Seabring Davis - The Western Kitchen: Seasonal Recipes from Montanas Chico Hot Springs Resort

SEABRING DAVIS is a writer by profession and a cook by passion. She won the culinary High Plains Book Award in 2016 for the cookbook A Taste of Montana and is the author of several other books, including A Montana Table: Recipes from Chico Hot Springs Resort. She writes broadly about the things she loves: food, art, and interesting people. She has spent a lifetime at the keyboard of a computer, as a magazine editor, newspaper obituary reporter, activist, essayist, food blogger, and feature writer. But when the screen powers down, she cant wait to get in the kitchen, where creativity and beauty and natures generosity come together in the best and most satisfying ways. She lives in Livingston, Montana, with her husband and two daughters.

LYNN DONALDSON-VERMILLION is a Livingston, Montanabased photojournalist whose appetite for adventure and thirst for travel have her roaming throughout the Rocky Mountains shooting and writing about Sugar Beet Festivals, Catholic Burgers, Wild Game Cook-Offs, and the absolute best places to eat pie. She is the founder and creative director of the Montana food and travel blog TheLastBestPlates.com, and you can find her stories and images in National Geographic Traveler, Saveur, TheFoodNetwork.com, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Sunset, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other national publications. Lynn is also a featured Instagrammer for Nat GeoTravel and has chronicled mermaid bars in Central Montana, taimen fishing in Mongolia, and morel hunting in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. Her weekly newspaper column, The Last Best Plates, appears each Wednesday in the Billings Gazette, Missoulian, Montana Standard, Helena Independent Record, and Ravalli Republic. She shoots the Dining Out column, written by Seabring Davis, for Big Sky Journal. Donaldson-Vermillion has shot two additional cookbooks: Open Range: Steaks, Chops and More from Big Sky Country and New Frontier Cooking: Recipes from Montanas Mustang Kitchen. She and her adventurer husband are raising three spirited children who love eating everything from Southern barbecue and Bahamian conch to Mongolian Khorkhog. When not scouring the globe in search of appetizing stories, the Vermillion family can be found on the trails and streams surrounding Livingston.

THIS BOOK WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE without the encouragement of editor Erin Turner. She is a devoted Chico Hot Springs fan, but also a person who knows whats real. Thank you for recognizing the authentic qualities that Chico still offers to people and for allowing me to have such creative involvement in the process of composing this recipe book.

To Chef Dave Wells, who worked through the busiest season to concoct recipes and who helped elevate every dish. Thank you to the remarkable team in the Chico kitchen, night and day.

To head gardener Jeannie Duran and the super-gardeners, for bringing the most beautiful flowers, fruits, and vegetables to bounty every season.

Thank you to the talented Lynn Donaldson-Vermillion, whose images make the recipes and Chicos culture come to life.

A special thanks to the many friends who helped showcase the human element and fun of Chico Hot Springs: Andrew Doolittle, Brad Kaufman, Ryan and Alexis Whitford, Heidi Saile, Brad Havertape, Matt Jackson, Montana Rose, Katherine and George Borneman, Amy Coolidge, Emma Hewey, Gigi Albiers and her gorgeous family, Alexandra Samy and her tribe for fringe and fun at the Block Party, ER Young in the Saloon, Shane Kehoe and the fabulous night crew in the dining room, Dan Vermillion, Erin Young, Brian OConnor, Beth and John Gregory, Bryant Bowen and the beautiful brunch team, Tracy Wein, and James Bryant; and behind the scenes, thank you to Machele Shifley, Beth Boston, Joe Engstrom, Doug Wilson, Raymond Buracha and the housekeeping team, and to Sharon Nardin for all the help resurrecting recipes!

To Mike Art for Hot Wada and the heart that it took to see the potential in this place so many years ago. Rest in peace.

Finally, this book is for all the employees at Chico, past, present, and future. Thank you for carrying on the story of this place in all that you do.

SUNDAY BRUNCH AT CHICO is a weekend tradition. It starts with a little journey driving through Paradise Valley, preferably on old East River Road as it winds past small country schools, windmills, and black Angus cows that stand like sculptures in fields that roll up to the feet of the Absaroka Mountains. Turn onto the county road to Chico and Emigrant Peak. Inside the historic hotel, nestle into the cozy dining room and begin the meal with a refreshing mimosa, then indulge in the lavish buffet. Quiches, Citrus Salmon, thick and crispy bacon, cheesecakes, Cinnamon Bread Pudding, half a dozen different pastries, and an omelet bar are just a few of the items offered. Afterward, soak in the hot springs pool to complete the leisurely morning, with perhaps just one more mimosa poolside.

Note: Recipes denoted by are Chico Classics.

Cinnamon Bread Pudding with Vanilla Bourbon Sauce

This is a true comfort-food dessert. Baking it will fill your house with the warm, welcoming aromas of brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. You can use any kind of bread or pastryyesterdays French bread, doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, cake crumbs. But consider the occasion, because it will be a more refined dish if you use the same kind of bread for the whole dish.

SERVES 12

Ingredients

FOR THE CINNAMON BREAD PUDDING:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

10 cups chopped day-old bread or pastry

3 cups half-and-half

2 cups heavy whipping cream

cup granulated sugar

5 eggs

1 tablespoon cinnamon

FOR THE VANILLA BOURBON SAUCE:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon bourbon (can also substitute brandy or orange liqueur)

Instructions

TO PREPARE THE CINNAMON BREAD PUDDING:

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl; let soak for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spray a piece of aluminum foil to use for covering later.

Pour bread pudding mixture into the baking pan. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour, or until center of pudding is firm. The bread pudding can be made 1 or 2 days in advance; reheat at 250F for about 30 minutes before serving.

TO PREPARE THE VANILLA BOURBON SAUCE: