Alpenglow | Hillary Munro
Suzy Chase: When two podcasts collide, magic happens. Welcome to Dinner Party, the podcast where I bring together my two hit shows, cookery by the book and decorating by the book around here. We're all about cooking, sharing stories behind recipes, and creating a cozy home. I'm your host, Suzy Chase, a West Village wife, mom and home cook. Inspired by Martha Stewart trying to live in a Nora Efron movie, surrounded by toile, plaid, cookbooks, decorating books and magazines, cooking in my galley kitchen and living my best life in my darling New York City apartment in the cutest neighborhood in the city, the West Village. So come hang out and let's get into the show.
Hillary Munro: Hi, my name is Hillary Munro and I live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. And I recently published a book called Alpenglow, Outdoor Celebrations For Every Season published by Gibbs Smith.
Suzy Chase: This book is a reflection of how deeply you are inspired by beautiful things set in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This is a creative guide for seasonal outdoor entertainment, providing inspiration for anyone who resonates with the spirit of the American West or anyone who really wants to entertain outside. Could you describe the moment you first experienced alpenglow and what is it? I've never heard of that term.
Hillary Munro: Oh gosh. The first time that I experienced and saw alpenglow was probably when my family first moved to Jackson Hole in the early nineties for a one year long ski sabbatical, which ended up lasting much longer. But we were living in the Teton Village, which was a tiny little place outside of Jackson, and we were going on a family walk one evening and I looked across the valley and the sleeping Indian mountain just had this beautiful glow of pink and orange and it just lit up the sky and it took my breath away. I was in awe of the colors that nature provided and just the beautiful scenery of the vast Valley. So that was probably my first experience with alpenglow.
Suzy Chase: Let's take that a step further, and how did alpenglow inspire this book?
Hillary Munro: Yeah, so alpenglow to me is more of the magic and feeling that happens when the sky is filled with beautiful colors, which are fleeting, like the pinks and oranges, and they change as the sun sets in high mountains, it kind of takes your breath away and is a sparkly pink moment that happens most evenings in the mountains. So it just evokes a feeling of beauty and awe, I suppose. And the title was honestly a bit controversial, not to be dramatic, but my friends in Europe were against the title because apparently there's a muesli type cereal called Alpenglow Low, who knew? And so I stood strong to the title because I wanted to conjure up this romantic warmth and the magic of Jackson that resonates beautifully with the word alpenglow. And it seemed ironically after Lisa Flood, who was my brilliant photographer, whenever we would finish a shoot, the sky would turn pink and have this beautiful rosy glow, and it was just a beautiful ending to our time together. So I think I was just hard pressed to call it alpenglow. And then the marketing team for Gibb Smith vetted it out to all of their people, and they, after talking about different titles, they also agreed that alpenglow was the perfect fit.
Suzy Chase: So in the introduction, you talk about the locals making mountain life look effortless and romantic in the rugged conditions. How did their lifestyle influence your approach to seasonal celebrations?
Hillary Munro: Well, you have to have grit to live in a place like this. Living here is not easy, like most places are due to the harsh winters, short fall seasons, the wet springs in crazy busy summer months. So winter, especially the daily chores such as shoveling, making fires each evening, whether for ambiance or warmth. The darker evenings just make the day shorter, obviously. So I was influenced by the grit and attitude that was demonstrated to me by some influential old timers. And just because it's cold, you basically put on your pack boots, your down jackets and your snow pants and enjoy nature basically man up or woman up. And it's also important because winter is so long to get outside and to avoid cabin fever and potential bouts of maybe seasonal depression. And even though it's cold out, just put on your warm clothes, we're lucky to all have those layers here and get outside, and the cold kind of just wakes you up and invigorates you in a way. So that was great. So thankfully we have all the gear to get outside every season, making outdoors to build a fire and tablescapes easier. And honestly, it's something to look forward to and creative and engaging to do with friends. So it's really a treat when it all comes together.
Suzy Chase: You talk about setting a table in unexpected places, and I am fascinated by this. I love to hear a few examples of how the natural setting like a field or river has contributed to the experience.
Hillary Munro: I think everything tastes better, smells better, feels better outside. A picnic is just a picnic, right? But if you make it special by finding a creek, let's say in the springtime when you haven't heard the babbling brook in many months and you sit in a quiet place, it's very calming and it forces you to be present with the people that you're with and to eat the food slowly and connect with the environment that you're in. And I think in a world that's filled with constant noise, being in a peaceful field or next to a creek or on a mountaintop, it's truly an escape, even if it's for an hour and it makes you just be in the moment, I suppose
Suzy Chase: My first thought was how are you not cold?
