use real butter

Recipe: maple balsamic vinaigrette

There’s nothing like a sunburn to remind me of the necessity for sunblock, long-sleeved shirts, and a good hat in the sunny months. I guess that is a misnomer since it’s almost always sunny in Colorado – I mean the summer months. Except anytime the mercury rises above 60°F, I call that summer. Last Friday the weather forecast was originally for an overcast morning. I thought that sounded ideal because I had a shoot in the morning and a foraging date with Wendy in the afternoon. Instead, deep blue skies dotted with puffy white clouds greeted me as I drove into Boulder. Both of my appointments were outside and I even thought to bring my hats (a broad-rimmed sunhat and my favorite Patagonia duckbill cap), yet I didn’t put them on because the air temperature was comfortably cool.

meet tara, she’s really tall

Now that my hair is short, it won’t tie back into a nice ponytail. That’s okay though, because short hair affords greater air flow over my scalp – the advection transporting heat away and cooling me off. But I really dislike having hair in my face, so I have taken to haphazardly tying my hair into two Pebbles-style ponytails that emerge from my head asymmetrically. It works. The part resembles the trace of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and now it is emblazoned on my head as a red, sunburned Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Lesson learned (again).

blue mustard or musk mustard (chorispora tenella)

hello asparagus!

cottonwood catkins

Just last week, I took some pie over to my neighbors’ parents (who are visiting) and when they returned the plate to Jeremy, Grandpa quipped that we had seen all four seasons in the past day. It’s true. We are transitioning from weekly winter snow storms (man, those were awesome) to afternoon thunderstorms, sunshine, hummingbirds zooming around like the little adrenaline junkies they are, and overnight temperatures that won’t drop below freezing. And that means more salads. I like to mix a batch of dressing to keep on hand throughout the week. Homemade dressings are so simple and infinitely superior to store-bought dressings. They are absolutely worth the little bit of effort to make them.

this time: maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, shallot, dijon mustard (not pictured: salt, pepper)

I first tasted this dressing on a delightful green salad during my trip to Verhampshire in March. Sharon was sweet enough to request the recipe from the Chesterfield Inn for me, but then life got busy and I shelved it (okay, I archived it in gmail). But look, I’ve dug it up because when you eat a lot of salads, it helps to have several great dressings from which to choose.

prepped

pouring balsamic vinegar into the blender with the mustard and shallots

don’t forget your pure maple syrup

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: pistachio almond cake

Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday. Don’t freak out or anything. I’m telling this to you now so you can get your act together with a couple of days to spare. My mom called Monday and sternly warned that under no uncertain terms, she would be very very upset with me if I sent her anything for Mother’s Day. She couldn’t see my furrowed brow and sideways scrunched mouth as I looked at the shipping receipt on my desk. Both she and my MIL are getting some amazing Helliemae’s caramels (jasmine and classic salt, if you must know). Hey, at least I listened to her sage advice on retirement accounts when I was 21.

flowers for all of the moms out there, because they make the world a better place

Last month, Courtney posted a photo on Facebook of a slice of cake she had gotten at a bakery. It was an almond pistachio cake with whipped cream and it looked incredibly good. I said as much and she confirmed my suspicions. I have a slight love affair/obsession with pistachios because they have such a beautiful flavor and they are green, which is the best color ever. So of course, I went looking about the interwebs for a good pistachio cake recipe. I died a little bit with every recipe that called for instant pistachio-flavored pudding mix, but eventually I did find one that appealed to me and I thought it fitting to post a cake before Mother’s Day in case you wanted to bake something special for Mom.

kaweah kept creeping around during the shoot

Ultimately, I converged on the idea of two layers of pistachio cake and one layer of almond cake, all frosted with whipped cream. You are welcome to add jam layers, chocolate ganache, soaking syrups (mmm, amaretto soaking syrup!), swap the whipped cream frosting out for buttercream frosting. The point is – make a cake that you (or Mom) will love. The first step for me was to make pistachio paste because I can’t source it easily and I was delighted to find a recipe for it on Ellie’s blog. If you can purchase Love’n Bake’s pistachio paste, that will save you quite a handsome chunk of time.

pistachios, corn syrup, sugar, water

blanch the pistachios and remove the skins (time-consuming task)

blender it all up (actually, I recommend a food processor over a blender)

a beautiful green paste

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: teriyaki salmon collar (or fillet)

In my undergraduate years at Caltech, there was a weekend between the end of classes and the start of finals each quarter. It was officially referred to as Decompression – a time when the student association would host a free barbecue and entertainment (the improv groups were my favorites) on Friday and Saturday nights for the entire campus. I volunteered at the grill many many times, serving burgers and hot dogs to my fellow students and earning a free Decompression t-shirt with a different design each quarter.

Even though I haven’t been in school for eons, I still look to that weekend wedged between classes and finals as “decompression” because Jeremy’s schedule is tied to the academic calendar. This past weekend was THAT weekend. It also marked the end of a pretty stress-filled April with all manner of work deadlines, travel, business matters, and headaches courtesy of people who can’t seem to do their jobs (airlines come to mind). So this weekend was one in which we could take a breather, focus on things that needed attention, and be thankful for a quiet couple of days in which we regrouped and made plans for the next few months.

it also meant spending time with this little girl

Despite the frenetic pace of the past several weeks, we have noticed that Kaweah seems to walk further and stronger in the mornings than she does in the afternoons or evenings. We’ve only started her on morning walks since the weather has warmed a few weeks ago, but this change has been a nice improvement in her overall mobility and general well-being. And when she wants to dawdle and sniff every last mother-loving blade of grass, I let her. She is definitely growing more deaf and sleeping more, but she remains our sweet, dumb, cuddly pup. We’ve also noticed that she no longer stands at the baby gate with her head cocked to the side when we head out the door with our packs and gear. She just lies down on her bagel bed and takes a nap.

there’s still good snow in the high country

climbing up

skiing out

Jeremy and I went to check out the snow coverage in the high country on Sunday. It was partly cloudy with stormy clouds swirling over the high peaks. We were snowed on (yay!) and it was surprisingly quiet for a weekend. Fresh air and exercise was just the right medicine. When we got home, I made chile-lime-beer beef enchiladas. But I had to fight the urge to head to Boulder for sushi. We always crave sushi after skiing. It’s not sushi per se, but goodies from the kitchen like tempura or miso soup or one of my favorites: salmon collar (sake kama). I always get mine teriyaki-style. Making it at home has been one of those things nagging at me for years. Last week, I asked at the Whole Foods seafood counter if they had salmon collar. And they did!

four collars

i also picked up some nice sockeye salmon fillet to teriyaki

to make teriyaki: mirin, sake, soy sauce, sugar

Whenever I’ve had salmon collar in Japanese restaurants, it’s pretty small and makes for a nice appetizer. The young man helping me at the seafood counter gave me incredibly generous portions. In fact, I think he included as much as a decent-sized steak with each collar and charged me the ridiculously reduced rate for “fish bones”. I know some of you are thinking that the collar is the part you throw out – but it’s not! It’s the fatty, flavorful, tender, amazingly delicate part of the fish. Unfortunately, they only had collars from arctic farm-raised salmon because that’s all they had whole. As a rule, I purchase wild-caught, but I made an exception this once. I’m sure the wild caught salmon will start coming in whole as soon as the season ramps up. If you can’t deal with or can’t acquire salmon collar, you can easily do this recipe with salmon fillets or steaks instead.

mixing the teriyaki marinade

place the collars in a ziploc bag

if you are doing fillets, place the slices in a ziploc bag

**Jump for more butter**