Rebecca’s Buffalo Dream
Donation protected
I am on a quest to make good food for others to enjoy. I started this quest when I learned to enjoy the alchemical delights of food as a little girl in my mother’s kitchen. My mother cooked like her mother and her grandmother and aunts and other family members who lived on the Texas/ Mexico border before they immigrated to Salt Lake City. I was surrounded by incredible aromas, textures, flavors and associated cultures. In summers, I would visit another grandmother in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where I experienced another set of delicious flavors and Food Alchemy. Growing up, I knew I wanted to make food like my mother and grandmothers.
I remember as a child walking into my Grandma’s kitchen with my mother and seeing my Grandma pounding a large round steak with a cleaver, making crisscross cuts all over it and filling it up with flour and salt and crushed garlic, cardamom seeds and peppercorns. She would sear it in huge skillet and cover it with cream water and a little vinegar, throw in some bay leaves and fresh oregano, and put on the lid to simmer in its self-made gravy. I loved the wonder of that food.
I also saw my Grandma baking piles of cookies and cooking up a most delicious and amazing Mexican vanilla custard pudding filled with bananas and cream. I loved eating her fried chicken. She would cut up a whole chicken, coat it in raw egg, then shake the coated chicken in a paper bag that had just the right mixture of flour, salt, pepper, herbs and seasonings. After it was fried up, I would eat it to the bone. Her kitchen was small and scant but her food was flavorful and generous.
In my own soul, my inner being, I came to understand the exquisite, intimate and emotional connection we all have with food. I recognized the deep ties we have with food and family and love and comfort and home. I experienced how the right smells, tastes, textures and aromas can fill some empty spaces inside us and transport or even, in some cases, transform us. Our emotional connections with food spring from our primal yearnings and bring us joy and fulfillment in a way nothing else can.
I have been making food professionally for the last 20 years, starting in the kitchen of our family restaurant when I was 17. I was taught by a unique and talented Lakota Indian, Chef Craig One Feather, how to take simple ingredients and combine them in a way that made food addictive. I then trained professionally at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. There I tried hard to soak up everything I could about being a Food Alchemist. I took it very seriously and worked really hard. I paid attention to what parts of food preparation really resonated with me.
After culinary school, I returned to Hot Springs, South Dakota, where my parents helped me and my sister create our own restaurant that we named The Blue Vervain. I knew I wanted to create exceptional, fantastic food with simple, common ingredients. My sister made exquisite desserts, and I did the culinary part. People who tasted our creations said they were “blown away.” Later we moved The Blue Vervain to Manitou Springs, Colorado, where I was voted best in show, and won the people’s choice award at the Broadmoor Chef’s Gala. The Blue Vervain was also voted “Best Fine Dining Restaurant” by Colorado Springs Independent readers in 2006.
I then worked all over the country from Florida to San Francisco for companies that catered for NASCAR and the US Open. I prepared food for the clubs, suites and other parties. After that, I worked three seasons at Hell’s Backbone Grill and Farm in Boulder, Utah. Overall, I have learned it takes long hours and a lot of hard, mundane work to be a professional chef.
While learning from other chefs and situations where I traveled and worked, I also developed my own food philosophy, which is Food Alchemy: the equivalent of turning lead into gold. Food Alchemy is getting in touch with the ingredients, feeling the little creative nudges, following my instincts, taking risks, having courage and just allowing. Then, when it comes through as sensuous, joyful food, that is the reward.
I am sincere and devout about “American Cuisine.” My take on it is a little different from hamburgers and fries (although I love them, too). I see American Cuisine as coming to us from everywhere, from all over the world, and landing in small and big places all over the continent. It includes existing indigenous and cultures of foods, but also baskets of gifts of flavors and recipes from absolutely everywhere--maybe even some distant galaxy. Each cultural contribution brings its own stories full of escape, love, adventure, family ties and languages long lost, which speak to me in salt and sugar and sour and bitter and aroma and color and intricacies. These are nuances that can infiltrate our palate from the wildness of the earth in feasts of blessed satisfaction.
Balancing flavor in food is always a journey and a work of art. It makes simple foods extraordinary. I am a relentless perfectionist in this area, always in pursuit of balance and harmony. I have chosen to be bold and to trust my intuition, being guided by the basic ingredients from which the foods speak to me. I have never been able to separate myself from the desire to want to make food for others. It is the song of my heart; it’s what I know I came to do.
When I was a young girl before I moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota, I had dreams about buffalo. It was a recurring theme. Then when I moved here, to Hot Springs in particular, I had some very precise and unforgettable dreams about buffalo. I knew they were bringing me messages. I found out that those who dream of buffalo are called “buffalo dreamers.” They are the ones who dream where the buffalo are located so the people can be fed, kept warm, and have prosperity and abundance. By following the messages, the buffalo dreamer helps nourish the people.
