use real butter

The love is right here, kids. I am getting it by the boatloads!

I’m finally getting around to a handful of wonderful awards bestowed upon me by some superb fellow bloggers. I seem to have let some slip for over a month and I plan to remedy that immediately.

First off, I was tagged by the ever charming Francesco of The Food Traveller and the lovely Shell of Fiber Among The Roses for the You Make My Day award! Thanks guys, you really flatter me :)

The rules are to list up to 10 blogs that rock your world, blogs that make you happy and inspire you. Leave a comment on that blog to let them know about the award.

This is tough, because there are so many blogs out there and it’s hard for me to keep track - especially right after a treatment. But there are those blogs that always cheer me up when they pop up on my feed and I can’t wait to hop over and see the latest.

1. Deb at Smitten Kitchen: Everyone has their reason for loving Deb. I find her posts to be sunny and clever, always delicious, always entertaining. She’s so genuine and playful - I love that about her.

2. Christine (aka HolyBasil) at Hot.Sour.Salty.Sweet. and Umami: Christine outclasses just about everyone. Her photography is art and so is her food. She’s hip, smart, she’s got a great sense of humor, and she’s married to a French gazelle (we love you, Pierre!). She is my home girl.

3. White on Rice Couple: I can’t believe I just discovered this fun and lively pair. Where have you guys been all my blogging life?! They have such spunk and a great attitude about life and food, serving it up in gorgeous full color images that you can practically smell and taste off the monitor. And they ski. That’s big.

4. Peabody at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody: Peabody is a rebel and that’s only one of the many reasons I adore her. I like the fact that she can beat up men on the ice and crank out some kick ass desserts. The woman has her feet firmly on the ground and head solidly on her shoulders. Don’t mess with girlfriend or I’ll have to put your ass in a sling!

5. Fanny at Foodbeam: Fanny is the cutest thing ever. She makes masterful pastries and has a smile that could melt the polar caps. She’s an absolute sweetheart and her blog is a joy to read. Her blog makes me happy.

Now for the next round of lovin’. I was tagged with an E for Excellence by Susan of Wild Yeast, Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy, and Linda of make life sweeter!

Ladies, are you conspiring? Thank you so much. To be deemed excellent by these accomplished and very talented women is quite the honor. And it is my honor to pass this award along to five more blogs I deem Excellent. Since the five above make my day every time they post, it’s a given that they are *excellent*. But we’re sharing the love here…

1. Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen: The woman is a hoot! Not only that, but she sizzles and so do all of those delectable dishes she whips up in her kitchen. And she’s got kids. How can a blog (and a woman, for that matter) look so incredibly gorgeous when you have spawnlings?!? Sistah needs to write a book, no?

2. No Special Effects: Mark is a nut. I loves him. He serves up some pretty fancy foods while writing candidly about his feelings, his fears, his hopes. Guy has many talents beyond delicious foods and nice photos. He is my favorite goofball chef on the web :) We need to find him a nice (but not too nice) girl, okay?

3. Rasa Malaysia: In my book, Bee holds the title of Prawn Queen. I sometimes think she is purposely posting those prawn porn photos just to twist the knife a little more - you know, that knife she plunged into my gut… the knife of “you don’t live on the coast and could never score seafood this fresh!” Seriously, she’s a sweetheart and she knows her food AND she knows what everything is called in Chinese. Puts me to shame, really.

4. What’s For Lunch, Honey?: You really can’t go wrong with the word “lunch” in your blog title. It is my all time favorite meal. Wonderful Meeta makes gorgeous food and then takes even more gorgeous photos of the food in such lovely colorful arrangements. I can tell already that she wears smart outfits that match while I’m tooling around with a threadbare free t-shirt and skanky sweat pants.

5. Tartelette: Even though I *know* she’s already received this award, it just wouldn’t be right not to include her in my list of Excellents, because she is not only excellent, but smart, beautiful, talented, creative, thoughtful, and so full of love. Helene produces one hell of a mouth-watering blog, and once you’re hooked reading it, you will soon discover that she is one of the Ten Nicest People on the planet. I say so.

There you have it. Some of my favorites. I know there are many more out there… can’t wait to find them!

I am finally getting to that ubiquitous meme that has been floating about the fblogosphere. I was tagged by the very popular Jaime of Good Eats ‘n Sweet Treats, and I do mean popular, because she was tagged five times. There are actual rules to this meme:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Okay, five things about me… Let’s get on it:

1) I have an engagement mountain bike. I don’t own an engagement ring, nor do I ever want to. My mountain bike is faster, better, AND cheaper! Jeremy has an engagement mountaineering expedition pack.

