Rhubarb Dessert

This is my mom's amazing rhubarb dessert recipe.  This was always a summer staple at our house growing up and I finally made one!  Scroll past all the photos to find the entire recipe.  Don't worry, I won't feel bad if you skip the pictures, I know they are crappy, but sometimes I like to pretend to be a food blogger.  :)

Mix up the crust ingredients, press into a pan, and bake.

Chop the rhubarb and mix with filling ingredients.

Cook for 1-minute intervals in the microwave while enjoying wine!

Pour cooked filling over crust.

Make meringue (and try not to eat it all)

Spread meringue on filling.

Bake until slightly browned

I couldn't wait to try some, so it was still warm and runny when I cut into it.  Don't worry, still tasty!

This is how it looked after being refrigerated - filling held it's shape just fine.  And I think there's a reason why I had sugar droplets forming on my meringue, but I can't remember why, still tastes the same so I'm not worried.  If you like rhubarb, you should make this before summer is over!

Rhubarb Dessert

Mix together: 

1 1/2 cups flour

3 T. sugar

3/4 cup butter

pinch of salt

Press into 9x13 pan. Bake 13 minutes at 325.

While baking, mix together:

7 cups diced rhubarb

5 beaten egg yolks

3 cups sugar

6 T. flour

1 cup cream or evap milk

Mix well and cook in microwave in 1-2 minute increments, for a total of about 10-15 minutes.  You'll know when it's thick and done.

Top with meringue and bake until just brown.

You can use any meringue recipe you like, but I go simple.  Start beating 5 egg whites and gradually add 2/3 cup sugar - keep beating until nice and fluffy.  I used the whisk attachment on my stand mixer.

                      

The Green Bridge

In Big Sky, we also stopped at the "green bridge" - a bridge over the Gallatin River that you can jump off of as the river happens to be deep enough there.  I'm not sure if it is naturally deep or if it was dug out, but it's a fun spot to hang out.

Rylan thought he wanted to jump off, so after watching a few other people jump, he and I walked up to the top.  He sat on the edge, looked over for a bit, then changed his mind and got back up.

We went back down to watch some more people jump and then Nick convinced him to walk up there again.  They both sat on the edge and Nick said he was just shaking!  We never made him do it and it was totally up to him, but eventually he said he wanted to if Nick would jump at the same time.  They counted to three and jumped!

After that, he was hooked and went numerous times by himself.

  

 Of course Mackenzie wanted to do it, but I initially told her she couldn't because we didn't have a life jacket.  But she wanted to so bad, so Nick went with her too, and held onto her the whole time.  She was nervous at first too and it took a little cheering from others, but she eventually jumped!  Of course she loved it and had to keep going and going.

Here are some videos, but I forgot that you can't hold the camera this way - so... tip your head a little.

Also, here's a video of Rylan going down the natural water slide in Spearfish Canyon.

Montana

We figured since we were all the way in the Black Hills, we might as well head to Montana afterward, so we spent a week there too.  

On the way there, we stopped at Devil's Tower in Wyoming.  It was a hot day and there was a fair amount of complaining as we did the hike around, but Nick and I enjoyed it!

Ousel Falls in Big Sky

At the top of Ousel Falls.

On the hike to Ousel Falls

We made an overnight trip to Philipsburg, MT for some sapphire mining.  We met Nick's parents there and had a great time!  Gem Mountain is a sapphire mine and you can either go to the mine and sift through buckets of gravel (that you purchase) to find sapphires, or you can stay in town and do the mining at their store.  It was super hot that day, but we thought it was worth it to go out to the site.  We ended up taking most our gravel back to Big Sky with us to keep searching there.  I don't have any pictures of the actual mining, but pictures would be kinda boring anyway.  You just scoop gravel onto a screen and rinse it off, then search through the remaining rocks for sapphires.  Rylan was the champion, finding the biggest ones.  Once again, anything to do with geology and he is in heaven.  He loved it!

Philipsburg is a charming little town.  Their downtown area was perfect for hanging out for a day.  We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant and stayed at a great boutique hotel.  Here was our room at the Broadway Hotel.

 In the middle of the hotel was a big lounge area, full of books, movies and games for guests.  We found some games to keep us busy.  Checkers for Grandpa and Mackenzie

Settlers of Catan for Rylan and I!