Hillary Munro: Layers. So dress, we dress warm here. I mean, our coat closet is bursting at the seams, so we just layer up and then obviously it's not as enjoyable to go outside in a negative 30 afternoon. I will choose to entertain and have a dinner outside when it's warmer outside and when we know that the temperatures are going to be more mild. And then always build a fire
Suzy Chase: Wherever you are,
Hillary Munro: Wherever you are,
Suzy Chase: Yes,
Hillary Munro: In the winter months, I mean outside if you're sledding, bring some firewood, build a fire. It warms people up. Bring a thermos of hot cocoa or apple cider, and you're good to go.
Suzy Chase: In the book, you talk about the significance of seasonality in your life, and one example is you have rituals for every season. So what are some of your fall rituals? Since we're right in the middle of autumn,
Hillary Munro: I have a lot of rituals in the fall, and it's probably the most robust ritual season because we're preparing for winter. So preserving and canning tomato sauce, peaches, crab, apple butter crab, apple trees grow on my property and their tiny little tart apples, and they're delicious to make butter out of. And we do pickling of a vegetables, cutting back the garden and drying flowers, chopping and stacking firewood, all that kind of stuff. It's also an extremely creative season for me, making flower arrangements with those dried blooms that I've harvested or foraged, carving pumpkins with the kids and roasting seeds and enjoying family walks. One activity that I love to do since it's sort of the start of fire building season is spiritual kindling. And that's kind of a mix of aromatic plants that can be wherever you live or whatever you can find in the grocery store. Honestly, like sagebrush is everywhere here. So I always incorporate sage, maybe some juniper and pine, and you kind of bundle them together with either ribbon or twine or pieces of fabric to make it look pretty and they can be used to set intentions to the universe, celebrate an occasion, manifest a dream, or just something that smells nice to put in your fire. It's also my favorite season to, it's the end of trail riding season basically. So to go on some long horseback rides with girlfriends is my favorite part about fall as well.
Suzy Chase: Now do you usually have your wood gathering supper in the fall?
Hillary Munro: Yes.
Suzy Chase: So talk a little bit about that.
Hillary Munro: Growing up, I loved pasta puttanesca. It was one of my favorite meals that we all requested it on the daily. And so this has become sort of a family tradition in my home as well. So we basically pack the truck with a chainsaw and the kids and cider and all that jazz and head to the forest, and we have certain spots that we like to go and fill the truck with firewood and then come back home, split it and stack it. It's a long day. It's exhausting, but also feels good to be outside and feels good. They always say you chop own wood and it will warm you twice. So that's a nice little thing to remember when you're in the middle of it. But I always try to create a nice meal for when we return home from those long days. And in the wood supper that we did, I made pasta puttanesca, and prior to leaving in the morning, I made a pair of skillet cake in a cast iron skillet, which was easily warmed up when we got home. And I set the table with a blue and white check tablecloth, some simple candles and a humble arrangement that I gathered from my garden with red peony leaves and a few other dead little branches and made this beautiful table and we filled our bellies and celebrated the great day.
Suzy Chase: Have you done that yet this year?
Hillary Munro: Yes,
Suzy Chase: We have. When did you do it?
Hillary Munro: Like two weeks ago. Oh yeah,
Suzy Chase: Because the weather. So you do it early in the
Hillary Munro: Fall, early in the fall before we have any chance of getting stuck in mud if it rains or snow if we're going in higher elevation. And so
Suzy Chase: Yeah. So what's the craziest or most memorable outdoor table setting you've ever created? I cannot wait to hear this. So
Hillary Munro: One of my most memorable table, it wasn't even really a tablescape, but I'd call it a picnic, was we went ice fishing on Slide Lake, which is in a little tiny town called Kelly, and it freezes in the winter and it's quite thick. And we drove out there to ice fish and I don't sit still very well, so I said, I will be in charge of food. We went with a whole group of people, kids, friends. There was probably 30 people out there, and we shoveled the snow so the kids could play hockey, and we drilled in to try to catch fish, which I was not expecting to catch any fish because I think that it's very difficult and you're sitting around. So I decided to bring some oysters that we were going to roast over the open fire. We brought a grate and built a huge fire on the ice, which I also was a little skeptical about because I was thinking, well, how is this not going to melt through to the water, right? Well, it didn't, and it was just so thick. And so we made fire roasted oysters with some homemade tarragon butter and some fresh cini, and then we grilled lamb chops out there and drank bush beer and the boys had shots of fireball. It was a wonderful day, and we ended up catching fish, which was incredible fun.
