Stroganoff Soup

Jan here with a delicious recipe!

But first, let's head out to Custer State Park. We went on a beautiful Friday afternoon, and the sun...Oh! The sun was showing off!

Over the next couple months the sun will be heading down toward the southern horizon, and we can already see a HUGE difference from last summer!

Something about that angle brings out the rich colors of autumn...

And the shadows make the smallest details stand out...

Even the turkey's wattle shines!

The prairie dogs love these golden days.

But while we were in the park, the weather changed.

The sun was still making shadows, but everything became softer with the clouds moving in from the southeast.

And then yesterday, this happened!

Perfect weather for soup, don't you think?

This was a new recipe for us, and it is definitely a keeper!

Stroganoff Soup

The original recipe for this soup is from a blog called "Belly Full" The original sounded delicious, but I made a few changes (of course!)

ingredients:

2 Tablespoon butter

2 - 3 cups beef diced into bite-size pieces (a tender cut like round steak or sirloin is best)

1 cup mushrooms (optional - I didn't use them because I didn't have any)

1/4 cup diced onion

2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

4 cups beef stock

1 cup water

1 teaspoon beef bouillon or bouillon cube

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 cups small size pasta, like small shells

1/2 cup sour cream

2 Tablespoons flour

In a large pot (I used my 8 quart stock pot,) melt the butter, then brown the beef. Once the beef is browned on all sides (can still be pink in the middle,) add the mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Cook on medium heat until the onions are soft and the garlic is fragrant. (Yum!)

Add the beef stock a bit at a time, stirring the bits off the bottom of the pot as you go. Add the water, bouillon, Worcestershire sauce and pepper, and bring to a boil.

Add the pasta, return the soup to a boil, and cook on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, or until the pasta is done.

Meanwhile, whisk the sour cream and flour together in a small bowl or two-cup measuring cup. Add some broth, about 1/4 cup at a time, and whisk into the mixture until you have about 1 1/2 to 2 cups liquid with no lumps.

When the pasta is cooked, add the sour cream mixture to the pot and stir a minute or so until the soup thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This was so good! I can't wait to make it again!

Are you heading into soup weather yet?

Jan Drexler has always been a "book girl" who still loves to spend time within the pages of her favorite books. She lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her dear husband of many years and their active, crazy dogs, Jack and Sam. You can learn more about Jan and her books on her website, www.JanDrexler.com.

B is for Bison, C is for Clafoutis

by Jan Drexler

This is an exciting time of year in the Black Hills! 

Not only are we enjoying the annual influx of bikers for the Sturgis Rally, but it's rut season for the bison.

What is rut season?

Well, it's when these ladies with babies in tow...

...look awfully good to these gents...

The bull is on the left, and the cow he is "tending" is on the right.

...who have every intention of making sure we have more cinnamon babies next April and May!

Would you believe this little guy is one of this year's babies? He is already losing his cinnamon coloring - his fur/hair/whatever has gradually been getting darker over the last four months, and his little nubby horns are already growing!

But give him five or six years, and he'll look like this:

That is one big bull! And you can see his scars - you don't get to be the father of cinnamon babies without pushing around the other bulls. When they fight...well, you don't want to get too close anywhere near!

But in another month, the cows will be in their herds and the bulls will go off alone, or in pairs. The younger ones gather in groups of four or five. Best buddies spending the winter together. All animosity is forgotten...until next July!

Now on to the next letter of the alphabet - C!

I've shared the recipe for clafoutis here on the blog before, with pears one time, and with apricots the other. But when I was looking for a way to use some sweet cherries I found at the grocery store, I learned that they are the fruit used in traditional clafoutis!

Sweet Cherry Clafoutis

Clafoutis is a French dessert. It is a thick custard with fruit.

Does that sound hard? It isn't! This is one of the easiest recipes ever!

ingredients:

1 cup pitted sweet cherries

3 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup white sugar

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

First, pit your cherries. This is much easier if you have a cherry pitter - I put one on my wish list after doing these!

Preheat your oven to 350°, and butter and lightly flour a 9" pie plate. Spread your pitted cherries over the bottom.

Whisk the eggs and sugars together, then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix until the batter is smooth.

Next, pour the batter carefully over the cherries. If you pour it in too fast, the cherries end up in a big pile.

Don't ask me how I know that!

Bake at 350° for 35 to 45 minutes. Mine took 45 minutes to get done - I live at 4000 ft altitude, and things take longer to bake up here.

How do you know if it's done?

As it bakes, the clafouti gets puffy, starting at the edges and going in to the center. It isn't done until the middle is just as puffy as the outside edges. If it starts getting too brown before it's done, you can tent a piece of aluminum foil over it.

