Carl Sandurg's Home near Asheville, North Carolina

Not more than 20 miles or so outside of Asheville and a half-hour drive from our Western North Carolina bed and breakfast is the small town of Flat Rock.  The town is best known for the Flat Rock Playhouse which has been presenting excellent theater for more than 50 years.  But if you stand in the parking lot of the theater and look across the street you will see a splendid white house perched high on the hill overlooking a large pond.  This house is Connemara, the final home of Carl Sandburg and his wife, Lillian.

Carl Sandburg was born in 1878 in a small town in Illinois.  After graduating 8th grade in 1891 he went to work.       He delivered milk, harvested ice, laid bricks, threshed wheat in Kansas, and shined shoes in Galesburg's Union Hotel before traveling as a hobo in 1897.  These early experiences working gave him a strong sense of the contrast between rich and poor.  After serving with the army in the Spanish-American  War, he returned to his hometown and enrolled in college and while he never gained a degree he did use his college years to sharpen his linguistic skill.  Sandburg was always interested in words and poetry.  While riding the rails in 1897, he collected the songs and stories of the hobos and vagrants with whom he shared campfires and boxcars.  In 1916 he published his Chicago Poems and his reputation as a man of  letters was established.  Sandburg’s poetry is raw, his subject matter is the common man and his colloquial narrative style makes Sandburg one of the most uniquely American poets of the Modernist period. Over the years, Sandburg became known as the "voice of the people".  He was fascinated by Abraham Lincoln and received a Pulitzer prize for his works on the subject.   He married Lillian Steichen in 1908.  She was his intellectual equal with an inquiring mind, but she was also a farmer at heart and took to raising goats and chickens in the garden of their home in Milwaukee.  Eventually, as she put it, they were frozen out of Wisconsin and they moved to the mountains of North Carolina.

Here the Sandburgs made their final home. And when Carl Sandburg died in 1967, Lillian made a gift of the house and all its belongings.  She left everything as it was, even to the trash in the dining room wastebasket.
Even if you know little about the  Sandburgs, the house is fascinating for its frozen-in-time picture of how a family lived in the 1950's and 60's.  I found myself recognizing games, juice pitchers and radio's from my childhood home which made it all the more fun to go through. 

Outside, the home is beautifully situated with stunning views of the mountain.  Even though it was the middle of winter, it was a warm sunny day and the lack of crowds more than made up for the missing leaves on the trees.  Lillian's goats continue to be raised here and one can buy cheese and goat-milk fudge at the small store in the basement of the home.  The park itself consists of over 245 acres with five miles of trails which are open to the public.

If you go:


The park is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. all year; closed December 25 and in cases of inclement weather the park may close to visitors.


There is no charge for admission to the grounds. The trails, information center and farmyard areas are open to the public.


Tours of the historic Carl Sandburg Home are available daily, except Christmas day. Tours begin at 9:30am; the last tour departs at 4:30pm. The charge for the tour is $5. Tours are offered every half an hour from Memorial Day until October and weekends throughout the year. November through Memorial Day, tours are offered once an hour on the half-hour only.

Canapes from the Carolina Bed & Breakfast

 

SMOKED SALMON TARTAR ON SWEET POTATO CHIPS

Well, it's been a while but sometimes life steps in and mixes things up for a while but now we are back at our Asheville bed and breakfast and ready to share with you some of the small bites we developed over the holidays.  We spent new Year's with our daughters and their friends on a small island on the coast of North Carolina.  Some years back my oldest daughter Sarah claimed the title of "Canape Queen" in the family marrying her love of cooking with her enthusiasm to try new things.  This recipe was developed by her for our New Year's Party.  While it seems like a dubious pairing, it was hands-down the favorite of the evening.  

We started by making the Sweet Potato Chips.  James had given me a mandolin for Christmas and I was eager to try it out so I quickly volunteered to make them.  James is nothing if not thorough in his gift giving and he took care to read up about mandolins before buying me one.  After he got over the initial confusion of thinking I wanted a musical instrument, he discovered that they are wonderful for making small even slices.  They are also wonderful for taking small even slices off the hand of the cook if one is not careful, so he also invested in a special pair of metal gloves to protect my hands.  I am not sure one needs both the protective handle and the gloves but if it makes him happy I'm not going to argue.  After slicing the chips they need to rest in ice water in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.  We sliced four sweet potatoes which made enough for 100 canapes, with some left over for serving as chips alone.

While they were resting, Sarah mixed up the tartar.  The original recipe she found called for raw, fresh salmon but we weren't sure how our guests might feel about that and since the canapes might be sitting out for a while so we decided to use smoked salmon instead.  This means that it is not strictly a "tartar" but since one could use fresh salmon I decided to keep the name. I am going to give you the ingredients we used but you could certainly alter them to your taste.

