use real butter

Recipe: strawberry hazelnut salad

The new lens arrived! We are getting acquainted. I think I like her. K-dawg and I took her out for a test drive yesterday morning.

i love it here, despite the winds

Kaweah exhibited the strangest behavior I’ve ever witnessed in her on the way back out from the lake. I won’t bore you with details, but after discussing with Jeremy last night on the phone, we’re pretty sure it was a mountain lion or bobcat following us for well over a mile. I never thought of Kaweah as “scrumptious” before, but I imagine she must be a tasty looking chubby little morsel for a big cat these days. When we reached the car, we encountered a much friendlier resident (actually, I’m sure if it were large and fanged and clawed like a mountain lion, we might not consider it friendlier).

cute-a-roonie

We had a good friend come up for dinner earlier this week as I needed to pick her brain for information on the Sierra Nevada. For dinner, I made that fan-friggin-tastic roasted pepper and goat cheese tart. You must make it, just do it – it’s freaking awesome and you can replace the goat cheese with feta if you like. I totally cannot shut up about it. I was also working on that strawberry chiffon buttercream cake goodness for dessert. And 30 minutes before M arrived, I remembered that I had forgotten a salad. Hands on hips, foot tapping, brain whirring. I had greens, but what else?

strawberries to the rescue

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: macadamia nut and chocolate chip blondies

Before I began blogging, the only Crazy emails I received were from people I knew. And because I knew them, I could usually understand the Crazy in their emails (I don’t mean understanding why they were headcases, but just that it made sense to see Crazy in their correspondences). Now, with a public blog, I get lots of Crazy from people I don’t know. That makes it harder to determine if the sender is Crazy, Stupid, or just a Jackass. Thankfully, the majority of the emails that pop up in my in-box from strangers are really very nice. So thank you (you, as in the emotionally stable and well-mannered yous) for being so sweet and polite and funny and for not being a nutjob.

not so nutty: after the big dump, it was a bluebird day

april skiing – get it while it’s good

Sometimes I wish I didn’t have a local’s mentality. We skied up the powder on Saturday and then woke up Sunday morning debating whether or not to ski. There was only 1.5 inches of fresh (snow) overnight. Should we go? Is it worth our time? Won’t be as good as yesterday. Yesterday was soooo good. I’m sure it won’t be that bad… Well, it was freaking awesome. Not as awesome as 10 inches of pow, but pretty spanking. Add to that the calm winds (a rarity for our area) and you really cannot ask for much more. At home, we had a late lunch which I’ll have to blog about next week (the words New Magic Awesome Sauce should stir some curiosity). Spring skiing, I thought staring into the lovely flowers Nichole had brought me on Friday. Good stuff. Here we are straddling two seasons again and I love it.

daffodils inside, snow outside

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Recipe: sticky toffee pudding

Several months ago, I met up with Manisha and Kitt for the first time. We had a food blogger food- and photo-fest at The Kitchen in Boulder. I don’t typically dig on dessert despite making dessert (what seems like) all of the time, but I am always curious to see how restaurants make and plate their desserts, so I am usually willing to split an order with my companions. We agreed on the sticky toffee pudding, something I had heard raves about from others who have dined at The Kitchen. Rich. Delicious. I’m not a big chocolate fan, but I will shove little old ladies out of the way for toffee (not really, but you get my point).

i like dates, dried dates, lunch dates, ski dates, play dates…

I was perusing The Kitchen’s website the other day, in search of their phone number to make a reservation for my dear Kell’s visit in April (she’s coming allllll the way from Oz!) when I noticed a recipes link. Huh. Click. Click click. Click. STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING?! You know I had to try it.

choped dates in the food processor

**Jump for more butter**