use real butter

Recipe: matcha green tea mochi ice cream

There is a period in summer when the sun is set on BROIL and I slink around barely tolerating the heat (or not tolerating it, as Jeremy might point out). The best I can muster is a combination of avoiding the sun and ignoring it. By the time the pine pollen has cleared in the mountains, we are chomping at the bit to get outside and run, hike, bike, anything. The snow pack is dwindling which isn’t abnormal for late June, but I cry on the inside to see it melt. Still, it means wildflowers are sure to follow.

a little ice remains on lake isabelle

That morning hike got the ball rolling on a day of many very excellent things. There was a package waiting for me when I got home – the very best kind of package. My friend, Jamie, gifted me several AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL custom-made cutting boards from her studio. Her craftsmanship and artistry left me speechless, as did her generosity. Also? She is totally badass. I am already sleeping with the little board under my pillow, I love it so much.

i shall cherish these

In the evening, I took Jeremy to dinner at his favorite restaurant in Boulder, Frasca, to celebrate his official notice of tenure.

congratulations, sweetheart!

And to top off an already terrific day, we were rewarded at home with lightning storms and REAL rain that washed away the pollen, soaked the thirsty ground, cooled the air, and smelled of mountain summer.

forked lightning

cloud to cloud strikes

We have since been enjoying milder temperatures, periodic rainstorms, and dramatic clouds forming over the high peaks. But I know the heat will attempt to return, as it competes with the clouds for attention. For the past few weeks, the only foods I’d been wanting to prepare were cold or frozen. Sometimes in late afternoon, the house would be so warm I’d open the freezer and cram my head and shoulders into the bottom shelf for a brief second, or two, or three… While I was in the freezer last week, I noticed a quart of passion fruit ice cream in the door and decided I ought to do something with it.

you’ll need potato starch (or cornstarch) and glutinous rice flour

Mochi is one of my favorite Asian treats. The slightly sweet rice flavor and chewy texture is wonderful with ice cream, sorbet, or frozen yogurt. You have no doubt seen the mochi ice cream nuggets sold in Asian grocery stores or the Trader Joe’s freezer troughs. When I lived in Southern California, I was in an eternal state of overheating. I routinely poured my upper body into the Trader Joe’s freezers and when I approached the “now it’s awkward” time threshold, I’d grab a box of mochi ice cream to go.

Two things: 1) Glutinous rice flour doesn’t contain any gluten. I have to say this every time because someone out there freaks out every time. It’s just a descriptor for how dang sticky the stuff is. 2) Mochi is stupid-easy to make.

water, matcha green tea powder, sugar, glutinous rice flour

mix the matcha and rice flour together

add the water

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Recipe: french silk pie

I was packing a few last kitchen items Tuesday evening when I looked up to see a nice rosy glow on James Peak. It’s been a while since I’ve had the leisure to notice sunset because our time has been sucked up with a project of sorts.

sunset on james peak

Early Wednesday morning, we piled a bunch of stuff, ourselves, two mountain bikes, and the dog into two cars and headed west because we had an appointment at noon. Jeremy took Kaweah in the Outback (Subie) and I followed in the WRX (Roo). He told me later that she faced backwards for the first 30 minutes to see where I was before she settled down for the 4.5 hour drive.

the view from the gas station at copper mountain

road trippin’ through colorado

we closed on a great little place in crested butte!

i celebrated with a raspberry lime fizzy drink avec umbrella

This post is coming to you from the new Crested Butte branch of use real butter! Butter headquarters remains in Nederland (near Boulder), but I’ll be working periodically from the CB office too. We’re still unpacking stuff, but Kaweah really digs the new place and every window has a view of a towering snowy mountain (because we are surrounded by towering snow-capped mountains). So let’s celebrate with some pie – some French silk pie. It’s super smooth which might be why it has “silk” in the name, but if you’ve ever chomped on silk (which I have), it’s got NOTHING on this pie!

am i right?

Start with the crust. I made a chocolate cookie crumb crust. Actually, I originally crushed a bunch of organic chocolate graham cracker bunnies (Annie’s brand), but the color was too light for what I had in mind. Those crumbs went into a bag for later projects and I resorted to an organic Oreo cookie (Newman-O’s). You know the drill, split the cookies open and scrape off the cream filling, then introduce the chocolate cookies to the food processor.

for the crust: organic oreos, butter, sugar, vanilla extract

scrape away the cream filling

combine cookie crumbs, sugar, vanilla, and melted butter

press into a pie plate or baking pan and bake

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Recipe: pistachio almond cake

Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday. Don’t freak out or anything. I’m telling this to you now so you can get your act together with a couple of days to spare. My mom called Monday and sternly warned that under no uncertain terms, she would be very very upset with me if I sent her anything for Mother’s Day. She couldn’t see my furrowed brow and sideways scrunched mouth as I looked at the shipping receipt on my desk. Both she and my MIL are getting some amazing Helliemae’s caramels (jasmine and classic salt, if you must know). Hey, at least I listened to her sage advice on retirement accounts when I was 21.

flowers for all of the moms out there, because they make the world a better place

Last month, Courtney posted a photo on Facebook of a slice of cake she had gotten at a bakery. It was an almond pistachio cake with whipped cream and it looked incredibly good. I said as much and she confirmed my suspicions. I have a slight love affair/obsession with pistachios because they have such a beautiful flavor and they are green, which is the best color ever. So of course, I went looking about the interwebs for a good pistachio cake recipe. I died a little bit with every recipe that called for instant pistachio-flavored pudding mix, but eventually I did find one that appealed to me and I thought it fitting to post a cake before Mother’s Day in case you wanted to bake something special for Mom.

kaweah kept creeping around during the shoot

Ultimately, I converged on the idea of two layers of pistachio cake and one layer of almond cake, all frosted with whipped cream. You are welcome to add jam layers, chocolate ganache, soaking syrups (mmm, amaretto soaking syrup!), swap the whipped cream frosting out for buttercream frosting. The point is – make a cake that you (or Mom) will love. The first step for me was to make pistachio paste because I can’t source it easily and I was delighted to find a recipe for it on Ellie’s blog. If you can purchase Love’n Bake’s pistachio paste, that will save you quite a handsome chunk of time.

pistachios, corn syrup, sugar, water

blanch the pistachios and remove the skins (time-consuming task)

blender it all up (actually, I recommend a food processor over a blender)

a beautiful green paste

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