After the chips finished crisping in the ice water, we dried them well and quickly fried them in some canola oil at medium high heat until they were lightly browned on the edges.Mine took one-two minutes to cook.  The chips can be cooked in advance on the day and set aside until you are ready to assemble canapes.  Any which you mean to serve without the tartar should be salted immediately when taken out of the oil to drain on a paper towel.

Smoked Salmon "Tartar" on Sweet Potato Chips

For the Chips:  

2-4 large sweet potatoes, washed and peeled

About two inches of a neutral high temperature oil

Salt and Pepper

Slice the sweet potatoes very thinly then place in a bowl of ice water in the refrigerator for 2 hours prior to frying.  Place about two inches of oil in a frying pan and heat to about 350 degrees over medium high heat.  Dry the chips well and then fry in small batches until cooked and brown around the edges.  Drain on paper towels until needed.

For the Tartar:

4-6 ounces Smoked Salmon or high quality fresh salmon

2 teaspoons very finely minced shallot

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

3/4 tsp whole grain mustard

1/4 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mince the salmon very finely then mix together with the seasonings until you like the taste then place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.  To assemble the canapes, place about 1-2 teaspoons of the tartar on each chip.  Makes about 100 canapes.

This blog entry is dedicated to my father, Dr. Lawrence E. Hinkle, Jr. 1918-2012.  He loved good food, good conversation and a good party.

Antique Cars in Asheville, NC

 Just adjacent to the Grove Park Inn is the Grovewood Gallery, home of the Homespun Shops of Biltmore Industry  This collection of shops and galleries was built  by George Vanderbuilt and his wife, Edith, in order to provide the youth of Asheville with the opportunity to learn wool making and other mountain crafts and industries.  After Vanderbilt's death, Edith sold it to the architect of the Grove Park Inn who went on to build seven more shops and galleries in the location.  It is seriously overshadowed by the Grove Park and takes some exploring to find.  We had heard about it from some guests of ours at the Carolina Bed & Breakfast who stumbled on it while exploring the inn.

The first building one comes to is that of the Grovewood Cafe.  While it was the middle of the afternoon, we did not eat there but took a couple of the menus which looked appealing.  The building itself is in the middle of a sculpture garden.  An array of metal sculptures create a "wind garden" and move with the breeze in unique and interesting ways.





Just up the hill (it's always "just up a hill" in Asheville!) is the Grovewood Antique Car Museum.  Entry is free and tours can be arranged for larger groups.

All of the cars in the museum are working cars and there are some original horse drawn carriages as well.  It was fun to look at the cars and to realize how much they have changed over the years.  I found myself fascinated by a 1955 Cadillac with its sofa-sized front and back seat and roomy interiors.  No wonder drive-in movies were so popular back then. 






And tucked in among the vintage Fords and Oldsmobiles, there is even an Edsel!  Emily and Abby had never heard of the Edsel but I remember when it was synonymous with over-design.
Hidden away behind the Grove Park and competing with the Gingerbread exhibit, there were few people in the museum which was lucky for us as the docent was free to talk to us about the different cars.  And also free to show us his "trained" squirrels!  That's right, there is a family of squirrels which live outside the museum and he has trained them to come to the window and take a peanut out of your hand.  You can also go "fishing" for the squirrels, placing the nut on the end of a fishing line on a pole he has rigged up and holding it out the window.  I am sorry the pictures are a little dark but the flash was frightening
them away.

 You never know what you will find in Asheville, North Carolina!

The 19th Annual Gingerbread Competition in Asheville, NC

This year, once again the Grove Park Inn hosted the 19th Annual Gingerbread Competition. The temptation is to call it a "gingerbread house" competition but this would be misleading.  While many of the entries do consist of houses, an equal number do not.  In fact, this years winner was a cowboy boot (granted it was made into a house but still...)

 

So the Friday after Thanksgiving, James and I took the girls and his mother up to the Grove Park Inn to see what this year's entries look like. The Grove Park Inn is a mammoth stone structure built in one year (1912-13) by more than 400 men .  While there are those who argue its esthetic appeal, it is nevertheless a landmark in Asheville and worth seeing for the lobby alone: 120 feet across, 24 foot ceiling and two 14 foot high fireplaces.  I think we could fit the entire downstairs of the Carolina Bed & Breakfast inside it!

Anyway because of the size of the inn and the two hotel extensions built on both sides, it is well suited to display the more than 325 entries to this years competition.  One wanders through the halls and stairs following a path past entries from all ages. Children as well as teens and adults enter.  We even saw some "houses" made by first and second grade classes.  (There was a third grade teacher next to me who allowed as that she couldn't get her whole class to concentrate on lining up to go home, which made this a real achievement!)

