I spent this spring hiking along the upper and lower Hulls Gulch trails in Camel’s Back Park / Ridge to Rivers.
I saw many new flowers (including two new blue ones).
Residency | Craters of the Moon National Monument AiR: Caves [Part 2]
In June, I got to be an Artist-in-Residence for the National Park Service. I spent two weeks writing about Craters of the Moon National Monument’s incredible lunar landscapes. This post contains photos of the many caves I explored while writing in the park.
Continue readingResidency | Craters of the Moon National Monument AiR: Wildflowers and Geological Features [Part 1]
Recently, I got to spend two weeks at Craters of the Moon National Monument as part of the National Park Service’s Artist in Residence (AiR) program. This post contains pictures of the wildflowers and geological features I saw — like spatter cones and cinder gardens — while I was writing in the park.
How To Make Your Life Better In One Easy Step (Step One Will Amaze You)
You guys! I got this really good idea about how to go about making life easier — and the solution is to have an extra arm.
It’s that simple!
(Excuse me, but I’ve had a lot of coffee.)
Beautiful & Deadly Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest
I have been reading a bunch of books about mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest, and I have found that mushrooms come in literally every color — even teal.
Also, that the most colorful mushrooms are most likely to be poisonous.
Bettie The Fifties Housewife’s Guide To Having The Perfect Dinner Party
Hi folks!
Bettie the fifties housewife here.
I’m cooking for a dinner party.
There is nothing like cooking for a dinner party.
Why I Will Always Love Pests
There is a part of me that will always love pests like pigeons or houseflies or starlings. It’s the part of me that thinks the maligned often have their own value, their own stories to tell when we get to know them.
After all, I once was that person. I was teased, as so many kids were teased, as being without value.
So when I see a maligned animal species that people have assigned as being without value (often through very little thought or speculation), I see myself in it.
Besides, there is something respectable, even heroic, in the scrappy survivor.
Continue readingMy Name Is Bettie & I Am Here To Tell You About Aspics
My name is Bettie. I enjoy gardening and working on my cookbook of savory aspic recipes.
Crustless Colonial Pumpkin Pie Recipe
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.
Continue readingThe Creation Of The Cult Of Annabelle The Haunted Doll
It was a normal day of camp. The first day actually. Half a dozen third and forth graders were bent over a picture of my mother in her serious Twiggy years as a teenager.
Their task was to invent a character portrait for the woman in the photo, and they were doing a typical job of it.
Already they had decided:
- She had one neon green eye and one neon gray eye which both glowed in the dark as she slept in her red velvet bedroom.
- She was a professional murderer who invited people over to tea only to stab them when they were not looking.
- She ate chocolate covered crickets, blood crickets, and human finger cheese.
This is when things got weird. They also decided:
- She lived in a decrepit, old mansion haunted by a friendly ghost named Hari Cari and an evil, haunted doll named Annabelle.
That is when things changed, though we did not know it at first.
hannahrodabaugh.com 