Okay, I admit...

butter is good. I sauteed some Mexican and yellow squash (should I have added the zucchini too? meh) in a pan of hot butter and garlic. S&P. That's it. Towards the end, I tossed in some diced tomatoes. Two minutes later, took it off the stove onto a hot plate and threw on a mix of cheeses and put the cover from the pan over it to melt the cheese. The only thing that could have made it better is maybe some blue corn chips on the side...and a Corona. :) No photo here, b/c I actually finished it while it was HOT.

It is thunder storming, and it is awesome:

I missed Chinese food...

I missed Chinese food... so I went to an Asian (Pacific Mercantile on Lawrence St) market and bought some food for, you know, to make Chinese food. Among the goods were seaweed, soba, bok choy, fresh ginger root (aweeesommmeee), a 5-lb bag of rice...standard, ya know?! And then I came home and decide to make... rice pudding. Oye vey. How Americanized am I? :P

The mint leaf was initally used to make it look nice, but I decided
that I really liked it as a palette cleanser prior to diving in to the
glass of deliciocity. Niiceeee.

Fortunately, all is not lost. I made a soup tonight that made me very happy (and healthy, I'm sure :). It was simple and delicious. And I'll post it as if I were going to make it again (with changes):
- Thin "coin" slices of ginger root into hot soup base (I'll stick to good ole' water until I find something better, and it won't be chicken broth or anything like that).
- Finely minced fresh garlic into lightly boiling soup base.
- Toss in the 1" slices of bok choy (stems first!)
- Bok choy leaves a couple minutes later.
- Soba noodles shortly thereafter, unless one prefers a not-so-crunchy texture of vegetables, then wait a bit longer. The buckwheat noodles will have to cook for about 8-9 minutes, shorter if your not in Denver. Womp!
- S&P to taste.

So there it is. Perhaps some mushrooms next time would be a nice addition, and they would have to be straw mushrooms. Golly, that would REALLY bring me back!
No photo here. I finished it before I could blog. :D

Apple Crisp

So sweet! This was from back in early March so I don't remember what I did, but I think the topping (oats/nuts/spices) was amazing. then tradish with the natural vanilla ice cream.

Potato chips...

I made some.

So, I was scheduled to work with Numi Organic Tea but they ended up having more people than they had tea to sample. I left this woman my number, pretty much getting the point that she need not any more help and said she would call if they needed anything. I was off the hook and left to roam the festival for the rest of the day! I got there around 1:15pm, planning to catch the speakers on issues of sustainability in government during which I would attempt to weasel my way into networking, which I did and then went to my Numi shift so I had about half of the day---perfect for what I wanted to do. Then I actually helped out with the Green Festival itself: re-packaging goods, breaking down tents, and the very unique and absurdly bonding experience of sorting out trash into
-compostable
-recyclable
-landfill
&
-cliff bar wrappers
-plastic bottle caps.
Met some fun people there.
I heard from exhibitors that this was the smallest one yet, mainly in large part to it being Denver's first year versus the eighth year in San Francisco or Chicago or... Regardless, everyone had a great time and I thought it went rather well. Definitely on the sparse side of attendees (~11,000 compared to 30,000). But it was great and I bumped into several ppl I knew. Who knew I even knew this many people in Denver?!

Anyways, the point here tonight is to document my chip-making experience :)
Pretty simple and short , as I started at nearly 10:30 at night. Womp. But I was up for it!
1- I used red potatoes... in the future, I'll use these for more savory things...like in stews or something. I'm not sure they fared too well being broiled/baked (I'll avoid frying if I can help it).
2- I tried 2 different thicknesses. Either you'll have to be extra careful, or I wouldn't slice 'em thinner than 3/16" (I say this b/c someone may freak out and think 1/8" is too thick :P
3- Some say you should salt the slices and let them sit for a bit to "sweat" then rinse, them salt again. Seems pretty useless since I found it helpful to leave them moist.
4- Used butter on one batch, EVOO for another--they baked fine either way, but I think I prefer EVOO.
5-I started baking, but switched to the broiler. It's a cheat, but works miracles.
6- I played around w/ some herbs! from paprika to tarragon, so I actually would know what each of them do to food.
Overall, a fun time.
Oh, and so I ate my chips with a bowl of RT tomato bisque.
























OH! and I bought a peppermint plant a few weeks ago, when David and I went to Sunflower Market. It makes my tea pretty and delicious. :)