Butter Rum Cake

For Cake:
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter (2 sticks, softened)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs

For Sauce:
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter
¼ cup water
1 Tbsp dark rum

My friend and guest, Julie Nafziger, gave me this recipe a good while ago.  Got around to making it yesterday for a pot luck. When I took it out of the tube pan, my mom said it looked pretty uninteresting.  A while later she walked in my office and said to forget making our award winning pound cakes and stick with this one!  I'd serve it plain or with fresh peaches and whipped cream.

Rum and Butter Cake with Peaches and Whipped Cream

Stir together flour, salt, baking powder and  soda in a bowl. Combine buttermilk and vanilla in another bowl.  Cream butter and sugar and beat in eggs one at a time using a mixer.  Add flour mixture alternating with buttermilk mixture.  Spoon into a well buttered 10” tube pan.  Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees, (test with toothpick.)  Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes then poke holes with a long toothpick or an ice pick.

In a sauce pan, melt 1 stick of butter, then add the 1 cup sugar and ¼ cup water.  Cook until sugar dissolves then remove from heat and add 1 Tbsp of  dark rum.   Pierce cake and spoon rum mixture over hot cake.  Cool completely before inverting to a serving plate.

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Quiche Lorraine

1 bottom pie crust
6 slices of bacon
1 small onion chopped
4 eggs
1 1/3 C half and half
3 slices of pasteurized Swiss cheese
3 slices of regular hard Swiss cheese
Dash of nutmeg
1 tsp butter

Mix and roll out a pie crust and form on the bottom of a pie shell (my favorite, or use a preformed store bought one). Prick bottom with a fork then bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cook and crumble 6 slices of bacon. Sauté in a small frying pan the chopped onion in 1 tsp of butter. Layer the slices of soft Swiss cheese with the hard Swiss cheese, and then grate together. (This works so much better that having a pile of soft cheese and a pile of hard cheese. The quiche sets up more uniformly this way.) Sprinkle 2/3 of the cheese on the bottom of the pie crust. Then sprinkle a little nutmeg on it. Layer the onion, bacon, and rest of Swiss cheese on top. Mix your eggs and half and half well and pour on top. Bake an additional 30-45 minutes until done. Let set for 5 minutes before serving.

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Apricot Fruit Dip (and our award winning, blue ribbon, Apricot Bread!)

8 oz package of cream cheese
6 oz of cool whip
12 oz jar of apricot preserves

Softened cream cheese in the microwave.  Beat with a spatula until smooth.  Add cool whip, beat until smooth.  Add preserves to taste, mix, and refrigerate until use.

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2/3 C  all-purpose flour
1/3 C  potato starch (check in your grocery specialty section)
1  Tbsp sugar
3/8  tsp salt
1 1/2  Tbsp baking powder
1 large egg
1 C whole milk (I used half and half)
2 Tbsp canola oil
Unsalted butter for cooking, (I used regular and it was fine!)

Combine flour, potato starch, sugar, salt, and baking powder.  In a separate bowl, beat the egg with a fork and then mix in the milk and oil.  Pour over the dry ingredients, and combine with a wooden spoon or plastic spatula just until evenly moistened.  Don't over beat, there will be lumps.

Heat a griddle until water flicked on it sizzles.  Add some butter to the griddle and spoon about 3 Tbsp of batter on the griddle.  Cook about 3 minutes, until the top has stopped bubbling and no longer looks wet, and the bottom is slightly browned.  Flip and cook the second side 2-3 minutes.   Plate and add a little butter and syrup on top.  They will melt in your mouth.

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Pumpkin Pancakes

Whipped Cream-

Half pint of Whipped Cream
¼ t of Vanilla
1 t Sugar

Using a bowl and beaters that have been cooled in the fridge for a while, beat on high speed the whip cream, vanilla, and sugar.  When stiff set bowl back in fridge.

Caramelized Pecans-

1/4 C of Butter
1/4 C of Brown Sugar
2 C Pecan Halves

Melt butter over stove then stir in brown sugar.  When dissolved add 2 cups of pecans and stir for 2 to 3 minutes until caramelized.  Turn pecans out onto a piece of wax paper to cool separating them with a fork.  (Any leftovers will keep well the fridge.  They are nice sprinkled on top of salads also.)

