use real butter

Recipe: chocolate stout cake

If you were a child of the 70s and experienced your teen years in the 80s, then you will likely have (painful) recollections of that song from whence the title of this post is ripped. I was never a fan of Survivor (a generic 80s pop band for gen Xers – not the reality show, okay), but that song ran around my head when I took a taste of this chocolate cake. My search is indeed over for the perfect chocolate bundt cake, thanks (once again) to Deb.

But before we get to talking about chocolate cake, I hope everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. If you don’t observe Memorial Day, then I hope you had a grand weekend anyway. No barbecues or picnics here. We had some deliciously cool, overcast, and at times, rainy weather. We trail ran, hiked, and mountain biked in our local mountains this weekend – call it high-altitude training. Now it hurts to walk, but in the good way.

kaweah soaks up the last rays of sun on friday

boulder flatirons in clouds

the mountain lakes are thawing

pussy willows

flowers are starting to pop up in our yard

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: cheesecake

We prepped a late dinner Sunday evening. As Jeremy opened the door to the deck to get the grill going, we noticed a nice little layer of snow everywhere. [I realize I talk about the weather a lot. It’s not because I’m trying to be polite, it’s because I am a bit of a weather dork.] Just a few hours earlier we were in Boulder, enjoying these:

tulips on pearl street

April is like that around here. Can’t make up its mind about the seasons. That’s sort of how I felt about this month’s Daring Bakers challenge… I couldn’t make up my mind about the flavor – so I did both.

daring bakers, baybeee – we knead to bake!

The official line: The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. The unofficial line is that Jenny rocks it along with our Superstahhh founders, Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice. I heart them all.

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chocolate chunk bundt cake

yup, this one

Talk about superconnected. That would be Andrew. I feel like a mountain hermit as it is, but hanging out with Andrew makes me feel like I’m visiting Boulder… from Mars. We met for lunch at The Kitchen yesterday and indulged in some good conversation over awesome salads. It’s always a struggle for me to figure out whether to go with what I love or try something new. You ever have that problem at a restaurant? I went with what I knew – the poached salmon salad – since I felt risk-averse (read: tired).

andrew’s chopped chicken salad

**Jump for more butter**