Food at the Marlboro Ranch

Apart from getting lots of questions about the gifts, another popular question is what type of food is served at the Crazy Mountain Ranch. Cowboy food? :P What's cowboy food exactly? Well, I wouldn't really call it "cowboy food", but it's basically good, hearty meals...with a little touch of the wild wild west. Everything is made from scratch at the ranch - from breads & pastries, sauces, jams to ice cream! Also, I dare say that nobody goes hungry at the ranch. They feed you well, from early morning til late at night. It's just non stop eating. In this post, I will blog solely on what we ate during the 4 days 3 nights at the ranch.

From the moment you get off the plane, the eating begins. We were ushered to a room where we had to fill in some forms and we could help ourselves to packs of food and bottled water. We had a choice of either BBQ Chicken Pita or Ham Pita. Both the chicken and ham came with potato salad, a small tub of grapes, a large cookie and some chips. Even throughout the 1 hour bus ride to the ranch, there were lots of snacks and drinks available on the bus.

The menu for the day would usually be posted up in front of the Saloon. Since we got in kinda late, I didn't managed to take a picture of the menu for Day 1. I will try to recall as much as I can of what we ate for the first day. How it would usually work is, there would be appetizers and drinks at around 5:00pm and then dinner will be served sometime around 7:00pm. We had beef quesadillas and something else (I forgot!) as appetizers and then headed out for the Crazy Mountain Ranch Town Tour. At around 7:00pm, the dinner bell rang and we went back to the saloon for our BBQ Welcome Dinner!

There were slow cooked ribs, chicken breast, grilled corn on cob, coleslaw, ranch beans (some sort of baked beans), salad with home made ranch dressing, green beans with bacon as well as the famous home made huckleberry BBQ sauce! You could also help yourself to corn muffins and bread which were made available on every table.

For dessert, they served some really good Jalapeno Apple Cobbler with some Home Made Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. If you don't like the cobbler, they also had some pie. The ranch staff were also walking around with a coffee pot in one hand and a bottle of Baileys in another. What a nice way to end a big yummy dinner :D

A full breakfast was served at the Saloon from 6:30am until 9:00am. If you signed up for the early risers hike (6:30am), you can get some continental breakfast at the saloon starting from 6am. There are loads of stuff at the breakfast. However, it was way to early for us (we had to finish breakfast by 7am to go fly fishing) and we didn't take any pictures. I think I had some nice thick cut bacon, cheesy scrambled eggs, pancakes with huckleberry syrup and a piece of country fried steak with sausage sauce. We even took back an egg and sausage muffin to the room, to eat after fly fishing :P Here is the lunch menu for Day 2.

- Lunch Menu -

Fruit salad

Salad Bar with Three Dressings

Green Chilli Chicken Pot Pie

Ranch Seasoned Potato Wedges

French Dip Au Jus

Grilled Ham & Cheese on Potato Bread

Grilled Cheese on Potato Bread

Shrimp & Corn Chowder

Iron Skillet Baked Triple Fudge Brownie

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Root Beer Floats

We missed out on all that cos didn't have lunch at the Saloon. We were out on our Back Country Jeep Tour and had a Chuck Wagon Lunch instead. It was a pretty good experience. It was the first time (and I'm sure the first time for many others as well) we had a Chuck Wagon Lunch!

We had a choice of Pulled Pork Sandwich or a Vege Wrap and some Beef and Cheese. Kevin had the Pulled Pork and I tried the Vege Wrap. I'm not too much of a vegetable person but I must say, the Vege Wrap rocks! There was a nice mix of grilled and fresh vegetables but the star of the wrap is some home made spread/sauce. Superb! We also had potato salad and some fruit salad on the side.

Considering that it was a Chuck Wagon lunch, we had quite a lot of drinks to choose from. They had bottled water, a few different kinds of soda, juices, coffee as well as the local huckleberry soda. No prize for guessing what Kevin and I picked :P The huckleberry soda is yummy, tasted like fizzy ribena!

After we were done with all our activities for the day, we headed out at around 5:30pm to join the Street Party. Guess what? More food! There were Seasonal Fruit Skewers, Soft Pretzel Skewers with Warm Mustard Cheese Dip and BBQ Jumbo Shrimp. They also had lots of wine, beer and sodas to choose from.

Here is a photo of the Chef grilling up some super delicious BBQ Jumbo Shrimp. Look at how juicy and plump the shrimps were. Really really good!