Ginger Syrup-

1 C Brown Sugar
½ C of Water
2 T Butter
2 T Minced Crystallized Ginger

Melt butter over the stove, and then stir in the brown sugar and water.  When dissolved stir in the ginger.  Continue stirring for 5 to 10 minutes until it starts to thicken.  Take off stove and let set until ready to use.  You may have to reheat if it thickens too much.  (When your guests dribble this syrup on the pancakes a little bit goes a long way.  You don’t smother them like you would with regular maple syrup and any leftovers will hold in the fridge till the next time you make these pancakes.) 

Pancakes-

2 C Whole Milk
2 Eggs
3 T Butter, melted
¾ C Canned Pumpkin

1 2/3 C All Purpose Flour
3/4 t Cinnamon
1/8 t Ground Cloves
¼ t Ground Ginger
¼ t Salt
2 t Baking Powder
3 T Brown Sugar

Beat eggs briefly, then add and beat in the milk, butter and pumpkin.  Add all the dry ingredients except the flour and beat.  Add flour last and beat until large lumps disappear.  Heat a large griddle, melt a little butter on it and pour a small amount of batter on the griddle.  Smooth the batter down with a spoon.  (These are very thin pancakes and about 4 inches across.  When done on both sides, arrange about three pancakes on a plate, sprinkle on pecans and then a dollop of whipped cream.  (You can sprinkle a little nutmeg on top of the whipped cream.)  These could also be garnished with orange slices, or a baked apples, etc.  Serve with syrup.  This batter can be made the night before and held for a couple of days in the fridge.

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Marjorie Murphy of Little River Artistry, Townsend, TN

Marion Schlauch Pottery of Walland, TN

This is one blog where the photos can do all the talking.  I think the Smoky Mountains Pottery Festival, held at the Townsend TN Visitor Center, is my favorite of the 26 area festivals each year. The colors, the glazes, the shapes & styles all just knock your socks off.  Only takes an hour to walk through & parking is close.  Plan on spending a bit of money, although it was reasonably priced.  The date is Sat June 2nd.  Blessings, mizkathleen@Gracehill B&B

Tony Holman Pottery of Plano, TX

John Fulwood of Kissimmee River Pottery, Frenchtown, NJ

Marion Schlauch Pottery of Walland, TN

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Winter Squash, Pumpkin

Each fall, we put up a fair sized seasonal display- pumpkins, gourds, mums, baskets, etc.- at our Townsend TN Bed and Breakfast's front entrance.  While it is lovely, you can thank pesky raccoons for this recipe.  They found us a couple of years ago and started nibbling on all the edibles.  AND they wouldn’t clear their plate, a nibble here, and a nibble there.  Kind of like "Taste of Chicago", little bites to taste everything.  It was driving my mom crazy, and she started bringing some gourds inside.  One day she sat down and started reading James McNair’s cookbook, Squash, and came up with Creamy Winter Squash Soup.  The pumpkin shown has been sitting on our laundry room counter for 3 months.  Had a soup supper last night at church so, Mom decided to give me a little more folding space in the laundry room and whacked into it!

Pumpkin Winter Squash Soup with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

4 Tbsp butter
1 medium to large onion, chopped
(original recipe called for 1 C of chopped leeks and ½ C of chopped shallots)
1-½ pounds pumpkin or other winter squash, which is about 3 C pureed cook pumpkin
1-quart chicken stock
1 C whipping cream or half and half
1 C orange juice, I like the OJ with heavy pulp or fresh squeeze your own and zest
it before you squeeze it reserving the zest for the garnish below.
1 tsp ground ginger
Salt to taste
Fresh round white pepper to taste

For Garnish:
Cream fraiche or sour cream
Toasted pumpkin seeds or
Toasted hazelnuts
Maybe some orange zest

Squashes other than pumpkin may be used (butternut or hubbard or buttercup) with good results.  Cut up your pumpkin into large pieces, maybe 4 or 5,  and scoop out the seeds and stringy portion. Place on a cookie sheet with sides, and put a cup or so of water on the tray, cover with foil and cook at 350° until tender but still holds its shape.  Remove from oven.

In a large heavy saucepan, melt your butter over medium high heat.  Add onion and sauté till tender about 8 minutes.  Scoop out the pumpkin from the shell and add to the pot along with the chicken stock or broth.  Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer until squash is very tender, about 30 minutes.

We use a Hamilton Hand Blender right in the pot and beat until smooth. (If you don’t have a hand blender, transfer to a blender in batches and blend.) Add cream, orange juice and spices.  Place over medium heat until hot, but don’t boil.  Serves 6.

