use real butter

Recipe: mexico city style roasted corn with chipotle mayonnaise

I just got back from a lovely dinner at Mizuna in Denver. I rarely get down to Denver (to be honest, I avoid the city – I’m a country mouse), but 1) I’ve been hearing about this restaurant for seven years 2) we were meeting with a super fun couple and 3) there was a hand off of goods. More on the goods in a second… I’m so glad we finally went to Mizuna because everything about it was terrific – the food, the wine, the service. Here are two of my favorite plates from tonight:

hamachi crudo with edamame and shishito peppers

lobster mac & cheese

Now what exactly was handed off, you ask? I brought three jars of Chinese hot chili sauces to my friend, Ellen, and she gave me a delivery of her delectable salt caramels. Why salt caramels?

Well, I needed them for a couple of care packages… for you!

This isn’t a sponsored any such thing, this is me saying thank you for being a wonderful, supportive, funny, kind, and friendly readership. I love my regular and irregular commenters as much as those who de-lurk to say hi as much as the folks who are too shy to comment, but send really touching emails to me directly. You know who you are – you’re all awesome! So I have put together a little bit of Colorado in two care packages to give away to two of my awesome saucesome readers. The packages will include:

helliemae’s salt caramels

a bag of whole bean coffee from boxcar coffee roasters

frasca‘s red pepper jelly from cured

a boulder county farmers market tote bag

a t-shirt of your choice from either salto coffee works or tin shed sports

That’s not all! I’m also tucking in a jar of organic Colorado peach jam and a jar of organic Colorado tomato jam, both from my kitchen.

ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY!

1) Introduce yourself to the rest of us by sharing one interesting fact about YOU in the comments section of this post.
2) One comment per person, please.
3) Entries will be accepted through Friday, September 28, 2012.
4) The care packages will ship worldwide.
5) Two winners will be selected at random by Kaweah.
6) Winners will be announced on Monday, October 1, 2012.

Good luck!

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Sometimes you find the best food in the darnedest places. For instance, when I was in Portland, Maine last month, everyone was telling me to eat lobster, lobster, and more lobster. Sleep on lobster, bathe in lobster. Lobster lobster lobster! The first night, we started at El Rayo Taqueria and then moved on to Cantina El Rayo next door. There was no lobster on our menu. But wait – someone casually set a plate of roasted corn covered in cotija cheese in front of us early on in the meal. The cobs were cut up into 2-inch wide nibbles and everyone politely sampled the corn. Joy was sitting across from me and later into the evening I saw her reach for a second one which totally made me feel okay about grabbing a second! We were pretty hooked on that corn.

nice, healthy ears of corn

give them a soak in cold water

My neighbors seated to my right were Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz of Ten Apple Farm. They wrote and photographed this brilliant book (among others!) that I received upon my arrival in Maine titled Portland, Maine Chef’s Table which is a collection of recipes from the best chefs around Portland. IT INCLUDES THE RECIPE FOR THIS FABULOUS CORN. When Karl and Margaret told me, I smiled and did a happy dance (Gangnam style) in my head.

chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, mayonnaise, garlic, cilantro, lime zest and juice

chopped, juiced, zested

As soon as my package of goodies from Maine arrived in the post, I opened the book and went straight to the recipe. The ingredients are relatively easy to source and corn is still in season although at the tail end. Get on this now.

purée the peppers, sauce, garlic, cilantro, zest, and lime juice together

stir the purée into the mayonnaise

chipotle mayonnaise

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: tomato sauce (canning)

See that? THAT is my litmus stand of aspens. When it turns, it’s nearly time for me to hit the road. Thing is, it’s early this year by about ten days. So I’m scrambling to finish a ton of work before I head out into the golden yonder for the fall shoot. It’s like having dinner guests show up early when you aren’t ready to receive them. Thanks for that, Nature!

despite the push in schedule, the colors are lookin’ good

As promised, I’ve got another (a last) tomato recipe for you. Folks were asking about it and I have been doing it – canning tomato sauce. Next to diced tomatoes, I go through a good bit of tomato sauce in the winter months (October through May). There are so many ways you could make your tomato sauce, but I found Marisa‘s recipe to be the best for my preferences. I like a smooth, even, and slightly thickened sauce. The one thing I really recommend getting your hands on is a food mill of some sort. Borrow one if you must, but get a food mill.

start with lots of lovely tomatoes, duh!

and bottled lemon juice

Just like the diced tomatoes, the only ingredients you need are tomatoes and bottled lemon juice. Yes, bottled lemon juice. I prefer fresh squeezed lemon juice over bottled any day except this day. This day, we fight! No wait… this day we use bottled lemon juice because it has a consistent acidity level which you want so you can avoid things like botulism. Do that.

stem the tomatoes

dice the tomatoes

The nice thing about tomato sauce is that you don’t have to core the tomatoes like you do for diced tomatoes. Nor do you have to peel them like you would when canning diced tomatoes. It’s terrific and it goes quickly. Marisa’s instructions have you dice a handful of tomatoes and place them in a stock pot to boil while you crush them with a spoon. I use a potato masher because it gets my aggressions out better. The crushing also helps to keep the sauce from separating into liquids and solids in the jars. Add some more diced tomatoes and keep crushing until all of the tomatoes are done.

i crush you

bring it to a boil

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: diced tomatoes (canning)

More tomatoes? Yes, yes dammit. MOAR TOMATOES. What on earth did you think was going to happen with 77 pounds of tomatoes? We’re not kidding around here, because you know… winter is coming.

rain, mist, and temps in the 40s off my deck

Reports began to stream in Wednesday morning from the local Colorado ski hills – snow. A lovely dusting of white on the high peaks in some places with up to ten inches predicted for other places. Of course, the sun will return and the air will warm again, but the skiers and riders and general winter enthusiasts are rejoicing and hoping for a good (read: powdery) winter. Meanwhile, my parents are preparing to migrate back to warmer climes soon, so we met up for a delightful dinner at The Kitchen Upstairs.

my parents dig the boulder food scene

what’s left of the appetizers, because we ate them up

black pepper gnocchi with prosciutto and roasted plums

lamb meatballs on creamy polenta

pappardelle with pork

Unlike some places that continue to act like summer well into autumn, Colorado understands that it is time to move on. The fall colors are rolling about a week ahead of schedule and it’s crunch time for me – trying to can as much of the remaining summer produce as possible before I hit the road for the fall shoot. I feel like one of those pika in the mountains, scurrying about gathering foods for the winter. Ever read the book Frederick by Leo Lionni? It’s about a little mouse who sits in the sun all day while the rest of the mice are busy building stores for winter. Everyone is like, “Dude, you so lazy!” But come winter, Frederick unleashes his talent for awesome and everyone is all, “I totally get why you were such a slacker this summer!” I am not Frederick. I’m the other mice.

mice activities

I met up with a couple of my gal pals, Wendy and Ellen of Helliemae’s Salt Caramels, for a massive tomato canning session at the Helliemae’s kitchen in Denver this week. You know you have good friends when they allow you to go all OCD on them in the kitchen. We processed almost 60 pounds of tomatoes for dice and sauce. So yeah, you get another tomato recipe because I’m seeing tomatoes in my sleep right now. It is tomato-fest. There will be more too, so if you’re a ‘mater-hater, then just come back on Monday…

organic slicing tomatoes (seconds)

some bottled lemon juice

and beautiful weck jars

**Jump for more butter**