The pieces must be made entirely of edible ingredients and sometimes they don't hold up.  It is always sad to see a crumple mess of cookie with some poor entrant's name on it.  And, like the Biltmore Estate, this is one of those things which men think they won't enjoy doing and yet always seem to find it more interesting than they thought they would.

With so many entries to be exhibited, some are relegated to the Grove Arcade in downtown Asheville.But I have to say that  I stopped by to look at them while I was shopping the other day and they are, for the most part,  not representative of the quality on display at the inn.

The pictures here are of the top ten runner ups.  If you would like to view some more you can do so on our facebook page by clicking here

This entry has to be shown in two parts as this is the front

And this is the back!

Comedy in Asheville, NC

This past Thanksgiving James and I were lucky enough  to have our family with us here and we took advantage of their presence to try some of the more unique attractions in our town.  One of these was the La Zoom Comedy Tour.  This purple bus roams our streets Spring through Christmas and guests at our Bed and Breakfast in Asheville, North Carolina are used to seeing it roll past the Carolina Bed & Breakfast full of loud and happy tour-goers.  We give and get waves and cheers as they pass by.  A number of our guests have taken the tour and have always returned with upbeat reviews.  Even more intriguingly,  I have sometimes passed strangely dressed characters on my evening jogs through the neighborhood, all of whom seem to have something to do with the tour.

Because it was Thanksgiving, the company was running a "Holiday Tour".  The bus was decked out in red ribbons, garlands and other oddities (which I am not going to tell you about not wanting to spoil all of it!) and our "guide" was a slightly manic man dressed in green.  The tours are given by actors and are a blend of fact and fiction.  One of our daughters commented that it was difficult to tell what was true and what was made up sometimes so she didn't get as much out of the tour part of the trip as she could have.

Along the way, we rendezvoused with various strange people and animals including this turkey which lurked om the yard of  the house down the street from the Carolina.. ( Not so unexpected really--for those of you who have visited us and walked to town--it is the "Barbie" house!).

While the turkey was odd, I couldn't help wondering what visitors to our town thought of the giant walking gingerbread man roaming the streets downtown!

The humor was mixed,  there were songs, stories, acrobatics, games and quizzes, and by  the end,even the most stubborn skeptic among us had laughed out loud more than once. 

James won a prize (catfood!) in the quiz.

Brick Oven

But the best part (I thought) was when we returned and there in the parking lot next door was what appeared to be a brick oven.  And upon inspection, that is exactly what it was!  The last Tailgate Market of the season was just finishing up and this was an Artisan Bread Maker who baked his bread right there on the spot. It seems that Asheville has a whole group of bread makers.  We even hold an Annual Bread Festival:  “Asheville and its surrounding area, with a very small population, supports more artisan bakeries than most states. The bakeries are all small but truly artisan in the purest sense of the word,"  says Peter Reinhart, well-known author, baker, and teacher at Johnson & Wales University.  The website has not yet been updated but a recent press release states this year's festival will be March 24, 2012.  Of course, while I was talking to the baker and learning all about his craft, a woman came up and bought the last loaf right out from under my nose! And now I will have to wait until next year. Or go to the festival...hmmmm.

Anyway, back to comedy in Asheville.  The next night James and I took our daughter Emily down to the Magnetic Field for dinner and a show.  I have written about this cafe and performance space before so I won't bore you with the details except to say that the food was wonderful (as always) and this particular show--a night of improv--was delightful.  The shows change regularly there so it's worth checking the website.  And while I can't guarantee they are all good, it's always interesting!

The 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Pie Contest in Asheville, NC

That's a lot of pie!

 Last year my daughters and I decided it was time to jazz up the usual Thanksgiving array of pumpkin, pecan and apple pie.  The pies were lovely but we had been making the same ones for years and felt like it was time to branch out a bit so we created the Carolina Bed & Breakfast Thanksgiving Pie Contest.  For the month before Thanksgiving we scoured recipes online and in cookbooks. Some of us felt strongly  that certain types of pie (i.e., pumpkin) needed to be included and laid claim to that pie.  Others were of the mind that any type of pie was acceptable and searched accordingly. 

Ready to go in the oven

Wednesday was pie baking day.  It had to be as we only have one oven here at our inn in Western North Carolina and it would be taken over by a 21 lb turkey most of Thursday!  I was up first (no surprises there) and made my Blueberry, Basil, Goat Cheese Pie in the peace and quiet of my sunlit kitchen.  I know blueberries are not exactly an Autumn fruit but I love berry pies and I have been experimenting with basil in sweet dishes this summer and thought it sounded delicious.  Blueberries have a special affinity for herbs. 