 TIP:  If you want to toast the pumpkin seeds, you could spend all day trying to get the stringy orange stuff off. Instead place a half a cup in a colander and run cool water over them.  It will separate the seeds from the orange stuff and you can pick the orange stringy stuff right out.  Place the seeds on a cookie sheet with sides.  Sprinkle generously with salt and bake in a 300°  oven till crisp.  Check every 10 minutes and stir with a spatula.  Don’t worry about drying the seeds before placing them in the oven, the moisture helps.

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Spinach Mushroom Frittata

1 T olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
3 oz fresh spinach
4-6 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1- 10 oz can mild diced tomatoes & green chilies, drained, I use Rotel
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
12 large eggs beaten
1/2 –3/4 cup feta cheese crumbled

This will serve 4 to 6 people depending on what else you are serving with it.  You can increase it to 16 eggs for 6 to 8 people and leave the other ingredient the same quantities.  The original recipe called for herb and garlic feta cheese, I’ve used plain and it seemed all right.

Saute garlic in olive oil, 30 seconds; add spinach for 1-2 minutes till wilted.  Add mushrooms for another 2 minutes then add tomatoes and stir.  Beat the eggs and salt and pepper together and add to frying pan.  Semi-cook pulling away from sides and bottoms of pan occasionally.  When ¾ set, place in a 350 oven for 10-20 minutes till puffy!

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Sausage Tomatoes Eggs Cheese Crouton Casserole

1 pound bulk pork sausage
1 pound bulk Italian Sausage
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 C sliced fresh mushrooms
½ C chopped onion
2 ½ C onion and garlic croutons
8 eggs
1 ½ C milk or half and half
1 C (4oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 C (4oz) shredded cheddar cheese
4 Roma Tomatoes, thinly sliced
½ C grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

In a large skillet, cook both sausages until meat is browned.  Drain well in a colander, pressing on it with paper towels.  Saute onion and green pepper.  Spray a 9X13 glass casserole dish.  Place croutons in bottom of pan.  Top with onion and green pepper mixture.  Place ½ the meat on top of the green pepper-onion.  Saute the mushrooms briefly in the skillet and place on top of the meat mixture in the casserole.  Top with remaining meat.  Beat eggs with milk or half and half and pour on top.  Cover with saran wrap and let sit 8 hours or overnight in the fridge.

Remove from fridge 30 minutes before baking.  Place in a 300 oven for 1 hour.  Remove and sprinkle cheddar cheese on top, then the mozzarella.  Spread tomatoes on top of that and lastly the Romano cheese.  If you have some fresh chives sprinkle a few of those on top.  Put back in the oven for about 20 minutes.  When you remove it from the oven let it stand for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.  Yield: 10-12 servings

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2011 Award Winning Blueberry Almond Coffee Cake

For the Filling:
6 oz of almond paste, that has been frozen
2 C of blueberries
1 T flour
the zest from 2 lemons

For the Cake Batter:
2 C all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
¼ t salt
1 ½ sticks butter (12T) room temperature
1 ¼ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 t vanilla extract
1 C sour cream
2 T powder sugar for dusting cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray and flour a 10” bundt pan.  Put the almond paste in the freezer.  Mix the blueberries with 1 T of flour and the lemon zest and put to one side.  Beat together the butter and sugar till smooth.  Add eggs one at a time and while scrapping down the bowl beat till light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and beat.  Sift the 2 C of flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together, then alternate between adding and mixing in the dry ingredients and the sour cream.  (End with the flour.)  Spoon 1/3 of the batter into to the bundt pan.  Layer ½ of the almond paste by grating it onto the batter, then ½ of the blueberry mix.  Add another 1/3 layer of batter, then the rest of the almond paste and blueberries.  Finish with last 1/3 of batter.  Bake for around an hour, test with a toothpick.  Cool for about 20 minutes, then flip onto a plate and dust with powder sugar. 

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In a saucepan, sauté onion in butter until tender.  Stir in tomatoes, soup, milk, sugar, basil, paprika and garlic powder.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir in cream cheese until melted.  Yield about 2 quarts.

This is my favorite tomato soup recipe.  Mom doesn’t put the sugar in (although I think it was nice!) and when it calls for 2 cans of chopped tomatoes we use 4 to 5+ cups of fresh- diced tomatoes from the garden.  When we get a surplus of tomatoes we used to freeze them whole, but now I dice 5 cups, put them in a baggie and freeze them.  Then in the middle of the winter we pull them out and make a batch.  You can make the soup ahead of time and freeze the soup also.  Marginally it is as good as eating it freshly made.  Kathy 865-448-3070

Cades Cove Preservation Society

The Cades Cove Preservation Association is celebrating their 10th anniversary with a day long celebration at the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend, TN, on Saturday October 22nd, from 10am to 4pm.  The featured speaker is Dwight McCarter, a retired ranger from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Mountain Folk Reunion and Mountain Gap are providing the music.  There will be door prizes every hour, horse and buggy rides, and old time toy demonstrations and games for the kids.  You can get your photo taken with Cades Cove pioneers.  For more information, contact Stephen Weber at sgw9309@earthlink.net .

