Sunday Breakfast

Today's breakfast: fresh sourdough rolls hot out of the oven, with choice of butter, blackberry-basil or strawberry-tarragon jam (made with locally grown ingredients!); 

Honey-Raspberry-Cornmeal Muffins made using our own duck eggs, red & golden raspberries, and Oaxacan green corn flour (homegrown & hand-ground by yours truly!); followed by individual cantaloupe cups with chocolate mint & blueberries!

And For the Grand Finale!

Today's breakfast: fresh sourdough rolls hot out of the oven, with choice of butter, blackberry-basil or strawberry-tarragon jam (made with locally grown ingredients!); Individual peach "boats" filled with fresh golden & red raspberries, dribbled with blueberry-lavender-lemon verbena jam, and garnished with a borage flower; ending with our signature Cherry-Fennel Granola over whole milk yogurt. A hearty & healthy breakfast, guaranteed to get you through your busy day!

Taste of Summer

Nothing says summer in our house like cold zucchini soup with basil and wild purslane!  YUM!!

Terrific Tuesday Breakfast!

Today's breakfast: fresh sourdough rolls hot out of the oven, with choice of butter, blackberry-basil or strawberry-tarragon jam (made with locally grown ingredients!); Honey-Raspberry-Cornmeal Muffins made using our own duck eggs, red & golden raspberries, and Oaxacan green corn flour (homegrown & hand-ground by yours truly!); 

Followed by individual cantaloupe cups with chocolate mint & blueberries!

Blueberries, Apples, Quinoa - Oh my!

 

Today's breakfast: fresh sourdough rolls hot out of the oven, with choice of butter, blackberry-basil or strawberry-tarragon jam (made with locally grown ingredients!); Healthy Blueberry-Lemon Muffins topped with organic apricot jam & a sprig of lemon balm; and finally, Lemony Quinoa with Maple- & Cinnamon-Sauteed Apples!

Today's Breakfast Lesson: Eat Your Weeds (Because They Are Very Tasty!)

Today's breakfast: fresh sourdough rolls hot out of the oven, with choice of butter, blackberry-basil or strawberry-tarragon jam (made with locally grown ingredients!); farm fresh scrambled eggs with brown butter-fried sage & chives; maple-ginger waffles with yellow dock seed flour (sustainably harvested from our pastures - where it grows wild - and painstakingly cleaned/winnowed/ground by yours truly!  Yellow Dock is related to buckwheat, and the seed  flour makes for excellent buckwheat-like pancakes and waffles!), drizzled in maple syrup, and decorated with blueberries, boysenberries, & mint!

What's For Breakfast?

"Who wants a Peach Boat?!" 

 

I do!  I do!!

Today's guest breakfast: fresh sourdough rolls hot out of the oven, with choice of butter, blackberry-basil or strawberry-tarragon jam (made with locally grown ingredients!); Individual peach "boats" filled with fresh golden & red raspberries, dribbled with blueberry-lavender-lemon verbena jam, and garnished with a borage flower; ending with our signature Cherry-Fennel Granola over whole milk yogurt. A hearty & healthy breakfast, guaranteed to get you through your busy day!

 

Not only do you get a great breakfast here, but you get it served in a vintage dress and a sunny smile!

 

Goodbye, Cruel World!

And so it begins: my 15-day marathon stretch of B&B guest insanity!  I'm so excited (and equally terrified)!  I can only hope that the remainder of the month/summer ends up being this successful!  But needless to say, I am going to be one busy lady...

There is a 6-night reservation this month that is truly going to test the limits of my breakfast menu planning.  I actually adore this sort of challenge, as it forces me to come up with new & exciting menu ideas (this is how the delicious "Peach Boats" came about).

July begins the Month of Plenty in the garden - the raspberries and boysenberries are ripening, the summer vegetables are finally starting to come online.  I am excited to be able to provide such tasty breakfast items as: Raspberry-Cornmeal Muffins made with our own homegrown & handground Oaxacan green cornmeal and golden raspberries out of the garden, as well as Maple-Ginger Waffles made using our sustainably-harvested (and painstakingly collected, winnowed, cleaned, & ground) Yellow Dock Seed flour.

The unfortunate downside to the B&B being so busy is that the weeding of the garden/property suffers.  That being said, I have never been big on weed-control in the garden, mainly because I love wild edibles.  Our pastures are filled with Yellow Dock, English Plantain, Dandelion, Purslane, Lamb's Quarters, St John's Wort, Chamomile, etc.  As you can see, with so many useful weeds growing, why bother pulling them all?  We are a no-spray property, so the best I can do (when I have time) is use shredded newspaper/straw mulch, and make sure that the veggies don't get choked out by the weeds when they are small.  After that, I pretty much leave things alone.  The bright side is that many "weeds" actually make good companion plants, and I have NEVER had a problem with a decreased harvest!

See you in two weeks!

Toe the Line!

Well, my Ebay-win arrived yesterday!  And wow, talk about color!  This is like an acid-trip in vintage hat form...I LOVE IT!  Now to find or make an appropriately matching outfit!  *grin*

 

Crazy-Wild 1940s Pink Felt & Chartreuse Feathers Tilt Hat.  Label: "Saks Fifth Ave."  Netting was completely torn/in tatters, and I removed it after the pictures.

Toeing the line between Awesomeness and Ridiculousness - just the way I like it!
(Who says I can't pull off pink & chartreuse!)

