use real butter

Recipe: chive dumplings

daring cooks – you got the onions chinese chives?

This month I’m not just a Daring Cook, but I’m the host of the Daring Cooks June challenge! First, let me pay homage to our most revered founders: Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, because we love them and they make the world a better place. I chose a recipe that was versatile enough for all manner of Daring Cooks: Chinese dumplings and potstickers. The recipe I gave for the challenge is a family recipe that I’ve blogged before. However, I wanted to push myself beyond the familiar and attempt a gluten-free version.

[EDIT] So there have been a few folks making noise about wheat starch and how it is not gluten free. Sources give conflicting conclusions on whether or not wheat starch is safe for consumption if you are celiac. So let’s be clear here – you need to make your own decision and you need to be responsible for that decision. If you think there is ANY risk, then you probably shouldn’t use it unless you enjoy playing with fire. If you aren’t affected by gluten, then you can probably safely consume wheat starch. This is a traditional recipe, it was not developed as a gluten free version – it is a type of dumpling that people make in Chinese cuisine. [END EDIT]

use wheat starch (not wheat flour!)

chinese chives (garlic chives)

If you’ve ever had dim sum, you have probably feasted upon many different kinds of dumplings. My favorite to order when I’m in a good dim sum joint is the chive dumpling. While I was looking up a gluten-free version of the Chinese potsticker for our alternative Daring Cooks, I ran across several recipes for chive dumplings and knew I had to try these at home.

chop the chives

sauté

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: pasta with summer squash, sausage, and goat cheese

There has been quite a bit of instability in that part of the atmosphere sitting over my house. It makes for interesting weather: sun, rain, hail, winds, cold, warm, frost and one of my favorites:

lightning

But today we are back to sunshine, although our afternoon thunderstorms are pretty much here to stay for the summer – and I welcome the rain and cooling off they bring each day. Kaweah has a knack for finding the very edge of the shade and then parking her furry self just outside of it.

too bad she isn’t a solar panel

School is out. I can tell this from the tent that my neighbor’s kids have pitched on their deck and the happy screams zooming past our windows, Doppler effect and all, every evening. It gets dark around 8:30 and we don’t eat until 9 or later. Kaweah petitions for dinner when the sun goes down, so Mother Nature fools her big time in summer (it’s a pain in the ass come winter when she starts begging around 3:30). The pine tree pollen orgy has not peaked yet, but my itchy eyes indicate the party is getting started. The foxes and the coyotes will be facing off and staking out their territory in our front yard, soon.

green gentian

We’ve lived here long enough that the trails we hike are recognizable even under 8 feet of snow. I know where the columbines will bloom. I know which scree fields the pika live in. I know when the stream flow will peak. I know what the light looks like in July versus October versus March. I know what the air smells like as the snowpack thaws from under the pine forest canopy. I know which cornices remain into late summer. I never thought I would treasure this sense of the familiar, but I do. I relish it and it feels like home. It may be a sign of getting older… I don’t really care. I rather think of it as a sign of happiness.

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: deconstructed chili cheese fries

We are almost ready to blow this popsicle stand. Kaweah is off to Camp Crazy and we shall be heading west. In the meantime, my cron jobs should be in working order (i.e. there will be posts in my absence) while I’m out of communication.

Jeremy and I recently sampled an order of chili cheese fries at a local joint in Boulder. We were… underwhelmed. It says less about the place serving the fries and more about the culture here. Why is it so hard to find GOOD chili cheese fries? I wasn’t turned on to chili cheese fries until I went to college in Southern California and it became the goto 2 am calorie (and sodium, and fat) replenisher on those late nights working on AMa 95 homeworks (Techers, YOU know what I’m talking about). My ideal chili cheese fries involve crispy, hot fries (not soggy!), shredded sharp cheddar cheese, and a meaty (no beans), well-spiced chili that needs to be ladled on top. These days we indulge maybe a couple times a year when I make my own chili at home, but forget about ordering it in town. No one does it right.

Which got me thinking. Perhaps I could “challenge” a restaurant to make chili cheese fries? My first candidate was The Kitchen, because I think their fries are the best I’ve ever had and I am convinced they could make one mean bowl of chili (they specialize in ass-kicking food). Friday night, that notion gave way to another inspiration… how about I attempt deconstructed chili cheese fries? Just for shits and giggles, you know. Putting a sophisticated spin on a low brow college favorite.

I combined the typical spices that go into my chili recipe and mixed them with a hefty amount of salt and pepper. After picking up a 3-inch thick slice of beef tenderloin, I packed the spices onto the steak and let it sit for 30 minutes to contemplate its delicious fate.

spices that usually go in my chili

rub it all over the filet mignon

**Jump for more butter**