The mission of the Cades Cove Preservation Association (CCPA) is to help preserve the heritage of Cades Cove located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The majority of the members are descendants of the Cove and many were born and lived there as children.  There are others, like Kathy and Dave Rudd, who have joined out of a love for the Cove. Non-natives, such as the Rudds, Kathy says, as she agreed to be interviewed, have been warmly embraced by those who have deep roots in the community.  It’s an enjoyable group of those who work to preserve both their history and some of the early history of our nation.

A One on One Tour of the Thompson Brown House

Members participate in several events throughout the year to educate the public on the Cove’s history and share their experiences and memories of living there.  Some members have published books. In addition to monthly meetings, they also have several ongoing projects during the year, such as maintaining the cemeteries, clearing trails to old home sites, etc. One project, in the summer of 2010, was cleaning up the Caughron barn that was destroyed by winds late last year to salvage the materials for the Park to use in restoring the other buildings of the Cove.

In Maryville, is the Thompson Brown House that houses many Cove artifacts and is staffed by CCPA members.  My nephew and I stopped there recently and were warmly greeted by a volunteer who gave Kane a behind the scenes tour.  Currently older descendants of the Cove are being interviewed, videotaped and recorded as a way to preserve their stories.  My hat is off to those volunteering their time.

PS, I read one of Dwight McCarter's books, Lost, several years ago.  Since then I have never hiked without a whistle.  Furthermore, my guests hike with whistles.  Period.  If you are too macho to wear a whistle, I send you to Pigeon Forge to shop instead of giving you an overview and map of trails in the Park. After a day in Pigeon Forge, you will happily wear a whistle.  Over time,  I have populated the entire eastern seaboard with at least a gross of Wal-Mart whistles that my guests have taken home in their glove boxes,  dreaming of orange and yellow leaves against the blue skies, rivers and mountains of the Smokies.  Blessings, mizkathleen@ Gracehill Bed and Breakfast

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Smoky Mountain Highland Games

A year ago I wrote about the Gatlinburg Scottish Festival held in Gatlinburg.  For many reasons including space, they moved this year to Maryville College, re-branded themselves as the Smoky Mountain Highland Games, and there is no looking back.  Attendance last year was between 2,500-2,700; celebrating this year, for the 30^th annual time, the Maryville, TN inaugural event had over 6,000 in attendance.

The Daily Times, our local paper, certainly gave it a whopping amount of space.  Their calendar of events, headline and side stories may have helped create interest, but certainly the additional space and 2 to 3 times the tent space helped.  Of course, what better place than Maryville College, home of the “Fighting Scots?” One person was overheard saying it was redundant to call a Scot a Fighting Scot!

30th Annual Games held for the 1st time at Maryville College, Home of the Fighting Scots

This year’s honored guest was Lord Hugh Montgomerie, a chieftain of his clan and heir to his father the 18^th Earl of Eglinton and 6^th Earl of Winton!  Finding out more about your own clan is an important part of the festival but you certainly, don’t have to be Scottish to partake of the festivities.  Food: Scottish eggs, meat pies and haggis to name a few of the traditional offerings, were almost as popular as the beer tent.  For the activities, it really helps to go with the Times pre-printed schedule.  Friday kicked off with the Knoxville Pipes and Drums parade and a reception at the Clayton Center.  Saturday 8am-8pm and Sunday 8:30pm to 5pm was nonstop competitive events, music, shopping and demonstrations.  mizkathleen@ Gracehill Bed and Breakfast

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Father and Son Hobby

Most beekeepers are in it for the honey, although others maintain colonies of bees to pollinate crops, or for the beeswax, propolis, pollen or royal jelly.  My brother Mike and his son Kane started beekeeping four years ago, primarily for the pollen and propolis, and secondarily for the honey.

