Mountain Thyme's Vegetable Cream Cheese

I have long been a fan of vegetable cream cheese on bagels and came up with this recipe trying to recreate some we used to get at a restaurant back in Dallas.  Since opening the B&B, we find that we use it in many different ways.  We still serve it on bagels for breakfast but have tried it these other ways as well:

          ~ Cut cucumbers in very thin slices and spread it in between for "sandwiches"
          ~ Fill sticks of celery (these first two are great for low carb diets!)
          ~ Set out as a dip for chips or a spread for crackers
          ~ Roll up with tortillas and ham or turkey slices.  I usually add a little dill when I serve it this way.

Mountain Thyme Vegetable Cream Cheese Recipe

2-3 radishes, cut in large pieces
2-3 green onions, chopped
1/4 bell pepper, diced
2" inches of cucumber, peel and remove seeds
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
dash of garlic powder


If you use a food processor, you can chop the vegetables in large pieces (first picture). Otherwise, you will want to finely dice all (see second picture below).

After chopping, transfer vegetables to a strainer, add a generous pinch of course salt, stir and let sit and drain for 30 minutes.  This helps remove excess moisture. 

Dab with paper towel and mix with the cream cheese.  This keeps for at least a week covered in the refrigerator.

It is great to pull out for mid-afternoon nibbles with some carrot slices. And, as stated above, we use it lots of different ways with our snack trays, holiday gatherings and picnics!

Valentines

Every year we pull out all the stops for Valentines.  We spend months planning & making the handmade  souvenir menus, deciding on table and room decorations and perfecting the recipes. Since many of our guests come year after year, we try to have something a little new each time.

This was a red and white year with lots of stripes and hearts ...

and polka dots.

This couple brought a little style to the event (this is only the second tuxedo in over a dozen years!)

Last year we did a sparkly blue and white snowflake theme.

Next week I will post a tutorial on making the menus and table decorations we had this year.

Fun with TP Rolls

If life gives you lemons.....

Or toilet paper rolls.  As an innkeeper of a house with 11 bathrooms, we have tons of those!  So, when I see ideas on Pinterest for things to do with TP rolls, I "Pin It."  I saw several versions on this theme but this is the simplest.

Cover the roll in peanut butter,

roll it in bird seed,

and stick it on a branch.

The first time we put them out, the birds were suspicious and hesitant to try them.  I set a covered roll in each one of their regular feeders and they quickly caught on.  The seed "pods" are all up and down the holly bushes lining the porch, making for great bird-watching from the dining room. The birds love it as they have more feeding stations when the weather make foraging difficult.

I went ahead and made several of them and stuck them in the freezer so they are ready when I need them without all the mess.

One site has you add a string, which wouldn't work as well for me but is great if you have accessible tree branches.

This idea from Martha Stewart could be fun to try with my miniature bundt pans. They could be adorned with ribbons for the holidays and given as gifts to bird-watching friends. If and when I do it, I will post results.

Making Menu Cards

 I was working on our menu cards for this year's Valentines Dinner, (you will have to wait until later to see this one), and I thought it might be fun to drag out the ones from years past and have a look.  You might get some fun ideas for a party or event you are planning.  I must say I am glad these were made pre-Pinterest days.  Seeing some of the marvelous examples out there, I might have been intimidated to ever try.

Speaking of Pinterest, and I know from several funny blogs out there I'm not alone on this, we need to get over our "Pinterest Perfection" expectations.  More on this next week when I show you pictures of my cinnamon twist that needs some practice.

That first year that we started offering the Valentine's candlelight dinners, the printed menu was an afterthought, hurriedly printed off the day before. It was simply red cardstock for the cover, white printer paper for the lining, black type, some gold stamp ink and stretchy red/gold package twine left over from Christmas wrapping. It turned out to be a fun little souvenir that folks enjoyed from their romantic weekend out.