It has been my dream, my life’s dream, to create the Buffalo Dreamer, a restaurant where I will prepare wild and tame, real American Cuisine for others to enjoy. I have, from time to time, become discouraged thinking it might be impossible to bring forth my dream. But then comes more buffalo into my dreams to visit me, and remind me.
The other night after a bad bout of doubts and fears, I was thinking, “Oh no, it’s impossible.” Then, while I was sleeping, a loud pounding came on my door, and yet I could not wake myself to see what it was. But my spirit rose and looked out my doorway to see a buffalo woman, a seemingly crazy and powerful buffalo woman, at my door. She told me I couldn’t be sane or give up on my dream of the Buffalo Dreamer restaurant.
I have been in love with the Black Hills in South Dakota, especially Hot Springs, since my family moved here from Seattle twenty years ago. There is a timeless feeling that exists here. The red cliffs, plants, and the warm river running through town has always filled me with awe. And even though I couldn’t always live here, my heart was here. At Moccasin Springs, here in Hot Springs, South Dakota, Kara Hagen is breathing new life into an ancient natural hot springs site. Where you can bathe in the healing and beautiful waters, partaking of the restorative energy and dine at the Buffalo Dreamer. Kara has offered to construct a restaurant space at her Moccasin Springs development, and has offered to lease the restaurant space to me for Buffalo Dreamer. I now have the opportunity to create food amidst the healing mineral waters and red dirt, and make my home in the place I love with the great and majestic visitors of my dreams.
I am in need of funds to equip the kitchen, purchase initial inventory and help cover initial start-up costs and expenses.
So, I am asking: if you could please donate to my cause, so I can create the Buffalo Dreamer. Please help me to bring my food alchemy creations to Hot Springs. Then come and enjoy a place for gathering with friends, soaking, relaxing and partaking of Buffalo Dreamer food. You just might feel the spirits of buffalo that once bathed, wallowed and fed in this historic and sacred site.
Thank you,
Chef Rebecca Christensen
Thank You Gifts From Buffalo Dreamer
$1.00 to $24.00
Love and Gratitude
$25.00 to $49.00
Love and Gratitude
Buffalo Dreamer Sticker
$50.00 to $149.00
Love and Gratitude
Buffalo Dreamer Sticker
Glass of Wine or Beer* or other drink
Buffalo Dreamer T-shirt
$150.00 to $349.00
Love and Gratitude
Buffalo Dreamer Sticker
Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirt
Glass of Wine or Beer* or other drink
3-Course Dinner for One Person
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for One Person
$350 to $499.00
Love and Gratitude
2-Buffalo Dreamer Stickers
2-Buffalo Dreamer T-shirts
2-Glasses of Wine or Beer* or other drink
3-Course Dinner for Two Persons
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Two Persons
$500.00 to $999.00
Love and Gratitude
4-Buffalo Dreamer Stickers
4-Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirts
4-Glasses of Wine or Beer* other drink
3-Course Dinner for Four Persons
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Four Persons
$1,000.00 to $2,499.00
Love and Gratitude
4-Buffalo Dreamer Stickers
4-Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirts
8-Glasses of Wine or Beer* or other drink
7-Course Dinner for Four Persons
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Four Persons
$2,500.00 to $4,999.00
Love and Gratitude
8-Buffalo Dreamer Stickers
8-Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirts
16-Glasses of Wine or Beer* or other drink
7-Course Dinner for Eight Persons
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Eight Persons
$5,000.00 to $9,999.00
Love and Gratitude
16-Buffalo Dreamer stickers
16-Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirts
32-Glasses of Wine or Beer* or other drink
7-Course Dinner for Sixteen
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Sixteen Persons**
$10,000.00 and above
Love and Gratitude
24-Buffalo Dreamer Stickers
24-Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirts
Private Dinner Party for up to 24 People including open bar**
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Twenty Four Persons
*Restricted to persons of legal age for alcohol consumption, and subject to South Dakota liquor control laws and regulations; wine pairings to be selected by Chef Rebecca.
**Subject to thirty (30) days prior notice of event date; event at Moccasin Springs location; restricted to persons of legal age for alcohol consumption, and subject to South Dakota liquor control laws and regulations; wine pairings to be selected by Chef Rebecca.
In addition, any donor may elect to be included in the Online List of Patrons for the Buffalo Dreamer Restaurant and/or on the Plaque List Patrons to be posted at the restaurant site.
Buffalo Dreamer Thank You Gifts will be distributed at Buffalo Dreamer at Moccosin Springs once we are open for buisiness! If you can’t collect your Thank You Gifts in person, please message me your mailing address/ T-shirt sizes through Email. I will send you your Gifts/ Gift Certificates via the US Postal Service proceeding the opening of Buffalo Dreamer and Moccasin Springs.