I talked to my nephew first.  To quote an eight year old, he likes beekeeping.  Opening the hive is cool.  They fly and crawl all over you.  I asked him if he wore protective clothing?  He said yes, an astronaut’s suit!  Can you describe it?  Hat with a screen, gloves, long socks, boots and an all white suit.  I asked him if he knew why the suit was white? He didn’t know. (I had spent an hour reading Wikipedi before calling him.)  I told him that natural predators of beehives were bears and skunks that were black and furry, so the suit by being white and slick, was as different as we could make it. So his mother may call him a skunk, but the bees could tell that he really wasn’t one.  He was not impressed.  I asked him what else he did. He said he pulled the tray out the bottom and checked the pollen.  He said it was NOT COOL if there were beetles in the pollen cause they eat it, so his dad would clean it out.  I asked him what he did with the pollen and he said he ate it, which he thinks is gross, but his dad thinks is good for him.  Other than hearing what colors their pollen was, the fact that the queen bee had a blue dot on her, and honey was good on bread, bagels, and by itself, I had pretty well sucked this hive dry.

On to my brother. He has one hive.  He says pollen is one of nature’s whole foods in and of itself.  Says you could live a good while just on pollen.  It has a complete string of vitamins and amino acids.  He said it also acclimates you to a lot of pollen allergies in the area.  He also collects the propolis, which is a tree resin the bees use to sterilize and seal off the hive.  Mike says you can make an extract with it by diluting it in pure grain alcohol, and it is good to use on canker sores, sealing wounds, etc.  He bottles the honey and shares with family and friends and our Smoky Mountain Bed and Breakfast, praise be!

In Pursuit of a Little Honey for Breakfast

So Auntie Kathy here would have to say, I’m leaning with my nephew.  I like the honey the best.  Mom makes a loaf of fresh baked bread and I pop a slice in the toaster, slather on some butter and honey and feel like the Queen Bee.  I think I could live a good while just on that, and I wouldn’t be inclined to kill the male drones when cold weather approaches!  Who else is there, other than the male drones, to put up the Christmas lights?  mizkathleen@ Gracehill Bed and Breakfast

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The day started at 7AM at Tremont with a walk lead by retired NPS Ranger Carey Jones featuring "Birds of the Smokies." Afternoon wildflower rambles and hikes were on Chestnut Top Trail ("What's in Bloom") and Spruce Flats Falls ("Wildflowers on Rocks").

The two most heavily attended classes were held at the Visitor Center. A 9AM lecture by Dr. Patricia Cox of TVA Natural Heritage on "Spring Flowers and Ferns of the Smokies" had an attendance of about 40 along with the 10:30AM lecture by NPS Ranger Adrian Mayor on "Wildflowers Pollinators- Bees and More." Afternoon lectures were on "Exotic and Invasive Plants" and a "Blount Friendly Landscaping Gardening Class." Perfect weather for the perfect Townsend style festival! mizkathleen@ Gracehill Bed and Breakfast

Katie Gamble with Overhill Gardens, Vonore, TN

Susan Chattin with The Lily Barn, Townsend, TN

Sara Berry owner of Trillium Cove Home and Garden, Townsend, TN

Lemon Raspberry Streusel Muffins

Batter:

1/2 C Butter, softened
1 C sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp lemon extract
zest from one lemon
½ C half and half (milk may be substituted)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
2 C flour or
2 C fresh or frozen raspberries

1/2 batch of Gluten Free Lemon Raspberry Streusel Muffins

Streusel Topping:

1/3 C Sugar
1/4 C All Purpose Flour
2 T Butter

Cream with an electric mixer butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs.  Then add lemon extract, zest, and half and half.  Mix in baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Briefly beat in flour just until mixed.  Hand fold in raspberries.

Use regular size muffin tins.  You can spray the tin and put batter directly into the tin or spray the top area of the tin and use paper lined cups for the wells (The latter works the best.)  Fill cups so they are crowned a little over the top, makes 11 good size muffins. Mix the sugar and flour together for the streusel topping, then cut in butter to make crumbles.  Divide mixture between the 11 muffins and sprinkle on top.  Bake at 375 degrees F for about 40-45  minutes.  Test with a toothpick.  Serve hot with butter.

For gluten free, I  use McArthur Gluten Free Flour.  You might have to add an additional 1/4 cup flour to the 2 cups of flour to thicken it up for  a whole batch.  What is even better, use the regular amount of flour and add 1  teaspoon of Xanthan Gum.  It is a thickener.  You can find it in the specialty foods area of your grocery store.  They turned out wonderful using this.   Gluten free has a tendency to be crumbly even more so if you are adding more flour.  This took care of that and if you hadn't told me they were gluten free, I wouldn't have been able to tell!

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