use real butter

Recipe: pan-seared sesame-crusted tuna

Helloooooo September! I’m so happy she’s here now. I love September. Love it. You know how you have 60 days’ worth of stuff to cram into 30 days? That’s my September. Oops! now 29 days…

There is no better way to kick off a new month than with a dinner party. I mean, a dinner partay. I was running a little behind schedule when folks began to trickle in yesterday evening. Luke and Nichole asked if there was anything they could help with. Normally (and my friends will verify) I say no and have people sit down with drinks, appetizers, and let the conversation roll. I’m a bit of a control freak like that. But the appetizers were not assembled yet, Jeremy was tending grill and dishes, and I was still getting my mise en place EN PLACE for dinner. I sliced up the grilled pork chops and showed Luke how to wrap spring rolls while Nichole became the mojito maestra. They took to their tasks like pros. The food was in good hands and I could relinquish those duties without a worry. Nice. I guess you *can* teach an OCD to delegate.

the spring roll brigade at work

It’s times like these when I am reminded why I should only serve Chinese food if the headcount is under 6… because we don’t have burners with enough BTUs to handle the volume. But it’s a known fact that you can’t get decent Chinese food in Boulder. Period. I wanted to treat our buds to something authentic, you know? It would have been great to whip up a quick meal so I could sit down and chill with folks more. I tried a newish recipe this week that was fast and amazing. We both loved it. Unfortunately, at $30/pound (okay, technically $27.99/pound – but when you buy 4 pounds, that $8 becomes negligible) it’s not an especially economical dinner to be serving at a dinner party. I dare say it’s worth the splurge for a lovely dinner for two.

wasabi (powder)!

spice up your life: a little wasabi mayo

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Recipe: blueberry lime pound cake

Jeremy can tell I’m feeling like my old self again when I walk into the kitchen first thing in the morning and start cleaning. It helps me to reset after being sick and before tackling all manner of projects and tasks. He’ll say to me ever so sweetly, “Would you like a glass of orange ju-” and I will hold a wad of dirty dish towels in my hand and say, “THESE? These needed to go in the hamper three days ago. They’re filthy!” and walk off to dump them in the laundry. This indicates that Jen is back and fully operational. Just in time too – there is much to get done. This week we have retired my trusty old PowerBook to kitchen service. Thank you, Apple, for not sucking away countless weeks of my time the way a crapass Windows platform would (and has). Here is proof that form and functionality need not be mutually exclusive.

i dub thee: little buddy

That is just the first in a series of upgrades this month. Hold on to your seats, kids. Please keep all arms down inside the car while the ride is in operation…

I can’t tell if we’re experiencing a short respite from the heat or if this is a trending cool down. It’s 50°F on my deck this morning and the rest of the week is looking pleasant. You know what that means, don’t you? Autumn. It’s my favorite season. Then after autumn comes – SKI SEASON. *eeep!* What this means for use real butter is that I need to move all of these summery recipes out because before you know it, there will be four feet of snow to shovel off our driveway. For now we are snow free, but I’m really loving the cooler temps.

don’t mind me – i’m just chillin’ out… nice digs you got here

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Recipe: chopped greek salad

I’m feeling so much better now! Thank you for all of your kind wishes. I have to say, when I have a cold the foods that comfort and heal me most are: 1) Mom’s congee made with homemade broth, chicken, ginger, and green onions 2) Mom’s ginger-brown sugar tea and 3) Mom’s sweet fermented rice soup (jou nian – I call it boozy sweet rice). I always forget about these goto “feel better when sick” foods until I talk to my mom. So there I was, croaky voice sitting on the couch telling my mom that I’m slowly improving when she rattled off the foods I should be eating. I think just hearing her say it in Chinese made me feel that much more improved. When I was little, the only thing that made me feel better was having my mom or Grandma (boy, I was *spoiled*) pick me up and hold me. I was notorious for standing with my outstretched arms and saying, “bao bao?”

I haven’t taken a photo in a week, which feels like a lifetime to me! Trust me – that’s my one week this year without photos because from here on out it is going to be busy. *straps on helmet, tightens laces*

The recipe today is one I made before our trip to southwestern Colorado. I was in a salad state of mind because the heat makes me want to eat things like a cold giant hunk of watermelon or a bowl of grapes or ten popsicles for dinner. After I had made the chopped shrimp waldorf salad my eyes wandered to the previous page in my Fine Cooking issue… chopped Greek salad. Can do. Can do.

Salads in summer make me happy because they usually involve chopping (I love my knives and I love to use them) and minimal cooking if any. In this case, the croutons require a bit of stove and oven time. I highly recommend making your own croutons if you’ve never tried. I can think of very few foods in this world that are better store-bought than made (properly) at home.

[Crouton tangent] We made tons of homemade croutons when I was in Chile for field work as a graduate student. The bread we bought was barely passable right from the store – forget about 5 days out in the bleeping desert! All we needed was oil, garlic, salt, and stale bread cubes. Those were both good and bad times for me (particularly the time when I said, “I’m sure that ham is still good – give it here.”) The one person who really made my entire field season tolerable was my “field assistant”, friend, and fellow grad student, Greg. I put field assistant in quotes because HE taught ME about geomorphology and we worked really well together in the field. Greg saved me from going batshit as we dealt with all manner of interesting obstacles like land mines, equipment issues, logistics, rethinking the science, 8.0 earthquakes, navigating over roadless terrain in thick fog on top of a cliff that plunged 3000 feet to the ocean, and so much more.

at salar del huasco, chile

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