Bastian Beef

Dave and I immediately liked Gay and Bevan Bastian, when we met them in spring 2015, before Mike married their daughter, Heidi.  Since then, we have had several fun visits with the Bastians, including joining them at the sheepdog trials in Midway and going fishing with them on the creek near their ranch in Axtell, Utah.  On Saturday, January 21, 2017, the Bastians were in Salt Lake City to see the Utah Opera production of "Man of La Mancha," and we enjoyed visiting with them again.

 Mike and Heidi invited both Gay and Bevan and Dave and me to dinner at their home.

The Mike Spendloves just bought a Peruvian cookbook, so the dinner consisted of South American specialties--potato and pea soup, garnished with kalamata olives, followed by beef and chorizo stew served over mashed plantains and garnished with red onion.  Heidi baked brownies for dessert, served with mint chocolate chip ice cream.

As ranchers, Gay and Bevan are very practical about their animals.  The beef in Michael and Heidi's stew was Bastian beef, from a butchered cow from the Bastian ranch which Michael helped to wrangle into a meat locker one weekend when he visited Axtell.  "It was a very big cow," Bevan said, and "It was a friendly cow," Gay added.  It was also a delicious cow.

Bevan and Gay stayed the night with Dave and me, chatting about the "Man of La Mancha" performance over a nightcap of Red Barn apple cider.  They were up early Sunday morning to drive to Twin Falls, Idaho, for a nephew's missionary homecoming.  They didn't make it there.  Their car hit a patch of black ice and rolled twice, shattering all the glass in the windows but, miraculously, leaving Gay and Bevan unscathed.  We were thankful and relieved that they survived that accident, and we look forward to more good times with them.