The next year I spent some time thinking about it and came up with something a little fancier. We alternate color schemes each year between red and blue (winter, snowflakes, etc). I started with a smokey blue velum for the cover. I cut out a heart template to place on top and then stamped snowflakes with white ink inside. I finished off the design with a running stitch-like border with a white colored pencil.

The inside was simply a white cardstock trimmed with scalloping scissors. The snowflakes inside were stamped with a denim ink and the pages were held together with a thin smokey blue ribbon with a tiny 3D snowflake tied to the tip

Another red themed menu was a thick, textured red card stock, folded over at the top, the edge coarsely torn, holes punched through red and white cards, and tied with multicolored pink & red embroidery thread. The red border and hearts between courses printed off the computer and the stamps were left over from previous years. (You can ignore the snowflake imperfection shown here --  I always keep the rejects for my scrapbook). The place cards were cut from the same paper and hand decorated.

This next attempt was a little more time consuming.  I took my inspiration from a little book that was made for my mother's high school graduation. You start with two pieces of card board. The silver strip paper was glued to both pieces to bind the book. The polkadot paper was glued to the outside of each piece of cardboard, leaving an inch of silver stripe showing, and wrapping 1/2 inch around the other sides. The inside of the cardboard was covered with contrasting heart paper. (I used a glue stick for most of this but had to reinforce  a few spots.)
The pages inside consisted of one sheet of frosted velum and two sheets of light weight cardstock. The first page was the title with the individual menus on the center pages. The silver snowflake on the front was a rub-on decal and the pages were bound to the cover with silver ball/string that I cut off the edges of some wired ribbon.

This card was inspired by a handmade Christmas card. It is simple but time consuming. But, it allowed me to use up lots of the red, white, and pink papers I had from years before. It is kind of like making a log cabin quilt. Strips of paper are just laid on and glued around a sparkly sheet of paper until there is enough to fill up the space. I used the white colored pencil to "stitch" around the edge.  Another sheet of red is glued to the underside to keep the quilt in place and finish off the inside. The inside was printed on white card stock and held in place with little sticky snowflakes

The idea for this card came to me from a handmade wedding invitation. The base of the menu and the name card are cut from a textured blue card stock.

The white menu is printed in blue ink to match the ink I had for the snowflake stamp. (It has been used many times in many colors). The velum surrounding the menu and layered on the name card was frosted with little glittery speckles (which are hard to see here). The menu was tied with frosted ribbon with a little snowflake stamped heart. The layers on the name card (after being glued together) are accented with sticky snowflakes.

This next menu got its inspiration from some wonderful thick handmade paper I got in Dallas. If you love paper and if it is still there, check out a place called Paper Routes. You will think you have died and gone to heaven.

I came up with a cone shape that resembled a heart when rolled up. The cone is tied closed with ribbon in two small hole punched in the front. The name cards were simple heart shapes. The white linings for the menu and place cards (heart shaped) were hand torn to fit the shape. (Just pencil the shape on the back side of the paper and gently tear along the line). Inside the cone, the top heart was placed to peak out the top and the two menu cards were lower and overlapping.  The little red hearts were the old fashioned lick & stick foil kind.

Last year I wanted to try making fun tissue paper flowers that I was seeing all over Pinterest. It was simply pale blue card stock, glittery wide ribbon, white card stock cut with those scollop scissors and a blue carnation glued on. The names were hand lettered on the front. The interior was printed computer except for the snowflake stamps.

My favorite was an original design. My friend, Janie, and I wanted a formal looking menu for our 10th anniversary. (We opened Valentines weekend, 1998). When we decided on a tuxedo, the rest was just cutting and pasting paper until we came up with something we liked.

The pinstripe is a light weight paper.  Heavy card stock would have been better but I couldn't find anything that worked.  The red for the vest and the white accents are heavier paper. The vest buttons were stick-on white hearts and the red flower in the jacket are red berries on green wire (floral dept) that we stuck through the paper and covered with red hearts front and back.  The menu is held together with that "repositionable" glue.  The name cards were made by taking two hearts, cutting a slit half way up the bottom of one and half way down the top of the other.  Holding the two perpendicular, slide the bottom slice on top of top slice. Glue the white heart on to create a 3D standup.

