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1102 Felix Street St. Joseph, Missouri, 64501 Phone: 816-387-9663 email: [email protected] website: www.museumhill.com |
Museum Hill Bed and Breakfast Newsletter |
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10/14/2006 |
Volume 1, Number 3 |
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Major Upcoming Events:
Homemade Pumpkin Filling1 whole pumpkin, cut in half 1 cup butter 4 tbsp cinnamon 2 tbsp, nutmeg ¼ cup brown sugar 4 tbsp. vanilla 2 tbsp. all spice
Buttermilk Pumpkin Bread
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional) 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional) 1 cup fresh pumpkin puree, thawed 1 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup buttermilk 1 egg 2 tablespoons butter, softened Museum Hill’s SpecialPumpkin Pie3/4 cup granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 2 large eggs 16 oz fresh pumpkin 1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk 1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell |
Hello everyone. Wow, October came up fast and the leaves are looking pretty as the trees turn their autumn colors throughout the city. They add a real nice touch to the beautiful architecture of the old buildings and houses. A big event is coming to town on the weekend of October 27 thru October 29th. The Missouri Statewide Preservation Conference is being held at the Holiday Inn downtown on the Historic Riverfront. There will be 3 days worth of very valuable seminars ranging from the origins of the architecture to tax credit information. Museum Hill Bed and Breakfast along with the Museum Hill Historical District are proud sponsors of this event. St. Joseph has a chance to really show off its role in history and building construction of the past. The following link goes to their home page: http://www.preservemo.org and from this there are links for the information package and registration forms. For those who have historical property or are interested in obtaining one in the future, I highly recommend this conference. To get into the Halloween spirit, some of our guests ask us if there are any haunted areas in town. Not too long ago Beth found this interesting web site: www.theshadowlands.net/places/missouri.htm that lists all the places in the state and makes for interesting reading. St. Joseph is down towards the bottom third of the page. In addition, one of our previous guests had an incident at the Gore Psychiatric Museum. She was down on the basement floor and after sensing uneasy vibes, she heard a voice tell her to "Go!" It fitted a similar description of several groups hearing a voice telling them to "Get Out!" and it happened down in the basement where all incidents seem to occur. Atchison has all kinds of things going on in keeping with the Halloween spirit and for more information this site will be helpful: http://www.atchisonkansas.net/v_haunted.htm St Joseph has two cool things going on for Halloween on the spooky side. The haunted drive in: www.haunteddrivein.com runs now through the 31st. For the weekends of the 20th and 28th, www.fearfactory.com is a cool haunted house experience. Time to share with everyone some good things happening with St. Joseph in the economic development and growth of downtown. Last month St. Joseph was just selected along with nine other cities for the Missouri Governor’s DREAM (Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri) program. This program gives St. Joseph a lot of support from the state level to many resources that otherwise would be more difficult to attain and is funded from the state. Over 90 cities had applied and St. Joseph was one of ten selected due to its ongoing progression forward. More information on the program can be found at http://www.dream.mo.gov/targetcommunities.htm . Also a major project in its beginning stages is going to allow about 1.2 million from the city to be invested into a development project to improve Felix St. from 8th street down to 4th street near the Holiday Inn. The goal is to work on new sidewalks, lighting, and landscaping to make the area more attractive to the public and in turn that will hopefully attract more business to the area. Weston has a lot going on every weekend during November. They call it Holiday Weekend Events Each weekend there is something different going on. More info can be found at: http://westonmo.com/entertainment/calendar.html#anchor_holidayweekends . Recently I came across something real unique. Called the Glacial Hills Farm Tour, http://www.glacialhillsrcd.com/farmtour.html, this self-driving tour takes you throughout Northeast Kansas at your leisure. During this tour you can visit all the agritourism farms in the area, vineyards, wineries, pumpkin patches, Christmas trees, apple orchards, and enjoy home cooked meals at those places that serve them. This is going on this weekend as well as Oct 21-22. But always be sure to browse the web site on occasion as there a lot of new events here that seem to pop up frequently. I believe this is a great site for things to see and do in the area added to the fact it gives the public a chance to really see