This just in...Mom is in town for a visit - Yay!
Carol and Bernadine have been busy making and preserving "Corn Relish" and it is fabulous. Next they're making a strawberry pie for the weekend AND fudge!
More flooding on the Galena River. We had 14" of rain in the past 24 hours and the river has swelled further than we have seen in the 11 years we've been here. Photo ops everywhere! Pictures coming soon!
Did you know that "relish" is the French word for "salsa" which translates to "sauce". That was free!
These are some of the flowers from the Stillman Inn Gardens. Teddy Bear Sunflower and Zinnia's. They are really beautiful - come see!
815 777-0557 Dave & Berandine
Well, she is finally here....
Introducing our newest granddaughter "Liliana Rae", excuse me that would be "Princess Liliana Rae"! Born 7/14/11 at 7lbs14oz, isn't that cool!
Thank you to all of our guests who so graciously accommodated our weird schedule during this time. We may have been late for a couple of check-ins but we never missed a breakfast!
To Celebrate her arrival we made Oatmeal Cookies! Enjoy!
Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup margarine, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup raisins (or use butterscotch or chocolate chips instead)
1 cup black walnuts, coarsely ground or pecans
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3 cups rolled oats
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Sift and add to the egg mixture above. Stir well
Grind the raisins up with 1 tsp of sugar until they are small pieces. Stir in oats, nuts, raising and mix well, drop by tablespoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes or until light brown. Cool and remove to wire rack.
When cool, store in airtight container!
We here at the Stillman Inn have mastered "White Peach Leavender Jam". We put this on everything from toast to pancakes and oatmeal. We've also discovered the huge and great Farmers Market in Dubuque on Saturday Mornings. Lots of great produce, flowers and crafts but nothing can beat the Amish made Pumpkin Bread.
We also dabbled in fudge again this weekend for the guests. It was gone in no time!
White Peach Lavender Jam
2 Tbsp Dried lavender flowers or lavender extract
1/2 cup boiling water
4 cups fine chopped white peaches (8-9 medium)
2 Tbsp Lemon juice
6 cups granulated sugar
1 Pack liquid fruit pectin
- Place lavendar flowers in a small bowl. Pour boiling water over flowers and steep 20 minutes. Strain and discard flowers. OR use 1 tsp lavender extract in 1/2 cup water.
- Combine lavender water, peaches, lemon juice and sugar in very large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a full boil over high heat and boil hard for 2 minutes. Stir in liquid pectin and boil 1 more minute. Remove from heat, skim off foam.
- Ladle into prepared jars and process for 10 minutes.
- Prepared jars means they have been boiled/sterilized. Check out a book on canning for details.
More great news - our second granddaughter is due tomorrow so she will be with us soon. Hopefully we will be free to both be there. If it's in the morning we plan on sending our guests to Otto's for breakfast! Hope they don't mind!
Enjoyed two great Garden Tours this weekend. Saturday was in Galena and Sunday was in Dubuque. Both were fabulous. If you have a GPS it's even more fun!!! Don't miss it next year. Sunday night we enjoyed the Drum & Bugle Corps Competition in Dubuque as well. What a busy weekend!
Two July Specials:
- Purchase a 1/2 pint of White Peach Lavender Jam and receive a complimentary hand knit cotton dish cloth
- Stay three midweek nights at regular price and receive a bottle of wine for each night you stay!
Neither of these specials can be combined with any other special we may have going on!
Fall is coming so make your reservations soon. This is our busiest time so if you want to stay and in a specific room you can't book too soon now! The colors are wonderful around here and the big Craft Fair is the second weekend in October. This, and all weekends in October require a three night stay. I'm tellin' you it's busy and fun!
Bernadine & Dave
