use real butter

Recipe: salsa del norte

Ever since Thursday night, when I was on the deck all bleary-eyed at 4 am trying to capture some astronomical magic, my sleep schedule has been completely whack. Since my parents are visiting, we’re dining out at some of our favorite places. I feel like I won’t want to eat for about a week after they leave. They go to bed on the early side (around 10pm) and then Jeremy and I stay up working late. But then Dad wakes up bright and early and well – Jeremy and I make it a rule to be awake when guests are awake. So you see, I am brain-function-impaired more and more each day. I suspect I’ll be stumbling around like a drunkard tomorrow.

i don’t even have emotions about these seared scallops right now

So normally, I keep my mouth shut about all of the people who tweet and post and Facebook about their gardens. You see, I’m lucky to not have killed off my little potted mint plant in the window sill yet (trust me, its days are numbered). I am so very green with envy of my many friends who not only live in a climate conducive to gardening, but know how to garden and then go and make gorgeous food with their bounties. Yes well, I’m the sucker who pays at the market for what she can’t grow. I long for the old days when my girlfriend at Clusters-R-Us came in with a bag of heirloom tomatoes from her yard and shouted, “Take them! I have so many I don’t know what to do with them!” It’s better than winning the lottery, in my opinion.

my store-bought produce

tomatoes are precious gems

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: savory goat cheese parmesan galette

I have a horrible habit of feeling like the whole day has gone to hell in a hand basket if I wake up late. And by late, I am talking about 7 am on a weekend… because I want to be on the trail by 6 am, see? [I’m pretty sure that was my dad’s doing because every weekend morning if my sister and I were not up and ready to go sailing by 7, he would come in and boom, “Are you going to waste your whole life away?!”] It’s not limited to mornings though. I missed a certain wildflower bloom while I was busy working on a major deadline. I met that bloody deadline. And yet I couldn’t help but feel like the wildflower season was over. But it’s not over, as I discovered.

the flowers, they are still there

plenty of parry’s primroses up high

I felt like I needed to get outside and do my thing, and that hike helped to jolt me out of this ridiculous mindset that the flowers were done and summer nearly ended. No, we are in the thick of summer and it is a glorious summer at that. I’m feeling refreshed, recharged, invigorated. Sure, I missed the early bloomers, but now I get to enjoy the mid-season flowers – brilliant pink parry’s primroses and fireweed; little blue forget-me-nots just starting in the alpine basins; pink, red, magenta, cream, and yellow paintbrush; purple asters, yellow sunflowers. I felt so wiped out last week, but I think I was just decompressing and bouncing back.

this is my therapy

[You can see the rest of the photos on the photo blog.] And believe it or not, I got some baking mojo back. Cooler, rainy weather helps with that and there has been a recipe I had been mulling over in my head for a year now. I love galettes, because they are easy and beautiful in that rustic way. Most galettes are sweet and while I enjoy fruity galettes, I really really had my heart set on a savory galette. I’ll take savory over sweet any day.

yup, butter goes into the parmesan crust

pour cold water in

I found a nice recipe for a Parmesan galette pastry and tweaked it a little bit. It comes together quickly in a food processor and then sits in the refrigerator. For the filling, I chose a bunch of ingredients I had on hand. You could put any combination of wonderful flavors in this galette as long as they aren’t too soggy.

mmm bacon, garlic, thyme, zucchini, goat cheese

Roasted garlic has always appealed to me for its nutty and buttery texture. It plays beautifully with goat cheese. If you want a punch to the filling, then you could mince the raw garlic and mix it in the with goat cheese – letting it bake in the oven instead.

roasted garlic

roasted garlic, goat cheese, salt, pepper, thyme

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: thai cucumber salad

The longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is coated in yellow over here. Every morning for the past couple of days and for the next two weeks, we will wake to a light dusting of pine pollen around our house. My morning ritual includes claritin, a nasal steroid spray, and allergy eye drops. So far so good.

But as most of you know, I straddle two seasons at any given time because Boulder is always warmer (nay, hotter!). So last week when I attended and photographed the grand opening for my friend’s awesome new restaurant Pica’s Boulder (5360 Arapahoe), it was hot. Not only was it hot, but the mosquitoes found me and loved my ankles to itty bitty bits, or bites. However, the hanger steak tacos were so absolutely worth it. Bite for bite, you know.

chef andy, chef trent

skewered amazing tantalizing shrimp

“you want some fire?”

temptation

Pica’s Boulder is open, kids. Head on down there to try their fabulous food, support a local business, and perhaps catch some World Cup action on the television. Authentic Mexican food has finally arrived in Boulder. Let’s show Pica’s some love.

And speaking of love… my world is blooming at last. Colorado’s high country will light up with colorful waves of wildflowers washing higher into the mountains as summer wears on. We like it. We like it very much.

the aspen leaves are getting bigger

snowfields give way to green alpine plants

alpine lakes paint their own watercolors

wild strawberry blossoms

western wallflower

Hot weather and the upcoming Food and Light workshop mean I need cooking to be simple, fast, and of low thermal consumption. I am a fool for pickles and I am especially so for Asian pickled vegetables.

rice wine vinegar, sugar, and salt

rough peeling cucumbers

I used to frequent Min’s Kitchen during my Southern California days. It is popular with the NASA JPL lunch crowd and the owner is a darling little woman who always greeted me and my friend, Squid (that’s not her real name – it’s a term of endearment), with such warmth. Once we sat down, they always brought a small dish with a pickled cucumber salad. Pickles always come in small dishes. Why is that? I could eat pickles until my stomach aches (and I have).

scrape out the insides

slice thin

**Jump for more butter**