2) I will take cold weather over warm weather. You may have figured that out from the ski whore photos, but you probably don’t know that I can’t stand the beach. There’s all that *sand* everywhere and it’s hot and there’s no shade. In case you think me a close-minded grump, I spent nearly every waking moment of my youth on the water or the waterfront. Warm weather puts me in a foul mood of sorts, especially if it is humid. Give me a snow-mantled mountain any day.

3) I think men look ridiculous naked.

4) I can’t stand relaxing - you can relax when you’re dead.

5) When I see a shooting star, I like to imagine my sister is saying she loves me.

Now for the fun part *rubbing hands together*. It wasn’t easy, but I decided to tag the following folks because I want to learn a little more about them:

Christine at Hot.Sour.Salty.Sweet. And Umami, aka HolyBasil. She maintains one gorgeous food blog and has demystified one of my favorite ethnic cuisines that I was too scared to explore until now.

Chuck at Sunday Nite Dinner because I fancy young men who cook beautiful food!

Cindy at Figs, Lavender, and Cheese. I just discovered her blog and the woman is friggin’ hilarious to read.

Kathryn at the beautiful diabetic. She is beautiful and incredible and inspiring.

Susan at StickyGooeyCreamyChewy. An absolute sweetheart of a woman who cranks out first rate treats as easily as she doles out the good vibes.

It’s snowing outside. That’s good news. Pup and I went out onto the deck to survey the flakes. Nice and fluffy.

the storm track is just getting started

watching little birdies in the yard

did u sed treetz?!

Here now, I don’t have a recipe for you in the typical step-by-step today. I have been cooking, just not documenting as lovingly as usual because it’s been hectic lately and a fraction of my daylight hours have been devoted to snow worship… Not to mention the ramp up of the ARP (ass reduction plan) leaves me pretty hungry and somewhat spent, so not a lot of patience for shooting intermediate steps. But my body is adjusting quickly and I’ll be back on it soon enough. My endorphins are flowing, my muscles are rock hard, and that waistline is shrinking. I shit you not, kids. Hyperactivity has its benefits.

After my run and bike the other day, I prepared a lunch of kale and fettuccine in homemade tomato and garlic sauce and it truly rocked my world. I don’t quite understand people who go on those ridiculous fad diets - eat carbs, don’t eat carbs, eat fat, don’t eat fat, eat meat, don’t eat meat. Moderation in all things, eh? And if you’d get ye lard butt of ye couch, perhaps it wouldn’t really matter if you had that Slice of Yum.

carbo loading?

Hmmm, what else… after I made the mac nut brittle, I gave it all away. I like to make sweets, sample them, and then get rid of them. Sort of a relative ass reduction plan (rARP) because you make all of the people around you fat so that you appear relatively slimmer. It’s a joke. A joke! I wanted to make peanut brittle - the buttery kind, not the glassy kind. HolyBasil mentioned that her mom used to make it. So on a lark I looked up a recipe last night and within the hour had a batch of this:

chunky brittle and stretchy brittle

The recipe said I could pull the brittle as it cooled, so I pulled some of it, but when you break that up it sends little delicate shards of buttery brittle all over the place. Makes a mess. My dog has been licking the floor around the table more than usual today. I like it because it’s closer to toffee than the other brittle and I’m just a sucker for that stuff. Oh, but skinning Spanish peanuts is not a fun activity for a Friday night.

Peanut Brittle
from the Nut Factory

2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup water
2 cups raw Spanish peanuts
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp baking soda

Heat and stir sugar, corn syrup and water in a heavy saucepan until sugar dissolves. Add salt. Cook over medium heat to and add peanuts at 250 degrees. Continue cooking to 290 degrees, stirring often. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and baking soda. Beat to a froth for a few seconds and pour onto well-buttered pan(s) or silpat, spreading with spatula. If desired, cool slightly and pull with forks (or fingers) to stretch thin. Break up when cold. Makes 1-1/2 pounds of peanut brittle.

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Of course, that brittle was a most welcome sight this evening after skiing a whole day at Vail. Vail is delicious. If ski resorts were desserts, Vail would be my crème brûlée.

So who got some of that mac nut brittle? One of them is Liz, my bud. She and I are tracking one another’s ARP - Liz in Oregon and me in Colorado. She is also a tele skier and you know what that means… she’s a Rock Star. In addition to a few other confections, I sent her a scarf I knit from truly gorgeous Manos del Uruguay. Like a superhero, I have many hidden powers. I just don’t have telekinesis - yet.

the colorway is called flame, for someone who burns up the slopes

A real post soon, I swear it. Unless we go to Breckenridge tomorrow :)