.

When we arrived at Melinda’s house, the door swung open with Kevin and Thomas shouting out of unison, “Jennifer! Germany!” Kevin gave me a big hug and Thomas played coy. Aaron was getting BBQ from the doctor (Dr. Hogly Wogly’s Tyler Texas BBQ). We enjoyed an energetic lunch and then moved to the backyard for Easter projects.

kevin shows me the trambambompoline

**Jump for more butter**

Happy New Year, all!

I had a major kitchen day, in which I spent nearly 10 hours cooking all sorts of goodies to celebrate the new year properly. I made Chinese hot pot with tons of traditional ingredients like tofu, fish balls, pork meatballs, shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, preserved mustard greens, napa cabbage, bean thread noodles, water chestnuts. I also prepared a batch of potstickers from scratch, and stir fried bok choy with mushrooms and water chestnuts.

But that’s just the savory stuff. I also made some sweets. My leftover boozie drinks from last night were poured into the ice tray and I made Jeremy a sort of granita version of a lava flow in the afternoon.

refreshing!

**Jump for more butter**

We got home shortly before sunset after tele in the morning and xcountry in the afternoon, and proceeded to make a giant plate of goodies to nosh on: prosciutto, boursin, havarti, smokey oysters, sardines, and baguette. I also made some slushy cocktails since this entire day was associated with water in frozen form. For Jeremy, I made a mudslide, and for myself, a lava flow [Edit:: I just realized that both of these drinks are named for geomorphic events – woohoo!]

lava flow: piña colada topped with strawberry daiquiri

It’s past midnight on the east coast. Best wishes to all in the coming year. Happy New Year!