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piescream

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013

Recipe: key lime pie ice cream

It’s snowing outside the house right now! In fact, there are a few storm tracks marching through to see the month of February out. I’ve been busting ass to get work done these past several non-snowy days so I can be ready if Ullr should bless our mountains with the pow pow. The weather dictates my work schedule (well, the weather and paying clients). Kaweah has been by my side the whole time. If I’m in the kitchen, she is a low and furry center island in the middle of the kitchen. If I’m shooting in the studio, she’s under the table, nearby, or walking in and out of the room onto the deck. If I’m in the office, she likes to curl up on a stack of her three dog beds. Don’t ask how we figured that one out.


she loves it



Tuesday morning, we spent a little time cuddling with Kaweah on our bed. She likes to be squashed between the two of us and lately we’ve been exchanging a few minutes of extra sleep for a few minutes of QT with the pup before we start our day. It was that Tuesday morning when we realized that she is going deaf. We did a lot of tests like calling “treat!” from around the corner only to have her come when it reached a certain volume. I had a good cry over that, but Kaweah has been spunky, happy, affectionate, and sweet. It doesn’t seem to faze her at all and her vision and especially her sense of smell are excellent. Most of our voice commands have been accompanied by hand signals, so the communication is fine as long as she can see us and as long as she feels like obeying.

pork adobado wet burrito at pica’s



So I had a business lunch meeting with Helliemae’s at Pica’s in Boulder earlier this week. There was a natural pause in the conversation after discussing business plans, business solutions, and flavors. My mind wandered to the next kitchen project I had in the queue. “You wanna know what I’m blogging next?” I asked Ellen. Her eyes got that Texan sparkle and the edges of her mouth curled up. “Yes,” she said leaning in, “tell me.” “Key lime pie ice cream.”

here’s what a bag of key limes looks like sans bag



Oh yes I did. I walked past the bagged Key limes in the grocery store a few weeks ago and all I could think about was key lime pie. Key lime pie. I’ve always made Key lime pie with regular limes – hence it was regular lime pie. When I finally got my grubby paws on Key limes, I didn’t feel like making a pie. I felt like making ice cream. Pie-ce cream?

key limes, sugar, eggs, salt, cream, milk, graham crackers

zest some limes

juice a dozen or so to get a half cup

mix the sugar, salt, juice, and zest together



**Jump for more butter**

warming trends

Sunday, February 17th, 2013

Recipe: italian-style beef and porcini stew

We check the weather forecasts and the weather outside of our windows all the time. Is it snowing? Is it going to snow? How much? Will it be warm and then cold? What direction is the wind coming from? What are the road conditions? We have to pay attention to these things, not just for our own recreational purposes, but because travel in Boulder Canyon can get downright dangerous when it snows heavily (this can happen during upslope events when the wind blows up the mountains from the flats) or when the snow hits a warm ground and then the temperature drops resulting in powdery snow on top of a slick of ice. The latter happened on Thursday. It took us 90 minutes instead of the nominal 30 minutes to get to Boulder because there were two accidents in the canyon.


which is why we prefer to stay in the mountains when it snows (iphone)



The same weather that can cause so much stress on the road or in town can bring a lot of joy to those of us who love it in the mountains. But it was short-lived as the weekend was warm and windy. They say the snow will be back soon. I hope so. I plan to be ready for it with this heady, hearty stew full of beef, porcini mushrooms, vegetables, herbs, and wine.

basil, tomato paste, pearl onions, bay leaf, rosemary, carrot, celery, garlic, grapeseed oil, red wine, dried porcini mushrooms, salt, pepper, onion, pancetta, beef chuck, diced tomatoes

soak the porcinis in hot water (save the liquid!)



That’s a long list of ingredients, but the prep is what takes the most effort. Once the prep is completed, the cooking is pretty straightforward and then the oven time is just you doing other things while the oven does its job. As with most recipes, but especially for the ones with a lot of ingredients, I think mise en place is essential for avoiding mistakes and reducing any heavy swearing in the kitchen. When you drain your porcinis, make sure to save the liquid and give it a pass through a fine-meshed sieve to catch any non-mushroom particles. Also, peeling pearl onions is pretty time-consuming. That was the first thing that made me think they weren’t worth the trouble.

porcini liquid, cubed beef, porcini mushrooms, onion, garlic, celery, pancetta, carrot, pearl onions

fry the pancetta

season the beef with salt and pepper

sear the beef on all sides



**Jump for more butter**

homemade lovin’

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

Recipe: mandarin pancakes (mushu shells)

The stars aligned and we were able to tear ourselves away from our computers and hit Vail this week while there was moderately decent snow. It’s all relative. When you’re looking at another crappy season (two in a row well below average) you get a little desperate to ski anything. It wasn’t bad at all. I mean it wasn’t hip-deep powder, but I realize I sound like a completely spoiled local when I say that… and I am.


smiles, everybody! smiles! (iphone)

bumps (iphone)

and trees (iphone)



I’ve got nothing planned for Valentine’s Day and I know for a fact that Jeremy doesn’t have anything planned either. Unless it snows, and then the plan is to ski it. The interwebs are exploding with sweets and chocolate and things that make my teeth hurt just to look at them. I was getting groceries in town and noticed that everywhere I went, the floral displays had grown 500% and the people selecting flowers were all (confused-looking) men. It was funny and then it was a little sad because I wished people (and not just men!) would bestow little gifts or be extra-nice to everyone all the time. That’s how it should be.

So I have a little gift for you here. I know that it can be a super pain in the hoohoo to find mushu wrappers for some folks and over the many years, readers have asked if I had a recipe for making them at home. And I didn’t. But I did. I just didn’t know it. I was asking my mom about making them when she said (almost shouted), “JenJen! Don’t you remember that I made those when you were little?!” Uh oh…


flour, water, and a little oil

stir in boiling hot water

make a dough



Mom did, in fact, make mushu wrappers or mandarin pancakes from scratch when I was a kid and I totally blanked on it. I think this is evidence that I tried to cram too many things into my finite brain-space and a few things got shoved out. Sorry, Mom! A recipe off my cookbook shelf confirmed just how simple they are to make.

knead the dough on a lightly oiled surface

smooth and elastic (but not sticky)

roll it out into a log

cut the log into 20 even pieces



**Jump for more butter**