Construction for Moccosin Springs main bulding/ Buffalo Dreamer restaurant space will be starting Soon! I will be posting construction pictures, updates, and projected opening dates on Buffalo Dreamer’s Facebook page throughout the bulding process.
I remember as a child walking into my Grandma’s kitchen with my mother and seeing my Grandma pounding a large round steak with a cleaver, making crisscross cuts all over it and filling it up with flour and salt and crushed garlic, cardamom seeds and peppercorns. She would sear it in huge skillet and cover it with cream water and a little vinegar, throw in some bay leaves and fresh oregano, and put on the lid to simmer in its self-made gravy. I loved the wonder of that food.
I also saw my Grandma baking piles of cookies and cooking up a most delicious and amazing Mexican vanilla custard pudding filled with bananas and cream. I loved eating her fried chicken. She would cut up a whole chicken, coat it in raw egg, then shake the coated chicken in a paper bag that had just the right mixture of flour, salt, pepper, herbs and seasonings. After it was fried up, I would eat it to the bone. Her kitchen was small and scant but her food was flavorful and generous.
In my own soul, my inner being, I came to understand the exquisite, intimate and emotional connection we all have with food. I recognized the deep ties we have with food and family and love and comfort and home. I experienced how the right smells, tastes, textures and aromas can fill some empty spaces inside us and transport or even, in some cases, transform us. Our emotional connections with food spring from our primal yearnings and bring us joy and fulfillment in a way nothing else can.
I have been making food professionally for the last 20 years, starting in the kitchen of our family restaurant when I was 17. I was taught by a unique and talented Lakota Indian, Chef Craig One Feather, how to take simple ingredients and combine them in a way that made food addictive. I then trained professionally at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. There I tried hard to soak up everything I could about being a Food Alchemist. I took it very seriously and worked really hard. I paid attention to what parts of food preparation really resonated with me.
After culinary school, I returned to Hot Springs, South Dakota, where my parents helped me and my sister create our own restaurant that we named The Blue Vervain. I knew I wanted to create exceptional, fantastic food with simple, common ingredients. My sister made exquisite desserts, and I did the culinary part. People who tasted our creations said they were “blown away.” Later we moved The Blue Vervain to Manitou Springs, Colorado, where I was voted best in show, and won the people’s choice award at the Broadmoor Chef’s Gala. The Blue Vervain was also voted “Best Fine Dining Restaurant” by Colorado Springs Independent readers in 2006.
I then worked all over the country from Florida to San Francisco for companies that catered for NASCAR and the US Open. I prepared food for the clubs, suites and other parties. After that, I worked three seasons at Hell’s Backbone Grill and Farm in Boulder, Utah. Overall, I have learned it takes long hours and a lot of hard, mundane work to be a professional chef.
While learning from other chefs and situations where I traveled and worked, I also developed my own food philosophy, which is Food Alchemy: the equivalent of turning lead into gold. Food Alchemy is getting in touch with the ingredients, feeling the little creative nudges, following my instincts, taking risks, having courage and just allowing. Then, when it comes through as sensuous, joyful food, that is the reward.
I am sincere and devout about “American Cuisine.” My take on it is a little different from hamburgers and fries (although I love them, too). I see American Cuisine as coming to us from everywhere, from all over the world, and landing in small and big places all over the continent. It includes existing indigenous and cultures of foods, but also baskets of gifts of flavors and recipes from absolutely everywhere--maybe even some distant galaxy. Each cultural contribution brings its own stories full of escape, love, adventure, family ties and languages long lost, which speak to me in salt and sugar and sour and bitter and aroma and color and intricacies. These are nuances that can infiltrate our palate from the wildness of the earth in feasts of blessed satisfaction.
Balancing flavor in food is always a journey and a work of art. It makes simple foods extraordinary. I am a relentless perfectionist in this area, always in pursuit of balance and harmony. I have chosen to be bold and to trust my intuition, being guided by the basic ingredients from which the foods speak to me. I have never been able to separate myself from the desire to want to make food for others. It is the song of my heart; it’s what I know I came to do.
When I was a young girl before I moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota, I had dreams about buffalo. It was a recurring theme. Then when I moved here, to Hot Springs in particular, I had some very precise and unforgettable dreams about buffalo. I knew they were bringing me messages. I found out that those who dream of buffalo are called “buffalo dreamers.” They are the ones who dream where the buffalo are located so the people can be fed, kept warm, and have prosperity and abundance. By following the messages, the buffalo dreamer helps nourish the people.
It has been my dream, my life’s dream, to create the Buffalo Dreamer, a restaurant where I will prepare wild and tame, real American Cuisine for others to enjoy. I have, from time to time, become discouraged thinking it might be impossible to bring forth my dream. But then comes more buffalo into my dreams to visit me, and remind me.
