use real butter

Recipe: green chile bacon egg bake

At last, the cookies are done and gone. If ever I entertain the thought of baking for a living, I need only remember the days of intensive baking in December that make me hate all cookies and chocolate. So why do I keep doing it? Jeremy asked this of me in the car as we drove down the canyon this morning on our way to deliver the cookies. When we started several years ago, it was because buying gifts for his administrative staff wasn’t really in our budget. But each year people loved the homemade cookies and candies so much that it seemed like a cop out to consider buying gifts as opposed to making something from the heart. I suppose I loathe shopping far more than dealing with tempering chocolate. Even now, mere hours after hand delivering the holiday goodies and shipping packages out to some special recipients, the sore back and lack of sleep are but a faded memory. I think as long as I can get outside for a little exercise during the mad frenzy, I can deal with it. After a week with this lingering low-level non-cold, I decided to beat it out of my body by going skate skiing. That felt terrible, but afterward, I felt SO MUCH BETTER.

the start of skate season always hurts so good

don’t forget to shred it on a 9-inch powder day

farewell cookies! go forth and maketh your recipients happy

Now with the cookies out of the way, I can concentrate on what needs to get done in the next couple of weeks. Part of that includes menu planning in Crested Butte because we don’t have access to as many ingredients out there as we do in the Front Range near Boulder/Denver. But honestly, when we are in Crested Butte, I try to avoid involved baking and cooking projects because the whole reason for being in CB is to be outside in all that gorgeousness, not inside in the kitchen. With houseguests coming at the start of the new year, I thought about simple and satisfying things to serve for breakfast. One recipe I settled on was an egg casserole loaded with bacon, green chiles, and cheddar cheese – something quick to whip up before you hit the mountain or the nordic trails!

eggs, milk, salt, roasted green chiles, black pepper, cheddar cheese, bacon

toss the chiles and cheese together

spread the chile-cheese mixture in the bottom of a baking dish

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Recipe: apple bacon cheddar dog (abcd) treats

While working on our annual digital year in photos, I scrolled through a lot of snaps I took of Neva when she was a wee pup. I had completely forgotten about them because I was in such a state of sleep-deprivation for a period of three or four months starting on May 23, 2015. Jeremy was in the other room, but he could tell I was looking at puppy pictures because I kept squealing and cooing at the computer. Neva was so cute, but she was so feral compared to a normal dog – because she wasn’t a normal dog. She was a puppy.

these cute little faces will suck up all of your time

Oh, but now Neva is becoming a really good girl as she settles into a routine of the familiar. She’s now used to watching dogs, cars, and people passing through our neighborhood. She doesn’t flip out when she sees birds anymore (there are so.many.birds). Her favorite places to nap depend on where the sun is hitting the house. Neva knows to ask when she wants to go outside instead of sneaking into the office to piddle next to Jeremy’s desk. I remember how it took forever and a day to walk anywhere because she had to put every damn pine cone, rock, stick, blade of grass, and flower in her mouth. We loved her little adorable puppiness, but we both knew from the start that we couldn’t wait for her to grow into a dog.

Neva always knows when I’m making HER treats in the kitchen. She’ll hang around patiently at my feet until I pop them in the oven, at which point she stares longingly at the oven. I’m not sure how much variety Neva needs in her treat selection, but I know for a fact that these treats are her number one all-time favoritest treats on the planet. I threw them together last month with a bunch of leftover ingredients and she’s been pretty devoted to them ever since. They smell fantastic while they bake because duh – the treats are made with cheddar cheese and bacon! I used applesauce as a healthy binder, along with an egg, and threw in some parsley for her breath. So I wanted to share this with anyone looking to make some extra wonderful goodies for their canine companions.

applesauce, bacon, cheddar cheese, egg, parsley, whole wheat flour

prepping the ingredients for mixing

chop the bacon and parsley fine, especially if you are making small treats

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Recipe: cocktail meatballs

Sunrise is so late these days that I keep missing it because I’m already up and doing things by the time it happens. But this week I’m still at battle with that not-quite cold. It’s right on the threshold, yet I manage to keep it at bay each day. A little extra rest seems to help, which meant that I was able to see sunrise this morning. So glad that I did. Every sunrise is a gift.

fiery color for a few minutes, then the rest of the day was overcast

The winds have been pretty horrible, too. Sometimes we get nice cloudscapes AND nice weather, but usually the most interesting cloud formations occur when the winds are crazy terrible. That’s life on the boundary layer for you. Life on this part of the boundary layer has been all about wrapping up this year and getting ready for the next one. I dropped by the vet after taking four pairs of skis in for tuning (I hope we’re beyond rock season now), to ask about Neva’s microchip. It appears to have migrated to her front leg. Nothing serious, but they want to be sure that the chip is still scannable. While there, I got to hang out with Aspen, the Giant White Dog of Nederland. Aspen could give Jon Snow’s Ghost a run for his money. Neva looooooves Aspen. Actually, I think she loves everyone. In many ways, Neva channels our beloved Kaweah.

aspen knows how to shake

aspen’s mom gives him a treat (he is as tall as her when he stands up)

Lately, I’ve received the best kind of packages in the mail – the ones that aren’t sent for an occasion, but just because. I say packages, but they are gifts. Gifts that were crafted or grown, and shipped because of friendship and love. Gifts from hearts and hands. Jamie was test driving new equipment in her woodshop and cranked out several gorgeous custom bottle openers. And then Todd and Diane sent a box of fresh, fragrant Buddha’s hands from their (ridiculously amazeballs) garden to my doorstep in snowy Colorado.

i don’t even drink, but i opened a pear hard cider just to use the opener

neva peers into the box of california sunshine

Times like these, when my head is a little foggy from congestion, are when I’m most grateful for my cookie distribution spreadsheet. It’s the only way to keep track of how many cookies, which kind of cookies, to whom, when to bake, and when to deliver. Timing is everything because everyone skidaddles starting as early as a week before Christmas, and fresh baked cookies are freshness wasted if they aren’t eaten until after the start of the new year. But my window grows short because I don’t make edible gifts when I’m potentially sick, so I’ve had to work on other things.

You know what I crave most when I’m deep into cookie making season? Appetizers. I love me some savory appetizers. It’s a good thing I don’t attend sportsball parties, because I would dive straight into the appetizers only to require extraction at the end of the game. Some day, when I have the time and brainwaves to plan a party, I’ll have to add these cocktail meatballs to the menu. They are like little meatloaf bites, but with more surface area dedicated to the tangy sauce.

salt, worcestershire sauce, sherry, water, vegetable oil, bread cubes, milk, mace, mustard, red currant jelly, paprika, black pepper, ketchup, eggs, onion, ground beef

prepped for the meatballs

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