use real butter

Recipe: chocolate raspberry macarons

Even though I tell you guys that I blog for you, I have to be honest… I blog for me! I’m not just talking about the mental health aspect, but I find that my own recipe page comes in really handy when I’m contemplating what to make for dinner each week and particularly for planning party menus. As I had mentioned before, I had to take into consideration the soy-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free, chicken-free issues of some guests. And while I did have something to offer for everyone, I also tried my best not to deprive those guests who can, do, and love to eat dairy, gluten, and all of that other good stuff.

dessert prep the day before

it began to snow before the guests arrived

That’s our patio furniture where my indoor bike trainer usually sits. A second table was brought up to provide more seating. I quite love that our furniture and house are so flexible for large parties. It is even better in summer because we use the deck. In total there were 14 adults, 6 kids, and one Kaweah. Young children make things much livelier and so Jeremy and I took turns between hosting to police Kaweah, who did her best to suck up all of the fallen food.

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This idea had been spinning about in my head gaining little traction for several months until one day, a commenter asked if I would post pictures of my kitchen. The hamsters ran faster in my brain… sure, a kitchen tour. Better yet, how about kitchen tours? Today is the first of six posts on food blogger kitchens. I thought it would be fascinating to get a behind-the-scenes look at a handful of them. After this week, I will feature two kitchens each Thursday into mid-April. Should be fun!

blog: use real butter
blogger: jen
location: small mountain town outside Boulder, Colorado @ 8500 feet asl
house: 11 years old, contemporary mountain-style home
kitchen footprint: 144 square feet (12×12)

When I say “my house” I really mean “my kitchen”. As in: Come on over to my house my kitchen. Because that is invariably where our guests end up: in the kitchen. At the parties we throw, people mill about and around the kitchen. It’s where it’s at. I have cooked in dormitory kitchenettes, in closet-sized (and hallway-shaped) apartment kitchens, on a Whisperlite stove in the backcountry, on the tailgates of many a truck in Chile and Argentina (in the dirt)… For anyone who loves to cook, you make due with whatever you have got, and I did for seventeen years. Even in this, our first home, the current kitchen needed some Jen-tweaks to make it more functional.

the ikea wall

The only major adjustment to the kitchen was turning an empty wall into the Ikea wall with Varde counter and cabinet units (nice and sturdy) and a floating Ikea shelf above. I keep certain appliances out and ready to use: the stand mixer, food processor, juicer, kitchen scale. You can never have too much counter space or storage space, and I use every bit of it.

a use for my pottery : my favorite light switch plate left by the previous owners

storage jars : deep drawers to hold pastry tools and sharp things

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Recipe: grilled prosciutto-wrapped shrimp

Jeremy turned to me yesterday and said in a surprised tone, “We’re married!” He still can’t get believe we are married, but we are. Twelve years as of yesterday (Sunday). I think I finally got used to it about two years ago, but I don’t think of us as married so much as a really good team. We didn’t do anything special to celebrate. We didn’t need to. Every day is a good day.

enjoying the little things in life

Last Thursday night we went into Denver to see Andrew Bird at the Ogden Theater. Andrew Bird… Andrew Bird… He makes me swoon. Heck, he makes Jeremy swoon. One of our favorite artists and it is quite the experience to see him perform live – 20 feet from us! What a treat. Then we went to Breckenridge on Saturday to ski up the bumps.

and it was good

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