I hope these inspire you to greater things. I'm sorry I didn't have pictures of the process but these were made pre-blog.  I will do a better job of documenting this year and will share the results in March after all the dinners are over.

This Place Looks Brand New!

People are always telling us that the B&B looks new and that it is hard to believe it has been here for 15 years. I always beam (mostly on the inside).  It is always nice to have your work appreciated and we do work at keeping this place sparkling.

How do we do it? 

1. KEEP IT CLEAN.  Fabrics (slip covers, bedspreads, carpets, etc) last longer when cleaned regularly.  We can wash almost everything at the inn and the carpets get steam cleaned at least once a year. We spot clean weekly. Liquid enzyme cleaners work for most everything and it is amazing what just plain old soap & water will handle.

2.FLIP & FLUFF IT.  If your mattress was made to flip, do so quarterly.  Throw your down or fiber fill pillows in the dryer to fluff.  We do this for the bed pillows every time we change the sheets and a couple of time a year for the throw pillows on the couch, chairs, etc. They make dryer sheets for "dry cleaning" that I use on some things that shouldn't be washed.

3. AIR IT OUT. When the weather is perfect, open the whole house up and let the fresh air blow through. It is the best air freshener around! Occasionally I will take rugs and pillows out for a good shake and some time in the sun.

4. TOUCH IT UP.  I keep a basket, (see photo at top), of small bottles of all the different paints we used on the house as well as brushes, caulk, craft paints, colored pencils, tung oil, spackle and glue.  At least once a year, (and more often on the stairs and hallways),  I go around and caulk holes & cracks, and paint over any imperfections.  The colored pencils are to repair obvious scrapes on wall paper. (It doesn't have to be perfect - just enough to trick the eye). I use sharpies to hide scratches on black furniture and water colors to hide small wearing spots on fabric chair arms.

5. REPAIR IT.  You may not have noticed but, when one of the wicker slats on the front of the Common Room chair fell out, I replaced it with a cinnamon stick.  People rarely notice that as much as they would the gaping hole and the chair functions just fine! I keep wallpaper and carpet scraps and pieces for spot repairs.

When the caulk around baths, sinks, window, etc cracks or gets moldy, replace it. It really isn't that difficult - I promise.  It is best if you have a day or two when you don't have to use the area you are repairing. Scrape/peel off old caulk and wash out with water and a little bleach. Rinse it and let it dry for several hours. Or a hair dryer will speed things up.  My favorite caulk is Polyseamseal and my favorite hint is to smooth it out with your MOIST finger. Keep a wet rag handy to moisten your finger and to clean it off after.  Let it dry overnight. 

Re-grouting is trickier but it can be done.  I'm not as great at that, so refer to one of the many good sites on the web.  Or promise a steak dinner to someone you know who can do it for you!

6.REPLACE IT.  Sometimes it is the little things that make a room look tired.  A throw pillow that has been thrown too often or a lamp shade that has seen better days can be replaced for little money and bring life back into a space. There is not a room in this house that hasn't had small changes along the way.  Most people never notice.

 
I carry a zip-lock bag in my purse at all times that has samples of all the wall paper, carpet, fabric and paint samples attached to cards for each room.  There is also a picture from a catalog of the rug in the entry hall (that unifies all the rooms) and a photo of the matching stained glass windows.  There are bits of all the tablecloths and napkins as well.  When I am out and run across something that might work, I just pull out the sample bag and compare colors.  This one thing has saved me hours of "returning things."

7. HAVE SOMEONE ELSE LOOK AT IT.  When you look at something day in and day out, you can overlook that the slip cover is looking worn, the lace is turning yellow or the cobwebs are taking over a high corner. The friend that helped me decorate this place walks the entire house with me once a year to comment on what still looks good, what needs help or what just looks dated. We work on what time, money and energy allows.

