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Recipe: savory chinese soybean milk soup

Hi hi hi hi! We up and left town a few days ago…

denver international

across the sierra nevada

I’m in California, spending a quiet evening with my mom, my aunt, and my grandmother. We’re having a really sweet visit together. Jeremy picks me up tomorrow morning to head into the sticks. Before he drove south to meet with colleagues at UC Santa Cruz, we had a lovely lunch with Lisa Is Bossy at Sushi O Sushi. I love sushi. I love Lisa. She gave us some of her special passion fruit French macarons. There are no pictures because they were THAT delicious (thank you, sweetheart).

sashimi for me me me (and lisa and jeremy)

the something something roll – exceptionally wonderful

You just can’t have a visit with family without some GOOD Chinese food (at least you can’t in my family). We’ve been enjoying the noms in between running errands for Grandma. I swear it blows me away that these three beautiful women each look several years younger than they really are. Mom just told me I couldn’t divulge her age on the blog, but I think it’s okay to say that Grandma is 88 and still kicking ass. In fact, all three of these ladies kick ass.

mom (left), my aunt (right), and grandma (bottom)

beef noodle soup

soup dumplings (tan bao)

I thought an appropriate recipe to share this time would be a Beijing-style Chinese breakfast. It’s my Daddy’s favorite. He used to make this on weekends when I was in high school. So I’m posting this in honor of Dad since we’re having a girls-only visit this time. It starts with Chinese doughnuts.

chinese doughnuts – not quite what you were thinking

soybean milk

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Recipe: chimichurri

Chimichurri. It’s one of those fun words to say. Chimichurri. If after five weeks in Argentina, you don’t encounter chimichurri then I’d say you probably weren’t in Argentina. I have certain associations with Argentina – most of them food: dulce de leche, alfajores, membrillo, empanadas, asados, and chimichurri to name a few. I know, I know – not all of these items are particular to Argentina. But I will tell you that I believe the locals when they say their food is better. Twelve years later and I *still* get cravings.

flat-leaf parsley and i have embarked on a new and beautiful relationship

garlic and i are old lovers

How is it that I never made my own chimichurri until now? I think part of that is fear – fear of messing it up or not being able to achieve that remarkable flavor. As some of you have probably observed, I hunt around for recipes for a long time and then I sit on them for months or years. Food is like love, you can’t force it!

chop by hand

minced garlic, minced parsley, dried oregano, red pepper flakes

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Recipe: homemade vanilla extract

As I get ready for another shoot, I find myself short on time – again. Consider it your lucky day because this post will be short on words, so you can scroll the photos and see a quick and oh so easy recipe at the end! We have snow in the forecast. A cold front is moving in with winds and that rain/snow mixture and I realized if I didn’t get myself down to Boulder before the storm, I’d miss out on the lovely local blooms. Here is some of our local color in case you think I always travel elsewhere to get my photo on :) Colorado is starting to burst with color and it will continue through October.

there are many different colors and kinds of tulips on pearl street

flowering trees are going gangbusters at the public library

and let’s not forget the lilacs

You can see the rest of the photos on the photoblog: tulips and flowering trees and lilacs.

I had read so much about homemade vanilla extract on other blogs that I knew it was my destiny. When I ordered a few hundred vanilla beans and gave dozens away to friends and family, I still had about 80 left. I’ve been making my way through the stash, but a few months ago – right around the time I made all of that beloved Buddha’s Hand Citron Vodka – I had lots of cheap vodka on hand and remembered what was stored in my cupboard.

when you have a lot of vanilla beans

slice them open lengthwise

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