use real butter

Recipe: chocolate raspberry macarons

Even though I tell you guys that I blog for you, I have to be honest… I blog for me! I’m not just talking about the mental health aspect, but I find that my own recipe page comes in really handy when I’m contemplating what to make for dinner each week and particularly for planning party menus. As I had mentioned before, I had to take into consideration the soy-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free, chicken-free issues of some guests. And while I did have something to offer for everyone, I also tried my best not to deprive those guests who can, do, and love to eat dairy, gluten, and all of that other good stuff.

dessert prep the day before

it began to snow before the guests arrived

That’s our patio furniture where my indoor bike trainer usually sits. A second table was brought up to provide more seating. I quite love that our furniture and house are so flexible for large parties. It is even better in summer because we use the deck. In total there were 14 adults, 6 kids, and one Kaweah. Young children make things much livelier and so Jeremy and I took turns between hosting to police Kaweah, who did her best to suck up all of the fallen food.

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Recipe: grilled prosciutto-wrapped shrimp

Jeremy turned to me yesterday and said in a surprised tone, “We’re married!” He still can’t get believe we are married, but we are. Twelve years as of yesterday (Sunday). I think I finally got used to it about two years ago, but I don’t think of us as married so much as a really good team. We didn’t do anything special to celebrate. We didn’t need to. Every day is a good day.

enjoying the little things in life

Last Thursday night we went into Denver to see Andrew Bird at the Ogden Theater. Andrew Bird… Andrew Bird… He makes me swoon. Heck, he makes Jeremy swoon. One of our favorite artists and it is quite the experience to see him perform live – 20 feet from us! What a treat. Then we went to Breckenridge on Saturday to ski up the bumps.

and it was good

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Recipe: chocolate valentino cake

The Daring Bakers, founded by our super sexy ladies Lis and Ivonne, are here to make sure that you got enough chocolate in February. And if you di-int, then check it:

daring bakers: we knead to bake, yo

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

chocolate and butter

stirring in the egg yolks

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