use real butter

Recipe: grilled vegetable salad

Whenever I return from an out-of-town shoot, my friends always ask how it went. That’s partly because most of my friends are outdoorsy types and partly because they genuinely want to know how the shoot was. I always have two parts to my answer: what I thought of the shoot and how I felt about the trip. In general, the shoots are getting consistently better even if the conditions are less than ideal. I consider that to be progress. How I feel about a trip has gone up and down and up and down as I try to strike a balance between pushing hard enough to get the shots and not pushing so hard that I end up hating what I do or worse yet – wearing myself out so that I miss an opportunity.

mount crested butte

elephant head and indian paintbrush

This shoot came closer to that balance for me. Sometimes you need to step back and remind yourself of those things you love about what you do. Jeremy observed me nodding to myself or muttering words of satisfaction on occasion when I felt I had a good capture. It’s a labor of love to lie in the dirt, stand in the pouring rain, suffer the bugs that bite and the plants that stab you. But I do love it and it is totally worth it. I’m settling into a groove now.

my favorite fern understory

jeremy for scale (he’s looking appropriately camo there too)

We saw a second bear at the end of the trip. The first one was out early in the morning. The moment I spotted it, the bear bolted up a hillslope and disappeared into the woods before I could get my camera out. This second bear was out past sunset. It also made haste up the nearest (steep) hillslope, but Jeremy was able to spot it up high as it quickly worked its way through the dense growth of grasses and wildflowers. They are so fast and so quiet!

like watching the fin of a shark crest the water

this bear just wanted to do its own thing

You can view a sampling of the photos from this trip on the photo blog.

I love going on trips and I love coming home. But there is something to be said for eating food that you prepared. No matter how good the food is (and the food in Crested Butte is quite good), I know what I’m putting into my dinner when I cook. Over a month ago several of my SNB gals gathered at Nichole’s house to make wedding favors for Kitt and to, of course, eat. Nichole made a wonderful grilled vegetable salad that some of you had commented on. It didn’t take long before I was craving that salad.

tomatoes

along with onions, garlic, eggplant, and zucchini

It’s a flexible salad so you can futz with the ingredients, the way you cook them, and the dressing you use. Of course, if you don’t grill any of the vegetables, it can’t technically be a grilled vegetable salad – but I will let you deal with that issue. I didn’t grill my tomatoes (even though I love grilled tomatoes) because tomatoes have a habit of shriveling up and slipping down through the grating on my grill and into oblivion. That can be quite upsetting if you wanted to let’s say… eat the tomatoes. Instead, I roasted mine. I also roasted a bulb of garlic while I was running the oven.

a dash of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt

nicely roasted and still juicy

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: thai tea ice cream

Howdy from beautiful Crested Butte, Colorado! I am chasing wildflowers, hiking the high country, befriending local fauna, and getting zero sleep. Okay, that’s not true. We’re not befriending the local fauna, we’re just encountering a lot of local fauna, including a black bear early Thursday morning!

talk about local color

marmots are everywhere

While I’m wrapping up this shoot, I thought I’d leave you with something for the weekend. When we had our food-blogging friends over for dinner before the workshop, one of the ice cream flavors I served for dessert was Thai tea ice cream. If you’ve ever had Thai iced tea, then you know it’s a natural translation into ice cream.

thai tea

and the bag it came in for those who wanted to know what it looks like

The inspiration came about because I was making several Thai meals one week as the weather was warming up. I thought Thai iced tea would be a perfect accompaniment to the meals. Actually, I crave Thai iced tea and was delighted to discover that my local Asian grocer carries it in large bags.

mix the thai tea into the warmed milk

steeping the tea will turn the milk a bright orange color

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: tuna ceviche

You still have until midnight tonight (Mountain Daylight Time) to leave a comment on the Food and Light recap post and possibly win a most excellent swag bag from CHEFS catalog! So get crackin’!

We’re technically only two weeks into official summer and I feel as if my face is smashed up against the glass. There is an urgency to cramming as much as possible into the summer months because that weather, that light, that “free time” is so fleeting. It’s not terribly unlike the alpine wildflowers who until recently were buried under feet of snow. With a fast melt off and warm up, the wildflowers are going gangbusters. Just a quick walk through the hood is evidence of that.

the colorado state flower (blue columbine)

wild rose

indian paintbrush (for diane!)

This is the most beautiful time of year here in Colorado. That’s saying a lot because Colorado is pretty spanking gorgeous any time! Even yesterday evening when pissing rain, hail, and brilliant bolts of lightning came crashing down around our house – it was awesomely beautiful the way only Nature can be. The big question on my mind was if there would be fireworks. Our little town puts on an impressive display each year over the reservoir. It’s a small affair compared to the ginormous fireworks extravaganzas we caught at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, but this setting appeals to me more. But it was foggy, rainy, and there was still lightning at 8:30. We sat in the car on a pullout by the side of the reservoir waiting. Mountain weather changes quickly. And so it was last night at 9pm that the fog rose, the rain stopped and the lightning moved south. I love me some fireworks.

The generally busy schedule of summer means we are keeping things simple in the kitchen. I honestly believe if it weren’t for this blog, I’d just eat watermelon all summer long. You may laugh, but it’s been known to happen in the past… However, raw is what I love during this time of year. So why not ceviche?

tuna, avocado, capers, red onion, green onion, cilantro, lime, garlic, jalapeno

dice the tuna into little ruby-colored gems

**Jump for more butter**