use real butter

Recipe: pistachio almond cake

Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday. Don’t freak out or anything. I’m telling this to you now so you can get your act together with a couple of days to spare. My mom called Monday and sternly warned that under no uncertain terms, she would be very very upset with me if I sent her anything for Mother’s Day. She couldn’t see my furrowed brow and sideways scrunched mouth as I looked at the shipping receipt on my desk. Both she and my MIL are getting some amazing Helliemae’s caramels (jasmine and classic salt, if you must know). Hey, at least I listened to her sage advice on retirement accounts when I was 21.

flowers for all of the moms out there, because they make the world a better place

Last month, Courtney posted a photo on Facebook of a slice of cake she had gotten at a bakery. It was an almond pistachio cake with whipped cream and it looked incredibly good. I said as much and she confirmed my suspicions. I have a slight love affair/obsession with pistachios because they have such a beautiful flavor and they are green, which is the best color ever. So of course, I went looking about the interwebs for a good pistachio cake recipe. I died a little bit with every recipe that called for instant pistachio-flavored pudding mix, but eventually I did find one that appealed to me and I thought it fitting to post a cake before Mother’s Day in case you wanted to bake something special for Mom.

kaweah kept creeping around during the shoot

Ultimately, I converged on the idea of two layers of pistachio cake and one layer of almond cake, all frosted with whipped cream. You are welcome to add jam layers, chocolate ganache, soaking syrups (mmm, amaretto soaking syrup!), swap the whipped cream frosting out for buttercream frosting. The point is – make a cake that you (or Mom) will love. The first step for me was to make pistachio paste because I can’t source it easily and I was delighted to find a recipe for it on Ellie’s blog. If you can purchase Love’n Bake’s pistachio paste, that will save you quite a handsome chunk of time.

pistachios, corn syrup, sugar, water

blanch the pistachios and remove the skins (time-consuming task)

blender it all up (actually, I recommend a food processor over a blender)

a beautiful green paste

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Recipe: strawberry frozen yogurt

Another week, another snow storm. There was a December a couple of years ago when we had snow storms hit every Friday for the entire month (which was awesome). Except this is now May. Better late than never, I say. And it’s still very awesome! In true Colorado fashion, the big dump snow day always has a sunshiny chaser.

wednesday afternoon

dark-eyed gray-headed juncos clowning around (sequence: 6 photos)

thursday morning in all her glory

I love snow as much as the next gal (okay, more), but let’s be realistic here… come August, I will be whimpering and wilting under the summer sun. I don’t do well with the heat despite having grown up in the wet, hot blanket of southern summers. It’s not even all that hot here in the mountains, but I still shrink from the sun for the fifteen hours of the day it is up in the sky. One of the best ways for me to cope with the heat is to drink a lot of ice water. That can get a little dull after a while, so I like to mix up my cool downs with fruity frozen treats. Ice cream is the obvious choice, but it upsets my stomach. Frozen yogurt, however, doesn’t bother me.

strawberry fro yo: strawberry vodka, sugar, yogurt, lemon, strawberries

You don’t have to use vodka in the recipe at all, but I like to include it otherwise my frozen yogurts and sorbets becomes giant blocks of fruity ice. I use strawberry vodka because I happen to have some in my freezer, but regular vodka works just as well. My initial intention was to use Greek yogurt, but as I approached the yogurt section of the store I saw Noosa, which is my favorite yogurt (made in Colorado!). Noosa doesn’t make a plain yogurt, so I chose the next closest thing which is the honey yogurt. Since it is already sweetened, I reduced the sugar added in the frozen yogurt recipe.

slice the strawberries

add the sugar

and the vodka (if using)

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Recipe: chocolate zucchini cake

So much can happen in a few days… or in a matter of moments. I’ve struggled with my feelings since the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this week, just as I do whenever things don’t make sense. In times of crisis, I try to understand what is happening because sorting it out in my head helps me deal with difficult situations. But the truth is, I will never comprehend the motivations of those who willfully do harm to civilians. And while we know that there are always good people who will put their lives on the line to help those in dire need, it makes my heart hurt knowing that someone intentionally set the violence and destruction in motion in the first place.

Upon learning the news on Monday, I scoured around for more information, checking in with friends in the area or those who might have run the marathon. Past the first hour it became apparent that the news was just a cycle of regurgitation, confusion, and sadness. I pushed away from my desk and stepped outside to clear my head and maybe ease some of the sorrow I was feeling. It has been snowing here like gangbusters – all of the snow we should have received in January but will gratefully take now. It’s high enough (about 2 feet) that Kaweah can only go where I break a trail because she’s too weak to bound around me and run off like she did in her prime. I took in the silence of snow falling and muting all sounds. Except there were chirps and flutters that caught my attention.

perched in the aspens

cedar waxwings

many cedar waxwings

I’m no birder, but I enjoy making note of the birds that pass through our woods. Through the falling snow they looked like a dozen or more LBBs (little brown birds) constantly flitting about to find the perfect branch. Only when I examined the photographs could I see the splashes of bright yellow and red in their plumage to determine they were cedar waxwings (thanks Google!). When I went back outside to see if I could get closer (birds are skittish), they had moved on. Still, it was a lovely little gift on such a sad day. Life is fragile, yes. Life is also resilient. Most of all, it is precious.

As you can see, it has been dumping this past week after many ski resorts closed for the season last weekend. Some are re-opening this weekend to take advantage of the 2+ feet of new powder. And while we are always glad to get snow to ski, the mountains and the foothills are breathing a collective sigh of relief because our snowpack is approaching 90% of normal. Hopefully that translates into a less eventful wildfire season, beautiful mountain streams and wildflowers late into summer, and more food for the wildlife. For now though…

we ski

jeremy breaks trail

april in colorado

I’m still in the mood to bake, which will diminish as the sun climbs higher into the sky and dawdles about dragging its bedtime later each day. I was cleaning out a pile of old recipes when I found a chocolate zucchini cake recipe from a friend back in graduate school. The recipe itself didn’t tickle my fancy, but the idea of a chocolate zucchini cake did and so I went searching for a recipe that suited my preferences. I tend to prefer cakes that use sour cream or yogurt or buttermilk because they bake more stably at my elevation.

butter, chocolate, eggs, sugar, oil, flour, cocoa, leavenings and salt, zucchini, buttermilk, espresso powder, and vanilla

shredding the zucchini

**Jump for more butter**