use real butter

Recipe: darling pasta

I’ve been busy this weekend with visitors. My aunt (one of my dearest friends) and her family are staying with us. They’re in the Denver area for some business and I am delighted to have our first guests in many many months. It is the first time I have seen her since my diagnosis and we had a tearful, heartfelt reunion on the sidewalk outside of Sushi Tora in Boulder. Yes, we had sushi. She is as much a sushi whore as I am (we are related, mind you).

So I wasn’t able to get online until late last night when to my delight, I learned that beloved Chuck of Sunday Nite Dinner has revved up Food Gawker, a budding replacement for Tastespotting. Good on ya, Chuck, and thank you thank you thank you for stepping up to the plate. A lesser cook could not have done this so quickly, so elegantly. You are superfly, babe.

Now, I have to be quick with this recipe because I need to make brekkie shortly and I am still managing random and annoying side effects (yes, they linger long after chemo – stupid chemo…).

I chose my partner well, this is obvious. Jeremy is never a cause for strife or stress in my life – he always makes everything better. But you can’t be guaranteed the same for your partner’s family. Luckily, my in-laws are incredibly sweet and loving people who treat me as if I were their own daughter. And they love to cook! Every time I see them, MIL and I always wind up exchanging recipes and sharing new dishes. We’ve been doing this for over 15 years and some of my favorite recipes come from the early days.

pasta, chicken, sun-dried toms, pesto, parm, roasted peppers, garlic, pine nuts

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Recipe: japanese ginger-carrot dressing

Damn straight. Look at what the lovely Katie sent to me in the mail yesterday!

so sweet!

I like to think of Katie as my twin in Salt Lake City because we both tele and have dogs. Except she’s not Chinese. And she runs faster (and muuuuuch farther) than me. And I’m pretty sure she’s taller than me. And she writes more eloquently than I do. And she can lead climb. And she’s more in tune with her inner peace while I’m in tune with my inner anger. But other than that… we’re like the closest thing to twins you can imagine! What a gorgeous little headlamp. What a stellar gal pal. Thanks, Katie!

This morning we set out to do a short hike only to find that the road leading to the trailhead was still closed. It usually opens by Memorial Day weekend, but they postponed the opening. We decided to walk the road and saw along the way that there were still sizable snow drifts and windfall (downed trees) strewn across both lanes. The campgrounds were also under a few feet of snow still. Late thaw. But we enjoyed our walk since I’m still physically weak. There was a lot to see like different stages of pussy willow blooms, bunnies, ptarmigans, fish in the lakes, tiny wildflowers, snow, and a gorgeous Wilson’s Warbler that sang for us. It was a gorgeous way to start the day. Check out the photo blog for all of the pics, but I’ll include some of my favorites here.

kaweah loves the snow

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Recipe: fish-flavored eggplant

I am approaching the end of chemo season, about to start radiation season. That’s part of the reason I haven’t been able to cook much lately. Too many appointments for X-rays, blood draws, port removal, consultations, etc. It’ll settle down eventually. Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to ready the patio furniture for the season of unrelenting sun and thunderstorms:

oil rejuvenates

Another unfortunate occurrence this time of year is the inevitable crashing of little hummingbirds into our vast expanse of windows. We’re in the midst of searching for decals to deter the crashes, but not soon enough to prevent one this morning. Luckily, the little dude was merely shocked and had not broken his neck like two others this past weekend.

a little male broad-tailed hummingbird

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