Monthly Hush 003: Pet stories, gifts that wow, and home-made bibimbap
It’s been a wet June here at The Hohnstead, which means garden progress, foggy mornings, wet outdoor furniture, mosquito presence, and leak checks (when building with polycarbonate, we’ve learned to frequently check). Despite an unusually moist June, we’ve welcomed a few returning guests, their pups, and gathered stories to tell, some even embarrassing ones.
That’s what these Monthly Hush stories are - a look behind the scenes into our hosting business, our perpetually struggling garden (zone 4 + high elevation), our cooking and baking attempts, pretty pictures from the forest, and anything else that resonated in the past month here at the homestead. Thank you for being here!
3 Stories from our furry guests
Recently, we helped our guests out by watching their 2 big dogs while their owners attended Zootown Music Festival. We gladly agreed to do so, so that the owners could both enjoy the concert, instead of one of them staying behind (like they originally planned). While we had a good time walking the two dogs through the woods, Phoebe (the more skittish of the two) pulled extra hard in the direction of her cabin. Her collar came off, as Alla slowly watched it happen: “Oh shit!!!” Phoebe quickly hid under the cabin and didn’t want to come out for a few hours. Alla even climbed underneath the Stargazer Cabin, squeezing between the two to three feet in height. Without a collar, the dog was not budging, just sat there staring, then growling. “Shit, shit, shit!” Some time later, Alla coerced Phoebe out by walking her sister on a leash back and forth, which made Phoebe want to follow. After opening the cabin door and walking the leashed sister, Phoebe made her way inside the cabin and settled comfortably on the bed with a big sigh. Alla exhaled as well: “God damnit that was close.” We received a nice tip for that dog-sitting experience :)
The second story came just a few weeks later, when our old friends Mike and Melissa, whom we met in South Korea many moons ago, visited The Hohnstead in order to run the Missoula Marathon. M + M travelled from Wyoming with their two doggos - Maggie and Millie. One evening while talking about music and instruments, Alla showed off her handpan. Remembering a silly chicken playing the handpan video, Alla held it up against Maggie’s wagging tail. It worked; she hit the random notes and created music. Suddenly, she stopped having fun and aggressively came after Alla, growling, ears pinned down, and a very obvious crazy twinkle was in her eyes. “Oh my god!” thought Alla, thinking she was about to get bitten, holding the large, circular hand drum between them. M + M quickly calmed the angry Maggie, who was eye-fucking Alla for the rest of the night. Ok, doggo, no forced music playing for you!
The final pet story from our guests is from returning guests Julie and Poncho from Arizona, who once again brought not one, not two, but three of their five doggos to The Hohnstead. This happy family booked about six months ago, and we were excitedly looking forward to the “Little Dog Convention.” That week, we were also dog-sitting our friend’s pup, Arlo, who happily joined the three tiny raskals. Collectively, all of them couldn’t have been more than 30 pounds!
Being dog lovers, we thought that having three babes back was our gift, but Julie and Poncho had a different idea. They remembered that Alla enjoys making Kombucha and Garrett is a homebrewer, so they involved their talented buddy (@tierramia_arizona) in creating us a few one-of-a-kind personalized gifts. To date, this has been the most thoughtful, generous, and surprising gift from our guests. Thaaank you!!!!
2 Things we’re noticing in the garden
Our in-the-ground tomato plants were sadly destroyed during the overnight freeze we had a few weeks ago. Luckily, a few other tomato plants are alive and thriving in our (still unfinished) greenhouse. While they still have a long way to go, some are just a foot, while others are higher than 3 feet, with a few of them already fruiting! How exciting to finally grow edible things, whoop-whoop!
After clearing our Mint beds this spring with the idea of nuking the mint (read all about it in Hush 001) with cardboard and mulch for a whole season. Well, patience is not always a virtue in this household, and with a couple of free Dahlia tubers from Rocky Mountain Garden in Missoula, I just had to put them in the ground. If or when dahlia flowers come up, I’d like their gorgeous flowers to be as close to the house as possible, so I can admire them from the kitchen window. So, a month later…they are coming up! Can’t wait to see which varieties show up to take some lovely photos for you!
1 Recipe for Korean food lovers
To thank our generous friends with the tiny dog pack, we decided to cook for them. We didn’t want to make something that they would be very familiar with in the U.S or their Mexican culture, so we made the unexpected Korean Bibimbap (a rice bowl with vegetables, beef, fried egg, and chili paste called Gochujang). The coolest part is that we were able to serve it in the traditional Dolsot Bowl, made from a natural stone (fine clay). To order Dolsot Bibimbap in Korea costs a little more, because when you get down to the bottom, the rice becomes crunchy and stuck, making you work a little harder for the fried rice finish.
Here is how we made our Bibimbap (we hope you give it a try, it’s quite healthy and very yummy!)
Ingredients list: White Rice, Sesame Oil, Mushrooms, Spinach, Carrots, Red Cabbage, Small Red and Yellow Peppers, Onion, Garlic, Beef, Salt, Pepper, Soybean Sprouts, Eggs, Kimchi, Seaweed, Gochujang Paste, Dolsot Bowl (optional).
First, we prepared 2 cups of white rice inside the Instant Pot.
2 cups rice + 2 cups water + a bit of salt. Cook on High Rice setting. Slow release when done.
Chop up, combine, and saute vegetables with Sesame oil in a pan. We used mushrooms, spinach, grated carrots, red cabbage, and small red and yellow peppers.
In a separate pan, cook the onion, garlic, and beef with salt and pepper.
In a separate pan or when the vegetables finish cooking, fry an egg or two (if serving two people). Allow the egg to cook quickly on both sides, but leave it runny inside.
When the beef is done, or use another burner to boil a small amount of soybean sprouts for three to four minutes.
If you have dolsot bowls, heat them on the stove, placing a spoonful of sesame oil, then rice as the first layer.
If serving in a regular bowl, put the rice as the first layer.
Place the vegetables on top of the rice.
Add sauteed beef and onions mix on top of the rice to the side of the vegetables.
Add some kimchi as the third part on top of the rice.
Soybean sprouts are placed as the third section on top of the rice.
In the middle, add a small amount of chilli paste, also known as Gochujang. Warning: it is spicy, so go light or go without. You can add a bit more sesame oil all over at this stage.
Finally, place the fried egg on top (if cooked well, the egg will be broken with a spoon, and the egg will help to lubricate the whole dish as well as add flavor.
Additionally, if you have seaweed flakes to sprinkle on top, go for it!
To eat: break the egg and mix all the deliciousness together with a spoon, and enjoy your meal or 잘 먹겠습니다.
“Traditional bibimbap reflects the ancient Korean philosophy of obangsaek through its five colors—red, green/blue, yellow, white, and black—which symbolize the five natural elements (fire, wood, earth, metal, and water). They’re believed to nourish the heart, liver, stomach, lungs, and kidneys, as well as come together to balance the five essential flavors: salty, sweet, spicy, sour, and bitter.”
ETIQUETTE TIP
In traditional Korean dining, etiquette dictates that you should use your long spoon to scoop up the mixed rice, and use your chopsticks exclusively for picking up the side dishes.
Thank you for reading until the end. We’re looking forward to sharing more of our lives behind the scenes through these monthly journals. Check out previous hushes below.
Monthly Hush 001: Red Foxes And Mint Beds
Monthly Hush 002: Pink Cabin, Chopra, and Growing Tomatoes
