Adventures in Paradise

In between two of our assignments as Professional Innsitters we got to spend some time at the Paradise Inn on Mt Rainer as TayCee and Grandad with our favorite little travel buddy.

The Paradise Inn is one of those classic old lodges built in the 20's filled with all sorts of charming rustic touches such as a large lobby with two fireplaces and hand painted floral parchment lanterns. It also has a lovely dinning room where we ate and this enchanting mailbox where we mailed a post card to Great Grandma [Nana].

                                                                                                     

  We spent the night at the Paradise Inn and of course someone needed Grandad to read a bed time story. We had such fun!








 In the morning we got to hike the "paradise trail" which meanders around the base of Mt Rainier through old growth trees and  fields of wildflowers. Our little Grandbunny really likes to go hiking - as long as Grandad does the work! She's a true north-westerner. Even a little rain did not bother her. When we ran into some snow on the ground she said "TayCee pick me some snow" and then she carried her little snowball till it melted. Too cute!

We actually took three small "hikes" with the whole family and had a great adventure in Paradise!






                 

                                                  Where's your favorite hiking trail?

Farm to Table

 

"Farm to Table" is an expression you hear a lot about these days - as Professional Innsitters we get to do farm to table often. It's especially easy in the summer when all the local fruit is ripe. So, one of the first things we do when we get to a new job is to go check and see what is fresh at the nearest fruit stand. Look at these berries! We can walk from our B&B to see the ladies who pick these for us!

Because it is summer and because you are my favorite readers, I will share some of my "oh so easy" farm to table recipes. On the right is my "Berries Romanoff ". Too easy - just mix sour cream with brown sugar till it is sweet enough for you, let it sit overnight and then stir and pour over fresh berries!


This is a stuffed croissant baked like french toast and covered with fresh strawberries and whipped cream - so rich, so tasty! Just slice a really big croissant, spread cream cheese in the middle, soak in french toast batter and bake at 375 for 15 minutes, flipping once.

Shhhh- don't tell anybody how easy this is, ok?

Check out these peaches - yea, the guy holding them looks pretty good too, right??

I won't share the guy but I will share a few easy tips for getting peaches from farm to table....












"Peach Melba" is just a fancy way of saying sliced peaches with whipped cream, raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries.

As with any really fresh fruit, you need to go from farm to table pretty quickly. But here is thing you can do if your peaches get too ripe.
K.C.'s Quick Peach Muffins: make any muffin batter you like but make it a little dryer than normal, hold a really ripe peach over the bowl and slice off chunks into the batter so that the juice also drips into the bowl. Then add some ginger and cinnamon and bake. Tasty farm to table Peach Muffins!



                             
                                        Where is your favorite place to go for "Farm to Table" ?