use real butter

Tartelette told me she couldn’t keep up with my posting! It’s true, I have been posting daily since the calendar flipped to July because there is just so much going on that if I don’t write them up - posts will get buried! Not to mention, I’m on my steroid regimen again and I am running with the overflow of energy. I’ll probably crash and burn in 24 hours, but I’m okay with that. After feeling like complete crap for several months, it’s hard to take for granted the improvements I now feel. I can finally get out to see the mountains I love, find energy to cook wonderful food (and even taste and digest them!), and have the patience to capture the beauty of our summer season with my camera. These are happy times. I’m also wired and exhausted, but I relish it - I really do.

This morning we took another hike up to a lovely lake nestled in an alpine basin at roughly 11,300 feet. Invigorating! There was still plenty of snow, which is a good thing because it has been so hot here lately. Several more varieties of wildflowers were beginning to bloom, but the lake is still under a lot of ice and snow. I’m crazy for the mountains.

marmots out and basking in the sun

marianne captures some delicate wildflowers

above the lake from our snack stop

kaweah cools off on the snow

It has been a hot holiday weekend, but this afternoon we finally got a nice thunderstorm to deliver much needed rain. The temperature plummeted from 85 to 55 degrees in an hour. Lovely! Good thing I barbecued yesterday :)

all-purpose red rub

Even though I love barbecue, I am no barbecue expert. I’m a faker to some degree because we use a gas grill and oven instead of charcoal grill (fear of burning down state of Colorado). Most of what I’ve cobbled together in the past few years has been from reading/researching all sorts of recipes from various regions and sources. I lived in central New York for more years than I care to recall, but I still never got around to dining at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Syracuse - a place many of my friends swear by (one even had them cater her wedding!) I did manage to pick up a copy of the book before we moved back West.

mix the rub with olive oil

The one thing I cannot stand about barbecue chicken is when someone takes a boneless, skinless chicken breast and wipes barbecue sauce on the thing while it turns to rubber on the grill. That is disgusting. People who cook chicken like that should be smacked about the head with that piece of rubber. I know people who do this. I have to squint my eyes and keep my hands by my side when I witness this atrocity being perpetrated on chicken in this manner. The best barbecue chicken has the bone and skin still on it. You don’t have to eat the skin, but you need to cook with it on the meat. The recipe I quite enjoy for barbecue chicken comes straight from my Dinosaur Bar-B-Que cookbook. Good stuff.

rub the rub on the chickie

I am partial to chicken leg quarters. It’s a nice honking piece of chicken and it doubles as a weapon to boot. Little pieces get dried out too quickly. I find the leg quarters remain juicy and full of flavor during grilling - far better than their breast counterparts. Dark meat is where it’s at. When applying the oil and rub mixture to the chicken, I like to get a little of that under the skin for some extra seasoning and flavor. Just be careful that you don’t tear through the skin. I let my chicken sit for at least 8 hours, covered in the refrigerator, after the rub is put on.

brushing mutha sauce on the chicken at the end

The chicken is grilled and then in the last ten minutes, a nice brushing of barbecue sauce ensures a decent glaze. I personally like to serve extra sauce on the side with the finished chicken. We had this for our fourth of July dinner. This is a great recipe to make that doesn’t require much preparation - just a little planning ahead of time and lots of napkins when you eat it!

hot off the grill and ready for the party

Barbecue Chicken
modified from Dinosaur Bar-B-Que by John Stage and Nancy Radke

8 chicken quarters
2/3 cup olive oil
7 tbsps all-purpose red rub
2 cups mutha sauce

all-purpose red rub
1/2 cup paprika
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated garlic
6 tbsps granulated onion
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

All-purpose red rub: Mix all ingredients into a bowl and rub them together with your hands. Store in plastic or glass container until ready for use. Makes 2 3/4 cups.

mutha sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 onion, puréed
2 tbsp garlic, minced
salt to taste
pepper to taste
28 oz. tomato sauce
2 cups ketchup
1 cup water
3/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup cayenne pepper sauce
1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp allspice, ground

Mutha sauce: Sauté onions and garlic in oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer for ten minutes and let the sauce cool. This makes a ridiculous amount of sauce - something like 10-12 cups.

Chicken: Mix the oil and the rub together in a bowl and massage it into the chicken pieces. Cover and refrigerate the chicken until you are ready to grill it (I gave it 8 hours). Over a 325° to 350°F temperature grill (when lid is down), position the rack as high above the coals as possible. Arrange chicken, skin-side up, directly over the coals. Close and cook for 25 to 30 minutes then flip the chicken over and cook covered, for another 20 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 160°-165°F. Flip all pieces skin-side up and slather on the Mutha Sauce. Close the lid of the grill and cook for 10 more minutes to glaze the chicken. Serve with extra sauce. Feeds 4-6.

I need to get to bed asap, so this is going to be big on pics and short on words…

A jam-packed, fun-filled day today! We hiked to the Continental Divide (Arapaho Pass and almost Caribou Pass) out of the Fourth of July trailhead - appropriately enough. We couldn’t cross the last snowfield to Caribou because it was too steep for Kaweah to cross safely, while Jeremy and I were perfectly fine with our ice axes. I got a lot of wildflower shots as this hike has just about the greatest variety locally, but haven’t had a chance to process any. I do want to toss up a handful of nice pics from the hike including my two favorite housemates:

the cascading streams are lovely right now

jeremy looks across the divide

coming down the trail

having a blast

Once we were home, I began prepping dinner since Marianne was coming up for dinner, fireworks, and staying the night to go on an early morning hike with us tomorrow. I served up some barbecue chicken (recipe will come), grilled asparagus, coleslaw, roasted potato salad, bread… and for dessert, we had red, white, and blue mini pavlovas.

