use real butter

Recipe: watermelon feta salad

I don’t have my typical amount of travel lined up this summer because I wanted to be home to provide Kaweah with a stable, happy routine. In the spring, a few medical issues cropped up for her and our travel schedule seemed to exacerbate her condition. Now that I’ve been home for a bit, she’s doing well – really well. She’s super waggy and playful and pretty much back to her old self (read that as herself, but old). Another upside to sticking around is that I’m able to get outside into the Colorado that I love on a regular basis.

The past several days have been brutally hot – hitting triple digits down in Denver and on the surrounding flats. Up here in the mountains, we popped over 80°F, which is borderline unbearable for me. Luckily… gleefully… we were granted a welcome cooldown on the first day of summer. It just so happened that Erin and I had planned a hike for that morning. It was deliciously cool at the alpine lake and we were both so very very happy.

a very happy erin

pausing on the bridge and still happy

We popped by Tin Shed Sports in Nederland for lunch. It’s the new game in town: a pro bike/ski shop run jointly with Salto Coffee Works where you can grab a bite, brew, glass of wine and hang out on the patio with a glorious view of the mountains.

the roadie: brie, prosciutto, greens, onions, pickles

Kaweah didn’t go hiking with us because she’s no longer strong enough to power up the trails anymore. But she gets her evening walkies in, and this time she met a new little puppy friend who is in training to become a guide dog. She loves puppies, especially when they are behind a fence and can’t jump on her head and chew her ears with their sharp puppy teeth.

meet huck – who was constantly in motion and cute as a button

I’m glad I took advantage of the cooler weather, because the mercury is on its way up again. We have quite a bit of entertaining lined up at the House of Butter. With warmer temperatures, I’m planning a lot of salads. So when I was flipping through a new cookbook that my friend, Alice, of Savory Sweet Life authored, I considered several of her beautiful, quick and easy recipes.

alice’s new cookbook

I did a double take on one salad in particular. That salad is a perfect representation of her blog name too – because it is both savory AND sweet. And it’s phenomenal. Watermelon, feta cheese, onions, mint, lime juice, and olive oil. I love me some watermelon in summer. On those blistering hot days of summer, it’s all I want to eat. Now, before you think, “What a strange combination!” I urge you to try it first. I made a half recipe and proceeded to eat it all.

simple ingredients

cube the watermelon

slice the onions

i like my onions sliced super thin

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: lavender lemonade

I want to thank those of you who shared your pet stories for the giveaway. Since Kaweah is in her golden years, the comments about the senior doggies and kitties were particularly touching for me as were the stories of how our pets comfort us when we are grieving or very ill. So thank you for that, all of you. We try to make the selection of winners as impartial and as random as possible by letting Kaweah choose. Retirees though… they aren’t always in the mood to get back to their old jobs.

stretching out in the sun

aw yeah…

We tried again later when storm clouds blocked out the sun and Kaweah had gotten a sufficient amount of beauty rest. I lined up ten treats – each representing a number from 0 to 9 – and recorded the number of the first treat Kaweah went for. Then I replaced the eaten treat(s) (sometimes she ate two before I could get to her) and we repeated this nine times for a total of ten digits (5 winners).

that’s a four

The winners are #35: Ira (Boxers N Birds All Breed Animal Rescue Inc. in Oceanside, CA), #46: Jane, #52: Courtney (Boulder Humane Society), #65: Lisa@The Cutting Edge of Ordinary, and #80: Pat! Congratulations to the winners – you should be receiving an email from me shortly. Thank you all for listing so many wonderful animal shelters and rescue organizations who care for those animals in need of a home and someone to love.

sunset reflected off our house

love those summer storms

We are entering that thunderstorm cycle in the mountains now. Overnight temperatures are nowhere close to freezing anymore and nighttime is whittled down to a few hours at best. Le sigh. Oh, but you know what’s coming, don’t you? Summer things like blockbuster movies, a new tube of sunblock, eating outside, grilling, parties, hiking, and kicking back with an ice-cold drink. I had lunch at a soft opening for Native Foods in Boulder a couple of weeks ago. My friend, Michael (@BSidesNarrative on Twitter), told me the lavender lemonade at Native Foods was the best. So I tried it. I liked it! And you know where this is going. I know how to make lemonade…

lemons

juiced

Most people think of lavender as an odor, not a flavor. It’s widely used in de-stinking or perfuming the heck out of something, someplace, or someone. This is not that lavender. It *is* lavender – the herb – but it is culinary lavender which means it is okay to consume. Mine is organic and you can find it at places like Savory Spice Shop or the Whole Foods bulk spice section.

pretty purple

a few tablespoons

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: vietnamese bun bo xao

Stormy weather. I love it! I like watching the clouds roil overhead as they blot out the sun. Usually, I’m on the lookout for lightning, because it’s one of those elusive, dangerous, exciting, and beautiful things – both to capture with my camera and to witness with my eyes. However, I’m never one to pass up a good show of mammatus clouds. They’re more common down on the Great Plains (Boulder/Denver and parts east) where atmospheric instability is pretty common in summer. Mammata are common up here in the mountains too, but they don’t get a chance to develop as much nor are they as long-lived as they are down on the flats. But we’ve been getting some stormy days and nice displays.

gone in seconds

dissipating mammata and a nice vertical draft over the continental divide

and right over my hizouse!!

Some of you might be aware that I’ve been doing a lot of sandwich research of late. A LOT of sandwich research. Last week I asked some gal pals if they wanted to grab non-sandwich fare for lunch… I had a hankering for Vietnamese food – particularly the rice noodle salad. And so we did and it was great, but… how hard can it be to make this at home? Not that hard at all, it turns out.

bun (bún): rice noodles

I did a little snooping about on the interwebs and found this lovely video (with Aussie accents – bonus!) on how to make Vietnamese bun bo xao (beef noodle stir-fry). When I went to Asian Seafood Market in Boulder, I asked Maria if the rice vermicelli package was the right one to make bun. She grimaced and said, “That too skinny!” and snatched the package from my hand, disappeared down the aisles, and returned with the right kind – a thicker rice noodle. “Use this for bun!” So don’t get the skinniest vermicelli, but rather the noodles that look about 1/16th of an inch in diameter (reference a ruler if you don’t know what I’m talking about because super skinny noodles will kinda suck).

While I was digging around among the bags of herbs in the back of the store, I happened upon what looked like Vietnamese mint. I didn’t know for sure though, because the video was the first I had ever heard of it. I brought it to Maria and asked if this was Vietnamese mint. She smiled and said yes, she likes to use it in salads and soups. She opened the bag and tore a leaf off for me to smell. “You put this with noodles!”

(left to right) basil, mint, vietnamese mint, thai basil

vietnamese mint up close

I know that Pacific Ocean Market (in Broomfield) and H Mart (in Aurora) carry fresh perilla – which is also called sesame leaves or shiso leaves – but I didn’t have the time to drive out that far. I asked Maria if she had shiso leaves. A sharp “no!” was the response. Then I asked if it was okay for me to substitute basil for shiso in the bun bo xao. She squinted her eyes at me and said yes, use basil – why would you use shiso? Great, I was all set.

sliced beef, bean sprouts, herbs, cucumbers, lemongrass, garlic, onion, rice noodles, fish sauce

minced lemongrass, sliced onion, minced garlic, sprouts, sliced cukes, beef (flank steak)

**Jump for more butter**