use real butter

By the skin of my teeth: NaBloWriMo day 6!

I had to tear myself away from a rip roaring tweetfest on Twitter just now because Jeremy innocently asked me, “Don’t you have to post before midnight?” Yes, yes I do. Yes, I am. Just that Twitter has slow moments and then around 10:30 pm, it kicks into high gear because Helen doesn’t sleep (we all have proof positive of this) and all of the west coasties like Alice, Ashley, and Chuck are wide awake because it’s only 9:30 pm there.

I really appreciate all of the feedback and discussion on my last post. I’ll lay out all of the details when the Eat on $30 challenge starts on Sunday. I think it’s important to keep in mind that food where one person lives does not cost the same where another person lives. Also that we don’t all live in the same climate to grow our own food or have similar access to good, affordable produce. It’s not about putting someone on foodstamps in your shoes, per se – rather trying to put yourself in their shoes. But let’s keep the discussion going! Awareness is the ultimate goal, so thank you.

My good friend returned from a month in Europe (mostly Paris) today and said she needed to see me. She said she had some “time-sensitive” stuff to give me. Yes, stuff is a technical term. Four of us met up for happy hour in Boulder on the patio of Brasserie 1010 where Marianne distributed wondrous, lovely presents.

no way no way no way!!!!!

les macarons, mon dieu

In addition to the lovely macs (cassis, orange blossom, mint, rose, bergamot, fig-date) she handed me three bags of Valrhona dark chocolate discs. Somehow the Chinese glutinous mung bean sesame balls and mung bean moon cakes I gave to Marianne and Beth seemed so… boring. But the two of them appeared psyched about the goodies. Actually, I’m betting that Beth was psyched about these:

gorgeous valrhona chocolates and caramels

so happy that marianne is back

Jeremy joined us later after he was done giving lecture and we chattered away (well, Jeremy not so much – he is a quiet one) in the brilliant autumn afternoon until the sun dropped behind the flatirons and it was time to go. We get one whole month with Marianne before she ships off for the ice (Antarctica) for 4 or 5 months.

Those macs were incredible. Yeah, you bet we ate them… TIME-SENSITIVE STUFF! The orange blossom was my *favorite* and the cassis was a close second. Jeremy was all about the bergamot (he’s an Earl Grey whore, what do you expect?) Even though I’m crazy for macs, they are nothing as wonderful as having Marianne home – even if only for a month. And I’m keeping the pretty pretty box. I’m going to keep it under my pillow.

NaBloWriMo day 5!

I just spent the past hour planning my food menu for next week and I haven’t even thought about our food menu for this week. But there is a good reason for that.

Oh wait, here’s another picture from the shoot. The big stands are pretty impressive, even with lots of leaves missing.

the reds in this area never fail

So back to the menu planning… Several months ago, I saw that Tami of Running with Tweezers had endeavored to feed herself for a week on $30. She’s doing it again next week and I’m joining her. Why? Because a lot of Americans live on $30 a week for their food… actually, quite a few live on less than that each week. Sobering to say the least. Besides, I think Tami is the bomb. I met her at BlogHer Food 09 in San Francisco and the woman is the real deal. She’s terrific.

tami enjoys some peking duck at dim sum

There is a difference between sympathy and empathy. I can sympathize with people who can barely afford to feed their families, but I can’t really empathize. I’m fortunate enough that I’ve never ever ever had to go hungry for financial reasons. In planning out my menu for next week, I can see that things I take for granted – buying soy sauce in bulk or buying ten pound bags of organic brown short grain rice – don’t work for people who don’t have the money up front. People who have money are in a position to save money. People who don’t have money… they get screwed. Estimating my costs and eliminating advantages like my half gallon of sesame oil means I have to buy a small bottle, which per unit volume of sesame oil is outrageously expensive.

The planning stage has already been eye-opening. I rather expected that paying for spices and other ingredients would cost more, but… I hadn’t counted on it being such a substantial fraction of the $60 budget for the week (we get $60 because I’m feeding Jeremy and myself – so that’s $30 per person). Sure, I could just buy several packets of ramen and mac and cheese and call it a success, but living on that junk long term isn’t a solution. What I’m attempting to do is prepare relatively balanced and healthy foods that taste good for under $60 for the week. My gimmes are basic things like salt, pepper, oil, and butter. Already, I’ve had to cut out some of our regular produce, but we’ll make it work. Follow along next week starting Sunday, October 11th. I’ll be blogging about it as will other bloggers joining Tami on this challenge. If you’d like to participate, give Tami a holler over at Running with Tweezers or reply to her on Twitter (@runwithtweezers). We’ll be tweeting with the hashtag #eaton30.

Recipe: prosciutto-wrapped figs

Day four of NaBloWriMo and I haven’t flubbed it up yet!

I’m home at last, and while I love love love exploring the natural beauty of Colorado, I love even more how good it feels to be home. This was an excellent scouting trip – not much of a shooting trip. Jeremy kept telling me that he was sorry this road trip didn’t have much in the way of colors (or even leaves for that matter), but I kept replying, “It’s okay, I got a lot of good opportunities earlier in the week.” I suppose it’s hard to imagine how good it was just four days ago when all of the stands are gray and devoid of color now. Now I can finally sit down to do some serious processing. Beth sent me some of her pics from the shoot. We had such a good time.

hard not to smile when you catch the aspens at the right time (courtesy beth bartel)

We shot from sun up to sun down, in the heat and in the freezing cold, we clambered up steep forested slopes and ate a lot of dust on dirt backroads. I’ve learned a great deal about getting the shot over the past several years and I continue to learn with each season, with each time I press the shutter release. The process is becoming more and more rewarding. I hope you are enjoying some of these captures as well.

aspens seem to make their own light

caught just before the storms

waves of color

Before September became officially INSANE, I shot several recipes to tide urb over until my schedule eased up a little. I’m looking at these pictures and realizing that figs are most likely on their way out for most of us if not completely gone. That’s too bad, but just keep this in mind for whenever you can get your greedy little paws on some fresh figs again.

fresh figs are a gazillion times better than dried figs (i eat those too)

**Jump for more butter**