I was driving up Montana Avenue during my lunch break, gazing at billowing clouds as they rolled across the Helena foothills. Cirice, by the Swedish band Ghost was playing, and the music seemed to sync with the movement of the clouds. I took some video footage from the Helena High parking lot. Here is my attempt to recreate this little life moment.
With cooler temperatures and most of our leaves on the ground, my palate turns to seasonal, but healthy comfort food. My son has been begging me for a thick stew, so I turned to root vegetables and put together a hearty Fall stew that is easy to make, healthy, and paleo-friendly. Swapping in butternut squash instead of potatoes gives this stew a slightly sweet and rich flavor. You can make this vegetarian, or with a good red meat. I used elk meat, which is obviously grass-fed and organic, and extremely lean and flavorful. It was delicious!
Here is my recipe for Fall harvest stew. This recipe incorporates two great techniques I learned from reading Cook’s Country magazine, from America’s Test Kitchen:
- Allowing the vegetables to cook separately from the meat in the slow cooker prevents them from turning to mush. You accomplish this by simply placing the veggies in a sealed foil packet atop the meat.
- Use tapioca pearls as an excellent thickener for the stew. It works better than flour or corn starch, and is a paleo-friendly alternative.
Here is an easy and unique stirfry that pairs sweet and tangy plums with spicy kimchi. Throw some fresh ginger in the mix, serve on some zucchini and squash “noodles,” and you have a delicious blend of flavors all working in concert. This recipe is paleo-friendly and gluten-free. We’re pumping this dish with lots of plum flavor by using both plum sauce in the marinade, and fresh sliced plum in the actual stir fry. Feel free to experiment with your choice of fresh veggies. This recipe calls for thinly sliced beef, but shrimp or chicken would also work well with the plums. I’m actually using antelope meat as a natural, organic, and delicious alternative.
Remember, this is stir fry. You can cook this is a large, hot frying pan, or a wok is even better if you have one. With high heat, everything comes together quickly, so most of the work on this recipe is prepping your ingredients and having them ready.
A note on the plum sauce: store-bought plum sauce is full of soy, wheat and sugar. It’s no good, and you can easily make your own. Although it did add a little sugar to my recipe, I simply used some wild plum preserves from my parents’ garden for a much simpler and delicous substitute.
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The Lewis & Clark Humane Society serves a 3-county area providing for shelter and finding homes for unwanted and abandoned pets. They also serve a much larger area with a mobile spay/neuter operation, and coordinate public and community events. To acknowledge and celebrate their 50th Anniversary, I designed a new logo and identity for the organization, as well as a companion logo used to mark their Golden Anniversary. I’m excited to watch as they roll out this new identity over the next year or two!
Here’s a simple and delicious recipe that makes for an easy middle-of-the-week meal. Whenever I get cravings for pasta, I look to my nifty spiral slicer to make noodles out of healthy veggies. The result? Guilt-free and gluten-free pasta that’s even easier to prepare than boiling traditional noodles. Most people think of traditional pesto made from basil, pine nuts and parmigiano cheese, but we’re going for paleo-friendly here, so this is a version of pesto made with cilantro, garlic and macadamia nuts. And who doesn’t like shrimp in fettucine? I started with a recipe from Diane Sanfilippo, and then modified it more to my liking. Hope you enjoy!
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Here are two publications I recently designed, fresh off the press: The first is Access to Justice, a booklet highlighting an AmeriCorps program that is administered by the Montana Legal Services Association. This program provides legal assistance to low-income Montanans, self-help law, and advocacy for Montanans’ legal rights. The second is Texas: A Photographic Journey, an 80-page softcover photo book published by FarCountry Press.
