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Recipe: pistachio almond cake

Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday. Don’t freak out or anything. I’m telling this to you now so you can get your act together with a couple of days to spare. My mom called Monday and sternly warned that under no uncertain terms, she would be very very upset with me if I sent her anything for Mother’s Day. She couldn’t see my furrowed brow and sideways scrunched mouth as I looked at the shipping receipt on my desk. Both she and my MIL are getting some amazing Helliemae’s caramels (jasmine and classic salt, if you must know). Hey, at least I listened to her sage advice on retirement accounts when I was 21.

flowers for all of the moms out there, because they make the world a better place

Last month, Courtney posted a photo on Facebook of a slice of cake she had gotten at a bakery. It was an almond pistachio cake with whipped cream and it looked incredibly good. I said as much and she confirmed my suspicions. I have a slight love affair/obsession with pistachios because they have such a beautiful flavor and they are green, which is the best color ever. So of course, I went looking about the interwebs for a good pistachio cake recipe. I died a little bit with every recipe that called for instant pistachio-flavored pudding mix, but eventually I did find one that appealed to me and I thought it fitting to post a cake before Mother’s Day in case you wanted to bake something special for Mom.

kaweah kept creeping around during the shoot

Ultimately, I converged on the idea of two layers of pistachio cake and one layer of almond cake, all frosted with whipped cream. You are welcome to add jam layers, chocolate ganache, soaking syrups (mmm, amaretto soaking syrup!), swap the whipped cream frosting out for buttercream frosting. The point is – make a cake that you (or Mom) will love. The first step for me was to make pistachio paste because I can’t source it easily and I was delighted to find a recipe for it on Ellie’s blog. If you can purchase Love’n Bake’s pistachio paste, that will save you quite a handsome chunk of time.

pistachios, corn syrup, sugar, water

blanch the pistachios and remove the skins (time-consuming task)

blender it all up (actually, I recommend a food processor over a blender)

a beautiful green paste

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Recipe: pear frangipane tart

Last Friday was the first day of March. And even though the first day of March has everyone running around shouting “Spring! Spring!” that date means a couple of things to me: a) March is typically when Colorado gets her biggest snow storm tracks (HELL YES!) and b) Jeremy and I have to calculate how many years we’ve been married. Sixteen years. How is it that I remember our first date – an afternoon stroll through Old Pasadena – as vividly as I remember yesterday, and yet it feels like Jeremy has been a part of my entire life? Maybe we’re just getting old… I could not have dreamed of a better companion.

14 years ago (kaweah at 11 weeks)

summer hikes in the rockies

hikes in the snow

we love the snow

my best pals

here is to the journey before us

I’m not in denial about spring. I love Colorado spring! Everyone knows (or should know) how awesome spring skiing can be. The arrival of March jolts me out of my winter food mindset too. I set about “spring cleaning” my archives from the last season to make room for new recipes with fresh spring produce. So let’s wave good-bye to February with a pear frangipane tart. Despite the use of a winter fruit, this tart is delightfully bright and cheery any time of year. You can substitute peaches, plums, apples, as you like.

red d’anjou pears

start with the pâte sucrée: butter, vanilla, egg yolk, cream, flour, confectioner’s sugar, salt

pulse the butter and dry ingredients together

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Recipe: thai sizzling beef

The logistics of coordinating a full moon ski where I live can be a tricky business. There are a few criteria to be met:

1) It should be during the full moon (otherwise it’s just a night ski).
2) There needs to be enough snow to ski.
3) It needs to be a clear night (so you can see by moonlight).
4) It can’t be too windy because ground blizzards are pretty miserable by day, as it is.
5) It can’t be too cold, which has more to do with the wind most of the time.
6) You should be completely familiar with the route.

#6 is assumed, but it’s good to state it anyway. Just like you should have plenty of extra layers, hats, gloves, headlamps, food, water. Our local mountains are notorious for brutal winds which in turn scour the snow into 20-foot drifts that border bare ground. It is what it is. I was coordinating a full moon ski with friends, but really I was just hoping Mother Nature would let it happen. Weather forecasts were for cloudy skies and breezy conditions (gusts to 25 mph) five days out. Around here (and perhaps where you live too?) the weather forecast is most accurate right when it is happening. We got a good dump of snow on Sunday, then bluebird skies on Monday. I waited for afternoon clouds to form, but they didn’t. It was go time!

nichole gets felix into his snow suit in the parking lot

Jeremy and I met up with our intrepid friends Nichole, Luke, and their 2 year old, Felix. We marveled at the fat, orange moon rising over the Great Plains as we geared up in the parking lot and braced ourselves against the wind. Heading out toward the lake, Luke pulled the sled carrying Felix (Luke is super fast, this is how we make him ski like the rest of the mortals) while we kept moving to stay warm and keep up. As the moon rose higher, we admired how bright the stars remained overhead. Luke spotted something on the western horizon moving southwest, up, and across the sky. We watched it and ran through the possibilities: not a plane (lights not flashing), not a satellite (too bright), could it be… space station! Well how cool is that?!

felix got out of the sled to ski with us for a bit

luke is ready to head down the hill with felix in the sled

Once home, Jeremy did verify that it was the space station we saw crossing the sky (magnitude -1). I could not have hoped for a better evening with dear friends. Okay, we could have done without the winds, but at least they weren’t gale force. The next morning, we awoke to…

big fluffy snowflakes

taking a break in the afternoon to get a little ski tour

it snowed all day

I love the snow so much. In summer, I remember it with great longing. It lingers in my mind. I obsess about it until the storms return, hopefully in autumn. I get that way with food too. There are dishes I miss from our Southern California days that stir my taste memories. Thai sizzling beef was a favorite of ours at Min’s Kitchen in La Cañada. It’s a marinated beef over fresh spinach with peanut sauce served on a sizzling platter. I’ve been meaning to reproduce it, if I could. I’m no recipe developer, I just know when I like a dish.

flank steak, fish sauce, vegetable oil, sugar, salt (omit the salt)

slice the beef

mix together

marinate

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