Emily was the next one up.  Her first idea had been to make a pumpkin-white chocolate pie but we hadn't actually been able to come up with an inspiring recipe so we decided to make a Maple Pumpkin Pie with White Chocolate Cream,  It was such an easy recipe that she opted to continue on with an Apple Pie with Cheddar Cheese Crust.  And one of the benefits of our poorly insulated kitchen walls is a cold marble counter-top for rolling out pastry.

 Abby and her roommate Chelsea were the last ones in the kitchen.  By now the mess had spread out all over the island but they managed to find space to create their Nutella Bottom Pecan Pie.  When I first saw the recipe for this one, it made my teeth hurt it looked so sweet!

The final entry on our contest came from a friend who was joining us.  She brought a fruit tart, bright and colorful and fresh.

The results:
Abby's Pecan was the winner in the Traditional Category.
Anita's Fruit tart was the first completely eaten, so ipso facto I have declared it the ultimate over-all winner.
My Basil Blueberry was awarded the most unusual.
But for breakfast the next morning, everyone went straight to the Apple Pie!  And here is the winning recipe for you:

Chocolate Coconut Pecan Pie

Ingredients:

6 tbsps butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup corn syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp coconut extract

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup coconut flakes

1 cup chopped pecan plus extra for decorating the top
1 deep dish pie crust
1/2 cup Nutella Chocolate Hazelnut spread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat butter, sugar, syrup and salt over medium heat until butter has melted and sugar is dissolved.  Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla and coconut extract.  Let cool for about ten minutes.

Spread Nutella on bottom of unbaked pie crust.

Whisk eggs into sugar mixture, stir in coconut flakes and pecans.  Pour into pie crust and decorate top with pecan halves.

Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes until done.

One Great Holiday Parade in Asheville, NC!

Best Costume ever!

As you know, James and I lived in Europe and Asia for 27 years before returning to buy the Carolina, our Bed and Breakfast inn in Asheville, North Carolina.  While we lived overseas a great many things happened in the United States. (For one thing, when we moved in 1981 AT&T was the only phone company!).  So we expected changes when we came home and there have been many.  But one of the things we love about Asheville is how much it has maintained the small town feeling from our childhood.

I grew up in a small town in Connecticut. There were basically two main shopping streets: a five and ten cent store, a wonderful independent bookstore, a stationary store, and two or three newsstands.  Competing gas stations stood on the corner of an intersection and a small train station served to take the men into New York City to work.  That town is long gone. High end stores grace the shopping streets.  MacMansions stand on one one acre lots.  The bookstore has fled.  A large chain drug store has taken over the five and ten cent store and Starbucks now owns the corner of the intersection. 

In contrast to this, downtown Asheville has more than one independent bookstore, two (!) stationary stores, the Woolworth's store is still there with its lunch counter where you can buy the best grilled cheese sandwich and root beer float in town.  (To be fair, the store itself is now a gallery for local artists, but still...) We have chocolate shops selling chocolates made on the premises. In some cases the chocolate beans are even roasted and ground in the store! Business owners live in the town and get to know their customers and other business owners well.So while coming back to United States meant getting used to changes, moving to Asheville was like coming home.

One of the aspects of my childhood which I never expected to see duplicated in the City of Asheville is the small town parade.  As a girl, I marched in our town's Memorial Day Parade.  Once I even carried the flag for our Girl Scout Troop. The streets would be lined with families cheering for all of the shops and associations which were marching.  Other towns had their parades on the Fourth of July or Labor Day.  The town where James grew up had a "Fireman's Parade" in which Fire Departments from all over the area marched with their trucks.
Which brings us to the Holiday Parade in Asheville.  This year James and I decided to make a point of going to see it.  We knew it took place every year--after all they close the whole town down for a day so we were always busy finding alternate routes for our guests--but we just hadn't had time to get to it.  I am so glad we finally went!  It was everything we could have asked for .  There were more than 90 participating groups, starting with "Asheville Living Treasures riding in the Greyline Historic Trolley" and ending with Santa Claus (brought to you by the Biltmore of course).  In between, according to my count there were are least 3 full-on Marching Bands, 3 beauty queens in prom dresses riding on the back of convertibles, 9 dance teams, four cheerleading squads, five churches, two animal shelters, six schools and umpteen businesses with everything from banks to the Waffle House.  I took countless pictures of both the floats and the spectators and loved every minute of it right down to the classically grumpy Santa at the end!  For more pictures, please visit our facebook page or Google+, and next year think about joining us!