use real butter

Recipe: chicken salad puffs

Good people, you still have until Monday, August 29, 2011 noon MDT to enter the raffle for a fine art print of your choice. Thank you!!

Lately it seems everyone is asking the same question, “Where did summer go?” In the case of my Seattle friends, they’re asking, “Summer who?” The start of the academic year tends to be a major social signal that summer is over. If I step outside my house in the afternoons, I can hear the children at the elementary school screaming and laughing at recess. If I drive through Boulder, it takes me twice as long to get anywhere because of all the new (and disoriented) freshman at the university. While I am already daydreaming about 4 foot powder dumps in winter (okay, I’ve been daydreaming about that since the last time I skied on June 21), I know that will come with a little time and perhaps some patience on my part. Autumn is surely coming, but we’ve still got some weeks of summer left as is evidenced by our near 100°F temps, daily thunderstorm cycle, the height of color at the farmer’s market, and meetings in the park with friends on blankets.

kaweah basking in the sun, unaware of the approaching thunderhead

beets the color of candy at the boulder market

calliope eggplants

brilliant carrots

my little buddy getting a snuggle from his mama

I haven’t shot a recipe I’ve made in a couple of months and it feels like forever. It isn’t for lack of mojo as there are several scraps of paper (both carbon-based and silicon-based) strewn about reminding me of recipes I want to try making and blogging. The mojo is there, just not the time. So I’ve dug deep into the queue and found a recipe for the chicken salad puffs I served at the afternoon tea I hosted a while back. It really was a while back – it was in November of last year. I’m hanging my head in shame at my lameness. But I assure you these chicken salad puffs are far from lame!

chicken, grapes, celery, almonds, parsley, onion

prepped and chopped

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: jicama pepita garbanzo salad

As I mentioned in my last post, Jeremy and I went skiing on the summer solstice. On fresh snow! Just a few inches of fresh snow in the backcountry and it all went to mashed potatoes by mid-morning, but it was totally the best first day of summer I’ve ever had. The winds were all crazytown and stormy clouds sat on the divide all morning, however we enjoyed intermittent blue skies overhead.

jeremy moves up the valley wall

the fun part

skiing out is fast

Everything (I mean the snow) is melting in earnest now and it’s unclear if we’ll get another fabulous backcountry ski day like that for the rest of the summer. But it’s not so bad to be without snow for just a little while. I kinda look forward to hiking trails in comfy trail runners instead of my tele boots and carrying a small pack instead of a pair of skis on my back. I’m also anticipating our thunderstorm cycle 1) to wash away the pine pollen and hence my allergies and 2) because lightning is fascinating. Clouds make for interesting sunsets sometimes too.

lighting the belly

there were even some jesus rays

We like being outside year-round, but in summer it is mandatory to get out and take advantage of the fact that the winds aren’t blowing snow and rocks around at 65 mph. All of that outsiding plus a few hours of sleep leaves little time in the day for cooking. To be honest though, on the really hot days I just want to drink ice water, eat watermelon, and stick my head in the freezer. On the not as insanely hot days, I find myself craving salads and other things that don’t involve convective, conductive, or radiative transfer.

simple is good

lettuce consumption is up in this house

In the last few years I’ve begun to mix my own salad dressings from scratch. It’s really quite simple and requires only a little more effort than twisting open a bottle of store-bought dressing. The difference in flavor and quality is light years apart. Most of the time I like a simple balsamic vinaigrette, but lately I’ve been on a different vinaigrette kick. It works with so many of the salads I make.

olive oil, vinegar, dijon mustard, thyme, shallots, salt, pepper, a pinch of sugar

combine the dressing ingredients except for the oil

whisk the oil in

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Recipe: sichuan tofu celery salad

Oh my word, it’s nearly December. By the time most of you read this it will *be* December. I was telling Erin the other day that when I was a little kid a year felt like an eternity. And now… now the days and weeks and months and years are gone before you know it. She said that was a sign of well-lived life. I think it’s the sign of me not being able to keep track of everything I need to get done, but Erin is always kind about giving me the benefit of the doubt. So it reminded me that sometimes we need to stop and walk through those familiar places, to appreciate how they change with the seasons and how we too have changed.

once green, upright, and riddled with blackbirds

now frozen in place

Kaweah is going to turn twelve this month. She looks great for her age, but she’s physically unable to clamber up rocks, leap from tall buildings, and go tear-assing around in the snow anymore. For all intents and purposes, she has entered her golden years. Not long ago she’d bolt across the frozen lake, wipe out while doing the Scooby Doo running-in-place routine, and then butt-scoot all the way back. In her tiny brain, she wants to come with us on hikes and skis – she is all enthusiasm. But it took a lot of coaxing to get her onto the ice the other day. She stood with her paws firmly planted in the dirt, head tilted to the side and down. When we finally got her out there, she was cautious – nothing like the crazy pup we’ve known for over a decade. But she was a good sport and once off the ice, she was happy to finish out her walkie.

a little nervous

maybe this guy has a treat

Winter is my season of reflection more than any other. I think intently about my life, the people in it, decisions, actions, goals, happiness. Perhaps I’m just too distracted by wildflowers, wildlife, waterfalls, autumn colors, or the sprouting of baby green leaves in the other seasons? Winter around here is sublime when the winds aren’t howling. Walking or gliding through a world of cold, silent white has a way of focusing your mind on the important things. While December can be a time of maximum insanity for some, it’s the time of maximum simplicity for me – at least that is what I try to achieve. Lately, I’ve been enjoying this salad recipe that Kitt pointed me to several months ago. It’s mostly tofu and celery.

and all of these flavors

infused in some oil

**Jump for more butter**