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Writing Retreat | The Helen Riaboff Whiteley Center at Friday Harbor Labs

/ Hannah Rodabaugh / 1 Comment

Last summer, my partner (Raymond Krohn) and I were lucky enough to spend time as visiting scholars at the Helen Riaboff Whiteley Center (HRWC) at the Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL) on San Juan Island. The center is administered by the University of Washington’s College of the Environment. Since its inception in 2000, it has hosted writers, artists, scientists, and other creatives from around the world.

For two weeks, we stayed in a picturesque cottage situated within the evergreen forests and rugged coastlines that are a hallmark of the San Juan Islands. Mornings were spent in quiet contemplation observing the small creatures in tidepools (tiny wonders!) or the occasional harbor seal and otter who sometimes swam close to shore.

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Crustless Colonial Pumpkin Pie Recipe

/ Hannah Rodabaugh / Leave a comment
Pumpkins!
Photo by Jeremy Seitz

It’s officially pumpkin season, and that means it’s also officially pumpkin pie season too.

I love homemade pumpkin pie with 100% of my heart, and one of my favorite ways to make a pumpkin pie is to stuff a pumpkin with fruit and spiced, sweetened milk and then bake it whole for several hours. It’s delicious.

Plus, it is actually closest to what colonists and pilgrims ate (as they did not always have ingredients like flour to make crust). This article discusses some of the ways pumpkin pies were made in the 1600s:

What were these “former Pumpkin Pies” like? At the time, pumpkin pie existed in many forms, only a few of which would be familiar to us today. [A]n early New England recipe involved filling a hollowed-out pumpkin with spiced, sweetened milk and cooking it directly in a fire (an English version of the same preparation had the pumpkin stuffed with sliced apples).

I started making this version of pumpkin pie a few Thanksgivings ago, when some good friends of mine and I first made this recipe together. It was different, but tasty, and I’ve made it probably half a dozen times since then.

This post contains everything you need to know to make it too.

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Dream | We Drowned At The Top Of A Mountain

/ Hannah Rodabaugh / Leave a comment

At the beginning of the dream, there were a thousand bikers going up the sides of the heavily-slimed, heavily-trafficked streets of Flagstaff Mountain. Cars were moving as if they were in an artery and were all riding up smoothly like blood.

The whole time everything was blue and cold outside like being inside of an iceberg. It wasn’t cold out, but the atmosphere was painted like we were underwater or that everything was breathing in a slightly blue feeling.

Source

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