It just doesn’t feel right if there’s not some food at the Fourth of July picnic that is colored red, white and blue. And all the better if it is something that wouldn’t normally come that way. And even better yet if Mexican food could be incorporated in there somehow. I’m not sure why I said that but don’t warm, homemade tortillas sounds scrumptious even so?
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 cup water (a little more if needed)
Place dry ingredients and shortening into a bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut the shortening into the dry ingredients until pieces become about the size of peas. Use fingers to help if needed.
Add water until it becomes a soft dough.
Separate dough into three balls. Work red food coloring into one of the balls and blue into another. Break each color into about 4 dough balls.
Rolls dough balls into about 10 inch thin tortillas. Remove excess flour from each tortilla as well as possible.
Cook in a non-stick pan on medium heat just until each side is done – this won’t take long if you rolled them out thinly.
Stack as you cook.
Roll with sandwich fillings or perhaps barbecued meat & sauces or just veggies. I’m feeling so patriotic. And Mexican. All rolled into one.
I cannot help myself. I have declare this summer the summer of drunken triple berry everything. It will be a very good summer.
Enter stage left… or stage right… or does it even really matter which side of the stage they enter from? The drunken-triple-berry-topped cream-cheese-filled pancakes.
DRUNKEN TRIPLE BERRY TOPPING:
4 cups mixed fresh berries
2 cups sugar
Juice from 1/2 fresh lemon
1/2 cup bourbon (or water)
4 tablespoons cornstarch
Place berries in a medium bowl. If using strawberries, cut them into small pieces. This time I used strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. My favorite to mix in though is normally blackberries. They are so purpley and divine.
Add sugar, lemon juice and bourbon.
Give a stir and allow to sit for at least a half an hour.
After berries have had time to rest, place in a sauce pan.
While cold, stir in cornstarch until well-mixed.
Turn onto medium high heat while continually stirring. Watch for filling to boil and keep stirring until thickened. Keep warm and serve warm.
Oh momma.
Make a stack of pancakes. Or two.
A double batch of these pancakes will make enough to match the cream cheese and berry topping recipes and will feed about 6-7 people. Or, you know, less people and more food – depending on who you’re feeding. Either way, big eaters and small will be happy.
PANCAKE INGREDIENTS:
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Keep pancakes warm on a baking sheet in 170F oven. Cover well with foil while finishing making the pancakes to prevent them from drying out.
Sometimes you just need to make something so old-fashioned that it screams joy. And bourbon. And berries. Start planning a picnic today just so you can make this. For my gluten-free girlfriends (aka my GF GFs), there are substitutes listed just for you. Because I love you.
Of course, I’m not sure how you hold yourselves together without gluten, but I figure the bourbon must help with that.
COFFEECAKE INGREDIENTS:
1 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. pure vanilla
1 t. salt
1 t. baking powder
2 c. cake flour (GF = 1 1/2 cups King Arthur GF Multi-Purpose Flour + 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill Almond Meal/Flour + 2 teaspoons xanthan gum)
1 1/2 c. sour cream
4 cups mixed fresh berries
2 cups sugar
Juice from 1/2 fresh lemon
1 cup bourbon
4 tablespoons cornstarch
Place berries in a medium bowl. If using strawberries, cut them into small pieces. This time I used strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. My favorite to mix in though is normally blackberries. They are so purpley and divine.
Add sugar, lemon juice and bourbon.
Give a stir and allow to sit for at least a half an hour.
Mix cake and place in a cheesecake pan coated with baking spray.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
After berries have had time to rest, place in a sauce pan.
While cold, stir in cornstarch until well-mixed.
Turn onto medium high heat while continually stirring. Watch for filling to boil and keep stirring until thickened. Remove from heat.
Pour filling over cake mixture and gently spread over the whole cake. Place a pan under cake when baking to prevent dripping messes.
