I have been remiss. With eleventy bazillion photos of the Creek House all over this website and also www.maggievalleycottage.com, I didn’t realize I skipped pictures of my hands-down favorite place to be – in the kitchen!
Now, this is not a dream house magazine spread designer gourmet kitchen. Far from it. It isn’t snazzy. But it makes you feel so *welcome*. It’s a cook-in-your-socks kind of kitchen. And after making breakfast in here for the past eighteen years (how in the world did that much time fly by?!) I confess that I never want to spend any time in another drywall ho-hum boring kitchen. I love my mismatched cabinets, hardwood floors, low ceiling beams covered in mugs. The hooks are horseshoe nails fashioned into cup hooks for me by a blacksmith, back when we had one of those in Maggie Valley.
There are treasures in every corner, and little odd places to tuck in another bit here, another bit there. I’ve filled it with things I love to use, and it’s an easy place to work.
So this week, when a very nice lady asked for kitchen pictures, I was stunned to find out that in my many tens of thousands of pictures on my computer, I couldn’t find any of the kitchen! That’s because… wait for it… guess what: when I’m in the kitchen, I’m COOKING, not taking pictures haha!
Without further ado, voila: The Kitchen, before and after…
Confessions of an Innkeeper: I’ve had my B&B since 1998, I’m 58 years old, and today I poached an egg for the first time in my life. I’m astonished how fast, how simple, how easy – and why in the world have I been so intimidated by this??!?
Nevermore! Break an egg (cold & fresh) into a small bowl. Put an inch of water in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and then ease it off to a simmer. Add a teaspoon of salt, two of white vinegar, swirl to make a whirlpool. Ease the egg right into the center of the whirlpool. Cover and remove from heat. NO PEEKING for five minutes. Poof. Egg. I didn’t trim edges, cherry pick the best ones, or anything. This is how they came out. I took them out of the pan with a slotted spoon, laid momentarily on a paper towel and put them in the bowl. That’s it. Oh, and I ate them. With pleasure.
Buttermilk Pancakes – light as air and lots tastier
The whole entire secret to making good pancakes -really excellent pancakes- is eggs. You can use a recipe, you can use a mix. But if you use a mix, you have to ignore the part where it doesn’t call for eggs. Separate a couple of eggs, and beat the egg whites – you want them pretty stiff, like a meringue. I sprinkle in a bit of sugar toward the end because I’m impatient and it makes them peak faster. (‘Peak’ as in, when you lift the beater out of the egg whites, it leaves a nice peak.) Now, set these aside and mix up your regular pancake batter, and fold in that meringue. I’ve used lots of recipes, but none of them make better tasting pancakes than Krusteaz buttermilk pancake mix. Now, I do add Mexican vanilla and the eggs to that mix. If you’re a purist who wants a recipe, here’s mine: 2 eggs, 3 C flour, 2 T baking powder, 1 t baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 2 T sugar, 1 T brown sugar, 2 C buttermilk, 1 T Mexican vanilla, plus whole milk as necessary. Whip egg whites, adding 1 T sugar to help them hold their peaks. Set aside. Mix everything else, including egg yolks. Add milk in small amounts until you have the consistency of very heavy paint. And then fold in the egg whites. They don’t need to be blended in completely. Cook on a preheated 350 griddle.
The reason for the first tablespoon of sugar is to make the meringue. The second is to sweeten the batter. The brown sugar adds depth. The meringue makes the pancakes say, “Poof!” when they hit the griddle, and puffs them up light as air, while the sugars combine to make them brown so prettily.
The reason for the Mexican vanilla is two-fold. First, it’s really good vanilla. The second is that, when I’m out of vanilla, Larry has to take me back to Mexico. If you are tempted, now, to tell Larry where I can find Mexican vanilla closer to home, I’m going to have to do something about you. So… don’t… Ok?
If you just really don’t like to cook, that’s ok. I’ve got this one. Come on down, and I’ll make you up a mess o’ pancakes.