As it cools, the clafouti collapses. Don't worry - it's supposed to do that!

You can sprinkle some powdered sugar on top, but I like it just the way it is.

In the traditional clafoutis, the cherries are cooked with the pits inside. This would make for difficult eating, I think, but it also added an almond flavor to the dish. If you want to, you can add 1/4 teaspoon of almond flavoring along with the vanilla to give it a more authentic flavor.

After trying the cherry clafoutis, I think I might try it with sour cherries next time - or go back to apricots. Or maybe peach...

That's one thing about clafoutis! You can use almost any fruit!

What fruit do you think you'll try?

Jan Drexler has always been a "book girl" who still loves to spend time within the pages of her favorite books. She lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her dear husband of many years and their active, crazy dogs, Jack and Sam. You can learn more about Jan and her books on her website, www.JanDrexler.com.

 

Roaming the Black Hills

Jan here, with another virtual hike in the Black Hills!

Last week we hiked the Lover's Leap trail in Custer State Park. The legend is that two Native American lovers leaped to their death from this spot, the highest point in the trail, but legends are legends. You can judge if the story is true or not!

The trail's route has changed since the first time we hiked it several years ago. In November 2017, the Legion Lake fire went through this area, changing the landscape and destroying many of the trees...but not all of them. As part of the clean up after the fire, the park staff rerouted the trail and lengthened it from three miles to four miles.

Now that we know the route, it's time to tie on our hiking boots and set out. Be sure to bring at least a quart of water per person!

We'll start out on the lower part of the trail, along the stream.

These bridges make the many creek crossings easy!

We need to watch out for a couple dangers along the way...

Poison ivy abounds in the undergrowth!

And you always need to look up, too. This windfall branch is right over the trail, and it will come down in a windstorm someday...hopefully when no one is underneath it!

We start climbing up onto the ridge at about the half-way point on the trail. The terrain is drier, steeper, and rockier.

We also see evidence of the Legion Lake fire.

I thought this tree was so interesting, with the bark only covering about half the trunk all the way from the ground to the crown. But it is still alive!

Finally, we reach the top! We've gone about two-thirds of the way, and it's time for a break and a snack while we enjoy the view...and get our sanity back again.

The park has also set these medallions along some of the trails. I think there are about ten of them. The idea is to do a rubbing of the medallions, then turn the set in at the visitor's center for a prize.

We need to remember to take paper and a pencil along with us on our hikes!

From here, we amble along the top of the ridge, and then back down to the trail head. Still a lovely hike!

Some hikers build cairns along the trail. 

If you've been around the Cafe for awhile, you know that I can't get enough of Custer State Park. Since we moved last summer, we're now only a twenty minute drive away. So Friday evening we went for a drive along the wildlife loop.

I didn't get a picture of the baby burros (cute as could be!) but I did get a great photo of this little one. Cinnamon is my favorite color this time of year.

Don't worry - mama bison wasn't very far away!

This time of year, last year's calves also stick close to their mamas, and you'll see trios like this within the larger herd.

But our biggest surprise was when we were on our way out of the park and we came across the tail-end of the park's elusive elk herd.

One even posed for a photo op.

I hope that you'll have the opportunity to visit Custer State Park someday. It's worth the trip! We'll go hiking together. :-)

Jan Drexler is an author by day who is addicted to counted cross stitch and sauntering through the Hills with her dear husband and their puppies - goofy corgi Jack and growing-fast border collie Sam. You can find Jan's books and other fun things on her website: www.JanDrexler.com.

It's Finally Spring!

Spring has finally come to the Black Hills!

Jan here, taking you on a visit to Wind Cave National Park.

We went before the rain showers showed up late last week, so the grass is still pretty brown (it's last year's dormant grass,) but you can see the new green shoots in places, like in this prairie dog town.

No, those aren't prairie dogs...

This time of year, the bull bison hang out together in small groups while the cows are off in their own large herds having cinnamon-colored babies.

Isn't this guy impressive? He's filling out on the fresh green grass and shedding his winter coat. He's building his muscles, getting ready for the rut that starts in late July. But until then, it's wallowing in the dust, sleeping in the sun, and watching the occasional tourist.

We went hiking on this lovely spring day, and chose a trail we've driven past but have never hiked. No puppies this time, though. Dogs aren't allowed on the back country trails in the national park.

Our hike took us from the national park service road and trailhead parking lot, across rolling meadows (where we saw plenty of bison in the distance) and up to the top of this ridge.

We had topped the ridge and began walking down the other side, when we heard a sudden snort and scramble.

We had surprised one of those small groups of bull bison.

You never, never want to surprise a bull bison.