Wine for a Date

I have been complaining to Ryan that we have not gone on an actual "date" in a while (and the previous weekend getaway trip doesn't count!).  We are both firm believers that you should continue to date your spouse after marriage, and we have also found that if we do not make time to go out regularly on dates, our relationship suffers.  Like everything else, relationships take a little work!  *grin*

There has recently opened up a lovely new vineyard/cafe just outside of Jacksonville called "DANCIN."  There, you can drink a glass of their lovely Pinot Noir while munching on pizza (or other goodies) fresh from their kitchen!  There is a picturesque koi pond that you can sit next to outside, and enjoy the beautiful views of the valley and mountains beyond!  

This sounded like the perfect place for a date!  So, we wandered over there yesterday afternoon, did a little wine tasting, ordered a pizza, and then bought a bottle of Malbec and relocated to the outdoor patio.  A mutual friend of ours joined us in our drinking, and the pictures are all taken by/courtesy of her (thank you, Lady H!).  We - in typical fashion - brought our camera and then forgot to use it.

DANCIN is a fabulous vineyard, and I am excited to see how they and their wines develop over time.  For more information, you can visit their website: http://dancinvineyards.com

To My Fellow "Makeshift Milliners"

If, like me, you cannot afford (or find!) the perfect 1930s/1940s fedora crown block, why not try this idea?:

A cardboard spool of yarn!

Just cover the spool in plastic wrap, stretch the felt over it, then shape as desired!  The hat I am currently working on here is not finished (it's drying right now), and I am fashioning it after this lovely little chapeau owned by Julie of Fab Gabs.  (Talk about hat envy!!)

Tag Along Birdie!

This was another "birthday hat" that I really just ended up winning (cheaply) by default, since no one else bid on it.  The seller's pictures weren't that great, so I wasn't expecting too much.  However, when the hat arrived, I fell instantly in love!  It's the most adorable 1940s faux bird felt tilt hat, but I just love the jaunty angle of the brim!  Very spunky and cute and oh-so-me!  

And the peek-a-boo birdie hitching a ride on the side of the crown cracks me up.  

I Just Can't Do This Monogamy Thing...

 But Frankie, I will ALWAYS come back to you, Baby!

My other birthday-gift-to-myself Frank Palma Original hat!  Sorry it has taken so long to post pictures of all of these amazing hats...when summer hits, life gets crazy around here!

This is probably one of the wildest hats I own (I love it!).  It's also one of the tallest, which is why it was difficult to get a picture of it on my own.  I may have to recruit my husband at a later date to snap some better pictures, but for now, here ya go!

 

This particular Frank Palma is an open-crown black felt tilt hat.  The crown sides are decorated with black ostrich feathers, and there is one large curled ostrich feather that hangs over the side (I had to reattach this with a few well-placed stitches when I received the hat, as it had fallen off).  In front (visible in the picture above) there are two tan-colored faux birdies peeking out!

History Repeats Itself

Picture is a little blurry, but how is this for a wonderful bit of history!: I am holding my 1946 Vogue ad for a Frank Palma hat, and wearing the exact hat that is in the advertisement! The only big difference between the two is that my actual hat has the bird wings trimmed, whereas the ones in the ad are full length. Still, how cool!!

Escape!

Last weekend was our 6-year wedding anniversary!  Hard to believe that time has flown by so quickly...Anyhow, we figured that reaching the six year mark of wedded bliss (which is more than many other couples make, and we aren't even 30 years old yet!) constituted some sort of celebration.  Since our last "vacation" (a 3-day kamikaze getaway to the coast) was TWO YEARS ago (and no, we have not left the farm since then), we thought a weekend trip was in order.  We had an awesome young couple willing to farm-sit for free, so we booked ourselves a night at a secluded cabin along the Rogue River, and spent the weekend hiking and fishing!  It was FABULOUS!  No, we didn't catch any fishies (though we had a bite or two), but we did hike the Rogue River Trail to the Whiskey Creek historic cabin (I SOOOO want to live there!  Talk about my perfect dream house!), fished in the Wild & Scenic section of the Rogue River, and had a romantic 4-course dinner overlooking the river (while watching beaver and muskrats swim about, ospreys diving for fish, and fish leap out of the water for bugs).  It was absolutely amazing overall, and I was sad to go home on Sunday!

 

 

 Looking down at the view from the bridge where the Grave Creek Trailhead begins (i.e. the beginning of the Rogue River Trail):

The first mile or so of the hike is over very rocky terrain with quite a long drop down should you fall.  Not for the faint of heart!

 

The SPECTACULAR views make it all worthwhile!

 

This is my "Hurry up and take the damn picture!" face

King of the World!!  WHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Whiskey Creek Campground was BEAUTIFUL!  Oh, it was such a shame we left our fishing poles back at the car...would have LOVED to have done a little casting off of the shore...sigh...

The historic Whiskey Creek Cabin site - where I would happily live for the rest of my life!  Whiskey Creek's waters are ice cold and crystal clear, and there are trout in the stream.  

After you cross over a lovely wooden bridge, there is a brief walk to the cabin site.

 

The cabin is located in a beautiful little meadow

I call this my "Wall of Temptation"

Look at how thick those floor boards are!!!  WOW!

Seriously, can I please just live here??!

  

View off of the deck while we ate our 4-course dinner and watched beaver, muskrat, fish, and osprey.  BEAUTIFUL!