use real butter

Recipe: mee krob

It’s taken me a few years to figure this out, but I think I have finally turned a photo roadtrip into a nice mini vacation for Jeremy as well. This basically means I’m learning to chill out a little. Just a little. And that’s hard to do in a place like Crested Butte when hillsides are bursting with colorful wildflowers while snow still lingers on the high peaks. I’m getting a lot better at knowing when to call it good, put the camera gear away and grab the bike to go exploring with Jeremy. We helped a fellow who broke his shoulder (he went over the handlebars on the trail) down the trail to get help. We even hit the bike park!

not a bad place to live – at the base of mount crested butte

and the town serves up some creative martinis (red raspberry)

cruising the lupines

it’s mind-blowingly beautiful

All of the snaps from the trip are on the photo blog.

Everywhere we went, there was a constant buzzing – that high-pitched whistle of hummingbirds zipping from flower to tree to chasing off another hummingbird and back to the flowers. They are territorial little guys. I spied two kinds.

the broad-tailed hummingbird

and the rufous

More hummingbirds here.

There aren’t a lot of places that make me question how much I love living where I live, but Crested Butte is certainly one of them. I’m not the wistful type and yet that place makes me point to random plots of land and ask Jeremy, “Is there any way you could be a freelance astrophysicist?”

wild iris and yellow paintbrush

delphinium, golden eye, and mule’s ears

lupine, scarlet gilia, and golden eye

sticky geranium

See the whole set on the photo blog.

Realistically, I’m doubting I could make the move to Crested Butte because I need to get my Asian on. We’re not just talking about Asian restaurants, I’m referring to Asian groceries. I need to feed my addiction for all things Chinese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Malaysian so I can make favorite dishes like mee krob. I had no idea what preserved garlic was (it’s really pickled garlic), but found it at my local Asian grocer, much to my delight!

rice vermicelli, fish sauce, vinegar, pickled garlic, tamarind, shrimp, sprouts, paprika, sugar

pickled/preserved garlic

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: french toast

Greetings from Crested Butte, Colorado! It’s one of my favorite places to be, especially right now at the height of the wildflower bloom. We chucked our bikes on top of the car and packed our hiking shoes in case the flowers were a bust. Turns out the flowers are great – but we’re still hiking and biking because it’s just too good not to. So it’s a lot of shooting, hiking, biking, eating, and not getting much sleep. Totally worth it. I’ve been taking some snappies with my backup camera because I realized a few trips back that I don’t do enough of that on my photoshoots.

lupine in bloom

the beautiful elk mountains

aspens in the rain

The town of Crested Butte is as charming as its surrounding wilderness is spectacular. We made sure to swing by our favorite place for dinner the first night – Secret Stash.

a soaking rain enveloped the town

there are t-shirts to be had

the interior decor is mountain hippie

but the pizza is 100% nomsilicious

This is where I’m happiest. Not Crested Butte specifically (although it is definitely in my top 5 favorite places ever), but outside, in and around the mountains. As offices go, I have to say it’s not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.

stalking hummingbirds

we are talking carpets of wildflowers

mount crested butte

mix and match

I’ve often said that breakfast is my least favorite meal of the day. I am just not a brekkie kind of girl. And if I *do* eat breakfast, I prefer something of the savory persuasion like bacon, sausage, or hash browned potatoes. Because we are waking up so early to shoot sunrise on this trip, we start to feel hungry by 9 am because we’ve been up for several hours by then. For simplicity’s sake, I just stuff a bunch of fresh fruit into my mouth and keep on shooting. But the one thing I love with fresh fruit is French toast.

cinnamon, vanilla, challah, eggs, and milk

thick slices of bread

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: white russian cake

Summer is meant for…

getting together with friends

and trying out new restaurants in town

scoping new blooms on the trail

admiring cumulonimbus at sunset

Summer isn’t necessarily meant for baking, at least not if you are me and become rather cranky when temperatures rise above 75°F. But that’s what I did over the weekend against my better judgment. It all started when Jeremy and I were cruising through Whole Foods a few months ago and a woman at the cake counter asked if we would like to sample some cake. Well… hell yes!

let’s make cake

and pour it into the pans

sliced layers

It was a slice of a Kim and Jake’s cake. Kim and Jake’s is a bakery in Boulder that specializes in adult cakes. I don’t mean anatomically correct adult cakes, I mean boozy cakes like Daiquiri, Strawberry Margarita, Dark and Stormy, or in this instance… White Russian. It wasn’t bad. I thought it could have used more booze, but I’m sure Whole Foods isn’t in the business of distributing cake strong enough to require a liquor license. I wondered what the heck is in a White Russian. I’m only familiar with the drink because of The Big Lebowski, a movie that is dearly loved in this house. So a White Russian contains vodka, coffee liqueur, and light cream.

heavy cream for the whipped frosting

kahlua and vodka to soak the cake

**Jump for more butter**