use real butter

It’s the first week of winter! You realize that from now until the summer solstice, the days are going to get longer – you know this, right? That knowledge has already put a spring in my step although the relative increase in daylight doesn’t do it for everyone. Jeremy wants those absolute daylight hours – 12 or more. Personally, I love the nightlife. And by nightlife, I’m not talking about dance clubs.

Everyone was abuzz about the total lunar eclipse Monday night, but we had clouds and snow in our forecast. I can’t say I was devastated because I was going to ski in the morning. Total lunar eclipse or the promise of snow: either way, it was a win. As we rounded Kaweah up to go to bed, I stepped out on our deck to see if the moon was turning red. All night we could only glimpse a hazy glowing blob rising in the East through the clouds. I had low expectations. But at 12:45 am, the moon was almost directly overhead and there was a giant hole in the clouds. We call those “sucker holes” and usually they reveal blue sky. This time, they revealed the moon.

oh, you beaut of a girl

What a way to kick off the winter season! Within two seconds of that shot, the moon was obscured and I didn’t have to feel guilty about going to bed instead of staying up to watch the entire eclipse. And we have been skiing. I even met up with my longtime friend from junior high (okay, from math camp) who now lives in Breckenridge. It’s been 25 years! It’s nice to know that the friends you were close to in your youth grew up to become genuinely kind and good skiers adults.

morning light on jeremy

graham doesn’t want his picture taken, but the lens is wide…

their puppy (who looks a lot like kaweah, but is much better behaved)

This has been a week of projects. I finally broke out the pressure cooker my MIL gave me for my birthday three months ago and… I LOVE IT. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. I also infused yet another gallon of cheap vodka with the behemoth Buddha’s hand citron that Todd and Diane shipped to me recently. Oh, and the sewing machine got dusted off too.

that smells so nice!

flannel quilt

Most of all, this week has been about spending time with my pack and not so much online. I had my annual mammogram and ultrasound on Tuesday. I don’t define myself by my cancer and as a rule, I don’t let fear dictate my life. I’ll admit that every time I go in for a mammogram or MRI, I wonder. I wonder what the results will be for a second and then I don’t dwell.

of pure heart and simple mind

sunlight and cloud patterns

Getting outside is something the three of us love to do. Kaweah thoroughly enjoyed her romp in the snow and it was great to stretch my legs after hours of quilting. When we got home there was a message for me from my oncologist. All of my scans came back negative. At the bottom he wrote: Good news. Merry Christmas. I read it aloud to Jeremy who smiled and gave me a hug.

Merry Christmas, however you do it. xo

Recipe: salted caramel ice cream

Remember my plan to keep things low key and unbusy this month? Well, that hasn’t happened so far and I think it’s mainly because I am not a low key kind of person. But whatever. As long as things get done and we’re all having fun, then it’s cool, right? And it’s time for those end-of-the-year type of activities like squaring away annual financial records, shipping presents to the niece and nephew, and our new year’s photo card to share with everyone. That includes you, dear reader. Go on and click over – the post will still be here.

happy holidays and let’s rawk the new year!

Then there is the business of the winners for Michael Frye’s book(s) giveaway. You know that a random number generator is just too pedestrian in the House of Butter (and it’s not truly random according to the resident astrophysicist, “It will produce a nice and uniform distribution of numbers that will pass most tests for randomness, but it’s a repeatable process given the same seed.” Thanks, Jeremy.) We are all about introducing as much randomness as possible. Jeremy started with ten three-digit numbers taken from the least significant bits of independent channels of a gravitational lens spectrum about half-way back to the Big Bang. All you need to know is that it is RANDOM. I then took the NUMBER mod NUMBER OF ENTRIES (=127) to determine ten semi-finalists from the comments. Then Jeremy assigned ten of Kaweah’s toys to a number 1-10, which I assigned to the corresponding semi-finalists in random order. Then the final act of pure randomness…

kaweah just wants a treat

the dumbbell!

the dog! (with an inadvertent paw at the fish)

jaws of death in action

ninja!

and finally the bone

Are you lost yet? The winners of the three Light and Land ebooks are: dumbbell = Michelle (mountains, Cascades), dog = Audra (Colorado/Hawai’i), and ninja = Emily (Ireland). The winner of the signed copy of Digital Landscape Photography is bone = Jason (Pripyat, Ukraine). Congratulations to our winners and I will email everyone about their prizes shortly! Thanks to everyone for sharing the places they want to photograph and big thanks to Michael for generously providing the prizes and his incredible knowledge.

here’s the paperwork

And now it’s time for something sweet… and salty. I made this back in August, but salted caramel ice cream has no season as far as I’m concerned. Caramel is timeless and salted caramel is sexy timelessness. Salted caramel ice cream? Um – sexy, timeless and indulgent!

place the sugar in a pan (preferably a wide one)

the edges turning brown and melting

**Jump for more butter**

I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering what is up with all of the posting suddenly? Me too. It’s been a busy week…

This past Tuesday, I was invited by the Pearl Street Whole Foods store in Boulder to come and tour the new space before it opened to the public on Saturday (that’s TODAY). You know the new space, right? The space that used to be Barnes and Noble before they moved to their giant building on the corner of 30th and Pearl? It’s been under construction for the past several months. Whole Foods Boulder is expanding. My boys in Seafood told me the volume of customers coming into the Pearl Street store far exceeded what the original store was ever intended to accommodate. Whole Foods is popular in Boulder. There are times I refuse to go (after 5pm on weekdays and anytime on weekends) because I can’t stand the crowds. But I do shop at Whole Foods Boulder because I am so very loyal to their Seafood and Butcher departments. I know I can always find special or good looking produce for shoots there, and when I entertain – their cheese department never fails me.

there was a huge amount of work to do in the next four days

ben friedland, regional marketing coordinator, welcomes the group

So what is this new space? It’s an additional 26,645 square feet expanding the store to 66,000 square feet in total (including the original space). The design emphasizes more natural light, forefront green technologies (e.g. refrigeration), re-purposed materials, and more seating from the original 89 seats to over 350 seats including an outdoor patio under construction.

paul white, prepared foods coordinator, explains efforts to source locally

pad thai samples

barbecue pulled pork sliders

**Jump for more butter**