Eater Weekend in Wyoming
Spring holidays inspire celebration through food and Easter, for eaters, is first and foremost
The food production started on Thursday at my Wyoming friend Paula’s house. We got together to cook, since the weather was wintry bluster outside. Paula was just filling two pie crusts with a sweet Arboria rice custard mixture, redolent with orange and lemon zest, when I walked in the door. Once the two pies and a little extra custard were in the oven, we quickly transitioned to savory—Stuffed Cabbage Rolls—guided by a perusal of an Eating Well recipe and muscle memory.
Halupki/Gwumpkies are an Eastern European tradition that I don’t make on my own very often (hardly ever), but have enjoyed so often at my Polish family functions that the method is hard-wired in my genes. My Aunt Zosh was the champion roller, filling her giant roaster with the savory little bundles. Paula and I weren’t going for hundred here; just enough for two family dinners. We started by microwaving a medium sized cabbage in a glass dish with water at the bottom for five minutes at a time, peeling off the leaves one by one until we were down to the core.
The filling was ground beef from Jacknife Farms in Afton, along with ground pork to lighten the mix. Paula parboiled white rice, and we added eggs, a little garlic and onion powder, ketchup, tomato paste, and salt and pepper. We didn’t want the starchy sweetness of canned tomato soup, though my Aunt Zosh always used that as a topping, but instead opted for a crushed tomato sauce doctored up with a little sauteed minced onion, a touch of brown sugar, and a splash of vinegar.
We ended up with 16 rolls, 8 each, and celebrated our work with a latte and a sample of the extra rice pudding custard baked in a dish.
Friday morning was a full-on snow day, which was apropos as it was the day that Rose came back from Alaska. After a fun afternoon making a snowman with Stephen, the kids collected Rose at the Idaho Falls airport, and we had a family dinner of Shrimp ‘n Grits and Beans ‘n Greens. The local supermarket, which never fails to disappoint in the veggie department, had no collards, mustard, or turnip greens, so two kinds of kale and some limp beet tops from a large bunch of orange beets served just fine. Since it was Good Friday, I didn’t add any bacon or ham hock to the greens, but boiled them down with some smoky chipotle salsa for added flavor. After cooking for two hours, I added a can of black-eyed peas. The kids wouldn’t try them, but they did enjoy the shrimp with cheesy grits—Tony Chachere added at the table to make them more kid-friendly.
The next morning was cold, and the kids were hungry at breakfast for what they call “Egg in a Hole,” and I call a “One-Eyed Sandwich.” That was good, because they had to be fortified for the egg “hunt” at the Alpine Civic Center that morning. The eggs are just scattered on the ground, so it is more of a scramble than an actual hunt, but all the kids enjoyed the friendly mayhem.
We dyed eggs in the afternoon using a pack of natural dyes from Whole Foods. It was so much fun, I bought another dozen white eggs later that day to do it again. Old eggs are easier to peel than fresh eggs, so I looked for ones with the soonest Sell By date. I had purchased eggs a week ago for our first dying, and they peeled easily.
Dinner on Saturday night was easy! The Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, and Haluski—sauteed onion, garlic, and egg noodles. Simple peasant food. Our side salad of Roasted Orange Beets, lightly dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, paired nicely with a scoop of cottage cheese topped with dill fronds.Pickle-guy Kirk enjoyed snipping the dill onto his own cottage cheese and carefully navigated around the beets.
On Easter morning, mommy made fresh sourdough pancakes. Her sourdough starter was fine after leaving it for two weeks. And we had Canadian bacon with the pancakes hot off the griddle. After lots of phone calls with family, we drove up along the Palisades Dam to Indian Creek, which was completely dry due to lack of snow over the winter. Stephen chatted with the local rancher, who remembered a similar dry winter in ’77, and afterward, we all felt assured that the water would return someday. The kids had a great time building a house of sticks in the woods, and we snacked a bit on banana bites, carrots, and Garrett Chicago popcorn mix since it was a holiday.
Then it was time to go home and make Easter dinner. Auntie Ashley was coming, but bringing her own food because she is on a very special diet. Her own bowl of edamame, avocado, greens, and lots of pickled vegetables looked beautiful on the dinner table. But we enjoyed the ham, Cauliflower au Gratin, Green Beans with toasted almonds on the side, and more of those roasted beets. The piece de resistance was the Italian Easter Pie, with lots of fresh fruit.
Easter 2026 was in the books, as we got photos from family and friends around the world at their own tables. The celebrations were all good, and the leftovers should last through the week.
Paula’s Italian Rice Pie was a meld of three recipes—her mother’s, and two from her web search. One was from Feeling Foodish, and the other one was from This Italian Kitchen. She had reservations about her mother’s because it contained no eggs. And what is Easter without eggs?!
