I’ve shared before that we as a family used to run an equestrian boarding barn and event facility in Northwest Montana (Flathead Valley between Kalispell and Columbia Falls). We truly loved living in the Flathead; those years flew by in a blur with our kids being of high school age and me still working 70+ […]
Friday Feast
Growing up in the South ingrains some traditions so deeply they become instinctive. Eating blackeyed peas on New Years day is one of those traditions. For at least some southerners, respecting blackeyed peas dates back to somewhere in the vicinity of 1860 around the time of General William Tecumseh Sherman’s march through the South destroying […]
Christmas Eve Tamales have been 20-plus year tradition around our camp; we first posted our most traditional recipe here back in 2010. Once again we drug out this familiar favorite of a recipe and dutifully cranked out a batch just a few days ago. Tamales are a great winter treat and worth the time and […]
She Who Must Be Obeyed had the good fortune to live in Switzerland back a few years ago, granted it was in a somewhat Americanized boarding school while her parents labored in north Africa, but she was exposed then to real chocolate and a few other forever life altering culinary treasures. One of those other […]
While steelheaders are often up and running to the river in the cold, rainy, predawn hours of winter, chugging gas station coffee and rigging with ‘dammit already numb’ fingers, many of us who cut our fly fishing teeth chasing trout on freestones in the Rockies (and lots of other places) find ourselves headed to the […]
While nothing like friends back home in Montana have seen this week it’s been unseasonably cold here on the left coast the past few days. Hells bells, it didn’t ever clear freezing here in the lower Sound region yesterday, making even the most ardent AGW disciples shiver, quiver and run for their ski hats, mittens […]
Several of our crew work full or part-time in retail and that makes for a sobering day-after-Thanksgiving reality. To a person everybody said ‘I ain’t cooking today’ on the way out the door. After puttin’ on the dog with a big feast yesterday (huzzah for the Apple-Ginger Brined Turkey) there’s not a great deal of […]
I looked up from my home-office desk yesterday afternoon and spied what at first appeared to be a small red blimp hovering a few feet off the ground in my neighbor’s front yard. The previous night’s discussion pondering the probable Sasquatch – alien connection flashed back into active thought. It took me a minute to […]
Several years ago I had a business partner who was born to parents that first set foot in this country (as children) in the late 1940s after their families’ homes and businesses in Greece were destroyed during the German occupation in WWII. His name was Fedor (apparently meaning divine gift in Greek) though he went […]
My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I’ve finished two bags of M&M’s and a chocolate cake. I feel better already. – Dave Barry I owe it all to little chocolate donuts. – John Belushi Ever […]
With the turn of the calendar to November today and the turn of the clock back to standard time tomorrow night, soups, stews and chile are showing up more and more in our dinner rotation of late. I happen to have made a run to our new favorite local butcher shop (custom cutter, grass and […]
Just like fishing trips, some weeks in life flow by as seductively smooth as the upper Madison on an early June morning. Hatches come off like clockwork, the fish are where they’re supposed to be, your wading is sure footed, you cast like a machine and move like a ninja in the water. On the […]
With the weather forecast calling for afternoon sun today and this weekend Friday Feast days still have us thinking about savory proteins sizzling above a bed of red-orange hardwood charcoal. Every time we drag this recipe out I ask myself why it’s not in the weekly or every-other-week rotation; these Honey Mustard Jalapeno Pork Skewers […]
After last week’s Friday Feast posting of this Pale Ale and Cheddar Fondue recipe, this interesting email popped up in my inbox over the weekend – …I’m a fly fishing guide in Virginia and pay the bills as a sous chef in an upscale restaurant. Like you guys I think good simple food is one […]
The sun came back out yesterday for the first time in I don’t how long; September set a record for rainfall in our neck of the woods. When that happens in the Pacific Northwest you know it’s been damned wet and cool. This early chill of fall has pushed us to start thinking more seriously […]