Okay, back to Big Sky.  While driving one morning, suddenly a hot air balloon appeared out of the fog - it was really neat!

 On our last day, we did a big hike up to Lava Lake - 3 miles up, 3 miles back.  Okay, I know 6 miles isn't that far, but I really didn't think Mackenzie and I would make it.  I had been sick the day before, so I hadn't eaten much and was pretty weak and I figured Mackenzie would just get bored and tired.  But we made it!  I've been up to Lava Lake before, but you forget how beautiful it is.

Rylan was excited to swim in it even though we warned him how cold it would be.  He went in, but only this far, didn't dare dunk his head!

We set up the camera to try and get a family photo - as you can see, Dutch is the biggest problem.  He couldn't figure out why we would tell him to sit and then not look at him.

We also stopped in Medora, ND to see the Medora Musical.  This was their 50th anniversary and it was a great show!

Black Hills

We spent a week in the South Dakota Black Hills with my parents and my sister and her family.  We had perfect weather and such a great time!  Here are some of the things we did.

A great little parade in Deadwood during the Days of 76.

This was insane to me, riding a huge long-horn cow?!  It made me a little nervous sitting so close, but that cow was impressive.

We also went to a great rodeo in Deadwood, but I have no pictures of it.  It was really fun! 

 We took a tour of Wind Cave near Hot Springs - it was amazing, but you can't get good pictures in a cave - so you have to take my word for it.  Ellianna didn't want to be in her carrier, so she walked part of the way, then only wanted to be in Rachel's arms and eventually fell asleep there.

Most of the cave tour was just walking on paths, but this one point we sat down on benches to hear the informational part of the tour.

Family walk

A ride on the 1880 Train - from Hill City to Keystone

Despite the frequent whistling, Nick had a nice nap.

Mackenzie didn't ever fall asleep, but was totally comfortable next to Grandma.

The conductor thought Andrew needed some more stylish shades.

Grandpa is Elliana's favorite!

Mammoth dig site in Hot Springs - this place is amazing!  In the 70's, excavating started on a housing development but was halted when bones were being uncovered.  They discovered the area was a sinkhole that was full of mammoth bones.  The site now has a building around/over it so the public can tour it, but digging is ongoing.  I've been here before, but it's seriously so cool.  Rylan especially loved it and wants to come when he's 18 so he can help dig.  He's determined to find something new!

A mammoth bone/hide tent in the museum area.

Everything didn't go perfectly smoothly though - we took a little trip to the local ER when Rylan complained of having a hard time breathing.  We figured it was only his seasonal allergies, because he was coughing and his face was swelling like it has before, so we gave him Claritin.  But after 20 minutes he was saying it was getting harder to breathe and we weren't going to take any chances so we found the hospital at 10pm.  His throat showed no swelling, his lungs were clear and his oxygen levels were fine, so they gave him a popsicle and observed him for an hour.  We had done the right thing giving him Claritin, so we made sure he got a dose every day and we didn't have problems again.

Mount Rushmore of course!

It's so impressive in person!

 Family photos

A great recreation court right where we stayed - a fun place to just play.

A super cool fish hatchery in Spearfish.  You wouldn't think staring at ponds of trout would be cool, but we had a great time here.

Especially when you feed them - they go crazy! (tip-if you ever go here, don't buy fish pellets from the quarter machines - go in the gift shop and get a whole bag for a much better price!)

The ER trip was worth it though - while there we asked one of the nurses what we should do in the area and she suggested a specific hike in Spearfish Canyon up to a place called Devil's Bathtub.  It isn't a marked trail so you need to ask a local to get good directions, but it ended up being one of our favorite things that we did.

The dogs loved the hike too - many of the things we did didn't include the dogs so they ended up sitting in their kennels a lot during the day, but this hike was perfect for them!

We aren't actually sure if this was the "devil's bathtub" or not, but this was as far as we went - to this natural waterside.

Rylan loved it and went down a few times - I only needed to go once, it was not warm water!

Holding the dogs back - Dutch kept wanting to jump in after every person who went down the slide. 

Such a fun trip with you Mom & Dad - you two are awesome and we love you!