use real butter

Recipe: turkey cranberry green chile sandwich

Hey, it’s Elastic Waistband Day Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving, good people of the interwebs! Our day is going to be filled with non-Thanksgiving activities like hitting the backcountry, eating miso black cod, cleaning the house, playing with Kaweah. Despite the voluntary lack of the turkey feast, this holiday – for me – is ALL about giving thanks.

thankful for sunsets (and sunrises)

I’m in a different place than where I used to be on Thanksgivings past. It used to be that we’d contemplate what we were thankful for as the holiday neared. We’d write lists in school and bring them home for our parents to read. Now, my life’s experiences have put me in a mindset that is ever-grateful for being alive, for having my health, for my loved ones, for my community, for this community, for the beautiful world around me. And even though Grandma and Kris are no longer here, I’m am so very very thankful that they were such important parts of my life. It doesn’t matter if it is Thanksgiving or the first day of Spring – I give thanks daily. It’s kind of like Thanksgiving every day without the feasting.

thankful for this little goofball

my pup romping in the snow

So yeah, I dissed Thanksgiving dinner again this year. The only thing I made that is remotely Thanksgiving is the cranberry sauce, because it goes with everything. While people at the store were picking up a whole turkey, I was the only one getting sliced turkey for sandwiches. That’s right… just because I didn’t roast a bird this year doesn’t mean I have to go without the sandwich. You know of what I speak.

turkey, bread, cheese, green chiles, cranberry sauce (hells yeah!)

slice some good bread

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: paseo cuban roast pork sandwich

I have this thing for sandwiches… but you already knew that! Last year when I was in Seattle for my friends’ wedding, my other friends took me to stand in line at Paseo, home of the best sandwich in the world. With a title like that, it’s only a matter of time before my grubby little hands get a hold of said sandwich.

the cuban roast pork from paseo

That was some sandwich. A juicy, drippy, savory, heady, tangy, spicy mess nestled between toasted bread. It’s one of those deals where you eat it and you have to continue eating it lest you wind up wearing it. Best sandwich in the world? I’m not sure about that. Damn good sandwich? YES. HELL YES. Obviously, the next step was to try to reproduce it myself… I searched online and took a chance on some random recipe because I honestly had little clue where to start.

orange juice, rum, olive oil, salt, pepper, limes, garlic, oregano, pork shoulder

mince the garlic and oregano; juice the lime

The recipe called for mango juice and orange juice, but I live in the sticks. There was no mango juice to be had, so I doubled the orange juice and called it good. The magical pork shoulder is then marinated for at least 3 hours, although overnight is recommended. I went for 24 hours. Why not?

mix the marinade together

place the pork and marinade in the baggy together

When the pork was done soaking, I gave it a pan-sear on each side to brown up some flavor before placing it in a baking dish with the marinade and baked it for a couple of hours. Actually, the recipe has a total baking time of 2+ hours, but I let mine bake for four because the connective tissue just wasn’t breaking down to my liking. I’m picky like that.

pan-seared goodness

braise it

**Jump for more 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**