This coffeecake can be served upside-down or right-side-up. This time I made mine upside-down but if you’d like to serve it right-side-up, add streusel to the top after about 30 minutes into baking time.
STREUSEL INGREDIENTS:
(optional)
1/2 stick butter (cut into small pieces)
3/4 cup flour (GF = 1/2 cup King Arthur GF Multi-Purpose Flour + 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill Almond Meal/Flour)
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 small egg
To make streusel, place ingredients into food processor and pulse until they are well combined but don’t let the crumbles get bigger than about the size of peas. Watch closely. If you have leftovers, you can store them in a Ziploc in the freezer for next time.
Bake until a fork poked into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Bake time is about one hour.
After removing cake from oven, allow it to set for a few hours (or make the day before and set overnight). When cooled, remove the pan carefully.
Frost. Just because.
FROSTING INGREDIENTS:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 – 2 tablespoons water
Mix together until it is the consistency you would like and there are no lumps.
We are so honored to have been voted the best B&B in the Northwest for three years in a row and featured on Evening Magazine in May 2012. Deanna was thrilled to represent the Girl Scouts of Western Washington with her award winning Frozen Lemonade Tarts on New Day Northwest in March. Videos of each segment are below.
In October 2012 The Old Hen was featured as the season finale episode on My Family Recipe Rocks with Joey Fatone. The episode has since received rave reviews from the show’s fans.
The episode featuring Morauski will air Oct. 27 as the season finale for “My Home Recipe Rocks”… “It went fantastic,” Martin said of Morauski’s appearance. “She was absolutely incredible. She was one of our top shows of the year. I believe she’s going to have us ending up with a bang here.”
Featured on Tasty Kitchen, NW Best Escapes Winner 2010, 2011, 2012 and Best of 425 Winner 2012
Tucked in between the world-famous Snoqualmie Falls and Snoqualmie Pass and just one easy mile from I-90 is The Old Hen Bed and Breakfast.The Old Hen is a newly built inn that possesses the old-fashioned, elegant country beauty that you’ll love.
How can I know that The Old Hen isthe place to stay? Here’s what our guests have said:
Looking for some exciting outdoor adventures? We are also just minutes away from great hiking trails, canoeing on the Snoqualmie River, and winter activities like cross-country and downhill skiing, inner tubing, sledding, and snowshoeing.
We go above and beyond to provide you with comfortable lodging in a stylish yet warm and up-to-date atmosphere, a daily scrumptious brunch, and thought-provoking, fun conversation. Make this your year to visit!
I love bran muffins with every fiber of my being. Even more than bran muffins, though, I love pecan glazed bran muffins. They are easy to make and a good-for-you breakfast treat that tastes like dessert.
Just place all muffin ingredients in mixing bowl. Preheat oven to 400F.
BRAN MUFFIN INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 1/2 cups oat bran
1/2 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cardamom
2 eggs
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup milk
Mix until well combined. Set aside while working on the pecan glaze topping.
PECAN GLAZE INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup (one stick) melted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
Place all pecan glaze ingredients in a medium bowl and give a few stirs.
Cover muffin tins with cooking spray (even on the top of the pan) and then divide pecan glaze between 12 muffin cups. Give glaze a stir in one muffin cup so that it coats the sides as much as possible then fill with a scoop of bran muffin batter. Repeat until all 12 muffins are ready to go in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes or until muffins are done with a baking sheet on rack under muffin tins to catch possible drips of glaze.
When hot out of the oven, carefully turn muffins upside-down on to a clean baking sheet.
Cute served with a pretty paper doily underneath.
Nutty and super sweet on the outside. Good for you on the inside. The kind of person I long to be. She is a saucy, well-balanced little muffin.
Deanna’s love for baking and cooking began as she sat upon a baker’s stool as a little girl. Her love for people grew in the midst of church potlucks. She expresses her loves today creatively through speaking, writing for her foodie blog as well as hosting guests, including celebrities, at her award-winning B&B in Snoqualmie Valley, Washington.
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