The other night after a bad bout of doubts and fears, I was thinking, “Oh no, it’s impossible.” Then, while I was sleeping, a loud pounding came on my door, and yet I could not wake myself to see what it was. But my spirit rose and looked out my doorway to see a buffalo woman, a seemingly crazy and powerful buffalo woman, at my door. She told me I couldn’t be sane or give up on my dream of the Buffalo Dreamer restaurant.
I have been in love with the Black Hills in South Dakota, especially Hot Springs, since my family moved here from Seattle twenty years ago. There is a timeless feeling that exists here. The red cliffs, plants, and the warm river running through town has always filled me with awe. And even though I couldn’t always live here, my heart was here. At Moccasin Springs, here in Hot Springs, South Dakota, Kara Hagen is breathing new life into an ancient natural hot springs site. Where you can bathe in the healing and beautiful waters, partaking of the restorative energy and dine at the Buffalo Dreamer. Kara has offered to construct a restaurant space at her Moccasin Springs development, and has offered to lease the restaurant space to me for Buffalo Dreamer. I now have the opportunity to create food amidst the healing mineral waters and red dirt, and make my home in the place I love with the great and majestic visitors of my dreams.
I am in need of funds to equip the kitchen, purchase initial inventory and help cover initial start-up costs and expenses.
So, I am asking: if you could please donate to my cause, so I can create the Buffalo Dreamer. Please help me to bring my food alchemy creations to Hot Springs. Then come and enjoy a place for gathering with friends, soaking, relaxing and partaking of Buffalo Dreamer food. You just might feel the spirits of buffalo that once bathed, wallowed and fed in this historic and sacred site.
Thank you,
Chef Rebecca Christensen
Thank You Gifts From Buffalo Dreamer
$1.00 to $24.00
Love and Gratitude
$25.00 to $49.00
Love and Gratitude
Buffalo Dreamer Sticker
$50.00 to $149.00
Love and Gratitude
Buffalo Dreamer Sticker
Glass of Wine or Beer* or other drink
Buffalo Dreamer T-shirt
$150.00 to $349.00
Love and Gratitude
Buffalo Dreamer Sticker
Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirt
Glass of Wine or Beer* or other drink
3-Course Dinner for One Person
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for One Person
$350 to $499.00
Love and Gratitude
2-Buffalo Dreamer Stickers
2-Buffalo Dreamer T-shirts
2-Glasses of Wine or Beer* or other drink
3-Course Dinner for Two Persons
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Two Persons
$500.00 to $999.00
Love and Gratitude
4-Buffalo Dreamer Stickers
4-Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirts
4-Glasses of Wine or Beer* other drink
3-Course Dinner for Four Persons
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Four Persons
$1,000.00 to $2,499.00
Love and Gratitude
4-Buffalo Dreamer Stickers
4-Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirts
8-Glasses of Wine or Beer* or other drink
7-Course Dinner for Four Persons
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Four Persons
$2,500.00 to $4,999.00
Love and Gratitude
8-Buffalo Dreamer Stickers
8-Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirts
16-Glasses of Wine or Beer* or other drink
7-Course Dinner for Eight Persons
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Eight Persons
$5,000.00 to $9,999.00
Love and Gratitude
16-Buffalo Dreamer stickers
16-Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirts
32-Glasses of Wine or Beer* or other drink
7-Course Dinner for Sixteen
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Sixteen Persons**
$10,000.00 and above
Love and Gratitude
24-Buffalo Dreamer Stickers
24-Buffalo Dreamer T-Shirts
Private Dinner Party for up to 24 People including open bar**
Moccasin Spings Day-Pass for Twenty Four Persons
*Restricted to persons of legal age for alcohol consumption, and subject to South Dakota liquor control laws and regulations; wine pairings to be selected by Chef Rebecca.
**Subject to thirty (30) days prior notice of event date; event at Moccasin Springs location; restricted to persons of legal age for alcohol consumption, and subject to South Dakota liquor control laws and regulations; wine pairings to be selected by Chef Rebecca.
In addition, any donor may elect to be included in the Online List of Patrons for the Buffalo Dreamer Restaurant and/or on the Plaque List Patrons to be posted at the restaurant site.
Buffalo Dreamer Thank You Gifts will be distributed at Buffalo Dreamer at Moccosin Springs once we are open for buisiness! If you can’t collect your Thank You Gifts in person, please message me your mailing address/ T-shirt sizes through Email. I will send you your Gifts/ Gift Certificates via the US Postal Service proceeding the opening of Buffalo Dreamer and Moccasin Springs.
Construction for Moccosin Springs main bulding/ Buffalo Dreamer restaurant space will be starting Soon! I will be posting construction pictures, updates, and projected opening dates on Buffalo Dreamer’s Facebook page throughout the bulding process.
Organizer
Rebecca Christensen
Organizer
Hot Springs, SD