use real butter

Comments are now closed on the Fine Cooking giveaway. I will announce the winners tomorrow!

Yesterday was our special day. This anniversary (smoochiversary) means more to us than our wedding anniversary. I think we maintain a healthy attitude about our relationship such that none of these dates are anything more than occasional mile markers on a long-distance road trip. It’s not the special dates (birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day) that matter to me so much as the days in between – the ordinary days. Our ordinary days are great such that our special days don’t seem too different. I prefer that to the manic rush our society imposes on people to do/buy “something special” on That Special Day and then those very people behave like jerks to one another the rest of the year. So when I asked Jeremy if there was anything he’d like to do Saturday, he said he wouldn’t mind going to L’Atelier for dinner.

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Recipe: not so special roll

When Jeremy and I moved in together after I graduated from college, I cooked a lot… but I didn’t cook. There wasn’t much need to because we lived within spitting distance of more authentic ethnic dining establishments than I could shake a stick at. We were spoiled rotten. And all of the ethnic grocery stores in LA made it just as easy to get some of the homestyle goodies to take home and heat up. Very nice.

sushi rice

special nori from japan, courtesy of joyce

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Well, there weren’t any bears. Just Kitt. But there was porridge. There was beautiful, creamy, dreamy, rice pudding porridge. If Goldilocks had come across *this* porridge, Girlfriend would have been licking the bowls clean when The Bears came home.

mushy grains for brunch

I finally handed off the NaBloWriMo Traveling Masterpiece to Kitt this morning over brunch at Lucile’s in Boulder. I didn’t realize so many of the NaBloWriMos were in Colorado. Had a slight dilemma on my hands because I love savory food, but most of the savory items on the menu were drowned in Hollandaise, sausage gravy, or other artery-clogging goodness. I opted for the oatmeal, which was delightfully nutty, chewy, crunchy (you know, that chewy pop of good non-rolled oats), and fruity. I wanted to ask Kitt for a taste of her porridge, but cream/milk is mine enemy and it would have made for a horrible Rest of the Day as I had several errands to attend to in town.

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