Category Archives: recipes

The original Pear Crisp recipe we found on the Internet is from Paula Deen. We changed it up a little and our guests so enjoyed our warm Pear Crisp on a recent chilly Fall morning.

Pear Crisp
6 large pears (about 2 1/2 pounds) peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/4 cup warm water
1 lemon, juiced
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine pears, water and lemon juice in a 9 x 12 inch baking dish. In a bowl, combine oats, flour, sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter until mixture is crumbly. Spread the topping evenly over the fruit and bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until the topping is crisp and browned. Enjoy!

Our speciality is delivering your full gourmet breakfast to your suite each morning where it can be enjoyed privately by the firelight! Make your plans to stay with us soon. We will pamper you with luxurious amenities, delight you with homemade and delicious food and cater to you with our over-the-top service!

Joy and Jim Fischer, Innkeepers/Owners
The Firelight Inn on Oregon Creek Duluth Bed and Breakfast
Celebrating 100 years of history in 2010

The Firelight Inn Duluth Bed and Breakfast shares an easy Chocolate Mousse recipe. I am preparing a special luncheon for Saturday and I needed a special dessert that would be delicious and light but yet chocolate and yummy! I found the following recipe at Cooks.com, made is yesterday and shared it with a small group of friends last evening. They ate it, wanted more, and said it was delicious so I’m sharing the recipe. FYI–I doubled the following recipe and it turned out well.

Easy Chocolate Mousse
Printed from Cooks.com

1 envelope gelatine
1/4 cup cold water
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed

In a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatine over cold water and let stand one minute. Stir over low heat until gelatine is completely dissolved. Stir in butter until melted.

In a blender or food processor (it leaked out of my food processor so next time I will use my immersion blender) process milk, sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla until blended. While processing, gradually add gelatine mixture and process until blended. Pour into bowl, then blend in whipped topping. Turn into dessert glasses; chill until firm. Garnish as desired with additional whipped topping and chocolate curls. Makes about 8 servings.

Enjoy! We hope to see you at The Firelight Inn on Oregon Creek Duluth Bed and Breakfast on your next trip to Duluth!

Joy and Jim Fischer, Innkeepers/Owners
The Firelight Inn on Oregon Creek Bed and Breakfast
Celebrating 100 years of history in 2010

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! One of the favorite recipes we serve on St. Patrick’s Day at The Firelight Inn on Oregon Creek Duluth Bed and Breakfast are pistachio muffins which are a lovely shade of pastel green. The flavor and color of the muffins comes mainly from pistachio instant pudding mix, which actually doesn’t contain any pistachio at all, but is flavored the way people have come to expect “pistachio” to taste. Added real chopped pistachios enhance their taste nicely. Enjoy!

Batter:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 1/8-ounce package instant pistachio pudding mix
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup shelled, coarsely chopped pistachios

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a muffin tin with non-stick vegetable oil spray.

In a bowl cream together the butter, sugar, and pudding mix until smooth. Add eggs, beating for several minutes and scraping the bowl, till the mixture is smooth and shiny. Beat in the baking powder and salt.

Gently beat the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is combined. Stir in the pistachios saving out 2 tablespoons for sprinkling on top of the muffins. Spoon the batter into the muffin tin and sprinkle with the reserved nuts blended with a little sugar.

Bake the muffins for about 25 minutes or until they begin to brown around the edges and a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffins comes out clean.

Joy and Jim Fischer, Innkeepers/Owners
The Firelight Inn on Oregon Creek
Celebrating 100 years of history in 2010

Tomorrow is Jim’s birthday and we will be celebrating at The Firelight Inn on Oregon Creek Bed and Breakfast in Duluth, MN. Jim has been anticipating this birthday because he will now be able to order off a special menu at a few chain restaurants. Oh boy, that sounds delightful, huh? He has also vowed to begin journaling and hopes to put his legacy down on paper.

Anyway, it is my job to bake his favorite cake in honor of his birthday. So I have researched a recipe for a German Chocolate Cake–Jim’s favorite! The history of the German Chocolate Cake is hard to pinpoint but a recipe appearing in a 1957 food column of a Dallas newspaper made the cake very popular. While the name “German” chocolate cake seems to suggest a tie to Germany, the name refers to the type of chocolate used in the cake which is named after the Walter Baker & Company employee, Samuel German, who developed the chocolate in 1852.

The recipe calls for:
1 4 ounce package of Baker’s Sweetened Chocolate
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup butter or margarine (I use butter!)
2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk

Take one 4 ounce package of sweetened chocolate and mix it with the boiling water. Mix until all the chocolate is dissolved. Let this cool before adding it to the later mixture. Mix 1 cup butter with 2 cups sugar until they are fluffy and rich. Slowly add eggs yolks while beating the mixture. Then add cooled chocolate liquid and 1 teaspoon vanilla after the egg yolk is completely mixed into the batter. Measure flour and add 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt to the mixture. Add the buttermilk and flour to the mixture at the same time alternating the two until smooth.

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold in egg whites slowly. Do not stir or beat them in–just fold. Coat three 8 inch round cake pans with Pam or shortening and dust with flour. Then place wax paper in the bottom of each pan. (Use a pen to mark a sheet of wax paper around the exterior of the pan and cut accordingly.)

Pour equal amounts of batter into each 8 inch cake pan. Put the cake in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Do not open the oven until the cake has been in the oven for the required time. A toothpick in the center should come out clean, if not, bake for another five to ten minutes.

Once your cake layers have cooled for 15 minutes, you will need to remove them from the cake pans. Cool further on a rack and remove the wax paper from the bottom.

The most important German Chocolate Cake Frosting:
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 beaten egg yolks
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix the evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter and vanilla on the stove on medium heat for 12 minutes. Once you are done stirring the ingredients together, add the coconut and pecans. Cool the frosting until it is firm and easy to spread. Frost away between each layer and then the sides. Enjoy!

Birthdays are important days and must be celebrated! The Firelight Inn on Oregon Creek Bed and Breakfast is a great destination for your birthday celebration. We enjoy preparing our Special Packages for you to be in suite upon arrival including The Firelight Inn Birthday Celebration. This special package includes a 6 inch, double layer, frosted birthday cake and a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

We’ll be celebrating Jim’s big day tomorrow along with our guests and friends. We hope to see you on your next trip to Duluth!

Joy Fischer, Innkeeper/Owner
The Firelight Inn on Oregon Creek Bed and Breakfast