use real butter

No recipe today, kids. I didn’t want to mix things up too much here, as there is a giveaway to announce! I trust everyone had a pleasant weekend?

We had a small group of people (and their assorted extensions) from Jeremy’s department up for a barbecue on Saturday. Our intention was to invite them oh… two years ago, but we got waylaid for well over a year with my treatments and randomly leaky appendix. Once that was mostly behind us, it was winter and we don’t invite the uninitiated up to our place in winter lest they never want to return again. So finally(!) we could feed the starving graduate students and the not-so-starving non-graduate students properly this past weekend. It was nice to meet the people behind the names.

the menu
crudités and spinach dip
chips, salsa, and guacamole
citrus, almond salad
german roasted potato salad (sans bacon)
honey wheat rolls
roasted pepper, goat cheese tart (sans prosciutto)
grilled marinated flank steak
barbecue chicken
vanilla bean, matcha green tea, chocolate, and coffee ice creams
chocolate stout cake

busy eating

That morning we purposely took Kaweah on a trail run so she would be a little too pooped out to shamelessly beg for food from guests. She still shamelessly begged, but at least it was more hopeful than shameless. J’s two young children kept themselves amused with Kaweah and then with our yard, bringing in giant bouquets of dandelions, gold banner, and bluebells they had picked. As we saw folks off that evening, I noticed that our yard had gone from gold- and blue-dotted to pure green. I should have known better than to leave the flowers in the house because my eyes were gummy and weepy the next morning what with all of the pollen from our yard concentrated in our living room. And I see the pine cones out my window are primed with the yellow powder of passionate pine tree sex. It begins. My arsenal of steroid nasal sprays, antihistamine drops, and pills are at the ready.

While it will be another month before wildflowers make their entrance in the high country, the wildflowers of our neighborhood trails are ramping up while the ones down on the flats (Boulder) are at or just past peak. For a flower-dork such as myself, this translates into wildflowers from April through September. Nice.

fo shiz on that, yo

**Jump for more butter**

Our 9-mile hike began with sunny skies and cool air. Many of the roads accessing national forest trails in these parts don’t open until July because there is still a lot of snow in the backcountry. We prefer it that way.

this is my home

99.9% of the trail was under snow… a lot of snow

barely thawed alpine lake

clouds building to the west

thunderheads catching up from the east

frozen pond on the hike out

the one who had the most fun

The first of May is such a happy day. It ushers in a good mood. People make plans. Plants are having sex (hence all of the flowers). Hummingbirds appear around our house. The first of every month, Jeremy tells me he’s glad he met me. Well, he tells me that all the time, but it’s always special.

the world opens up

Anyone who has followed use real butter for more than a year might recall that today is the anniversary of my sister’s unexpected passing. It’s been five years and I still miss her. She was my best friend. That makes May 1 sort of bittersweet.

kris and my nephew (photo by elena yang)

My last words to Kris were, “I love you too.” That is how we always ended a conversation. Always. I suggest you let the people dear to you know that you love them. Today. Perhaps now if you’re so inclined. If you can tell them every day, that is even better. xxoo