use real butter

Recipe: herbed garlic knots

Of all the friends I have made through blogging, the two people I hold dearest in my heart are Todd and Diane. The first time I met them in person was shortly after I finished my radiation treatment when I had a mere hint of fuzz on my head and my face was still puffy and swollen from chemotherapy. They invited me and Jeremy into their home and paradise of a garden for an evening of amazing food, great conversation, puppy time, many laughs, and a generosity that touched our hearts. Todd and Diane are my favorite kind of people – no bullshit, honest, straight shooters. We think of them as family. We weep over their losses and we celebrate their successes. I was beaming with pride when I opened up my copy of their cookbook Bountiful.

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of the book from the publisher with no obligation. Opinions are entirely my own.

todd and diane visiting us in crested butte this past september

300 pages of awesome

As I flipped through the pages of this hefty tome, I muttered, “They should have called it ‘Beautiful’.” And it IS beautiful, filled with their signature stunning photography and equally wonderful recipes. If you’ve been a reader of use real butter for any length of time, you’ll know that I draw much inspiration (and recipes) from Todd and Diane. They are always willing to share their incredible food and knowledge, making everything as accessible to others as possible. The book itself is organized by families of fruits and vegetables that they grow in their lush Southern California garden. I tagged so many recipes to try, but there was no question which one I wanted to make first. I’ve been eyeing these garlic knots for years and now I had zero excuse not to bake them.

the dough: flour, salt, yeast, sugar, olive oil, water

combine the warm water, yeast, sugar, salt, and olive oil in a large vessel

add the flour when the yeast is dissolved

let the dough rise, covered in a warm location

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Recipe: chanterelle mushroom hand pies

Autumn is the fleetingest of fleeting seasons in the mountains, or so it seems. Sunday felt like real winter as we hiked snowy trails, falling snowflakes caught up in our hair and settling on our hats, gloves, and the tops of our packs. Our last trail run left my calves sore from all the slipping and sliding on ice. Not quite enough snow to ski, but enough to warrant wearing traction devices for running. Shoulder season puts me in a mindset for winter. I can’t wait!

high winds sculpt beautiful clouds

snowy stream crossings

Cold is relative. Two months ago, 40°F felt chilly to me. Now, it feels warm as we enjoy temperatures dipping below freezing. I know in a few months, 40°F will be a veritable heat wave. Jeremy is a little more sensitive to the cold than I am. It’s probably because I have plenty of personal warmth (read: body fat) and he doesn’t. His hands and feet are always cold. He turns on his seat heater in both cars starting in September all the way through June. I saw a box of hand warmers for sale at Costco last week – 40 pair for something like $15. Then I had a mental image of taping an entire suit of hand warmers to Jeremy’s body and chuckled to myself. Moving on to the refrigerated produce section, I got the vegetables I needed and proceeded to leave – until I spotted something magical. It was nearly the equivalent joy of finding a porcini in the mountains – except this was a whole pound of fresh chanterelle mushrooms for $9. I grabbed one. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but I knew I was going to do something.

let’s make hand pies!

chanterelles, puff pastry, gruyère, egg, garlic, butter, salt, bacon, thyme, wine, cream, pepper

brush the mushrooms clean

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Recipe: buttermilk fried chicken

As we started out on our last trail run in Crested Butte, I was admiring the amber glow from the setting sunlight bouncing around the aspen leaves. I absolutely love running or riding through aspen stands in autumn. The path underfoot is carpeted with the signature shapes of aspen leaves in different hues of yellow, punctuated with blacks, browns, greens, oranges, reds. When the tree tops mingle above the trail, you are traveling through a veritable tunnel of gold. Sometimes Jeremy and I run separately when he wants to log more miles and I’m fine with that. I enjoy the solitude.

off he goes

Every time we leave Crested Butte, we scrub our place down. Kaweah cautiously watches from a safe distance when her nemesis, The Vacuum, prowls every inch of the house. It’s the kind of cleaning one does when you want ALL of your security deposit back, but we just want to take really good care of it. And the day we leave, Jeremy always gets his caffeine fix in town.

the BEST coffee in town

Driving east, we encountered several snow storms on the mountain passes, sunny dry roads in the big Colorado valleys, and freezing rain in between. I followed Jeremy as he drove with Kaweah in the smaller car. Whenever he came to a stop, I saw her little head bob up as if to say, “Are we there yet?!?!” Despite icy roads and whiteout conditions, we made our way safely home.

crawling over monarch pass (jeremy and kaweah in front of me)

kaweah was so happy to be home, she immediately passed out

It’s been snowing on and off since we got home. We’ve got the heat on winter settings and snuggy flannel sheets on the bed. There’s a growing list of things to do around the house to prepare for winter. Time to swap out the bike rack for the ski rack, tune the skis, pull out the running tights and snow gear. And of course there is cooking and baking which do double duty because the house fills with mouth-watering aromas surfing on currents of warm air. Nothing is better than home style comfort food to welcome you back. Let’s fry some chicken!

whole chicken legs, onion, garlic, buttermilk, salt, sugar, bay leaf, rosemary, celery seeds, black pepper

crush the spices

grating onion

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