stuart james beall

On a Friday night, my Volvo tractor & Western trailer were heading east on I-90 near Columbus Montana, when I collided with an elk. This damaged the radiator and shut me down instantly. I had to get my rig towed to a repair shop in Billings.

My employer sent me to a motel in Billings, to wait for the repair shop to open on Monday and order the Volvo parts needed for repairs. Hopefully it could get fixed by Wednesday evening, when all businesses would close for Thanksgiving.

Due to a confluence of unfortunate circumstances the Volvo wasn’t fixed by Wednesday evening. This became my most difficult Thanksgiving week ever.

My Best Thanksgiving Ever was a couple years later, in Emigrant Montana, with friends Jake and Jessica Tyner. It started with a nasty winter storm.

The plan was for me to walk to Jake’s home in Emigrant and ride with his family to Livingston, to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner with Jake’s parents.

The roads were snow-covered, and the snow plows so few; Jake decided it wouldn’t be wise to attempt a drive up to Livingston.

I trudged slowly through snow drifts, around cars stuck on the road, to the Tyner home.

Jessie Tyner prepared a great Thanksgiving meal, with just a few things she had at her house. No turkey. She served the best ham ever, and a dessert I decided was the best brownies ever.

If you do this recipe wrong… it comes out more like a half-baked cake [How do I know this?!] Jessie calls it Pumpkin Bars. Whatever you want to call it, these brownies were a key part of my Best Thanksgiving Ever.

I’m fond of pumpkin & chocolate chip cookies sold at Kroger and Albertsons. My mother taught me to like pumpkin cream cake, and blonde brownies. The Tyner Pumpkin Bars seemed to meld the essence of all these delectable desserts.

When I copied her recipe, I had to substitute butter for margarine. I don’t use margarine. I even despise margarine.

Despite my best efforts, I’ve never made it as well as Jessie Tyner. Maybe it’s the magic of Montana. Couldn’t be the margarine.🤔

This order of ingredients is my own.

• soft butter ~ 3/4 Cup
• cane sugar ~ 2 Cups
• pumpkin purée ~ 16 ounces
• eggs ~ 4
• ground cinnamon ~ 1 teaspoon
• sodium bicarbonate ~ 1/2 teaspoon
• ground nutmeg ~ 1/4 teaspoon
• sea salt ~ 1/2 teaspoon
• Rumford baking powder ~ 1 teaspoon
• white flour ~ 2 Cups
• chopped walnuts ~ 1 Cup
• chocolate chips ~ 8 ounces

Place the first eight ingredients [up to sea salt] into a mixing bowl, and stir well before adding the last four ingredients. Pre-heat oven to 350 F, and butter the inside of TWO cold glass baking pans.

I suggest dividing the batter between two 8 x 10” baking pans — or something very similar. It should take about 35 minutes to bake.

My memory of this Best Thanksgiving Ever also includes sleeping on the floor of the Tyner home, near their wood-burning stove. That warmed me to my marrow.

Thanks, Jake & Jessie!