use real butter

Recipe: parsnip chowder

From the moment we entered the month of March, life got busier. It wasn’t unexpected because I could see the colored tags that flooded my calendar starting in March into April through… November. It’s all good in my book. We kicked it off with a special 15th anniversary dinner at Frasca. I think Frasca is Jeremy’s favorite restaurant. In fact, I know it is. From the moment I placed the reservation, he could not shut up about going there for dinner. It was phenomenal, just like every other time we’ve been there.

appetizer sampler: cured meats, grissini, frico caldo, batter-fried shrimp

tortelloni: agribosco borlotti bean and house-made mortadella

maine sea scallops, caviar, cauliflower, meyer lemon

torta di cioccolato: chocolate cake, passionfruit caramel buttercream, mac nuts, dark chocolate gelato

sfogliata: puff pastry, brown butter-hazelnut frangipane, banana, hazelnut crumble, custard gelato

I think March also stands for Maintenance because we’re doing a lot of that with the cars, the house, our outdoor gear, my photo equipment, finances, the dog, and well… everything. Perhaps it’s that spring cleaning thing? And speaking of spring, some of my friends in other parts of the country have started talking about the arrival of strawberries. We here in Colorado are months off from strawberries. For me, spring is merely a sunnier, warmer, corn-snowier, cheery version of the winter ski season. Soup is still on the menu.

so are parsnips

potatoes, parsnips, onion, parsley, milk, half and half, butter, bacon

peeled parsnips, washed potatoes and parsley

We always forget how much we love parsnips until we taste that sweet, earthy spice of this root vegetable. It looks like a white carrot with exaggerated proportions. They are cousins. I willingly eat the hell out of both. So this recipe for parsnip chowder appealed to me when I was looking to change up our soup rotation. A big pot of soup lasts for several days around here.

diced: parsnips, potatoes, onions

oh, did i mention there is bacon?

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Recipe: parmesan gremolata smashed potatoes

What I think I know is inversely proportional to what I actually know.

When I met my mentor, Michael Frye, I had come to a point in photography where I felt I had hit a wall. I had been self-taught to that point. I thought I needed some technical guidance to get me past that wall and specifically asked Michael to address those issues. But we also spent nearly twelve hours shooting together. I was perfectly happy standing in the cold rain or driving in circles around Yosemite Valley trying to second guess the weather, although I wasn’t sure what I was necessarily “learning”. It wasn’t until days, weeks, even months later that I began to process and understand. Michael wasn’t just teaching me the zone system or giving compositional pointers – he was teaching me to see both in time and in space, to feel moods and interpret light in ways that were orthogonal to my previous way of thinking. He challenged me and I think he made me a better photographer.

Michael has released his second ebook Exposure for Outdoor Photography. I received a free copy (under no obligation), because Michael is nice like that. I’m sure many people think “I know about exposure, there probably isn’t anything new in there for me.” Well, I know about exposure and I still read it front to back. Even if Michael didn’t have a sentence of new information for me, his book would inspire, reinforce, and get me thinking.

Michael offers a proper treatment of exposure in terms of the fundamentals of outdoor photography, essentially making this a great basic guide for photography. Michael’s stunning works illustrate key teaching points and case studies. His sage advice is liberally sprinkled throughout the pages along with exercises to drive home important concepts. Even though the book seems to target “beginners”, Michael also touches on some intermediate and advanced techniques. What makes it so appealing to me is how Michael shares his thought process before, during, and after the shoot. So if you are wanting to up your game, this book might be a great place to start. Read Michael’s description on his blog. Unfortunately the discount has expired (sorry, I’ve been super busy!), but $5 is a steal for instruction from this master of nature and landscape photography.

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The other day when I was shooting this recipe, we got a phone call from our neighbor. He said there was a black fox hanging out in another neighbor’s yard. We had seen that fox for the first time just a few days earlier. It was indeed black which made it special because ALL of the foxes around here are red. It’s actually a silver fox, but at that moment no one cared, we were all reaching for our cameras before it slipped away into the woods. My preference would have been to photograph the fox someplace other than the junk show that is my neighbor’s yard, but… you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.

And then it was back to dinner because our tummies were grumbling after ski touring that afternoon. I was more excited about the side dish than the main, because it was potatoes. And I freaking love me some potatoes.

fingerling potatoes, olive oil, parsley, lemon, parmesan, garlic

boil the potatoes until cooked through

I’ve seen smashed, hot crash, smasher, etc. potatoes all over the interwebs, in magazines, and at restaurants. I really had no excuse for not having made them myself at home. What finally pushed me over the edge was a side of garlic smashers at The Kitchen Next Door. I think those bad boys are deep fried, but I decided to oven roast mine.

place on an oiled baking sheet

squash

squashed

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Recipe: butternut squash pasta sauce

We received some snow.

And the Big Bad Wolf stopped trying to blow our house down.

Paradise can be a harsh mistress, but when she smiles favorably upon us there is nothing for it. Time to get outside!

glorious bluebird day with no winds to speak of

I was getting tired of the indoor workouts – continuous motion while going nowhere and still feeling stir crazy. All exercise is not created equal, you know. Kaweah won’t go near the treadmill (she’s scared of it), but she loves to go for a ski. We are both ardent champions of outdoor activity.

let’s go let’s go let’s go!

Jeremy and I finally grabbed a day at Vail too. No lines, no crowds, fresh falling snow, great conditions, and overpriced burgers. We skied the bumps, steeps, and trees. At the end of the day, my entire body was hurting, but in the best way possible.

overlooking vail valley

i biffed in the glades, but it was so pretty i had to take a picture

still on the ground, the view of the lovely snow and blue sucker holes in the sky

By the time we get home from a day on the big ski hills, we are pretty much ready to eat the kitchen counter. Being the planner that I am, I try to have something in the refrigerator that is easy to heat up and consume. Lately, this butternut squash pasta sauce has been a delightful change of pace from cream-based or tomato-based sauces.

butternut squash, butter, greek yogurt, parmesan, sage, shallots, salt, nutmeg, pepper, olive oil

I’ve been crushing on butternut squash for years, but only in the past couple of years have I started to prepare it at home. I find butternut squash ravioli irresistable, but I didn’t want to go to the trouble of making ravioli. I wondered if there might be a way to invert the dish, that is to make the filling the sauce? Sure enough, when I looked around on the interwebs, Elise and Garrett had done just that. I followed their lead with a few changes.

peeled, cored, and diced

toss with salt, pepper, olive oil

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