Ok, so I bought the teeny tiny itty-bitty micro mini squishy marshmallows to make scones. Because I was buying raspberry chocolate chips for scones, and lemon drops for scones, and cinnamon bits for scones, and I already had milk chocolate chips and graham crackers at home… so when I spotted the teeny tiny itty-bitty micro mini squishy marshmallows, I thought, “Aha! S’more scones!”
But this morning wasn’t about scones. We were having Cherry Chapelure (my version of oven French toast) with a pecan praline topping, and I had these lovely apples for the fruit course. I really (really) didn’t want to make baked stuffed apples. And the t.t.i-b.m.m.sq. marshmallows were just sitting there… trying to look all innocent… temptation in the making… irresistible…
So, I peeled, cored and sliced the apples. This next step will revolutionize your morning, if you haven’t figured it out already: put the apple slices in a bowl with a healthy splash of orange juice (toss ’em around in it). The OJ will keep them from browning. Now cover and steam them in the microwave until they are just tender. They get a head start on cooking, and it helps them keep their shape.
I sprayed ramekins and layered the apple slices with a sprinkling of t.t.i-b.m.m.sq. marshmallows. Not too many. Just enough to make the apples say ahhh. Then I put graham crackers and vanilla wafers into a big baggie, sealed it shut, and rolled them just like a pastry with my rolling pin, until I had nice coarse crumbs. Added just a hint of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves to the baggie, shook it up, and topped my apples. Then I melted way too much butter and drizzled it over the top. Off it went into the oven to bake with the Chapelure and sausage patties, and voila – breakfast.
This was all packed into the breakfast basket along with cinnamon-vanilla syrup, maple syrup, orange juice, and everything they needed to make a picnic breakfast happen, covered in pretty linens, flowers tied to the basket, and delivered to the cottage door.
And voila. S’more Apples. A new addition to my breakfast repertoire, for sure!
After a request for a ‘plain’ breakfast, and a bit of discussion, guests have had a breakfast basket delivered daily with ‘plain’ food. Today’s was a pretty crystal tray of fresh cut fruit (nectarines, kiwi, and grapes) with no dressing or yogurt or sauce, per request. Frittatas made with eggs and ham, potatoes, peppers, onions and herbs (and a little cheddar because I can’t help myself). Cheese grits, by request, and yes there’s a little jalapeno in there because, well, I’m pretty sure there’s a law about that… And some decidedly un-plain cherry scones. I just love this Southern man to pieces – he wants sweet tea at every meal. How precious is that?
I took the wedding fairies to the Disney World EPCOT Food & Wine Festival for a little team-building. Oh, fine, all right, ok, it was an excuse to go be foodies in Florida now that wintry weather has set in. And it was fabulous! Photos and recipes and inspirations to follow. Just a heads up: anything you can serve for dinner can find its way onto a breakfast plate, with just a little bit of creativity. Stay tuned… There’s more to come…
This morning, a bride requested the recipe for the Blueberry White-Chocolate Chapelure she enjoyed here on her wedding day. My reply is included below. Just so you know, Chapelure is just French for ‘bread crumbs’. To the best of my knowledge, nobody else calls their oven-baked French toast ‘bread crumbs’, so if you’re offered chapelure anyplace besides Timberwolf Creek… well… you might want to get more information! Ok, here’s my answer for Annette:
It’s sooo easy. And I just typed it up for Letitia – so, voila! If you’re using commercially frozen blueberries, you’ll need to rinse off the juice oryou’ll have grey food. The blueberries you had here were from my Uncle Carroll’s garden, and picks them “in the morning before the sun hits them” and then dries them on cookie sheets so that they are “neat”. Best when using commercial to tuck in the berries *after* pouring the egg/milk/sugar/spice mixture over the bread, the prevent them from smearing.
Berry White Chocolate Chapelure
Baker’s Joy cooking spray
4 slices of bread (approximate!)
