use real butter

On our way to dinner, I came upon a giant cow. It was the Chick-Fil-A cow in front of the St. Julien Hotel! There were a lot of cops and official-looking people. It was some promotional thing for NASCAR. NASCAR in Boulder… *shudder*

i love that cow

We met with Beth and Chris at Jax because Beth turned 30 today! I told her it was all about to get much better. Beth, Chris, and I all agreed that our 20s sort of sucked. Jeremy said his 20s weren’t so bad. Turns out our 20s were very much affected by how our graduate experience went.

i picked up some daisies for beth

best happy hour deal at jax: peel and eat shrimp

my dinner: pan seared scallops

Chris mentioned that all of the women at our house for B’s party were “alpha females”. I thought that was an interesting term. Then I started wondering how many of my friends are alpha females. I think just about all of my friends are alpha females. I had to ask Jeremy if he could think of any beta females who are my good friends. I can think of plenty o’ betas whom I dislike. Even alphas can go head to head at times, but I think I have a lot more respect for alphas than betas. Betas make me very uncomfortable because they tend to be the ones who let their partners (usually male, but not always) make decisions or tell them what to do - they are the passive spouse/partner. I think they make me uncomfortable because I don’t like lopsided relationships and it makes me ball my fist just thinking of passive women.

triple crème brûlées for the birthday girl

chris tries the molten chocolate cake

We thought Chris had a bladder problem this evening, but really, he tricked us and paid for dinner before the bill even arrived! That was incredibly sweet of him.

We’re eating leftover party food. I’m not as psyched about that part as I am about the leftover beverages. We picked up a box of Izze sodas from Costco. I like Izze because they are local (Boulder), socially responsible, and the sparkling juice tastes great (pomegranate, blackberry, apple, grapefruit - awesome flavors).

beautiful izzes

raspberries and cream

The heat is going to make me homocidal.

We prepared food and house for the dinner tonight. I decided on the following for my roasted potato salad: roasted yukon gold potatoes with shallots and bacon tossed with fresh parsley, sweet onion, strawberry tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil and seasonings. I rather liked it. The tomatoes I got were so sweet.

strawberry tomatoes - the size of apricots

Something about cooking really puts me in a good mood. It’s tiring to schedule it all correctly in time to serve to your guests (or maybe that trail run is what was tiring?), but it’s very rewarding. I love working with food - especially fresh ingredients.

juicy oranges for the green salad

It’s fun hanging out with this crew. J finally made it to our house and got the tour. She is a riot. Everyone else knew the routine. I had originally planned on burgers, but when we were at the store I told Jeremy I couldn’t possibly serve burgers. I bought rib eye steaks instead. Nicole laughed and said she knew I wouldn’t be able to stick to the simple menu. I figure, if I’m having friends up to Ned, I’m going to feed them properly.

the crew

So while running errands in Boulder yesterday, I was unable to locate a good bakery to grab a cake for the dinner tonight. I didn’t have the time to make a fancy dessert, and being a baker - I have fairly high standards for what I pick up from a bakery. Too bad there is no Patticakes Bakery here. I wound up resorting to an old standby: chocolate soufflé with whipped cream and raspberries. Given the heat of the day, that was better than the boca negra which requires close to two hours of baking.

the dessert table