Recipes from Home: Ready for the holidays

By Jo Moore of the High Country Inn

I have entertained at the High Country Inn for several years now with High Teas, and as a middle course served homemade scones with “clotted cream,” but have never enjoyed the messy hands that result from having to handle the scone dough.

Every recipe I have ever run across has called for cold butter, cut into tiny cubes, and mixed into the flour mixture until the butter is the size of peas.

Well, just this last week, on the spur of the moment, I decided to try to get some scones made in the hour I had before going to a morning meeting. In my hurry, before I knew it, I had softened butter and creamed it with the sugar before I realized with a jolt that I wasn’t on the road to making scones at all! So I gave that idea up and went to my meeting empty-handed, after calling myself several derogatory names (including “stupid”).

Later that day I decided to just go ahead and see if I could salvage what I had started, even if it meant wasting two sticks of expensive butter! After thinking a bit, this is what I did. I went ahead and added the bowl of mixed dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, turned the mixer on low and blended it just until the whole mixture was crumbly. I then added the liquid ingredients, and it all came together, and could be turned out onto my board without being sticky.

I couldn’t believe my good luck, and proceeded with getting the scones into the oven. The finished product was better than any I had ever made before. Thinking it might just be a fluke, the next day I decided to try the same method with two different recipes, and all turned out just the same! So I became anxious to share my “new” technique. Below is my recipe for pumpkin scones, ideal for serving for Thanksgiving breakfast, or any time you feel like a delicious scone! They also freeze wonderfully to thaw and reheat in the microwave.

Next week I’ll have a different scone recipe, following the same method, and another recipe for a festive Thanksgiving breakfast.

 

 

Luscious Pumpkin Pecan Scones

Have ready: 2/3 cup chopped pecans (optional, but delicious!)

Coarse granulated sugar for sprinkling

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Grease or line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone (Silpat) liners.

Cream until just blended:

1 cup butter (two sticks) softened

½ cup brown sugar, packed.

Mix together in separate bowl:

4 ½ cups regular flour

4 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 Tb. pumpkin pie spice (Or make your own, directions follow recipe)

In another small bowl, mix together with fork:

1 cup plain canned pumpkin

Two eggs

½ tsp. baking soda

2/3 cup whole milk or half and half cream

Directions: With mixer running, add flour mixture to butter and brown sugar, mix on medium high just until mixture is crumbly, scraping bowl once. Immediately add pumpkin mixture and ½ cup pecans, and beat on low until it just comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured board, and with your hands form dough into about an 11-inch round. Brush all over the top with half and half or milk, sprinkle over this coarse white sugar and rest of chopped pecans. Cut into twelve even triangles, using a bench knife or other sharp knife, place 6 scones on each baking sheet, at least two inches apart. Bake 10 minutes, rotate pans and bake another 3 or 4 minutes or until scones are lightly browned and firm. Let cool on pan. Ice the scones with Vanilla Glaze.

Make a simple vanilla glaze, with 2 Tb. warm milk, 1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Mix with whisk until well blended, and thick enough to set up (add more sugar if needed.) Pour into a sandwich zip-type bag, close and snip a tiny bit off one corner. Use this as a piping bag and drizzle criss-cross over each scone. Scones can be made and frozen ahead for a delicious start to Thanksgiving Day or any autumn or winter morning or afternoon!

Pumpkin pie spice: (If you already have the following on hand. If not, it is probably less expensive to just purchase the prepared spice.)

Blend together, crushing any lumps:

¼ cup good quality cinnamon (Saigon or Ceylon)

2TB. Ground ginger

1TB. Ground cloves Mixture can be multiplied to keep on hand.

Mystery Dinner Theater to open up sale of tickets

 

The High Country Inn’s Sunken Garden is where the second Mystery Dinner Theater will be held in July.

The date for the second Mystery Dinner Theater to benefit the Clearwater Memorial Public Library is just around the corner, (July 12-15) and the kick-off for sales of tickets will be June 11.

In the next two weeks, sponsored tables are being solicited, and those who are interested in sponsoring a table, and who have not received a letter, are asked to contact Jo Moore, chairperson of the event, at 476-7570. The cost of sponsoring a table is $100, this part is tax-deductible,) plus the cost of tickets to the dinner and play, which is $75 a couple, or $40 per person.

Table sponsor responses must be in by June 8, and then tickets for the public will be on sale beginning Monday, June 11, at the library located at 402 Michigan Avenue in Orofino. Ticket purchasers will choose which night their tickets are for, from Thursday, July 12, through Sunday, July 15, on a first come, first serve basis. A limited number of tables and tickets are available for each of the four nights. Each night’s event will begin in the Sunken Garden of the High Country Inn at 5:30 p.m. with a no-host bar and snacks, and dinner and the play will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m.

A Great Cast

A great cast is already working on the play, entitled “Fatal Football Fever,” including Jeannie Hood, Kenda Tribble, Eric and Lynn MacEachern, Clayton Tyler, Pat Larson and Will Wiese. Director Tauna Tyler and her assistant, Karen Loranger, are excited to be working with such a talented crew.

The play, which of course includes a murder, revolves around a shyster’s attempt to promote the organization of a pro football team in Orofino. Knowing this cast, a lot of local humor will be inserted in the dialogue! The performance will be presented around the guests, who will be seated in the Sunken Garden of the High Country Inn. A “tailgater” Texas-style barbeque dinner, cooked by Jo Moore, will be served, with help from several other CMPL Friends, between acts of the play.