Suzy Chase: Did you put something between the fire and the ice? What did
Hillary Munro: You No. So we drug a sleigh down filled with kindling and firewood, and then I have this big metal grate that we just put over, so it goes right on the ice, but it didn't ever permeate all the way through the ice that was just special. And catching the fish was the icing on the cake, and the kids just had a blast. And shucking your own oysters in the middle of winter was quite spectacular. Yes,
Suzy Chase: You are next level.
Hillary Munro: Oh, well thanks. You could do it too.
Suzy Chase: So in the book you talk about foraging and you forage for things for your table arrangements. Talk a little bit about how you create a centerpiece of forage greens.
Hillary Munro: I love to forage in the winter, which I think people don't think about because it's very monochromatic. Greens, sometimes you can find some berries, which is always so fun, but I'll bring my clippers and whatnot, go to the hills. I've got certain areas if I'm looking for certain things, so for example, junipers, I love to use junipers with the blueberries, I think they're so beautiful. And adding some blue to your table just as colorful. And so then you add in some other colors besides the greens. So I like to do almost a deconstructed garland down the table with the forage materials. So we'll start with a base of green and mix in the different greens. So you could use pine, you can use sagebrush, you can use the juniper with the berries and then build upon that. So I love to, if I can find snow berries, which are these beautiful white berries, they tend to miraculously clinging on to their branches after huge snowstorms and are quite hearty.
You can do your deconstructed garland on the table by adding different levels of maybe a bud vase with a snowberry and maybe some fresh flowers in it as well. If you want to incorporate color, I always hunt for ness and abandoned bird nest, and then I'll plunk those kind of in the tablescape. And if you want to fill those with maybe dehydrated oranges for a pop of color or a little mini pine cones or moss, just to kind of make it feel, it's all very natural obviously, but you can definitely incorporate little bud bases of a white rose or oculus or an that sort of thing. So I think a deconstructed garland is really beautiful, especially during the holidays, and you could do it in the autumn or for Christmas and celebrations
Suzy Chase: Like that. You say, an aromatic pot of beans is one of winter's best meals.
Hillary Munro: I think that beans are just a humble ingredient that is overlooked. And I remember growing up and spending a lot of time at my grandparents' house and my grandma Jackie, in the colder months would always have a pot of beans on the stove, and it felt like when you're young that they were just simmering for days. And then my mom kept up that tradition when we were growing up and they just became a thing in the house. And you can, I think they're wonderful because they're nutrient dense. You can eat them warm or cold, you can just make a beautiful pot of flavored beans. You can flavor them in many different ways, whether you want to go the Spanish route or an Italian route, or just simple pinto beans with onions and garlic and chicken stock. But they're just flexible and I think they're great to take on the road, if you will. If you're going to do a sleigh picnic, you can put 'em in a cast iron pot. They'll stay warm for a long time, and they're easy just to spoon in a mug or a bowl, and you can eat them with cornbread, which is delicious or over rice. And yeah, I think they're just an overlooked piece, and it's very old school western dish. All the cowboys ate ranch beans, so I think it's a kind of a nod to that as well.
Suzy Chase: Now for my segment called The Perfect Bite where I ask you to describe your perfect bite of a favorite dish,
Hillary Munro: I have two. I like to mix a lot of things on my fork. One of my favorite dishes that's on rotation the weekly is just crispy chicken thighs that are roasted in a skillet with onions that are caramelized, some crunchy-ish carrots and some sweet potatoes. Gathering that all on a fork with some fresh thyme is just delicious. My second favorite bite would be having my Saddlebag Pate that I make out of chicken livers from the farmer's market. And we put that on crostinis and bacon onion kind of jam on the top, and a cornichon.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you and Graze Garden and Home on the web and social media?
Hillary Munro: Yes, my Instagram handle is G-R-A-Z-E living, and my website is Graze Garden and Home all spelled out.com. And if you want to look at some beautiful imagery from our book, Lisa Flood Photography would be where you find her.
Suzy Chase: Hillary, this was your first podcast. I'm so proud of you. I'm so excited and honored that you came on Dinner Party podcast. Thanks so much.
Hillary Munro: Thank you for having me, Susie. This was such a treat. I really appreciate you.
Suzy Chase: Okay, so where can you listen to the new Dinner Party podcast series? Well, it's on substack suzy chase.substack.com. You can also subscribe to Dinner Party for free on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Additionally, the episodes will be available on both Decorating by the Book and Cookery by the book. Long story short, you'll be able to listen to it virtually everywhere. Thanks for listening. Bye.
