use real butter

Recipe: baked eggs

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. I plopped my skis down on the snow and looked up at the sky: blue bird day. I could see clouds of my breath billlowing out in front of me, slowly expanding and gently swirling up into the frigid air, illuminated by shafts of sunlight. A calm, brilliant morning – Christmas morning and perfectly silent. Ice crystals plastered every surface, glistening. I flared my nostrils and took a deep breath letting the cold crackle through my nose down into my lungs. I love winter.

plenty of good skiing to be had in the national forests

the winter sun throws long shadows

Jeremy and I spent the morning and part of the afternoon skinning up into the local mountains and then skiing back down. The wilderness was entirely ours. I love hitting a stride and going into auto-pilot while my mind runs in seven different directions, pausing only to exclaim “gorgeous!” at every view of the snowy high peaks that opened before us. At the end of the year it’s natural to take stock of what has been and what is to come. To reflect on the influx of people in your life and those with whom you have parted ways. Thinking about what was good and what wasn’t so good and how to improve upon it before starting our next lap around the sun. My quads burned and my sunnies were fogging up from the heat and sweat off of my face. It felt great.

At home, I made a small batch of Chinese potstickers for dinner and we had oranges as dessert. Simple is good. There were no presents, just presence… presence of mind and heart and the occasional belly rub (for Kaweah). It works for us.

glowing halo of clouds over james peak (sunset)

I’ve completed a few of those rag quilt projects over the weekend. My friend just had a baby boy and I swore to myself that I would not go to see him until I finished his baby blanket (incentive to really get it done). Now I can finally visit with him and he’s not even in college yet! Flannel rag quilts are so soft and warm – perfect for a December Colorado baby, don’t you think?

i hope he’ll love it until it’s threadbare

Buried in my stash of fabrics was a small metric ton of dark flannel left over from other projects which I decided to turn into a flannel rag quilt for our own baby. Labor of love. All quilts are a labor of love.

kaweah is a sucker for soft and cushiony things

Lately, I haven’t been much for cooking elaborate dishes. I don’t know about you, but when I’m cooking and shooting for the blog, I feel as if we are always eating something new. That’s fine except for one problem – we love a lot of the old recipes. I actually like how quickly I can cook something when I’m not shooting every damn step and washing my hands over and over and over again. In an effort to move toward simplicity, I have been drawn to recipes like baked eggs.

a little kale, bacon, cheese, and herbs never hurt anyone

finely chopped herbs mixed with the cheese

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: pistachio sandies

I’ve had every intention to post here on Fridays, but I kept getting blindsided by a myriad of more pressing things I needed to get done. What with all of the work, projects, holiday baking, entertaining, and well… ski whoring.

this is vail, bitches

nothing like a little combat skiing (glades) to get the morning started (at eldora)

Plus, there was Ignite Boulder 13 last week – one of the few evening events Jeremy and I are willing to attend on a weeknight. I really love going to Ignite Boulder because I get to see heaps of local friends in attendance, volunteering, or presenting. I gave out 90 snickerdoodles, even more hugs, and heckled the bejeezus out of my shooting partner and good friend, Jason.

fearless mc, ef

sold out crowd of over 850

talking about mental “o”

two highlights of my evening: the fabulous lady janelle (that’s jason, who presented) and smokey bear!

The thing that has really been the big time suck of late is this holiday baking schedule. Sure I love to just whip up a batch or even a double batch of cookies to share… However, because it is the holidays, I – like so many of my baking friends – am making a dozen kinds of cookies or confections to give out to those individuals we want to thank for their service and general competence. My kitchen has been insanity of late, cranking out hundreds of cookies. But, I’m always on the lookout for a relatively easy, yet appealing new cookie recipe and I happened upon one of Aran’s recently.

pistachios about to get toasted (in the oven, not on booze)

pulse in the food processor

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: sweet onion dip

I let blogging get away from me these past few days. In truth, I kind of left it there – abandoned it, if you will. The weather was cold, snowy, even foggy at times. I just had to get out into it!

as did kaweah

We had a freezing fog blow in one morning. It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does happen, it’s quite amazing because it coats everything in rime ice. This one was short-lived. Due to the flow of the fog, the ice crystals developed on one side of everything.

nature’s bad hair day?

branches that resemble candy

There was also the requisite “scoping out” of the snow. It’s soft, fluffy, and deep in places… windswept in others. We did *a lot* of postholing, which I guess is an effective form of the Ass Reduction Plan (ARP). Note to self: bring the skis until June.

heading into a squall

jeremy scouts the weather to the west

Jeremy is counting down the days until the solstice, because he can’t wait for the days to start getting longer. He’s a big fan of daylight. Me? I like daytime, nighttime, anytime. The short days don’t bother me at all. I have plenty of things to get done after the sun goes down.

our local sunset is around 4:30

latest acquisition of quilting flannels

While most folks kick entertaining and social functions into high gear come December, I’m actually trying to stay under the radar. I am keeping our social calendar pretty empty. Instead of indulging in the copious calorie-laden goodies, we’re eating simple fare that centers around what needs to be cleaned out of the freezer. And I’m exercising regularly because of Todd and Diane… or rather because of Todd and Diane’s sweet onion dip.

a baguette, cream cheese, mayonnaise, parmesan, sweet onion, and black pepper

I call it spreadable crack and damn it if they aren’t the pushers! They served this at the dinner party they threw when I was visiting them in Southern California. It’s so unbelievably good that even my friend Jack, a man sworn against white condiments, gobbled it down.

slice the baguette

brush with olive oil (both sides, please)

**Jump for more butter**