use real butter

Recipe: espresso chocolate sorbet

kaweah’s big giveaway
I am loving all of the responses to the Kaweah Birthday Giveaway! It looks like the majority of entrants are thinking: Dutch oven, knife, KitchenAid stand mixer, food processor, or baking equipment. Thank you for all of the sweet birthday wishes! You have no idea how many wags and butt wiggles Kaweah would be sending you if she could comprehend anything outside of the Here and Now :)

menu for hope 6
Please take a look at the Menu for Hope 6 post! I definitely encourage you to check out the master list of bid items, but if you are a local in the Denver-Boulder area or plan on a trip out to our beautiful part of the country then please consider placing a few raffle tickets toward two of the terrific items I’m hosting from two amazing local businesses: 1) a $100 gift certificate to The Culinary School of the Rockies (UW24) and 2) a $100 gift certificate to SALT the Bistro (UW25). Thank you for supporting this great campaign!

where are i now?
I find it incredibly cute and entertaining when Californians are bundled up in scarves and hats and it’s 50°F out. Our car rental lady said, “Keep warm!” when she handed us our paperwork. Jeremy and I laughed. We are in the bay area taking care of some matters for my grandma while having a pleasant visit with her. California is so different from where we live. They still have leaves on their trees – some green, some brilliant reds and yellows! We’ve been relishing the array of ethnicities walking about town, the sound of so many languages. We practically cry tears of joy at the countless Mexican, Thai, Viet, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Indian restaurants. When we lived in Southern California we used to take year-round flowers for granted. This morning I squealed with delight at the sight of some weeds blooming on the side of the road. To think just a couple of days ago we were telling one another how warm it was on the slopes.

21°f is positively balmy

Don’t get me started about more Trader Joes than you can shake a stick at. And booze – it’s EVERYWHERE. Not that I’m a big time boozer (you could hardly call me a small time boozer), but it makes me realize how much I truly loathe Colorado’s antiquated liquor laws. Anyhow, let me shut up already and get on with the recipe because I have to get up early…

coffee and chocolate – an alluring combination with dusky charms

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Recipe: taco seasoning

It’s Kaweah’s eleventh birthday today! In celebration, we here at use real butter are having a giveaway this week in honor of Kaweah. Hmmm… what should we give away?

a puppy?!?

I can’t give that puppy away – that was Kaweah almost 11 years ago (it was sunset, so she looks brown). We tossed around a ton of ideas, but finally settled on this puppy:

how about a $100 gift card to chefs?

I’m giving away a $100 CHEFS gift card this week. What better way to launch the giveaway than on our little random number generator’s birthday? To enter, follow these rules:

Leave ONE comment on this post telling me what you want to do with the $100 gift card (e.g. What are you going to get? Is it for you? Are you going to give the card to someone else?) Multiple comments will be deleted. Entries will be accepted until midnight, Friday December 18, 2009 (12:01 am will be Saturday the 19th). The winner will be selected at Crazy Random courtesy of Kaweah and the Astrophysicist and announced on Monday, December 21, 2009. I’m pleased to tell you that CHEFS ships internationally, so this giveaway is open to ANYONE. Woohoo!

For Kaweah’s birthday, we did an early celebration because we have too much going on today. I’m sure the majority of you will think us insane, but I thought a little bit of steak might be nice for Kaweah’s birthday dinner. Just a little. That’s not the insane part. The insane part was finding ourselves in front of the Whole Foods meat counter. Hmmm, why was the dry-aged rib-eye $19.99 a pound? I asked what the difference was between dry-aged and regular. Curiosity got the best of us, so I pointed to one steak and said, “How about that one?” I thought it was 1.5 inches thick… when the nice gentleman lifted the steak out of the tray, it was 2.5-inches thick and the bloody thing cost me $30!

more wondrous snow

she even got dressed up

We grilled the steak and set aside a few thin slices for the birthday pup. The problem with giving Kaweah any kind of beef is that she scarfs it down without chewing. And just in case you thought it was because the piece of meat was too small – she does the same thing with large pieces of meat too (I have experimented with this in the past).

the birthday plate

it was gone in seconds

Jeremy and I sat down to share the remainder of the steak. It was like butter! So tender and melt-in-your-mouth. Can you dry-age beef at home if you have a cellar or some such thing? I’m tempted to look into it just for kicks (and well – to save having to pay out the nose). I don’t know that I will regard steak the same way again.

When Kaweah cleared her plate like a good girl, we gathered her favorite toys together for birthday cupcake. But that beef was fatty enough as it was, she didn’t need frosting too. Jeremy graciously volunteered to polish off the cupcake while Kaweah enjoyed a healthy carrot. She’s a simple girl, you know.

when kaweah really wants something, she won’t look at it until she hears her release word

what’s that mr. bunny? oh no, i’m 11 years old, not 11 months!

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: korean bbq-style burgers

Administrative note: The strong undertow of the holiday season is fast sucking me down to the bottom of the sea. I will do my best to answer any pressing questions in the comments this weekend, my good people!

Jeremy and I met our pal for a quick happy hour yesterday evening and there were THREE parties going on at the restaurant. I guess Office Party Season has officially begun. We had one to attend ourselves last night. It’s more of an event though. Ignite Boulder 7 – another sold out crowd at the Boulder Theater! My friends Andrew Hyde, Ef Rodriguez, and heaps of wonderful coordinators, volunteers, sponsors, and speakers pulled off yet another hugely entertaining evening of presentations, music, and prizes. AND they donated all proceeds to The Food Bank of the Rockies. It’s great meeting so many people from my online communities in real life, plus some fresh out of the blue.

ef always warms up the crowd with his sweet voice, guitar, and wit

sold out crowd

fellow citizens play the intermission

What was I saying the other day about my love of summer food in winter? Right… I can’t help it. We had some record low temperatures smacking the Denver-metro area about recently. Last weekend, I was flipping through my copy of Jaden‘s Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. I know, everyone has already seen it. It was part of the schwag bag from the after party at BlogHer Food 09 and I had emailed in for my free copy a few months ago. I waited and waited. I saw tweets and posts from everyone and her sister raving about the book. I waited some more. Then one day, I whine-tweeted online that mine had yet to show up.

Then Jaden, aka Busiest woman on the Planet, said she’d fix everything. And she did.

i love this book almost as much as i love jaden

For as long as I have been aware of food blogs, Steamy Kitchen has always been one of my goto sites for rock-solid Chinese recipes. That and Jaden makes me laugh much like the way my sister made me laugh. But her book is more than just Chinese recipes. It has Thai, Viet, Korean and lots of great Asian fusion dishes like her Korean BBQ burgers.

look at all those goodies

they go *in* the burger

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