use real butter

Recipe: marinated mushrooms

Another weekend, another set of visitors – both have come and gone. Jeremy’s folks were out to see our new digs and explore the town. I swear Crested Butte is Colorado’s best kept secret. Right now, I’m waiting for the moon to set and hoping that our clear skies hold enough for me to catch some Perseids tonight. It’s been lovely here this past week with plenty of rain, storms, and sunshine. Cooler weather is in the air. I can smell autumn coming and I swear it makes my heart race in anticipation. The mountains are getting ready.

late season bloomers: fireweed

a busy bee, gathering nectar and pollen

alpine lake destination

Clearing afternoon storms always present the opportunity for nice color after sunset. When I have a moment, I step outside and observe how the light bounces around between the atmosphere and the mountains in the hour after the sun drops behind our local divide. It takes a little time to get to know the patterns, but I’m trying to become familiar with them. Most of the time it’s been what I call a fizzle, but the other day was delightfully colorful.

last orange rays graze the mountainside

crepuscular rays and glowing wisps of clouds over paradise divide

The rains have also been good for mushrooms. When Jeremy and I hike, I really try to keep my pace up and not revert to mushroom search mode. But if I happen to spot a mushroom of interest, I’ll stop for a photo because I like documenting what I find, where, when, and the conditions. The great thing is that Jeremy and I love to geek out on plants, fungi, critters, bugs, geology, and weather. I love the fungi almost as much as I love my fun guy.

false chanterelle (it’s a bit early yet for the real deal)

hawk’s wings are so pretty (my size 9 foot for scale)

We did find some porcini, but none that I wanted to harvest since they were a little wormed out. I always leave those in place and give the big ones a pat on the cap in the hopes of shaking out some more spores for next year’s porcini. Obviously, I’ve had mushrooms on the brain since summer began. I blame Wendy because she has porcini fever starting in like… March. But I was craving the marinated kind, something you can make with store-bought button or crimini mushrooms.

fresh crimini mushrooms, parsley, oregano, olive oil, vinegar, red onion, salt, garlic, black peppercorns, coriander seeds

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: corn and prosciutto pizza

Every June when the backcountry snow begins to thin and our minds turn to hiking rather than skiing, I look forward to summer’s arrival. I am ready for it. I love the idea of summer. Summer sounds great to me. By the end of July, I’ve had my fill of summer. I know summer lovers outnumber winter lovers the way extroverts outnumber introverts, but kids… I’ll have my autumn now, thanks. Just the other day it was raining and 59°F outside. Delicious. Even though our summers are pretty short here in the Colorado high country, I would gladly give up a month of summer in exchange for a month of autumn. But that’s not happening in the foreseeable future. So while I wait for autumn’s (hopefully early) arrival, we continue on.

Kaweah had her summer stink going on something fierce, so we decided it was high time for her to get a bath. She hates baths. When we take her outside, she’s happy enough just standing around sniffing the news on the air, lazily wagging her tail. Then she catches sight of THE HOSE. She notices Jeremy carrying THE BOTTLES of shampoo and conditioner and she spies THE TOWELS in the driveway. Kaweah then starts to walk back toward the front door. No matter how you call her, entice her, try to give her a little push, she digs in with all her might and won’t go an inch in the direction of the hose.

so jeremy has to intervene and carry her

kaweah has a habit of not looking at things she really likes and things she really hates

thought bubble would be “blarg!!!”

We now have a clean puppy who smells like lavender Buddy Wash and the trauma of the bath is forgotten until the next time. Kaweah doesn’t get baths as often as she used to because she doesn’t get filthy going on hikes with us anymore. It breaks my heart every single time we leave her at home, because she knows what it means when we grab our packs and don our trail runners. She used to stand at the baby gate and wag her tail, hopeful to the last second that she too would come with us. Now that she knows the routine, she curls up comfortably in her doggy bed and rests her chin on the bumper, watching us go. This is great incentive for us to hike faster so we can get home to be with our pup.

trails like this beckon to me

some of the loot this time of year in the high country (more porcini!)

When it’s warm, I tend to get lazy with the whole cooking thing. The grill sees a lot more action than the stove or oven, and I obsess over local seasonal produce like corn, tomatoes, melons, peaches, and berries (because they are so damn good). The other day, my friend emailed me that she and a friend had a wonderful meal at Pizzeria Locale. Oh yes, I love that place. My favorite pizza to order there is the Mais – corn, prosciutto, garlic chives, and crème fraîche. And suddenly, I had a craving for pizza.

let’s make pizza: pizza dough, corn, butter, red pepper, parmesan, salt, pepper, prosciutto, mozzarella

slice the kernels off the cob

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: drunken noodles (pad kee mao)

Given my druthers, I prefer to work through the weekends to free up time during the week. I’m fortunate to (usually) have that luxury of choice because I want to avoid crowds and traffic and people behaving poorly… which happens most often on weekends. Hitting the slopes or the trails during the week is one of the perks of freelancing.

wildflowers are at peak in the local mountains

paintbrush and showy fleabane

my kind of morning

I spent this weekend working with more chocolate. By the end of 11 straight hours on my feet the last day, my brain was complete mush and I just needed to vegetate. Generally, I don’t watch television – it truly is a brain rot box. We have a television for the occasional DVD rental (I’m waiting for GoT season 3) or someone’s PS3 habit, but until now we have never gotten reception nor subscribed to cable or satellite. I really hate the way one gets sucked into television. A lot of it is pure junk, so we tend to select good series after they’ve been out for a few years.

cakes and pastries all damn day

Jeremy loves this kind of date night. It happens about twice a year that I’m too tired to do any work, but not tired enough to fall asleep – this is when I can watch television. We chill out on the couch, eating dinner, watching a show. The only thing missing is a cuddly Kaweah, because she really dislikes the television. She hides out in the office and emerges again when the sound is turned off. So after my week-long shoot was done, I asked Jeremy to get Netflix so we could have a date night at home and watch Sherlock. Hello. Benedict. Cumberbatch. But what made the date night even awesomer were the Thai drunken noodles we had for dinner. I doode it.

oil, fish sauce, oyster sauce, golden mountain soy sauce, soy sauce, baby corn, vinegar, rice noodles, chicken, basil, thai chiles, pink peppercorns, sugar, garlic, basil

i got fresh rice noodle sheets

and sliced them up myself

**Jump for more butter**