different aspects of the country and some of this stuff is rare to see in today’s world. Now a little history about St. Joseph, and than some recipes. I found this bit of the past to be kind of exciting especially since running a bed and breakfast. Aunt Jemima pancake flour was invented in 1889 in St. Joseph, and was the first self-rising flour for pancakes as well as the first ready-mix food ever to be produced commercially. Growing up with this mix, I just found fascinating to learn about the history of it and to actually be able to see the Aunt Jemima House, the house "back in the day" used to be printed on some of the pancake boxes and I remember that as a kid. The house is kind of hidden on Faraon St, but if you stop, it is worth a look, another Victorian home that still shares the past within the present day. I found this link: http://www.auntjemima.com/aj_history/ and thought it would be fun to add. Enjoy!!! Ok, recipe time!!! In my last letter I said I would share some pumpkin ideas. Well I will start by sharing with everyone on how to use fresh pumpkin instead of canned for all your pies, breads, etc. It takes a little more work, but the end product is worth the result and instead of getting rid of all those pumpkins after Halloween, this gives them a use. Preparing the Pumpkin First cut the pumpkin in half, than take out the seeds. This may get messy, the best way to this is use plastic food service gloves and scrape out the insides over top a small plastic store bag. This will make clean up easy and after the seeds are in the bag, just secure the bag and toss it. After the pumpkin is seeded, rinse out the halves in cold water. Than place the halves on a sheet pan, bottom side down. Bake at 350 for about an hour and a half or until the inside is soft like a baked potato. It they are big pumpkins, they can be quartered or cut in smaller pieces before putting them in oven. After they are done baking, pull them out, let cool than scrape the insides with a spoon into a bowl. You can now add some butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, and all spice. Place pieces in food processor and mix until smooth like a paste. Portion out into small zip lock bags and freeze. You now have fresh pumpkin to use in place of pumpkin pie filling for anything from pies to holiday breads. The end product with whatever is made will have much more flavor than using canned pumpkin not to mention "bragging rights" at any party. As an alternative you can skin the pumpkin before baking and than cut in wedges. Place on sheet pan. Melt the butter and mix all the ingredients in with it. Pour over top of pumpkin wedges and bake for an hour and a half at 350 until soft. Check with toothpick. Pull out of oven and serve on a dessert plate. This would make a nice holiday horduerve or dessert. To compliment this, a nice port or Muscat dessert wine adds a touch class for serving.
Buttermilk Pumpkin Bread
Now lets put that fresh pumpkin to some use. This real simple recipe will produce a holiday bread that will rival any professional bakery product. First preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl. (Sifting flour is optional, as well as adding the extra cinnamon and nutmeg, this was already added to the fresh pumpkin made) Than mix in the pumpkin, brown sugar, buttermilk, egg and butter until a smooth batter forms. Pour into a regular well-greased bread pan and smooth the top. Ceramic pans work well for this. Bake for 1 hour. Check with toothpick, if it is clean, than bread is done. Let cool. __________________________________________________________
Museum Hill’s Special Pumpkin Pie This pumpkin pie recipe is the recipe to beat all pies; the secret is at the end of this recipe. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Than beat the eggs in large bowl separately. Add the pumpkin, sugar-spice mixture and stir. Mix in the evaporated milk gradually. Pour the mixture into pie shell.
Next month, I will share some good holiday recipes. Also I will write about some really cool things to visit in Kansas City. Last month I receive my CTA (Certified Tourism Ambassador) certification for the area from the Kansas City Visitors Association. During that class, I learned alot about the area in what there is to see and do. There is a whole world of stuff in the Midwest, and I am continually finding more. Anyone who tries these pumpkin ideas I have shared, let me know how things turn out for you. And if anyone has any questions on cooking or needs a recipe for a specific occasion, contact me anytime. Always check out my geocities activities site: www.geocities.com/museumhillbandb/ every week as I update the Visit KC link weekly on things to do. On Wednesday or Thursday evenings the KC visitors center always sends me a link to their calendar and I post it as soon as it comes in. Take care everyone and when you want to escape to the heart of the Midwest, stay at Museum Hill Bed and Breakfast, and enjoy a "Breakfast on the Hill" that will last you all day!!!!
Sincerely, John Courter Newsletter archive: www.geocities.com/museumhillbandb/newsletter-07-20-2006 |
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