use real butter

Recipe: chocolate caramel pretzels

It has taken me a little while to get dialed into Crested Butte since we aren’t here full-time, but it’s happening. The hardest part is reading the skies because the valley is surrounded on three sides by towering mountains. Local orographics make for weather that changes quickly without much warning, unlike our home on the Front Range with unencumbered views reaching from the Continental Divide to the Great Plains. But I’m always observing skyward and the other day as we were finishing our nordic ski, I looked back at Paradise Divide as its mantle of snow began to take on a warm glow. The one day I decided to leave my camera at home…

I skied with a fast and regular stride – kick and glide, kick and glide – arms pumping. I don’t like to rush Jeremy when he’s enjoying his workout, but I tried to hurry him along. At the car, I quickly changed out of my boots and chucked the skis and poles into the back. Sometimes Jeremy will dawdle about with his gear, but thankfully it was too cold for that. As we drove back to our neighborhood I kept looking in the side mirror and commenting on the spectacular colors behind us. Jeremy agreed that it was lovely, but didn’t realize my intention to capture sunset. He asked if he should stop to check the mail and I said, “No! Just pull over on the side of the road – this isn’t going to last another minute!” They say the best camera is the one you have with you, and it’s true.

the glorious sunset from our neighborhood (iphone pano)

In other news, Kaweah is improving daily. I won’t gross you out with photos of her infected toenail, but I’m actually looking forward to when it falls off so she can move about more freely. She’s definitely feeling spunky and getting around like nothing is wrong. For now, the child’s sock remains on the infected paw to keep her from licking it. When I asked the thrift store proprietor if she had children’s socks, she asked how old my child was. “Well, it’s for my dog who has a toe infection.” She smiled and said in a musical voice, “Oh, it’s for your other child! Yes, doggies are our children too.”

my eternal toddler coming in from the snow

So today’s recipe is something that I didn’t think would be very good at all the first time I tried it. This past summer I had two chocolate caramel pretzels from a client shoot sitting on my desk for several days until one afternoon I realized I hadn’t eaten anything all day and broke into one. Then I ate the second one. They were that good. The salty, creamy, chewy, sweet, crunchy, chocolatey was such an unexpectedly delicious combination. Before the holidays, I tried making some to give as gifts. There are two ways to do it – both with good results.

from scratch: pretzel rods, cream, sugar, vanilla bean, water, corn syrup, salt, butter, chocolate

The easiest way is to purchase a bag of caramels (gourmet or store-bought brand name) and melt them in a pan with a little cream. But I decided to make my own caramel since I was out of practice. I let my sugar syrup reach the top of the temperature range (250°F to 320°F), which resulted in a gorgeous but completely hard caramel. I recommend targeting the lower bound or at least the middle of the range so you don’t break your (or other people’s) teeth. Still, I managed to save the caramel by stirring in some cream over a low flame. That yielded a softer, chewier caramel to coat the pretzels.

scrape the vanilla seeds from the vanilla pod

heat butter, cream, salt, and vanilla pod and seeds together

combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup in another pan

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Recipe: cranberry pistachio orange lärabars

Did everyone have or is still having a nice holiday? I gave myself last week off after the rush of baking, gifting the baking, standing in long lines at the post office, packing up for Crested Butte, hosting a friend, and finishing our year end photo card. It’s been a nice week of more or less keeping off the interwebs to catch up on sleep, spend a lot of time on snow, give Kaweah lots of belly rubs, and become addicted to Downton Abbey.

fresh falling snow on the mountain

looking through a lovely ice sculpture in mountaineer square

cross country skiing on the crested butte nordic trails

ranch boundary

Not long after I had made the baked brie with cranberries and pistachios, I began to think what a lovely combination cranberries and pistachios make. Forget the brie – I’m all about the fruits and nuts! And one of my favorite places to enjoy fruits and nuts is outside in the backcountry, on the slopes, on the trails. Why not a cranberry pistachio Lärabar?

dates, pistachios, orange (zest), cranberries

put the pistachios in a food processor

coarse chop (coarser for a crunchier texture)

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Recipe: candied citron

At last, the cookie baking is done! Now we are in overdrive tidying up around here and doing a little upgrading in the process. There has been no new snow and it was downright HOT in Boulder on Wednesday. 65°F is a heat wave for me and especially so when trying on alpine mountaineering jackets. Hot and shopping do not go well together. Gah! But it was warm enough for someone to get a bath in the driveway… not us, the dog.

she was none too thrilled about it

replacing my 15-year old track skis with these lovelies

We have a fluffy, clean, lavender-scented puppy and a semi-clean house (we’re getting there). It feels so good to have all of the baking done and most of the deliveries made. It stresses the hell out of me. But to see the smile on someone’s face or the joy in their voice when they are handed a bag of homemade goodies – a bag of love – it’s all worth it. Totally worth it. One of the seasonal favorites year after year is this lemon ginger cookie. A few years ago, I nearly panicked because I couldn’t find candied lemon peel (or candied citron) anywhere in town. I discovered that one specific Safeway location carries it for a short period before the holidays. But that year, they were cleaned out. Well, that’s no good. So I set about making my own.

enter the buddha’s hand

It’s a funky looking fruit that most people make weird faces at when they see it in the produce display. Every time I see Buddha’s hand, I hold one to my nose and inhale deeply. The scent is heavenly. I am obsessed with it. Todd and Diane introduced me to it because it grows in their paradise of a garden. Once, Diane posted a photo of a large green Buddha’s hand on the tree and wrote, “Jen, this one is yours.” Sure enough, a few weeks later I got a package in the mail with two huge and gorgeous Buddha’s hands from their garden. It’s one of the best care packages ever (second only to a box full of fresh passion fruits).

dice the citron

blanch in water for 30-40 minutes, then drain

add sugar and fresh water to the citron

**Jump for more butter**