use real butter

Recipe: morel asparagus prosciutto lemon pasta

Colorado is undergoing a bout of Seasonal Confusion. It’s technically shoulder season for our two ski mountains as they both closed today until next Fall 2017. By the good graces of the atmosphere, we managed to nab a couple of powder days this past week at Eldora (thank you, upslope!) before closing day. It’s been a toggle from a snowy day to a sunny day to more snow to sun to snow. One day I’m trail running and the next I’m stepping into my powder skis. Makes my head spin.

jeremy gets first tracks in nearly a foot of powder

and it was the fluffy stuff

a half foot in the morning melted to an inch, then by day’s end it began to snow again

seeking fresh pockets the next morning

As the days get warmer, my mountain buddies and I are itching for mushroom season to start around here. Of course, if you want to speed the season up by a month or so, you merely have to drive 3000 feet down to the plains. So that’s what we did. I mean, lots of flatlanders come up to the mountains to hunt for mushrooms, so why shouldn’t the WAMPs (weird ass mountain people – that’s us) reciprocate? It’s early yet, but we were on a scouting run. There’s a reason we generally prefer to stick to our home turf in the mountains. We don’t have to worry about ticks, poison ivy, rattlesnakes, garbage, and a constant stream of people while we forage. And it’s hot on the flats. Oh man, I nearly lost my marbles when the morning sun emerged above the cloud bank to the east. My skin is still in winter mode. But the mushrooms beckon.

hello pretties! a little nursery of baby oyster mushrooms

my pal harvests some old oyster mushrooms to smear on a log at his house

these are western poison ivy stalks (pre-leaf) – don’t touch!

western poison ivy stalks with berries (again, don’t touch)

Since the Colorado high country will be among the handful of locations with the last morel flushes of the season, I’ve decided to share a recipe that I shot the previous spring for those of you with fresh morels in hand right now (or soon). It would seem that the sickness sets in earlier each year, but I like to think of it as diversifying my portfolio… of mushrooms.

there is much joy to be had in the hunt (from 2016)

Mushrooms and pasta are a no-brainer combination. Use your favorite kind of pasta. Mine is pappardelle. Because morels are the epitome of spring, I thought it appropriate to pair them with asparagus, which also sprout forth from the ground in the early season. Morels, more than the other wild mushrooms I forage, have that slight funk in flavor shared with the likes of stinky cheeses, well-aged full-bodied red wines, and cured meats. Therefore, prosciutto is a lovely companion to these delightful fungi, and hints of lemon zest brighten the whole ensemble.

pasta, morels, asparagus, cream, pepper, parmesan, prosciutto, butter, chicken stock, lemon, salt, garlic, olive oil

halve the morels

rinse and dry the mushrooms

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: emerald kale pesto pizza

Our little Neva turns two years old on Monday! Since we are hosting guests starting Monday, we decided to have an early celebration today (Sunday) with some beef – her favorite – and a birthday dog cookie from a local shop in Crested Butte. Neva also received an antler birthday gift, because who doesn’t need another antler, right?

two candles for two years of unbridled craziness

neva was very excited, but waited for us to light and blow out the candles

The university is on spring break for this final week of March. While the work never ends, at least Jeremy can do so from Crested Butte while classes are on this short hiatus. It’s nice because we can ski in the mornings before the trails transform into swim lanes under the unrelenting gaze of the March sun, then work most of the day, train Neva in the late afternoon, and work some more in the evenings. Doesn’t hurt that Crested Butte got a nice refresh of snow recently. We can also skate ski with Neva on the designated dog-friendly Nordic trails, which is pretty much her favorite thing ever.

delicate ice patterns on a puddle in the middle of a trail

fresh snow!

