Happy Birthday Bobby!

Well the day started out with beautiful weather and a great golf game for our friend Bobby! I won't reveal how many years young he is, but he is looking and feeling good! I am always a sucker for a man that loves a good meal so for Bobby this evening we prepared Dill and Mustard Glazed Salmon served on a bed of Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Pastilla (this is Israeli Couscous cooked risotto style) with oven roasted Patty Pan Squash, Baby Roma Tomatoes and Brussel Sprouts.

No birthday would be complete with out a cake, and for Bobby I made a Carrot Cake flecked with Coconut, toasted Walnuts, fresh Ginger and Orange Zest. Iced with Lemon Cream Cheese frosting and finished with candles, a dusting of Cinnamon and home-grown Mint. Happy Birthday Bobby!

Waiter...there's a bat in my umbrella....

Bats are a common occurrence on the property, but usually late. Today while opening up the umbrella on the terrace a bat fell out scaring us all quite a bit. We found the second one below nestled in the folds of the umbrella and decided to eat our lunch inside at the bar. I know the picture is blurry, but how close do you expect me to get? If you look closely you will see his little bat paw.

Since most of our guests have taken themselves on mini excursions today the four remaining guests enjoyed a light lunch of Artichoke and White Bean Hummus (a little lighter on the garlic this time!), Cold Crawfish Salad, Crisps, Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Bisque and a beautiful salad of Rocky Point Lettuce, Blanched Green Beans, Cold Roasted Beets & Feta all dressed with a simple Red Wine Vinaigrette.

Dinner & a Market...

Dinner could not have been less exciting last night. We all enjoyed, and I use the word "all" loosely, dinner in front of the TV so that we wouldn't miss a moment of Obama's acceptance speech. While I found the speech moving, a little heavy on the Bush attacks (even though he deserves them), and very inspiring I was one of the few. What we could all agree on though was dinner, if nothing else food should always be able to bring people together.

We enjoyed a Whole Grain Mustard Grilled Pork Loin Chop served on a bed of "Red Flannel Hash" and buttered Green Beans finished with a Whole Grain Mustard Jus. For those of you not familiar with "Red Flannel Hash" its a tasty combination of root vegetables, in this case Beets, Sweet Potatoes, New Potatoes, Parsnips & Caramelized Onion, finished with just a bit of Cream to pull it all together in the end. This New England staple is usually a breakfast food that utilizes leftover Corned Beef or Bacon, but its delicious in a vegetarian setting as well. Dinner finished with a Fiji Apple Crisp topped with Whipped Cream.


Don't be fooled by the Whole Food Market bags in the background of this photo below! Everything on the kitchen island was bought from today's Farmers Market or harvested from our own garden! You can see that the Patty-Pan Squash have had quite a growth spurt and the Zucchinis are becoming more and more prolific. Sweet Corn, harvested 2 hours before the Market, Tomatoes, Broccoli, Green Beans, Sweet Onions, Red Potatoes & lots of fresh cut flowers.


The sun has finally come back to us! After a solid week of wind storms, cloudy skies and constant drizzle our Raspberry bushes, both the red and the golden Raspberries have decided to give us a second harvest. The golden Raspberries below line the path to the lodge and I can not resist a stop on my way for a sun warmed Berry.

Moon over Montana...

One of the best things about eating dinner at the lodge, is the fact that the evening view from the terrace is really out of this world. The evening below all came together, Grilled Pork marinated in Whole Grain Mustard and Honey served on a bed of Butternut Squash Puree and Montana gown green beans. The dish was finished with a ragout of Bacon Lardons, a brabant of Fiji Apple and Shallot cooked down with Sherry Vinegar, Sherry and Poultry Stock. It was a most spectacular meal.


When all was said and done even Pug Henry agreed! She spent a few good minutes "cleaning" the table for us. (Yes...her mother put her up on the table.)


And as I mentioned earlier, the views from the terrace at night are really breathtaking. This photo was taken 2-3 days before the full moon and the moon glow creates a purple haze as it competes with the reflection of the setting sun.

A Valley of Fire...