A little time here and there can make all the difference.  And don't throw away those bits of paint, fabric or carpet!  You never know when it will come in handy!

Dill Eggs in Puff Pastry

 

When we lived in Dallas, we used to frequent a breakfast place called Le Peep (it may still be there) and we had a favorite dish called Country Cool. It was scrambled eggs, cream cheese, ham and dill. We have tried to recreate that and make it a little fancier by wrapping it in puff pastry. The eggs are great by themselves if you don’t have or don't want the pastry.

Dill Eggs

5 eggs lightly whipped, reserving 1 Tbsp. for egg wash.
1/2 tsp. dill
4 oz cream cheese
1 tsp. unsalted butter
1/4 c. finely diced shallots
1/2 c. diced ham
1 puff pastry sheet (found in frozen food section)

Egg wash
1 Tbsp. egg
1 Tbsp. Water
You can sprinkle on toasted sesame seeds, if you want.

Night Before: (This is optional, but the scrambled eggs are easier to work on the pastry sheet later if they have been chilled.) Lightly whip dill into eggs. Cut cream cheese into medium chunks. In large saucepan, saute shallots in butter. Stir in ham. Add dill eggs and stir until softly scrambled. Remove from heat and immediately stir in cream cheese until almost melted and blended. Set aside, or cover and refrigerate overnight.

 Final Preparation: Roll out pastry sheet on wax paper or cutting board to 14 inches by 18 inches. Spoon egg mixture onto center of pastry sheet leaving 2 inches of pastry bare at top and bottom and 4 inches bare along both sides.

Fold the 2-inch top and bottom over the filling. Then go down both the 4 inch sides cutting the bare pastry at 1/2 inch intervals from the edge up to the filling. This creates a series of 1/2-inch strips down both sides.

Beginning at one end fold one strip over filling from left, then one from right, alternating sides until all pastry covers the filling.  

Brush with egg wash. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat. Bake 20 to 30 minutes at 400~ until golden brown.

Allow cooling 4 minutes before slicing.
Serves 4-6

We serve with fruit and homemade hash browns.  Sorry, forgot to take a picture of the plate when we were serving. Somehow when I am in the middle of breakfast, I get a little distracted.

Flora & Fauna 2012

I thought you might enjoy some of the Nature display we get to enjoy on an ongoing basis!  These are photos you have missed if you are not following us on Facebook. To follow us on Facebook, just click this link to our Facebook page and "like" us. That way you can see our photo updates week to week.



During Spring Cleaning we uncovered lots of fine specimens.  We had never seen this Spotted Salamander before, and I gather from research, it is somewhat elusive.  Lucky us!

        The Phoebes made their annual appearance in our makeshift nesting boxes. Here is a photo of the babies right before they fledged.

Walking Sticks are very common on our porch but we have never seen one like this.  The red and turquoise stripes made this one a real stand out from the regular solid green or brown variety.  He was much larger as well.

This year our wrens gave us a treat by laying their eggs in a nest snuggled down in a potted plant on the front porch by the porch swing. They are used to us and put on quite a show.  It was fun getting to watch the eggs appearing (one a day for five days) and then watching them hatch.   The chicks were hard to photograph as they would dart back in the recesses of the nest when we grew too close.

We have a Moon Flower plant we started from seeds we brought with us from Dallas.  It is finally getting mature enough to put on more than one blossom per night.  This picture was taken on the night we had six flowers open all at once...beautiful and fragrant!

My favorite photos of the year have to be these three of a cicada emerging from its shell.  We just happen to be out picking figs and this was happening right in front of us.  It didn't take much time and Mike wished afterwards that we had shot video instead.

I know some of you are never going to get on Facebook so maybe we can have an annual show-and-tell here for you.  Enjoy!

The rest of you  like  us on FB!