I zoomed in on one of them. See that raised head? Those ears turned our way? The eyes zeroing in on a couple foolish people who dared to invade his space?

We were at least 200 feet away from them (a safe distance is 100 feet,) so we turned around and walked back down the trail toward our truck, talking all the way so they could hear us leaving.

We didn't have any problems with them, but we didn't continue any farther along the trail. And I wouldn't even say it was a close call...but it could have been.

Later in the week we came across this guy walking along the road in Custer State Park.

As we got closer to him, the top of his shoulders reached nearly to the top of the window on our truck. I wanted to get a better picture of him on this narrow road, but as we drew up next to him, he turned his head, backed up a step, and looked at us with that huge, dark, intelligent eye.

And I got a very good look at the set of very pointy and very large horns that were tilting toward us menacingly.

No picture. No chatting. We just drove on by.

Man, those are formidable beasts.

But with all of this, we did get our first glimpse of South Dakota's state flower.

These are pasque flowers, or prairie crocus. They bloom around Easter every year (hence the name) and are so beautiful.

Closer to home, we have at least a dozen western meadowlarks nesting around our house. Their song is thrilling!

Turn the volume up!

Yes, spring is finally here.

Jan Drexler is an author by day who is addicted to counted cross stitch and sauntering through the Hills with her dear husband and their puppies - goofy corgi Jack and growing-fast border collie Sam. You can find Jan's books and other fun things on her website: www.JanDrexler.com.

A Little Bit of Sweet and a Little Bit of Savory

Jan here with a reminder that desperate times call for desperate measures...and they usually involve chocolate!

Sometimes on our trips to Sam's Club, we'll indulge in a treat for ourselves. The last time we went, it was my turn to choose...

The background is my Susan Branch
desk blotter calendar. I get one every year to add a bit
of whimsy to my office.

Yes, those are Dove Chocolate Promises. YUM! I've been making them last, only having one or three at a time....

The one in the green wrapper is salted caramel. The gooey salted caramel is wrapped in delicious Dove dark chocolate. I wish the entire container had been filled with that one flavor!

But it made me start thinking about that blend of sweet and savory - salt & caramel, apples & peanut butter, salted peanuts on a hot fudge sundae, etc. 

One of my favorite ways to blend the two tastes is in this salad idea I got from our friend Pam Hillman.

Yes, that is a can of tuna. And yes, that is an apple. You can substitute soy sauce for the Bragg's Aminos, and mayo for the wedge of Light Laughing Cow Cheese. Just dice the apple and blend everything together according to your taste...and don't knock it until you've tried it!

This is a delicious and filling low-fat, healthy-carb lunch!

Another sweet and savory combination I often have for lunch is a baked sweet potato. But not the way you're thinking - I don't load my sweet potatoes down with butter and brown sugar anymore! (Unless it's Thanksgiving...)

Do you see my secret ingredient? Yes! It's cumin!

When I want to have a sweet potato for lunch, I put it in the oven right after breakfast. I cut the ends off (to minimize the stringiness,) wrap it in foil, and bake it for 3 hours at 325° or 2 hours at 350°. By the time I'm ready for lunch, it's baked to perfection. The skin pulls off easily, then I split it in two and 1 teaspoon of butter, a dash of salt and pepper, and then plenty of cumin. 

What makes it so delicious? I'm convinced it's the combination of the sweet potato and the savory cumin. I'm always a little sad when I get to the last bite...

What is your favorite sweet and savory combination?

In doggy news, we had a couple gorgeous spring days before our snowstorm last week, so we took Sam to Custer State Park for the first time.

As soon as we were out of the truck, both pups had their noses to the ground! 

This is a service road, not an official hiking trail, but it is inside the park so wildlife is at large. We saw signs of bison (the buffalo chips were fresh!) and we know that deer, elk, antelope, coyotes and a huge number of other animals frequent this area. Smells abound!

Every dog's favorite hobby is finding sticks, right? Especially these two!

And especially when the "sticks" are actually trees that fell after some long-ago forest fire.

How much fun can a pup have?

We walked "in" about 15 minutes, let the pups rest, and then walked back "out." A nice easy hike for early spring.

The pups have a favorite treat on an occasional evening - 

I fill their Kong toys with a mixture of plain yogurt and puppy kibble, 

then throw them in the freezer for a few hours. They keep the pups busy during that freak-out time between supper and bed, especially when a storm keeps us inside all day.

Ah, the joys of raising puppies! I'm glad it doesn't last forever!

Jan Drexler is an author by day who is addicted to counted cross stitch and sauntering through the Hills with her dear husband and their puppies - goofy corgi Jack and baby border collie Sam. You can find Jan's books and other fun things on her website: www.JanDrexler.com.