The "Deep Draw" fire started as a "spot fire" a fire caused by a lightening strike and way to much dry land. Burning in Lake County, about 10 miles north of Elmo, the fire started out as a small 100 acres and after a hard week of burning consumed 1,500 acres. These are a few of the photos that I took from the Northwestern Point of the Lodge. High winds really aggravated the burn, but did make for a spectacular contrast to the sunset.

Garden Perfect!

Jessi's Garden is really out of control! Our cucumber plant has taken up more room than we have ever experienced in the past and the zucchini and squash are beautiful. My favorites are the Patty-Pan Squash that are a little smaller than the palm of my hand. The Currant Tomatoes are a close second, but its hard to get them back to the kitchen without eating everything that you harvested by the time you get back to the kitchen door. We have been enjoying freshly grown Lettuce all summer, the Purple Kale is delicious and I can't leave out the Squash Blossoms.



Squash blossoms really are special. I use them as much as I can, and once our group of family thinned a bit, I was able to stuff a few of them with Herbed Ricotta and serve them with Braised Short Ribs. Underneath the Short Ribs was a chunky mash of Zucchini stewed down with fresh Thyme and Spring Onion. Almost a perfect plate...if I do say so myself!

A Tiny Sweet...

Necessity is the mother of invention and when you have 20 hungry people and 1 partial cheesecake and need dessert...the Cheesecake Truffle is invented. I am sure that people have been making these for years, but I thought I was quite clever. I broke up the Cheesecake (homemade of course) crust and all and mixed it with finely ground Chocolate Wafers. Rolling the mixture with moist hands helped keep the mess down and then rolled the finished Truffle in additional Cookie crumbs. Garnished with a kiss of Milk Chocolate they were enjoyed by all.

Some Food for the Soul...

The majority of the family staying here either lives or was born in Northern Louisiana. If I get lucky, they take one evening and prepare their signature meal. Other than my momma's Chicken & Dumplins there is really no other meal that I would love to have. The meal consists of Chicken Drumettes, Brown Rice ( a more recent substitution for the white rice that we all miss) & Chicken Gravy, Green Beans with Egg Sauce and 7-minute Cabbage. Its all delicious! The cabbage is cooked in butter, the Egg Sauce is lemony with a Tabasco kick, the beans are canned & the gravy is spicy!



Early in the trip I take a poll of all the cousins to see who has what cravings, and if they are easily translated into a lunch or dinner for twenty I make it happen. Roast Beef Po-Boys were one of the first things mentioned. So I made due with Whole Wheat Hoagie Rolls and kept the rest of the sandwich as classic as I could. Slow cooked Beef with lots of Garlic (important for all the Gravy that needs to smother the sandwich), fresh Mayo, chopped Romaine, thinly sliced Tomato and Pickle

Without question the favorite meal of the day, without question is definitely breakfast! Jessi, our Gardner extraordinaire is also the breakfast cook and she keeps it coming with creamy Grits, tons of Bacon, Eggs cooked any style to order, Waffles, Pancakes, Huckleberry Pancakes and if we are really lucky...Cinnamon Rolls (with or without Pecans). The coffee is French Market, a chicory blend that most of you are familiar with and the syrup is made locally by Eva Gates.

Family Favorites...

Every family has their favorite meals and there are always a few things that I know I can get right, for everyone at the tables. The first is Spaghetti and Meatballs, not much I know but when made with freshly made Pasta & house made Tomato sauce everyone is happy at this meal. Wrap it up with Caesar Salad and toasted Garlic Bread.


One of the favorite lunch menus consists of freshly made Pizzas. Made with Whole Wheat Crusts, we had Pepperoni (of course), Veggie , Bacon Cheeseburger, BBQ Chicken and Mediterranean Pork. Everyone gets at least 3 slices and we were able to enjoy some locally grown, Dixon Melons wrapped with Prosciutto on the side. Not only a great meal, but a great way to use up those leftovers!
A birthday is always a great day with all this family around. Nothing beats a straight up Chocolate Cake slathered in Vanilla Bean Frosting and garnished with Edible Flowers & Mint from the garden. Sorry for the partial picture, I couldn't get to the cake cutting fast enough!

Sunrise & Sunset

SUNRISE &

SUNSET!

Lets talk about fish...