Raffle Prizes

The football them will be carried out with a tribute to the Idaho Vandals, using the colors of silver and gold, and one of the raffle prizes to be awarded the last night of the play will be a football autographed by Coach Akey of the Vandals, along with a set of four reserved tickets to the fall Homecoming Game in Moscow, and sideline passes as we.

Other raffle prizes include:

A suite for 12 guests at an Idaho Steelheads Ice Hockey game in Boise with a deluxe king room in the adjoining elite Grove Hotel for the winner.

A set of hand-thrown earthenware by Bernie DeLallo including a platter, pasta bowl, and three graduated mixing or serving bowls.

A deluxe overnight package with dinner for two, lodging, and breakfast at the High Country Inn.

Raffle tickets will be sold at the library all during June up until the performance of the play, and are $5 each or a set of 6 for $25.

Proceeds

Proceeds from this 4-day event will be used to buy a new copy machine for the library, as well as any other items on the “List” compiled by Library Director Ellen Tomlinson.

The goal of the CMPL Friends is to raise at least $5,000, which would surpass last year’s net of $4,000. “Every bit helps us with our programs for the community, and we are so grateful for all the work that the CMPL Friends put in for the library needs,” stated Tomlinson.

Work of CMPL Friends

The CMPL Friends is a group of local residents who are dedicated to promote the welfare of the community library, and they work year-round with their projects.

A main project is their Book Sales, which are held twice a year, along with this major event to take place in July. Other projects include all the landscaping around the library, headed by Bernie DeLallo, and the purchase of any new items which they can afford.

One new addition is the wooden bench placed on the front lawn this past year. New members are always welcome, for information about joining inquire on your next visit to the library, which is much more than just books!

Australian visitors enjoy first trip to America

Australians Tom and Wendy Buvac just spent a month here in Orofino for their first taste of “American culture,” and it was an enjoyable treat for them. Even though the couple lives just outside a city of over a million inhabitants, their home is in the suburbs and near the “bush,” as they call it the woods.

Tom was brought here to learn the scope of the NightForce operations based here in Orofino, and wife Wendy took her annual “holiday” to come with him, leaving her job as a bank branch manager near Adelaide, South Australia.

During their month stay at the High Country Inn, Wendy and innkeeper Jo Moore had a great time during the days when Tom was busy at the NighForce plant. Jo introduced Wendy to the art of preparing and canning peaches and apples, folding huge quantities of napkins, cooking in large amounts (Wendy helped trim and cut forty thick slices of pork loin for a dinner party,) even cleaning cabins!

On days off the couple was treated to drives around the country, once by the Moore’s, another time by Tom’s mentor at NightForce, Mike Forest. On the days that Jo had meetings in town Wendy would go along and spend her time exploring Orofino. She walked up and down the streets, meeting people as she ventured into stores.

 

Some of her stops included the Hallmark store, where she bought cards and souvenirs, the Ronatta’s Cakery for a donut, the Flower Shop for some fall ornaments, Glenwood Pharmacy for some postcards, Eagle’s Nest for more souvenirs, the Natural Food Store for some gluten-free products for her mom, IGA for groceries to make lunches, and a stop by Augie’s for a coffee.

On a couple of occasions the couple was treated to dinner at the Edge. Wendy was also a guest of Jo at the CVHC Auxiliary meeting one day, to learn more about the Life Flight program, but for most of Jo’s daytime meetings Wendy enjoyed her walks around Orofino. She especially enjoyed watching the river, as well as the logging trucks going by.

When asked about their most enjoyable memories to take back with them, Wendy and Tom mentioned Lumberjack Days and the logging show as well as all the good eating to be had there, especially a Doughboy! She and Tom were asked at a local sandwich shop if they spoke a different language in Australia! (No, the same language, it just sounds different and has a few new expressions for the American ear!)

Both Tom and Wendy enjoyed a couple of visits to the Dworshak Visitor Center, where they viewed the programs and talked with the Rangers. Jo also introduced them to the hamburgers at the Woodlot!

Then last week, the end of their stay, the couple sat in the IGA “car park”, and were intrigued by the number of hunters stocking up and heading out to hunting camp. While Jo had an appointment at the Eye Clinic, Wendy sat and visited with a logger who told her all about the first week of hunting around Headquarters, where it would be wall-to-wall camps. (Tom’s hunting experience consists of being out in the bush with no one around for miles and miles, and shooting “varmints” such as foxes!) Tom said, “Too many people for me!” Jo told him he should be able to stick around to see all the rigs returning to town with their “trophies with antlers” loaded in the back of their trucks!

Some new words or expressions that Jo learned during the couple’s stay included “having a lie-down,” which means having a nap; putting things on the “bench” which is a counter here; “rubbish” is trash; a car park is the parking lot; and one of her favorites is the Australian name for a shopping cart: a “trolley!” She’ll probably be using these new words as part of her everyday vocabulary from now on!

Special note: Mike Forest left for Australia two days after the Buvacs’ departure, to help with setting up a new operation for the company over there.

After a couple of months over there he will be followed by other Orofino NightForce employees Sean Simmons and Josh Goodwin, on a rotation basis… what wonderful opportunities for our young men!

Tom Buvac of Australia, in Orofino for a month's training with NightForce

Jo Moore and Wendy Buvac, in High Country Inn's kitchen