2 croissants
1/4 cup berries (either frozen blueberries, or dried cranberries)
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
4 eggs (if using ‘medium’ eggs, you’ll need 5)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
dash of nutmeg, mace, cloves
maple syrup
Using individual ramekins, spray with cooking spray.
Into a big mixing bowl, cut leftover bread into cubes. Be careful not to ‘smoosh’ the bread. Use more than one kind of bread (French, sour dough, oatmeal). Tear the croissants. Toss the bread to mix it up. Distribute randomly into the dishes. You want the dishes to be over-full. Don’t press it down.
Tuck in frozen blueberries OR dried cranberries, and then add white chocolate chips.
Mix eggs and milk with brown sugar, spices and vanilla. Pour carefully over bread mixture.
Put in the refrigerator, and then cover lightly with plastic wrap -don’t tuck it in around the dishes, just lay it over the top. You want the bread to lift as it soaks up the eggs & milk. Refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, remove from the fridge, take off the plastic, and let stand at room temp for 20-30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees about half an hour. It should be puffed and lightly browned. Serve with warm syrup on the side.
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Note: this adapts really easily to whatever ingredients you have on hand. You’ll want two add-ins… like
–Raisin Walnut
–Blackberry Pecan
–Apple Cinnamon (peel the apples & chop small, sprinkle the top of the chapelure *lightly* with cinnamon and then sugar, before baking)
–Brown Sugar Peach (this is added AFTER the chapelure comes out of the fridge, in the morning – drain a can of peaches and toss with a little brown sugar and lay the fruit right on top of the bread, and then bake)
We are firm believers in the value of local food, slow food, organic food, freshly harvested. I once had a friend tell me that eggs are just miniature chickens, with all the nutrients packed in there, so you’d better be careful about what the hen was eating when she made the egg. Insightful! And it’s been our good fortune to know Beth Wooten, for so many reasons, not the least of which is her wonderful eggs.
Beth’s eggs are not just local/organic/fresh, they are gorgeous. Check it out – blues, greens, cream, and deep brown. She tells me it’s because of the types of chickens she has, but I never retain that information. I can just tell you that the yolks are the deepest creamy orange you’ll ever see, they rise like nobody’s business, and they taste the way an egg should.
Stolen in a parking lot
These chickens are livin’ the life, I can tell you. They have a run that surrounds Beth’s garden, so when she’s picking vegetables, any stems and leaves and such go right into the top of the run, where the chickens can feast on a lovely salad for lunch. The run goes all the way down to a cool mountain spring. Every so often, Beth gets an email from me, “Dost thou have eggs?” And she finds out how many I want, and we set up a plan for transfer – usually I just break into her car and steal them out of her cooler. 😉 Well, ok, she tells me where I’ll find the cooler, ok? But it’s pretty fun to think of it as getting my egg fix from a dealer in a parking lot… Ghetto eggs… And they are addictive, after all, because once you’ve had farm-fresh organic eggs, you won’t want to settle for anything less.
Once, I asked for pictures of the chickens. You can imagine my delight when Beth sent me the chickens eating a watermelon!! Her caption was, “Everyone loves watermelon on a hot day.” I guess those girls enjoyed it. So, they eat well, they make really pretty eggs, and you can be assured that all the nutrients you wish were in your omelet are right there. Recipe follows.
For individual baked omelets, try the following. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. For a single omelet, use one au gratin dish, spray it with Baker’s Joy (oil & flour nonstick baking spray), arrange add-ins in the dish. Beat 3 eggs with a splash of milk, pour over the add-ins, sprinkle with herbs, and bake for 30 minutes. Ok, “What’s an add-in?” you ask. Well, that’s where the fun comes in!
