My last Dark Days Challenge meal was a real celebration of the end of winter and first beginnings of spring.Searching in cupboards, freezer and pantry I came up with peppercorn fettuccine from Farmer’s Market, strawberries and blueberries, frozen pesto and tomato sauce, and home grown chicken. The coop had local lettuce (it’s packaged with the dirt still on it) and tomatoes. Put it all together with local pull apart dried tomato basil foccacia bread, add my sister, best friend and husband and we had a delightful dinner of fettuccine with chicken and pesto and a light tomato sauce on the side, salad and bread with berries for dessert.The best thing about Dark Days: learning that even in the frozen Minnesota winter you can eat local all through the cold months. With Sam starting the garden in the green house we’ll have even more in our freezers for next year!
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Laura called tonite to tell me that Cody, her little horse and good friend had gone colic and they’d had to put him down. It was most unexpected and sad news to get from her. It’s never easy to loose a good friend. Cody had come into her life with spirit and energy and they fit well together. Most recently they were taking riding lessons together, Laura said Cody knew more than she did and the lessons were catching her up. She began and ended her day by checking on him, one final good night before everyone turned in for the night. There is a very big hole in her life right now, he will be missed. My heart is heavy tonight and I wish we were closer so I could help to comfort her and say good bye to her spirited little pony.
Altitude can definitely kick my butt.
We’ve been living at 7400 feet for the past week at Big Sky Montana. It’s not an easy altitude for basic things like sleeping, enjoying a glass of wine, breathing under exertion and skiing. It takes a few days of major hydration and taking it a little easy and then the mountain is your playground!
We’ve enjoyed spring skiing, warm sunny days with soft snow on the mountain. It’s been short days due to daylight savings time moving the warm up back an hour and it’s left me with time for a Nordic walk to stretch out my legs and do some moving meditation at the end of the day. There’s nothing like walking with the grand views of Lone Peak, the Spanish Peaks and all the valleys that make up this beautiful area!
Tomorrow we head home, but I’ll keep these amazing vistas in my head and in my heart for days to come.
We’re back in Big Sky this week with the additional challenge of eating local when we’re out of town staying in a condo. True to the spirit of the Dark Days Challenge I decided to play with the rules a little and modify my challenge this week to be a local main dish for every meal. The fun part was combining local Minnesota carried in the car with local Montana purchased here in Bozeman.
My niece Michelle lives on the mountain. She kicked off the week by welcoming us with a dinner of venison cooked in wine and mushrooms served over noodles. The venison came from the fall hunt, about as local and delicious as you can get.
Monday featured Montana grass fed beef steaks cooked on the grill with organic Idaho baked potatoes, smothered in Minnesota Creamery butter and sour cream to celebrate Michelle and Brian’s engagement.
Tuesday we enjoyed dinner at The Cabin at Big Sky and I ordered the Elk, raised in Montana and served with Idaho mashed potatoes.
Wednesday I made Lamb Shepherd Pie with home raised lamb, onions and carrots from Mpls Farmer’s market last fall (can’t believe they made it this long) once again served over those wonderful Idaho potatoes. Can you tell I love being in Montana and having potatoes grown nearby!
Dinner tonite will be a pork roast from our freezer with organic saurkraut, hopefully next year I’ll have my own to use, and Friday’s plan is Minnesota Sunshine Spaghetti with sauce made with ground pork from the same pig flavored with spices that I carried home from Italy 2 years ago. Unfortunately I forgot the tomatoes from the freezer so will have to substitute organic canned crushed tomatoes.
Saturday we’ll be driving home having enjoyed a wonderful combination of local meals here in Montana!
Sometimes going outdoors to play is messier than normal. Winter is melting away here in Minnesota with warm temps and rain. A nasty way to finish a beautiful winter. The end result is that our snow is disappearing at an astonishing rate leaving behind lots of mud and puddles.
The barnyard is a muddy mess! Water is having a tough time finding it’s way out and the sheep are having an equally tough time navigating through the mud and water. If there’s one thing sheep don’t like it’s rain and wet. The lambs are filthy, the ewe’s very unhappy and Nemo pushes his way into the barn at every opportunity.
Good thing we all have rubber boots. I did chores yesterday and couldn’t resist trying to make little ditches with my heels in the mud to direct the water out of Sam’s tire ruts and into the pond. I can remember Laura as a little girl stomping through the puddles at every opportunity, guess I know where she gets it from.
I know I’m late for last week but I’m so committed to this challenge that I wanted to make sure I posted that I did do my meal!
I scored on Wednesday nite when I found a solitary spaghetti squash on the bottom of the pantry shelf. I baked it up while I put some pork chops out to defrost. It was a simple dinner, do I do anything else compared to all the culinary expertise in this group???
Local pork chops from the freezer cooked on the grill with a homemade rub on them, spaghetti squash with butter and salt, strawberries from the freezer and rolls from Great Harvest Bakery. yum!
You all need a little background here.Once upon a time there were four Nordic Walking Instructors struggling to change the way America, or at least Minnesota, walks. With poles in hand they taught classes, led group walks, scheduled clinics and walked miles and miles. Many listened, many took up their own poles, but there was still so many who didn’t understand Nordic Walking. So the four came up with a plan.They planned a Nordic Walking event at a local park, one of their favorite places to Nordic Walk. They believed that if they created the perfect opportunity walkers would come. Put trails and poles and instructors together and who could resist?And then others found out about the perfect plan and the plan grew and expanded to fill North America.It’s not a fairy tale. Four of us created Great Lakes Nordic Walkers, www.greatlakesnordicwalkers.com to promote a Minnesota Nordic Walking Expo. Three Rivers Park District graciously agreed to host it at Hyland Lake Park Preserve on June 12, National Get Outdoors Day. Perfect!Seems that Nordic Walking North America, www.nordicwalkingna.com, was looking for a location for their 2nd Annual North American Nordic Walking Expo and came across our perfect plan.A new partnership was formed, Nordic Walking North America and Great Lakes Nordic Walkers presenting the Second Annual North American Nordic Walking Expo, hosted by Three Rivers Park District and sponsored by Hoigaards, Midwest Mountaineering, Nordic Walk This Way and Nordic Walk for Life. June 12 at Hyland 9-4pm.It will be “the place to be!” for Nordic Walkers. So tell a friend, bring your family, announce it from the rooftops! Make a plan to join us! It’s going to be quite the adventure!!!