use real butter

Grandma’s 85th birthday banquet at Chef Chu’s in Palo Alto was quite an event. Grandma was surprised, the food was amazing, the room was tight, and I am pretty sure Grandma enjoyed it. That’s most important. Well, here are some shots from last night.

mom (right) and her two best friends of 50+ years

joanna (mom’s cousin), mom, grandma, my three aunts

**Jump for more butter**

We’re finally down to one cheesecake in the house! I’m sure Jeremy can make quick work of that tomorrow.

prettied up

Jeremy took the two 6-inch cakes to Marcus tonight while I made dinner. The kids were very excited. Jeremy said Marcus looked pretty happy too. Marcus went backcountry skiing today at Berthoud Pass. He said it began snowing there this afternoon. Our forecast was saying 9-12 inches tonight, then 10-16 inches, and now we’re down to 6-10 inches. When we walked the dog this afternoon, it was sunny and warm… I guess it’s coming.

My lightsphere II arrived today along with a dog biscuit courtesy of the UPS man. Actually, I should say my lightspheres because I got both models (cloud and photojournalist). I tested one on Jeremy before he delivered two more of the 4.5 inch cakes.

my handsome, brilliant man

I like the way it works! Unfortunately, the restaurant has a grey ceiling and two mirrored walls. Sigh, the decor of Chinese restaurants will forever be my bane. I’ll make due with what I’ve got. Now to go test how it does with food photography (because that’s just as important as the people photography!). Thanks for the tip, KJ!

Math is your friend. Because I knew that my recipe for a deluxe 10-inch cheesecake would fill four mini cheesecake springform pans more than twice over (and halving 5 eggs is a total pain), I went and picked up a second set. I have a lot of great recipes for desserts that worked like a dream at sea level. The cheesecake recipe didn’t come out to the texture of my satisfaction the first time I baked it here at 8450 ft. Add to that my obsession with making personal desserts (individual servings) and we have two factors to juggle with. But I figured I’d just give it a go…

filled for baking

cooling the first set

**Jump for more butter**