crested butte ski patrol leaves the best messages

the view from silver queen lift

jeremy finds a little fluff on the mountain

that’s a happy doggy

Remember how I’m trying to get more calcium into my diet without the use of supplements? Dark leafy greens are always on that list of top ten food sources. I get my fair share of greens in the form of sautés and salads, but I figured there must be other ways to incorporate more. And no, I’m not putting kale or spinach into a smoothie. I actually LIKE eating kale and spinach, but drinking them in smoothies makes me HATE kale and spinach. Pesto, however… and kale pesto on a pizza with more greens? Delicious, tasty green heaven.

kale, basil, lemon, toasted walnuts, garlic, parmesan, olive oil, salt

trim the kale leaves from the ribs

let’s make kale pesto

There is a good bit of flexibility in how you make your pesto. Skip the basil, use different nuts (pine nuts, pecans, almonds), swap spinach or chard or beet greens for kale, less garlic, no lemon juice, no cheese. However you want to make it, just make sure it tastes good to you. This pesto is quite strong straight up – very garlicky – which I love because it mellows out after cooking, but if you eat it raw tossed with pasta, you may (or may not) want to dial it back a little.

place the leaves and the salt in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped

drizzle the olive oil in while running the food processor

add walnuts and garlic

blend in the parmesan and lemon juice (to taste)

a most pleasing green

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: sous vide ribs

We are into our second week without Neva while she is studying hard at doggy training camp. We miss her terribly. I catch myself scrolling through puppy pictures on Instagram because I’m not sure how to deal with life without a dog, even though I know she’s coming home soon. Oh, but the truth is we are keeping ourselves entertained while Neva is at school. We figured a weekend trip to Crested Butte would be much simpler with just the humans. It’s sort of a casual drawn out celebration of our 20th anniversary. Dad instructed me to go to their place in Boulder and select any bottle of wine in his collection for us to enjoy, with the promise that they would celebrate with us this summer with “an even better bottle of wine!” I don’t really drink wine, so it’s actually a bottle of wine for jeremy. But I find it funny and sweet, because my parents are so very fond of him.

he chose this one because dad had seven more bottles of it

It was an oddly easy and strange weekend in Crested Butte. There was no new snow, but we didn’t feel like skiing groomers. Erin told me that we have become totally Coloradofied. We skated and uphill skied, worked, and celebrated a friend’s birthday. And we both found ourselves muttering “I miss little Neva,” at random times throughout the days. Of course, with the Daylight Saving time shift, we lost an hour Sunday morning. That would have been fine except 1) we wanted to wake up early to uphill ski before hitting the road to go home and 2) we stayed up late watching an episode of The Great British Baking Show. So we both felt particularly awful when my alarm went off at 5 am, but catching sunrise on the mountain was worth every bit of mental pukiness.

preparing to skin up the mountain

gorgeous views from the nordic trails

roasty toasty enough to warrant short sleeves

the fleeting surprise sunrise colors on an early morning uphill climb

I’ve been playing around with the sous vide when the mood strikes me and I have to say I just love this thing more and more. One of the first recipes I tried back in November was barbecue ribs. Kenji has a lot of great tutorials on Serious Eats, with plenty of clear explanations and options. The ribs turned out so beautifully, we had a dinner party just to serve the ribs to our friends (who also gave them the thumbs up). It’s quite simple as long as you have at least 12 hours to sous vide the ribs. I haven’t tried this on baby back ribs as I tend to prefer St. Louis-cut ribs because they’re meatier. You merely need a rack or two of ribs, a dry rub, liquid smoke, and barbecue sauce. I list my favorite dry rub and barbecue sauce recipes below, but you can substitute your favorite versions – or if you’re short on time, you can purchase them. Kenji does have a way to achieve the pink smoke ring, but I find it completely unnecessary since it’s mostly aesthetic, so I skip that step. Regardless of whether or not you want a pink smoke ring, I think it’s worth giving his entire tutorial a once over if you’re serious about your sous vide ribs. Plus, it’s always good to learn things!

start with a dry rub, liquid smoke, and a rack of ribs

peel off the papery membrane on the back of the rack

cut into 3- or 4-rib sections

coat with dry rub

**Jump for more butter**