I haven’t been worried about the recall for eggs contaminated by salmonella, because I get my eggs from humanely treated, free-range . . . → Read More: New West Featured Photo]]>

This is the next generation of Heather’s Heritage Hens, featured today on New West.

I haven’t been worried about the recall for eggs contaminated by salmonella, because I get my eggs from humanely treated, free-range chickens!

I was at the Missoula Farmer’s Market last Tuesday evening when I spotted the biggest morel mushroom I’ve ever seen. I thought morel season ended a month or two ago, too.

I asked the vendor how high up he had to go to find them and he said . . . → Read More: Stuffed Morel Recipe]]>

I was at the Missoula Farmer’s Market last Tuesday evening when I spotted the biggest morel mushroom I’ve ever seen. I thought morel season ended a month or two ago, too.

I asked the vendor how high up he had to go to find them and he said with a grin, “So high my legs are still sore.”

I bought a basket for $10 and set out to do that big sucker justice. Asking around and doing a little online research led me to come up with the following. I have to admit, it was one of the most delicious meals I’ve ever prepared. I had a few requests for the recipe, so here it is. Sorry, I don’t really use measurements.

Stuffed Giant Morel with Red Wine Cream Sauce

Cut smaller morels in half lengthwise to facilitate cleaning. Quickly rinse in colander and pat dry with paper towels. Set aside large morel.

Chop small morels and saute in butter and fresh minced garlic until golden brown.

Chop walnuts and a few dried cranberries; slice green onions (scallions). Toss with morels during last minute or two of cooking. Add a little salt, pepper and dried parsley.

Beat one egg with a little half and half. Add salt and pepper.

In another bowl, add half a cup or so of flour. (I used a whole wheat blend from Montana Wheat.)

Heat a good amount of olive oil in a small, clean pan.

Gently spoon the sauteed morel mixture into the large morel. Dip it into the egg mix, then flour. Do that a few times until it has a good coating.

Put the stuffed, battered morel into the hot olive oil and cook on medium-high heat, turning frequently so it starts to brown on all sides. Once it’s warm, weigh the giant morel down with a larger, heavy frying pan so it cooks evenly. It will flatten out; cook on both sides until brown.

Put any extra sauteed morels onto a plate and cover to keep warm. I sprinkled them with parmesan and used them as a bed for the big one.

I also cooked a ribeye steak in another frying pan. Then I deglazed both the steak pan and the sauteed morel pan with red wine.

Use the red wine as a base to make a cream sauce: wine, butter, half and half, a teaspoon or so of flour, salt and pepper. Whisk constantly on high heat until it thickens.

Pour the cream sauce over the stuffed morel. Pour a glass of wine and enjoy the heck out of yourself!

My thanks to the lovely farmer’s market vendor for his hard work picking morels in Montana’s high country in mid-August. Thanks also to Chef Ron Abfalter for cooking suggestions.

Yeah, this isn’t a bison. But it’s one of my better photos from a recent day trip to the National Bison Range.

I’ve been to the bison range a couple times, but I recently drove the upper loop for the first time in about 25 years. . . . → Read More: National Bison Range]]>

Yeah, this isn’t a bison. But it’s one of my better photos from a recent day trip to the National Bison Range.

I’ve been to the bison range a couple times, but I recently drove the upper loop for the first time in about 25 years. It was a hot summer day and the sky was hazy with wildfire smoke coming from somewhere. I really needed a polarizer filter, but I got a couple of decent shots. I’m going to try to go back sometime in September or October when the skies are bluer.

I really loved spotting all the Glacial Lake Missoula features on the surrounding landscape. Check out my Glacial Lake Missoula set if you’re interested.

On my way out, I stopped at the visitor center, where I saw an employee (who appeared to be Native American) lowering the American flag in preparation for closing. I wondered out loud why there wasn’t also a Salish and Kootenai flag. I know there has been controversy over management of the bison range and I don’t pretend to understand all the issues, but it seems like it would only be respectful, considering the range is in the middle of the Flathead Reservation.

More photos in my National Bison Range set.

Some recent photos ….

. . . → Read More: Summer In Montana]]>

Some recent photos ….

. . . → Read More: Arlee Celebration]]>

Re-creating my site in WordPress was not exactly how I wanted to spend my spare time over the past several weeks, but since Blogger discontinued FTP support, I had no choice if I wanted to continue to have a blog on my . . . → Read More: Announcing My New Site]]> … which doesn’t really look that different from my old site.

Re-creating my site in WordPress was not exactly how I wanted to spend my spare time over the past several weeks, but since Blogger discontinued FTP support, I had no choice if I wanted to continue to have a blog on my main page, hosted on my own server. So I picked out a WP theme at random and proceeded to bend it to my will with my middling css skills and the assistance of kind strangers on tech support forums.

The new site has a few changes: an improved gallery with a sampling of the photographs for sale in my Etsy store; a portfolio now separated into five pages; and a selection of highlights from my blog posts going back to 2002.

The archive includes my second-ever post on actual blogging software in August 2003, in which I rather comically attempt to answer the question, “What Is A Blog?” Unfortunately, I was not able to re-create all my old blog comments from readers, but I think maybe some things — including my posts — need expiration dates.

I am still on a greatly reduced blogging schedule (see: “Goodbye Doesn’t Mean Forever“) and I find I am really enjoying just posting whatever and whenever I feel like it, rather than trying to meet some kind of imaginary obligation.

Finally, please note that if you’re subscribed to my old RSS feed, you’ll need to update to the new one.