Cowboys Do Eat Quiche

Once every five years or so I get the urge to make quiche, and making quiche always takes me back to when I worked at Hidden Valley Ranch outside Cody, Wyoming (then a dude ranch, now a private ranch with a new name). My job was with the horses, but on the cook's day off, if I wasn't on a pack trip or hauling supplies 12 miles into an elk hunting camp in the Washakie Wilderness, I would cook.

Quiche is incredibly easy (especially if you buy the crust, which you can pre-bake for 10 minutes, or not). Just pile whatever fillings you want into the crust then mix some eggs and cream (3 or 4 eggs and a cup or so of cream, or cream mixed with milk or half-and-half; you can also replace part of the cream with ricotta), and add salt, pepper, nutmeg. Pour the custard over the fillings and bake at 375 for 45 minutes or so, til it’s not jiggly in the middle.

Quiche is a great way to feed a crowd because it's easy to make multiples in almost no additional time. But because this was in the ‘80s, a few years after the book "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche" became a bestseller, I always wondered if I'd get pushback when I served it. After all, the guys on our ranch staff had snuff in the back pockets of their Wranglers, and on their days off they shot and skinned rattlesnakes to make into belts.

But they ate it and they seemed to enjoy it. We even served salad with it. We just avoided using the word 'quiche' ‘til after they'd eaten it.

#quiche #summerbaking #ranchmemories #splatterware #enamelware #hiddenvalley #cody #cowgirldays #ranchkitchen #ranchcooking #duderanch #feedacrowd #heartymeals #americanrustic #newwest #realmendonteatquiche

Shou Sugi Ban

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Whether you call it Shou Sugi Ban or Yakisugo, fire-treated wood is making an appearance in rustic structures and furniture throughout the country.

Shou Sugi Ban seems to be turning up everywhere lately. Ever since I wrote about a table that appears on the cover of Rustic Modern, in the lakeside home of Montana Architect Larry Pearson, I’ve been noticing it — most recently in a Chairish blog just yesterday.

According to William Beleck, who dug into the research on behalf of Nakamoto Forestry, the practice has been mistakenly called Shou Sugi Ban in Europe and the U.S. — rather than the more correct Yakisugo — due to a linguistic fine point, the mistake resulting from differences between the Chinese and Japanese languages. Yet even Japanese firms are still promoting the wood as Shou Sugi Ban, so the jury seems to be out.

Whatever the correct term, it’s a method of wood preservation whose byproduct is beauty and serenity, as seen in many an ancient Japanese temple. In a recent story I did for Big Sky Journal, I loved everything about the home and guest house on the banks of the Wood River in Idaho. But I especially loved the builder's backstory:

"Years ago, Idaho-based builder Mat Hall read about the ancient Japanese wood-preserving technique called Shou Sugi Ban. The treatment involves charring wood to promote resistance to fire, degradation, and pests, and it results in a beautiful dark tone with unusual texture and depth. At the time, he was intrigued enough to post a photo on Facebook with the caption: “Any takers?” It never occurred to him that years later, he would be asked to construct an entire home and guesthouse using the process."

For this project, Hall created his own fire-charring setup on site, flaming wood by hand in all weathers and temperatures. After building the guest house, though, he decided there had to be a better way. For the main house he sourced the exterior wood from a well regarded purveyor specializing in the technique.

The architecture is by Janet Jarvis of The Jarvis Group, the interiors by the late Toni Breck, a talented designer who was a close friend and neighbor of the homeowners. Photography by Heidi Long. Nomenclature to be determined!

#learnbydoing #shousugiban #woodconstruction #boardformedconcrete #mountainhome #skistyle #woodriver #sunvalley #idaho #greatroom #woodtimbers #twigchandelier #concretefireplace #cabinvibes #retreat #cozy #westerndesign #cabinstyle