I always include some kind of cheese:
cheddar
swiss
pepperjack
chevre (a *must* if you’re using roasted red peppers, swoon!)
gruyere
Paired with at least one veggie:
fresh asparagus tips -I fan them out in the dish, but you can chop them if you prefer
spinach chiffonade (which just means thinly sliced into shreds, folks)
onions, sauteed first
bell pepper, sauteed first
roasted red peppers
sliced new potatoes, cooked (slice, wash, cover and steam in the microwave approx 3 minutes!)
mushrooms, sauteed first, in butter and a pinch of the herb you’re using later
diced green chilis (fresh roasted, or canned)
fresh tomatoes, seeded and diced (seeding is necessary or you’ll have too much liquid)
And meat, if you like:
diced ham
cooked, crumbled bacon or sausage
shredded roast chicken breast (this is surprisingly wonderful)
crab meat
Sprinkle with herbs – and I like to use only one, so that it’s showcased:
tarragon
rosemary
dill
basil (see note about parmesan, below)
coarsely ground black pepper
Now, if you use more than one veggie, you may need to cut back to two eggs. If your eggs are fresh like mine, you’ll see your omelet rise two inches above the rim of the dish! It will fall within a minute or two, but it’s fun to watch. If you don’t have fresh eggs, you may want to top your omelet with a sprinkle of cheese before baking.
A special note about parmesan cheese: this is a strong flavor, and something that you’ll want to use on top of the omelet, about halfway through baking. And finally, my-son-the-chef, Nick, likes to brush on just a touch of white truffle oil before serving.
Be creative. Try something new. Send me a picture!
We leaned forward to listen, as one of the ladies prepared to tell us about her requirements for a Perfect Man. He would be tall, she said, and employed. Funny and smart go without saying. She restricted his age to 35-43, and begging your pardon, he simply cannot be a democrat. We sat back and laughed, and discretely surveyed the dining room. Hey, you never know.
So here I am this morning, preparing to tell you about my notion of the perfect coffee mug. Like my friend’s ideal man, it must be taller than round. It must also fit on my cup warmer. Even though it takes me an hour in the morning to savor that first cuppa, I enjoy my coffee scaldingly hot, so a cup that fits on the warmer should have a flat bottom (I’ve no idea what my friend’s requirements are in that area) so that it will actually keep the coffee hot. Most commercial cups, which bore me to tears, have a concave base that doesn’t make contact with the warmer, and I’m back at the microwave every few minutes. That said, it really can’t be a commercial cup. There are just too many really fine potters out there that can make a beautiful coffee mug, and these North Carolina mountains are right smack in the middle of clay heaven.
A brief aside about our clay… It’s so special that Wedgwood China imported it in the 1700s. It was taken to port via the Indian Road (now I-26) to the port of Charleston and shipped to England. Josiah Wedgwood pronounced it remarkable and called it Cherokee Clay. There you are, a special nod to today being Earth Day.
Back to the Perfect Mug. It should have a pleasing appearance, that evokes some uplifting emotion. It should feel wonderful – the handle should be easy to use, your thumb finding just the right place, and the rim should be thoughtfully crafted so you don’t get that aggravating drip down the side. It should be exactly the right size to hold a bit more than a tea cup, but not so large that your coffee’s bound to cool. It should invite you to lean back and wrap your hands around it on a chilly morning. Decorative, certainly, but being decorative can’t outweigh function… like those silly handles your fingers won’t fit in, or square for the sake of being square, or squat, just in case that’s adorable. Flared rims may be unusual, but that’s because they’re difficult to use. As in architecture, form follows function. And it should be hand-crafted. I don’t want to ‘make do’. I want to Enjoy. I want to Savor. I want to Appreciate -both the coffee and the mug it’s in.
I’m just guessing that my friend would also like to find a man crafted here in these Smoky Mountains, with a pleasing appearance, who feels wonderful, and is just the right shape, who works flawlessly and is prepared to help her enjoy a cup of coffee every morning. I hope she finds him. I’ve found my mug.
Here it is.
Made in America. By hand.
In case you’re wondering, our mugs are handmade by the good folks at Deneen Pottery. And the coffee that goes in them is Elida Estate, from Panama. We’ll be happy to send you home with both. Come enjoy your next cup on the porch by the stream, under these tall trees, at Timberwolf Creek.
