use real butter

Recipe: red currant cake

Today, August 1, is my sister’s birthday. Kris would have turned 43, but it’s been over five years since she passed away and so there are no pranks for her best gang of gals to pull on her, no flowers to send, no cakes to order, no surprise parties to plan, no phone calls to make, no cards to send. When I remember my sister, I find myself bursting out laughing more often than I need to reach for a tissue. I like that.

there were many laughs

I have no patience for Drama. It sucks up so much energy and is incredibly unproductive. So I make myself scarce on days like today, going with Jeremy and the pup into the high country where my thoughts are my own and Nature reminds me of how wonderfully insignificant I am. I take comfort in that.

some flowers i think she would have liked

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Recipe: chinese spaghetti (zha ziang mien)

I believe Peabody is going to move in with us soon if the heat wave in Seattle continues and our cool spell in the Colorado Rockies lingers. As most of you know, sun and heat do not make for a happy me. Yes, I recognize how vital the sun is and yes, I do enjoy basking in the warm rays of sunshine… when it’s 20°F out. We were beset with a few rather warm (okay HOT) days in the Colorado Front Range, but thankfully a string of overcast afternoons infiltrated our forecast. Along with the instability aloft, we got our light shows back!

in summer, we choose outside seating when it’s cloudy

i have this thing for lightning

Now it is downright chilly. And I love it. My friend said it was snowing in the basin (I assume that is A-basin – a fine place to get your ski tele on). The deck read 32°F this morning. Unfortunately it wasn’t snowing, just raining. That’s okay by me. We need the rains.

fleece weather

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Recipe: mallows

I feel as if every two weeks I’m doing something Daring. Oh wait, it’s because I AM! Daring Cooks, then Daring Bakers, then Daring Cooks then…

the daring bakers knead to bake

I’m not sure if I can keep this up before I start to lose my shit, kids. At least I made it through July.

The official line: The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Awesome founders: Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice.

We were given the option of one or both of the cookie recipes this month, so I chose the mallows because I have been wanting to make marshmallows for over a year. First, we start with a graham cracker base. The dough was simple enough to slap together, chill, roll, and cut out. For some reason, the recipe claims the yield is about 2 dozen cookies for 1/8 inch thickness when in fact, I used a larger cutter and wound up making about 4 dozen cookies. No idea what was up with that…

2-inch cutter

set cutouts on parchment to bake

Next up was to make the marshmallow which essentially involved boiling sugar to soft-ball stage (I boiled to 218°F instead of 235°F because of my altitude, subtract 1° for every 500 ft. above sea level), mixing it with softened gelatin, and beating it into whipped egg whites.

heating the sugar

stir in the gelatin

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