We went back to our rooms to freshen up after the Street Party and headed over to the Livery for dinner at around 7:30pm. A nice big barn filled with good food and good music! I just love how they open up the barn doors behind the band, so that we can see the sunset. Here is the dinner menu for Day 2.

- Dinner Menu -

Iceberg BLT Salad with Ranch Dressing
Classic Caesar Salad
Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin
Grilled Trout with Leeks
Beef Brisket
Green Onion Sausage
Twice Baked Red Potatoes
Grilled Asparagus and Grilled Sweet Peppers
Wild Mushroom Saute
Ranch Baked Bread and Rolls with Shallot Butter
Homemade Cheese with Strawberry and Blueberry Compotes
Big Sky Chocolate Cake
Coconut Cashew Ice Cream

Everything on the menu tasted great. I especially loved the wild mushroom saute and the trout. It tasted really fresh and yummy. Here is a picture of the main meal and dessert.

After dinner, the party continued and it lasted til way past midnight (we headed back to our room to rest for a bit after dinner before heading back to the Livery later on that night). There were line dancing, karaoke, darts, poker tables and the ranch's very own Marlboro DJ, spinning tunes from way back when up til the current top 40s. Of course there was an open bar, with all kinds of beer, wine and top shelf liquor.

Day 3. Phewwww, so much eating and drinking...makes me fill all bloated up just by blogging about it :P Breakfast was as usual at the Saloon and so was lunch. This is what Kevin and I had for lunch.

We had a choice of Flame Grilled Sliders and Chicken Salad Sandwiches as our mains. Kevin chose the Sliders with Shoestring Fries and a bowl of Chilli Con Carne. I also had Sliders (my favorite food item from the ranch, they are just sooooooooo yummy) with some Summer Pasta Salad, Sauteed Mushrooms and a bowl of Broccoli Cheddar Soup. For dessert, there were Deep Fried Pies (which we skipped) and Lemon Bars (I took that along with me to munch on as we walked around town after lunch).

We gathered in front of the Saloon again at around 5:30pm for a Wagon Ride down to the Pavilion by the lake for the Ranch Party! As usual, there were lots of drinks (from non alcoholic lemonade and sweet iced tea to wine and home brew beer). The appetizers served at the Ranch Party were pretty interesting though. They had some sort of a Herb Cheese Dip with Wheat Crackers, Marinated Chicken Skewers and Wild Game Skewers. What kind of Wild Game? Well, the dark colored sausage is wild boar and the lighter sausage is a mixture of rabbit and RATTLESNAKE! That's right! Rattlesnake! Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good - something like veal with a green peppery after taste.

Dinner was again at 7:30pm at the Saloon. Here is the dinner menu.

- Dinner -

Aged White Cheddar Salad
Cowboy Salad
Summer Baby Squash
Grilled Mushrooms with Cider Herb Glaze
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
Glazed Carrots
CMR Mac & Cheese
Bacon Wrapped Pheasant with Wild Turkey Glaze
Hot Smoked Salmon with Cider Glaze
Branded Strip Loin
Seasoned Onion and Grain Mustard Butter
Ranch Baked Bread and Roasted Garlic Butter
Individual Pecan Pies
Fresh Fruit Tarts
Home made Caramel Ice Cream

Again, another wonderful dinner. The waiters with the Coffee pots and Baileys made their rounds again during dessert! Here is a photo of the main as well as the Pecan Pie and Caramel Ice Cream dessert. We were way too stuffed to even want to try the Fruit Tarts :P

We didn't take any photos of the food on Day 4 because we had to check out of the rooms by 8:30am. After having our breakfast at the Saloon, they set up a "deli" section where we could make our own sandwiches and brown bag them to eat during our trip home. Marlboro really takes care of you all the way! All the food I have listed here are the main meals. You can help yourselves to lots of snacks throughout the day. There is a constant supply of freshly popped pop corn at the Saloon all day. You can also help yourself to beef jerky (original and teriyaki flavor) at the Saloon as well as the Stage Stop. If you were to go into the General Store, there are all kinds of candies for you to choose from. Also, there are granola bars, trail mixes and stuff like that at every activity that you go too. Oh, and before I forget, there are late night hot snacks available at either the Saloon or Livery after 10:00pm every night. The skillet pizza is really good. Looks like you will never be hungry at the ranch. One of the ranch staff told me that one of their goals is to make sure that we are all happy and well fed. Trust me, me are more than happy and well fed :P To Marlboro, thanks for all the fun and the yummy FOOD!

* Click here to be directed back to the Crazy Mountain Ranch Homepage. You can check out other ranch related posts as well as look at photos from the ranch during our Summer 2009 trip!