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Recipe: bean curd rolls

Hey there. It’s Friday. I hope you all have a fun weekend ahead of you. There’s something GOOD coming up on Monday, so definitely check back in when you’re trying to avoid that email in-box.

Remember all of those photos I posted of hills covered in wildflowers? The only reason I shot those on our March road trip was because Death Valley and Antelope Valley weren’t ready. We were early on the blooms. That’s why Jeremy and I detoured out to the Coast Range in search of wildflowers (and thankfully, we found some). That’s also why Jason and I were in Death Valley and Antelope Valley this week.

desert gold in death valley

a carpet of gold at the base of the black mountains

When you have limited time and long distances to travel, planning your shoots becomes a sort of gamble. High winds made for tough shooting in Death Valley, but the weather was supposed to nice up in the next two days. We drove south to Antelope Valley and agreed if the flowers weren’t awesome, then we’d return to Death Valley for our third day.

the poppies, they were awesome

California poppies are my favorite wildflowers. FAVORITE. They were essentially at peak bloom when we arrived, so we spent our third day crawling around in the fields. We (and by we, I mean Jason) got swarmed by a nest of giant black ants and nearly stepped on a baby rattlesnake. Fun times!

totally worth it

Some of my Death Valley shots are up on the photo blog. I’ll get around to the Antelope Valley photos this weekend. I processed the photos I was less enthused about first because I knew if I didn’t, I’d never get to them. Do you ever do that? In the meantime, let’s get to a recipe… If you’ve ever had good dim sum, you might have encountered these tofu skin rolls – fu tse juan. [As my “more Chinese than me” friends know, I can’t ping ying to save my life.] It’s a favorite dish of mine: pork, bamboo shoots, and Chinese mushrooms wrapped in sheets of bean curd skin and fried then braised. I made these rolls forever ago after casually asking my awesome Chinese grandma how to do so.

i start with chinese tree ears (left) and chinese black mushrooms (right)

and don’t forget the pork

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Recipe: rosemary lamb noisettes

I have been joined at the hip to my computer lately working on several things at once. I know some photographers will wait to process their photos after a shoot so that they can come at it with a fresh mind. I’m not one of those. I have to plow through them while my color memory is strong, but more importantly before my next shoot or else things begin to clutter together in my brain and on the hard drives. We’re finally at the Death Valley photos and I held off on those until last because it was a complete bitch to shoot. I’m only halfway through, but I thought you might enjoy some of these. It’s amazing how the same place can look so different from sunrise to sunset.

sunset over death valley

…and sunrise

those clouds plagued me for three days

There are a few more photos from Death Valley and I’ll get around to the rest very soon because I have another shoot coming up in a week.

If it weren’t for all of the chatter on Twitter and FaceBook, I would not have known that the holidays were upon us. It’s not like knowing would have changed anything. We don’t celebrate much this time of year other than a Big Dump Snow Day or an especially gorgeous and sunny “Spring” day. It’s all good by me. As it happened, I had been contacted by Annie of Lava Lake Ranch a couple of months ago about trying their organic, grass-fed lamb. These days I’m a lot pickier about reviewing products on urb because I don’t have the time and I’m not interested in shilling for something I don’t feel strongly about. So what was so special about Lava Lake Ranch Lamb? In a nutshell: 100% of their profits go to conservation and restoration of nearly 1 million acres of land in south-central Idaho. I have a soft spot for organizations and individuals who Do Good in the world and of course, Good by my standards may not be the same as yours.

I said sure, but I’d have to let her know when I had an open window of time in my schedule. The window was this week and I received via FedEx boneless lamb loin, lamb chops, and lamb shanks. My regular readers know that I’m sort of new to lamb, so I scoured the interwebs for some recipe ideas and lo and behold – everyone was talking lamb because it’s Easter weekend.

i started with the loin since we wanted a quick meal

rosemary, there is always rosemary…

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Recipe: bibimbap

Having spent a good deal of my adult life in or around university settings, you’d think I’d be accustomed to the flow of people in and out of my geographic location. That’s the nature of a university and you come to expect that a lot of your friends will move away eventually. But I’m not accustomed to it. This week, we said good-bye to our neighbors. They are more than just neighbors, they are good friends.

at our place for barbecue

We have had all manner of “interesting” neighbors, but Tom and Kellie were the best ever. We kept an eye on each other’s houses when we were out of town. We borrowed their power tools, they borrowed our ladder. They were always willing to taste test my cookies, cakes, pastries, whatever! Anytime we dropped by for just a minute, it always ended up taking as much as an hour because we always had plenty to talk about, to share. We took care of each other’s dogs and cats when emergencies came up. We laughed and chattered together while shoveling the deep snow from our driveways in the middle of the night. So despite how crazy busy March had been (and continues to be), we had to have them over for dinner before they headed to their new home in Montana.

at a big anniversary party for tom’s parents

As they drove away Friday afternoon, they honked good-bye. Jeremy told me Sunday morning that it feels lonely with them gone. It does feel lonely. We’ll surely see them this summer, but in the meantime – we are already missing them very much. Yet, part of this flux of people in my life involves those who are arriving and also returning. Our good friend, Marianne is finally back after months spent on the ice (Antarctica). Manisha held a lovely dinner to celebrate her return as well as find an excuse to introduce us to some of her phenomenal regional cooking from the west coast of India. Oh mai!!

manisha presents fried monkfish

kitt refrained from making funny faces

ivy gourd (i am in love with this vegetable)

lemon pickle chutney and grated mango chutney

gathering for a feast

I don’t lose sight of the time spent with the people I love. I’ve learned enough by now to know that it matters when you are together because everyone is busy and we all take each other for granted to some degree. A lot of times, we never fully realize just how special some people are until they are gone. So I’m reminding myself that no matter how busy I get, I should try to make that time. [Of course, get-togethers seem to revolve around food in my circle of friends and family…]

making marinade for galbi

slice the beef thin

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