use real butter

Recipe: cinnamon rhubarb mini loaves

Did you eat vegetables growing up? Did you like them? How about now that you’re (presumably) an adult? I love vegetables and I loved eating them as a kid. Vegetables in my youth were crunchy, bright green, delicious. My mom and grandmother are such brilliant cooks and they always made sure we ate fresh and healthy food. In contrast, it was rather puzzling to stand in the lunch line at school and wonder what the hell that puke green, tasteless mash was on the plate. It was broccoli – and no one was the wiser, but then again we were all like… seven years old.

We eat vegetables and fruits regularly here at urb. I take that for granted until we go on week-long backpacking trips or I have to fast before surgery or medical procedures and then I begin to crave fresh produce and salivate at the sight of… green grass on the side of the trail. I have yet to meet a vegetable or fruit I refuse to eat. Pushing the limits would be durian (I’ve tasted durian fruit paste – very interesting) and bitter melon (my mom makes a terrific bitter melon stir fry which I love, except for the bitter melon – but I eat it because my mom’s cooking rocks).

This may come as a surprise to some, but I’ve never cooked with rhubarb before, until last week. I just remember reading about something rhubarb being poisonous (it’s the leaves, not the stalks) and so I avoided it for many many years and left it to others to slay the red cousin of celery. I’ve tasted rhubarb and strawberry muffins and rhubarb and strawberry pie (my days in Ithaca) and it was always an exercise for me to figure out what the rhubarb tasted like because it was never separate from the strawberries. Kind of like couples who have to do everything together and you really want to hang out with the one but the other is always there? Yeah.

rhubarb is showing up at our markets

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: green chile mayonnaise

I hope everyone had a nice weekend observing or not observing various holidays. April can’t make up her mind (she is quite the fickle pickle when it comes to weather) and so we have had sun, rain, lightning, snow, and grauple over the weekend, but NO WINDS(!!) and so I am pleased as punch. Sunday morning we took Kaweah for a much needed hike and noted the snow conditions. I really don’t foresee anymore piste skiing unless we get a nice dump of powder. Our local hill closed this weekend and several of the big mountains close next weekend (good-bye Breckenridge, good-bye Vail, good-bye Mary Jane – see you next year), however there is always A-basin whose season runs phenomenally late into June – sometimes July. Get your rock skis out, kids. I wouldn’t want to take the East Wall on my powder skis in May. Well, my would-be rock skis were in really good shape and now belong to Diane.

dude, where’s my snow?

old flowers soon to be replaced by new flowers

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chinese eggrolls

I had to wake up at 4 am yesterday because I needed to drink four more glasses of stuff before a medical procedure at 8 am. Okay, but here is the upside to rising that early…

moonset over the continental divide

We had a dusting of snow overnight and the whole world was awash with the glow of the full moon as she descended behind the mountains. Now you know why pre-dawn is my favorite time of day!

use real butter is in maintenance mode this morning, which should be completely transparent to you. If you don’t run normal backups, it might be a good time to start!

Today, I’m guest blogging over at Rasa Malaysia, which is one of my main sources for seriously ass-kicking Chinese and other Asian recipes. Bee has mouth-watering recipes and gorgeous photos to match them. To say it is an honor to guest post for her is an understatement. If you have never visited Rasa Malaysia before, you are in for a serious treat. Please hop on over, say hi, and get hungry! I made some egg rolls for ya.

chinese egg rolls (wrapped in spring roll wrappers)

sweet eggrolls with sweet red bean paste