use real butter

I brought half of the boca negra to work this morning to share the disaster with others. It solidified some more, but I think next time I’ll more than double the baking time.

looks better

Ro is on a spinach binge now. She of the “I gorge myself on a fruit/vegetable of the month” fame. Blueberries, watermelon, brussels sprouts, spinach… I find it amazing how she does this, but to her credit, she tends to binge on far healthier things than most people (and she’s probably really really regular!). I myself have migrated from brussels to spinach and broccoli this winter. I usually stir fry broccoli chinese style with garlic. On a lark today, I tried a roasting recipe from an old issue of Fine Cooking. I think I am in love with roasted vegetables.

tossed in olive oil, salt, and a little bacon: ready for the oven

roasted broccoli has such incredible flavor

Lately a lot of folks have been experiencing dessert fiascos (Carrie’s neoclassic buttercream, Nicole’s lemon tart, and Elena’s I don’t know what). Not to be left out, I have one of my own tonight in progress. I was enticed by Julia’s (Child, of course) recipe for Boca Negra - an almost flourless chocolate cake. I even went to the liquor store to buy bourbon for this recipe.

it starts with sugar and bourbon

everything goes as expected up to and including pouring the batter

She says 30 minutes in the water bath. Okay, I do 32 at slightly higher temp because of our elevation. She says a dry crust should appear on the top. It does. She said it will be a little wobbly. I think it was a lot of wobbly. Invert the cake, she says. I invert the cake and it oozes all over the plate. There’s just too much chocolate, butter, and eggs to toss this sucker. I scoop it all back up and dump it back in the pan and send it right back to the oven. If I have to bake it into a brick, I will… *frustrated*

Well, the cake finally set (sort of) after another 40 minutes in the oven. High altitude baking is not as straight forward as I would have thought.

second time around - after being flipped and poured back into the pan

this will require more practice…

We met up with Greg this morning at Eldo for some pretty sweet conditions. Jeremy and I skied a couple of hours, but Greg remained for the whole day and had a great time. I wanted to stay longer, but my legs were tired from the weekend, and Jeremy had to get back to work. Before we left, Greg came with us to the car and got a package out of his truck from Emily. He even put it in a bag and tied a bow on it!

goodie bag

The contents of the goodie bag included gourmet salts from Hawaii, Mexico, and France! Foodies are such incredible people. The salts are so pretty I’m afraid to use them…

salt, salt, salt, and maple syrup (not pictured: smoked ham!)

Tonight I went into Boulder to meet up with Jeremy and Greg for dinner at Jax Fish House. When I told Greg I had chosen a seafood joint, he sort of chuckled. I realized I must have sounded like some crackhead telling him we were going to eat seafood in a landlocked state. But we were all pleased with our meals and the boys both ordered the blue plate tonight:

beautiful seared sashimi grade ahi tuna

greg and i, outside of jax’s