After dinner, we headed out to the reservoir to catch the local town fireworks. It’s supposed to be a pretty decent show and plenty of folks from the flats drive up to watch. This is the first year we’ve actually been in town to see them, so we were excited! I have never shot fireworks before, and had to give it a try. Here are some of what I captured:

Fun stuff, eh? I love how different fireworks look in photos compared to what we see with our own eyes. In any case, on to the recipe - which is for the red, white, and blue mini pavlovas.

whipping egg whites for the meringue

I like mini pavlovas because they take a little less time to bake. Since it was so frakking hot today (84 in my town, which is quite toasty for us mountain folk), I was hoping to minimize the oven time.

shaped nests ready for the oven

I used Donna Hay’s recipe for the meringue shells, altered a bit for our altitude. For some reason, her meringues look perfectly white in her photos and mine always come out beige. Whatever… as long as they taste good - that is what matters.

the red and blue: strawberries and blueberries

I toss the sliced strawberries and blueberries in a little bit of sugar because I don’t add much to my whipped cream. It’s just a nice and refreshing dessert to serve on a hot day. Pretty simple to whip up and a delicious end to a meal.

call it patriotic if you like - i call it delish

Red, White, and Blue Mini Pavlovas
based on Pavlova from Donna Hay’s Modern Classics 2

mini pavlovas (12-14)
whipped cream
2 cups strawberries, sliced
2 cups bluberries

pavlova
4 egg whites
1 cup superfine sugar
3 tsps cornstarch
1 tsp white vinegar

Preheat oven to 300°F. Place egg whites in bowl of electric mixer and beat until soft peaks. Gradually add sugar, beating well until mixture is glossy. Sift the cornstarch over the egg white mixture and fold through with the vinegar. Pile large dollops of meringue evenly spaced onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper (makes about 12-14). Round the shapes and form wells in the centers to create small meringue bowls. Place in oven and cook for 1 hour (45 minutes at elevation). Remove from oven and remove to a cooling rack.

whipping cream
2 cups heavy cream
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Whip cream and sugar to medium peaks. Add vanilla and almond extracts and whip until incorporated.

To Serve: Top each pavlova with whipped cream and fresh fruit. Serve immediately.

Today was one of those non-stop days from the moment I woke at 5:30 am up to now. I am feeling great in large part due to my dosage of steroids (long story, but it’s to treat the side effects of a side effect from one of my chemo drugs). It’s good that I started the steroids now because I have so much to get done this week and… I’m getting most of it done!

This morning we ventured up to Lake Isabelle - a short hike under normal circumstances except the road to the trailhead is partially closed and the trail is 60% under snow still. A great time to see the lake which takes on a different personality every few weeks when the seasonal conditions change so quickly. She’s beautiful any time of year. Here are some of the favorites, but you can always hop over to the photo blog for the rest.

on the way to the lake

just over the rise

still snowy lake isabelle at 10,868 feet

bred for swimming in icy waters

I felt so strong and completely energized. In my current state of health, I know not to let these moments go to waste. It’s a frenzy of activity because we have house guests this weekend, are hosting a barbecue as well, and the timing of all of the local wildflowers and snow pack in the high country will not wait until next week for photo shoots. I’m also training for a few goals I have this summer - so everything is *now* and I am loving it.

visitor in our yard

A few weeks ago, I had an excess of raspberries and looked about one morning for a nice way to use them up. I am not a huge fan of breakfast foods, particularly the sweet kind. [Oh, but I’ll eat bacon any time, any place.] About once a year I get a hankering for pancakes and whip up a batch to remind myself why I only make them once a year. Jeremy is decidedly indifferent to pancakes.

start with eggs and buttermilk

I wandered into the kitchen and began a search for pancake recipes on the laptop. I immediately honed in on a recipe from a familiar blog: Elise’s Simply Recipes’ Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes. I love Elise and I trust her recipes. The woman has never failed me. So instead of blueberry buttermilk pancakes, I made raspberry buttermilk pancakes.

stirring in the dry ingredients

Jeremy *loved* these pancakes. I can’t tell you how surprised I was because he was a picky eater when I met him over 15 years ago. While he has accepted and embraced several foods in that time, he has rarely turned 180 on a food like this before. Good on ya, Elise.

fold in the pretty raspberries

My batter wound up a little thick and the pancakes were puffy and taller than most pancakes. It could be an elevation issue. Admittedly, I’ve never been a pancake expert.

frying in the pan

The second time around (yeah, I started getting requests for this on weekends) I added more milk and reduced the leavenings. Less puffy, more spread - but they still tasted the same. And when I say they tasted the same, I mean they still tasted fan-freaking-tastic.

top with fresh berries and your choice of sugar delivery

Raspberry Buttermilk Pancakes
modified from Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes at Simply Recipes

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder [1/4 tsp at 8500 feet]
1/2 tsp baking soda [1/4 tsp at 8500 feet]
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup milk [1 1/3 cup at 8500]
3 tbsp butter, melted
1 cup raspberries

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl and mix well. Mix eggs, buttermilk, and milk in another bowl. Combine the wet and dry mixes until just lumpy. Pour in butter and stir well. Fold in raspberries. Heat a little oil or butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Pour a scoop of batter onto the pan when the oil is hot. Spread to desired size (I like mine smallish - around 4 inches in diameter, but do what you want). When bubbles appear on the top of the pancake, flip to cook the other side (this takes Elise about 2-3 minutes, but took me upwards of 4 minutes). Remove the pancake from the pan when the bottom is golden. Serve hot or let the pancakes cool and refrigerate them to be toasted later.