use real butter

Recipe: mocha truffles

Last night I had some grand plans. Jeremy was observing from 1-4am (in case you are confused, some radio telescopes can now be operated remotely by the astronomer who logs in from a computer in their office or their home) and I thought I’d wake up with him and get a little night photography done. But by 10 pm, a friend tweeted they were getting snow down on the flats. I took Kaweah outside and sure enough, snow on the ground. I looked up for that gorgeous full moon I had seen earlier in the evening and – nothing. Just a blanket of dark gray clouds stretching across the sky while snowflakes rushed down at my face.

By daybreak, a familiar and long overdue sight greeted me. Kaweah develops a certain jauntiness to her step when she runs out into the snow, shoving her snout into the powder, emerging with a sugar-dusted muzzle, and then sneezing so that every bit of her furry self shakes and wiggles out to the tip of her tail.

it’s cold this morning!

kaweah’s modus operandi in winter

I was only disappointed in missing out on my photo shoot for a millisecond. Okay, nanosecond. Because we’re all about the snow here. My world isn’t complete without the snow. December can’t call itself DECEMBER without the snow in these parts. Now I’m finally in the mood for the holidays. Time to bust out the chocolate! Back in October, I received my dear Anita‘s second book right around the time Scharffen Berger sent me some samples of their chocolate. Who in their right mind is going to say, “No thank you, I don’t want any of your fabulous free chocolate”?!?

the geek in me just loves these field guide formats

holiday baking is in my future

Full disclosure: The Field Guide to Candy was a complimentary copy sent to me by Quirk Books. Scharffen Berger shipped me an assortment of their dark chocolates and a 2-gigabyte jump drive (it’s so cute!).

I’ve hosted a chocolate tasting party before. When I was shopping for the chocolates, my hand hovered over Scharffen Berger and then decided to try Green and Black’s Organic. What a mistake. I should have chosen the Scharffen Berger then. Imagine how happy I was as I contemplated what to do with this beautiful stash of chocolate. I don’t eat much chocolate, but I use a ton of it as I enjoy making chocolate goodies to give to people (because PEOPLE like love chocolate). So flipping through my new Field Guide to Candy, I settled on some simple mocha truffles.

espresso powder and cream

let’s use a 62%

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: candied lemon slices

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Despite being insanely busy and turning down a lot of fun, exciting opportunities and events this month (only because I’m doing a ton of other fun, exciting things already!), I promised myself that I would participate in Barbara‘s annual LiveSTRONG: With a Taste of Yellow event. This is important to me, not because I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, but because I know a lot of people who had or have cancer. I have lost beautiful friends and family to cancer. And just last night, I learned that someone who saved my life is fighting for his own right now – fighting cancer. Barbara holds this food and wine blogging event each year in support of The Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise cancer awareness around the world. Last year was the first time I participated.



So if you want to participate there is still time (Barbara has extended the submission date to September 18th). Whip up something yellow – be it savory or sweet, and hop over to Barbara’s page for instructions on how to be a part of LiveSTRONG: With a Taste of Yellow. My submission is past the jump.

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I’m in the middle of the “getting to know you” period with my new camera. I haven’t taken it out for serious shooting yet, but I have managed to screw around a bit. Of course, the inaugural photo had to be Kaweah.

our sleep olympian hard at work on her exhausting training regimen

But you didn’t see the first few captures because I always shoot in RAW and my software was not compatible (i.e. it’s OLD) with the latest Adobe RAW version. After yet another upgrade (phase 4 now complete), we are now cooking with gas! I jumped from CS2 to CS4 (sorry CS3, never knew ya) and I like it so far… as long as it doesn’t require a desktop upgrade because we have all of $.52 to our names now.

the last of the harebells

the local stands are still predominantly green

Our nights are flirting with frosts again and it is starting to smell like autumn. I have apples on the brain too! Okay, but we have just under two weeks left of summer, so let’s not shortchange anyone.

organic lemon

**Jump for more butter**

There are times when I’m wrong. I know this shocks you as much as it shocks me. A year ago you could find me railing against Twitter and FaceBook declaring I would never join either one. Today, you will find me railing against Twitter and FaceBook ON Twitter and FaceBook. Twitter is for the egomaniacs, minutiae-obsessed, and people who never shut up. FaceBook is for those who don’t know how to blog. Okay, I’m making fun (sort of). I drank the punch for a variety of reasons, but one of the benefits of Twitter that I never foresaw was how it connected me to Boulder. I don’t live in Boulder. When people ask where I live, I usually tell them Boulder, Colorado because few people have heard of my little mountain town. So one evening the tweet activity was hopping and I’m tweeting away with Andrew (follow @andrewhyde on Twitter), the man who knows EVERYONE, and a fellow tweets that he likes the name of my blog and if I drop by his shop, I’ll get free chocolate. Andrew too, if he comes with me.

Yeah. Sure you will, Mr. Axe Murderer.

There is much spamming on Twitter (I had 67 hot babes ask me to check out their profiles the other day… uh huh) and you get your fair share of freaks. I checked his profile and read that Rick is an organic chocolatier in Boulder. REALLY? I did some quick research and saw he is the real deal. I asked if it would be okay for me to come by and take pictures. Sure, but just try the chocolate first, no obligations. Great! I’ll get in touch when I find some time in my schedule. Over a month later, I’m donning crocs and a hair net as I pass through the glass doors into the inner workings of Seth Ellis Chocolatier headquarters. This is why I love Twitter – it has brought me closer to the fooding community in Boulder and it’s a GREAT community. I still hate FaceBook.

chocolate truffle to nibble on while i waited for rick

**Jump for more butter**