use real butter

Recipe: chicken diablo sandwich

I feel like I’m in pole position, revving my engine, ready to bolt across the starting line. I began to sense a slight increase in energy this afternoon and endeavored to take a short 2-mile jaunt on one of our backyard hikes. The smells of pine forests and damp earth (the snow is melting out in earnest) trigger the urge to run for me. I like the soft feel of the pine litter under my feet as my eyes search for what is around the next turn. That’s the beauty of trail running for me – I don’t get bored. But my body wasn’t ready for that today, so we hiked and had time to spy the very earliest of our local high-elevation wildflowers like the lavender-colored pasque, violet astragalus, and pretty white draba. I have a hard time running with my camera (unless I want to take out several ribs in the process), so it was just as well :)

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: greek beef/chicken salad with tahini-yogurt dressing

My favorite weather to hike in is overcast and cool (50s F). That was the forecast for Boulder this morning, my last “good” morning before my body is overrun with side effects from: my primary drugs, my secondary drugs (to treat side-effects), and my tertiary drugs (to treat side-effects from the secondary drug side-effects). Even so, round #5 wasn’t quite done with me and I’ve gained 10 pounds of fluid in the form of swelling over the last 2 days. Uncomfortable, painful… annoying as hell.

But I wasn’t to be deterred because I knew if I didn’t go wildflower peeping, they might up and bloom and wither away before I am well enough to see them after chemo #6. Jeremy knows how important this is to me – to get out right before I go down for the count. He offered to spend the morning with me and chaperone the pup (deprived of her rightful hiking all winter and spring) while I got my fix.

Recipe: turkey burgers

I had every intention of blogging yesterday, but it was one hell of a busy day with photo processing, errands, and then cooking and baking all afternoon and evening until I passed out without even the excuse of getting plastered. And just when we thought we were rightfully stepping into warmer weather, we were once again graced with snow. Wait a sec, I meant to say we were pummeled with snow. 80 mph gusts – that’s something I don’t mind leaving behind! Of course, today is melted out and sunny. [*psycho weather*] Good thing too, as we are having some buds over this evening.

While prepping all sorts of dishes yesterday (for today), I also had that pesky issue of what to make for dinner yesterday. The guy has got to eat or else he wastes away to nothing. I mean come on, how is this fair? I go on chemo for several months and have digestive issues and lose 10 pounds and he forgets to eat while at a telescope for 3 days and loses 10 pounds. WTF? But back to dinner, I wanted something quick and healthy and tasty. Turkey burgers. Bingo!