Here’s a thing I didn’t understand until I’d lived here a while: in Wyoming, pie is infrastructure. It’s not a dessert you order if you’ve still got room. It’s the reason you stop in a town you weren’t planning to stop in, the thing the gas-station attendant tells you about before you’ve even asked, theContinue reading “The Wyoming Pie Trail, Part One: The Best Pie Shops in the State”
Author Archives: SeanE
Wild Trout Almondine: Pan-Seared Wyoming Trout with Brown Butter and Toasted Almonds
The Day I Had Fillets Instead of a Whole Fish A few weeks back I posted my grilled Wyoming trout with lemon herb butter, and the whole point of that recipe is the drama of cooking a fish whole — head, tail, the works, right over the coals. I love that version. But not everyContinue reading “Wild Trout Almondine: Pan-Seared Wyoming Trout with Brown Butter and Toasted Almonds”
Hunting Camp Meals: What Wyoming Hunters Really Cook
There’s a version of hunting camp that shows up in magazines and on the side of beer cans. Golden light through pine trees, a guy in a clean flannel turning an elk tenderloin over a perfect bed of coals, a tin cup of coffee steaming next to him, mountains behind. Everybody’s relaxed. Nothing hurts. I’veContinue reading “Hunting Camp Meals: What Wyoming Hunters Really Cook”
Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler: Camp Cooking the Wyoming Way
The Cobbler That Ended a Cold Night in the Bighorns A couple of summers back, Kimi and I drove up into the Bighorns for a long weekend with no real plan beyond “get above the heat.” We found a spot off a forest road past Buffalo, set up camp in the late afternoon, and watchedContinue reading “Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler: Camp Cooking the Wyoming Way”
Sweet Melissa’s Café: The Vegetarian Standout Hiding in Cowboy Country
Let me get something out of the way up front: I’m a wild-game guy. I’ve got elk in the freezer right now. My idea of a perfect Sunday usually involves a cast-iron skillet and something that used to have antlers. So when I tell you that one of the best meals I’ve had in southernContinue reading “Sweet Melissa’s Café: The Vegetarian Standout Hiding in Cowboy Country”
Twenty Minutes From My Front Door, a Circus Sideshow Makes Gin
A couple of weeks back I drove two and a half hours north to Kirby to write about Wyoming Whiskey Distillery, and the whole way home I kept thinking the same dumb thought: there’s a nationally awarded craft distillery roughly twenty minutes from my house in Casper, and I’d been treating it like background scenery.Continue reading “Twenty Minutes From My Front Door, a Circus Sideshow Makes Gin”
Smoked Queso: The Dip That Earns Its Spot Next to the Brisket
I Made This By Accident, and Now It’s Non-Negotiable The first time I made smoked queso, I wasn’t trying to. It was a Saturday in early fall, the kind of Casper day where the wind finally takes a breather and you can actually sit outside without your hat ending up in the next county. IContinue reading “Smoked Queso: The Dip That Earns Its Spot Next to the Brisket”
The History of the Chuckwagon: How a Wagon Built Wyoming’s Food Culture
There’s a stretch of road just west of Casper, where the North Platte cuts through the valley between Coal Mountain and Bessemer Mountain, and most people drive right past it. I did too, for the first year I lived here. Then I learned what used to sit out there: the Goose Egg Ranch, one ofContinue reading “The History of the Chuckwagon: How a Wagon Built Wyoming’s Food Culture”
Cowboy Beans: The Way Wyoming Ranchers Actually Make Them
A Pot of Beans That Earns Its Spot Next to the Grill The first time I had real cowboy beans in Wyoming, I was standing in a gravel driveway outside Glenrock holding a paper plate that was already starting to give out under the weight of it. Somebody’s brisket was the headliner, sure, but theContinue reading “Cowboy Beans: The Way Wyoming Ranchers Actually Make Them”
What to Eat and Drink at the Wyoming Brewers Festival’s 30th Anniversary in Cheyenne
There’s a particular kind of Wyoming evening that this festival was built for. The sun is still up at seven, the wind has finally laid down, and the old sandstone face of the Cheyenne Depot glows orange while a few hundred people stand around in the plaza holding tiny mugs of beer and arguing happilyContinue reading “What to Eat and Drink at the Wyoming Brewers Festival’s 30th Anniversary in Cheyenne”