use real butter

Recipe: chocolate cloud cake

I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine, you ask? Well… you might say it was EPIC.

friday morning and still coming down

See that? That’s a newly cleared driveway. That driveway, which belongs to me, was ever so sweetly snow-blown by my dear neighbor who saw me desperately shoveling 18 inches of fluffy white at 7:30 am so I could go ski at the local hill when the lifts opened. My neighbor is going to get chocolate in the very near future.

knee-deep, dry powder

with my buds jason and jared atop a double black

Best. Day. Of. The. Season. And poor Jeremy was at a conference in South Africa all week. We got a total of 31 inches at my house over the course of 1.5 days, which ain’t too shabby in my book. Of course, being Colorado, you can’t keep the sun away for long at all.

a glorious saturday morning

pretty snowflakes

It seemed when I wasn’t skiing, I was shoveling snow. Kaweah was my little shadow as I dug paths through the thick white blanket. She used to go bounding into the deeps, but is too old to get herself unstuck these days. I keep her close and she has fun shoving her schnoz into the walls of snow and sneezing in delight. The neighborhood is winter white. Jeremy is back home. Things are right with the world.

kaweah eating the snow on the deck

And it’s February. Did you notice that too? I normally have nothing but scorn for Valentine’s Day. I don’t like pink and I think this sort of mass social pressure on men to do something nice for women is just plain stupid. Men should be nice to women all the time. And vice versa. Everyone just freaking be nice to everyone, will ya? I realize that’s a bit much to ask.

But this week I am feeling the love in the kitchen. Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s all of that powdery snow (and no winds – yet) putting me into the mood to make sweet treats. Maybe Valentine’s Day is just a coincidence. Who cares? We’re talking chocolate.

…and butter, sugar, eggs, booze, and orange zest

everything measured and prepped

line an 8-inch springform with parchment paper

I don’t love chocolate the way most of the world loves chocolate. We get along fine and leave it at that. However, I do enjoy baking with chocolate and distributing it to friends who give chocolate a better home than I can (in their tummies). Those quick and easy recipes attract my attention because no one around here is made of spare time.

whisk butter into melted chocolate

beat eggs, yolks, and sugar together

I made a chocolate cloud cake. The soft, white cloud of whipped cream caught my fancy at first, but then I liked how relatively simple the preparation was. It’s a flourless chocolate cake and I’ve blogged flourless chocolate cakes before. This one folds in whipped egg whites, which I was curious to try.

stir the chocolate into the egg mixture

add orange zest and some grand marnier

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: mirin sweet potatoes

Yes, another orange vegetable. You have to get through your vegetables first before commencing the debauchery that will be Valentine’s Day. Debauchery is next week. This week: vegetables. But I swear this won’t even be like a vegetable. It’s practically candy. I love roasted sweet potatoes, sweet potato fries, sweet potato pie, sweet potato mash… But that Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole? Not. A. Fan. Ever on the lookout for great new ways to prepare vegetables, I was immediately drawn to this recipe in the latest issue of Bon Appétit: White Sweet Potatoes with Mirin and Honey.

gold sweet potatoes and purple yams

I didn’t know there were white and gold sweet potatoes. I just grabbed the ones closest to me which happened to be not the sweet potatoes I was supposed to get. Then I was in the Asian grocery store (not the one in Boulder, the one in Broomfield – POM) and I picked up some Okinawa sweet potatoes which I believe are actually yams according to a rule that yams have different colored flesh than the exterior skins. Okinawa sweet potatoes are purple on the inside. I had no idea how it would fare in the recipe, but I wanted to give it a try.

all you need: sweet potatoes, honey, vinegar, oil, mirin, butter, and salt

pierce with a fork

You can either bake the potatoes wrapped in foil for a half hour, or you can nuke them in the microwave for five minutes. I took the five minute option. Don’t forget to pierce them all over with a fork if you choose to nuke the sweet potatoes. Let them steam in a covered bowl for a few minutes to loosen up the skin. I think it’s supposed to facilitate the peeling, but I just used a knife. While the sweet potatoes enjoy their sauna, you can mix the “dressing” made of mirin, honey, vinegar, and salt. Yes, that’s it.

after microwaving, steam in a bowl covered in plastic

mixing the mirin, honey, vinegar, and salt together

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: kabocha nimono

Kaweah began having trouble hiking very far two summers ago. Because of that, we scaled back on her backcountry outings and assumed it was old age. But this winter, we’ve been bringing her along on some hikes and skis, and she’s been improving. It seems the more we do, the stronger she is getting. I’m guessing that like me, she prefers the cold weather exercise. We’re careful not to overdo it though. Kaweah is the type of dog who will go go go up to the moment she’s ready to drop.

hiking at chautauqua near the boulder flatirons

I usually don’t bring Kaweah down to Boulder with me because the drive stresses her out and it’s usually too warm down there. Jeremy always assures me she’s much happier at home in the mountains. The other day I had some business in town and then a couple of hours to kill while Jeremy wrapped things up at his office – so I brought Kaweah. It was nice and cool (right at freezing), the way we like it! I took her to Chautauqua Park where the iconic Boulder Flatirons stand watch. The last time I was there with Kaweah was just before my final chemo infusion in May 2008.

much happier now

Talk about happy. I mean both of us. After thirteen years of “Kaweah, come!” or “Leave it!” or “Drop it!” or “No pull!” she has finally got it (for the most part). Or maybe she’s just too old to fight anymore? She’s always been a sweet girl, but she’s actually becoming a little bit of a good girl too. I just want her to be a happy girl, and if I can be happy too, that’s a bonus.

always in the moment, she lives for the skiing

All of this increased activity has been great for Kaweah’s strength and stamina, although taking a thirteen year old dog out isn’t much of a workout for me. So I wind up doing double duty – and it feels terrific. We are both improving. I feel such a strong connection with Kaweah.

feathery clouds at sunset

color and texture

A delightful cold spell delivered seven inches of fresh fluffy powder at our local hill this past Friday, which was skied with much whooping and hollering before the winds came and blew it into Kansas. You have to grab it by the hojos, kids. I am totally in winter mode over here. Winter mode involves snow sports, yes, but it also includes hot foods to warm your belly after engaging in said snow sports.

sugar, mirin, soy sauce, dashi, kabocha squash

My first exposure to kabocha squash was in the sushi bar. A thin slice was tempura fried and included in the vegetable tempura medley. The squash was my favorite because it had a soft texture and a slight sweetness that played so well against the dipping sauce. I always thought it was a sweet potato. It’s actually a Japanese pumpkin.

scoop the seeds out

cutting slices

or you can dice the pumpkin

**Jump for more butter**