We are very lucky to have a grocery not to far away and they get some beautiful fish, especially the Wild Salmon and they also provide us with wild-caught Gulf Shrimp. Shout out to Super One Foods! Two of our most delicious seafood based meals were the Thyme Grilled Wild Shrimp Skewers served over a ragout of Montana grown baby Yellow Squash, fresh English Peas and Fingerling Potatoes, sauced with a Lemon Vinaigrette and finished off with Hush Puppies. There really is just something special about Hush Puppies, even the name is perfect.



This is our assembly line, 21 plates for 21 hungry people

A mountain of golden fried goodness, Hush Puppies! Try them on
their own drizzled with honey.

Our finished dish, every veggie on that plate is grown in Montana!


Another one of my favorite dishes was this grilled Wild Salmon. Sitting on a bed of 4 hour fresh corn, shucked and removed from the Cob and cooked down in olive oil, salt, pepper and finely chopped Marjoram from the herb garden. The Salmon marinated in a fresh Thyme and Olive Oil bath, was grilled and topped with garden grown Currant Tomatoes. Simply perfect.

I am very, very ashamed of myself.

The summer has just continued to roll on by and my posts have been few and far between. I hope that the summer has treated everyone well, and after this week I will be returning home to New Orleans. Things here in Montana have just taken a turn for the winter. Temperatures have not been above 60 degrees and I have barely seen the sun for two days. The fog has started rolling in this afternoon and the lake is covered in a silvery gray haze. I know... I'm bragging.

Even though the summer has not held as many guests as those in years past, I have had a great time, a few surprises and cooked many meals. In order to make up for the the past month I thought I would share a few meals that we have enjoyed and the people we have had the opportunity to meet in one large post.

First up; Vietnamese bun. This is one of our favorite lunches, a classic Vietnamese cold Noodle Salad served with hot, seared beef on top. The salad is a mixture of chopped Cucumber and Romaine Lettuce on the bottom, room temperature Rice Vermicelli Noodles in the middle and then topped with a julienne of Carrot & Green Onion, Mung Bean Sprouts, Crushed Peanuts and a ton of freshly chopped Thai Basil, Cilantro and Mint. This is dressed with freshly made Nuoc Mam! Mrs. Rocky Point is a big fan.

After our lunch of "Bun" we prepared ourselves for a few weeks filled with cousins, sibling, nieces, nephews, friends of friends and daughters. At the most we were hosting 21 people here at the lodge but we were still able to keep it classy... almost.

Let us discuss the not so classy moments and just get them out of the way. Many of you have never heard of the "Taco Bag" before, but here in Rodeo country there really isn't anything like it. Those of us in the South have enjoyed in many a "Tater Tot Casserole" or "Frito Pie", but the beauty of the "Taco Bag" is that it is the invention and reflection of its maker. All right its really just a individually sized bag of Doritos's or Frito's or Tortilla Chips, name your favorite artery clogging salty snack here, lightly crushed and then topped with Chili, Cheese, Pickled Onions, Pickled Jalapenos, and Sour Cream. Don't even think of using a bowl, all the action for this tasty little meal all happens in that disposable chip bag.

Another "embarrassing but yeah..I made that" moment was the "Corn Dog Casserole". I am known as quite a utilizer of leftovers and when you have 4 Corn Dogs in the fridge from Richwines (one of the best "cook to order", locally owned drive thru's in the county) and 10 Hot dogs with their buns left from the BBQ the day before I saw it as a personal challenge. Unfortunately the result wasn't what I was expecting at all...it was utterly delicious. Believe it or not, you can add Heavy Cream, Whole Grain Mustard and diced Spring Onions to a bowl of chopped up "Dog's" and have one of the better savory Bread Puddings ever. Can you imagine the scene at your next backyard BBQ...

Lady number 1: "Who brought this?"
Lady number 2: "What...that?"
Lady number 1: "I don't know, what is that?
Lady number 3: "Why that's my famous corn dog casserole!" "Go ahead...try it, you'll like it."
(Lady number 3 tilts her head to the left, cracks her perfectly glossed lips into a smile and exposes those straight teeth while Lady number 1 & 2 devour said casserole from wilting paper plates and plastic forks, all the while nodding and shaking their heads in approval.)
End Scene. Picture of Corn Dog Casserole appears.