Want to make a special gift for the cook in your life?
Easy to make Vanilla Extract
And for not much money? Homemade Vanilla extract is the perfect gift – everyone cooks. [continue reading…]
Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a mouth-watering pecan pie on the table
Some years we have a bumper crop of pecans here on the farm at Big Mill Bed & Breakfast and, oh, they are good! Luckily a few are falling early – usually they wait and fall when it is 20 degrees outside.
Bourbon Pecan Pie
Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a mouth-watering pecan pie on the table.
Servings: 8 servings
Calories: 675kcal
Ingredients
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and set rack at the middle position. Spray a 9-inch or 10-inch deep dish pie pan with cooking spray.To Make Crust:
Remove pie crusts from refrigerator at least 15 to 20 minutes before using. Gently unroll one crust onto floured cutting board or table. Lightly dust both sides of the crust with four. Carefully place the crust inside the pie pan, leaving at least 1-inch of the crust overhanging. Pierce bottom of crust several times with a fork.To make pie filling:
Chop the pecans and set aside.In a large mixing bowl, whisk the 3 whole eggs. Add corn syrup, butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract and bourbon. Stir until well blended.Add chopped pecans and stir until combined. Set aside.To make decorative leaves:
Unroll second pie crust onto lightly floured board or table. Lightly dust both sides of the crust with flour. Using leaf cutters we found at Williams Sonoma, cut enough leaves to go around the outer edge of your pie. Place cut leaves on waxed paper. If you are using a scalloped pie dish, it will take approximately 30 leaves; fewer if using a standard round dish.To assemble & cook pie:
Pour filling mixture into pie crust.Using the reserved egg white, gently brush the back side of the pastry leaves. Brush the outside ¼-inch of the pie crust with the egg wash. Place leaves around crust, overlapping slightly. Press gently to adhere. Brush egg wash over the leaves.Bake for 45 to 55 minutes until pie is set; pie should have a gelatin-like consistency. A knife or straw inserted halfway between the center and the edge of the pie should come out clean. Check the pie after 30 minutes of cooking. If the crust is browning too much, lay a piece of aluminum foil loosely over the pie.Remove pie from the oven and cool on a rack. Pie should be completely cool before slicing. Top with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired. Here in North Carolina we often top our pecan pie with homemade vanilla ice cream.Nutrition
Calories: 675kcal | Carbohydrates: 84g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 77mg | Sodium: 282mg | Potassium: 202mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 61g | Vitamin A: 280IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 2.2mg
Ah, figs … a wonderful way to welcome Indian Summer to the South.
If a friend offers you fresh figs, gladly accept.
There was a time when everyone’s grandmother had a fig tree at the home place. I am lucky to live and work at Big Mill B&B – it is my home place. We have the old orchard, but the fig trees are small. So when Michael called and offered figs, I went forthwith. Even North Carolina mystery writer Margaret Maron stops writing to make fig preserves.
The secret to having fresh figs is to plant a Fig Tree!
Before you commit, make sure you have time to deal with the figs. When figs are luscious and ripe, the clock is ticking fast – you might be able to keep them for a day.
A great way to savor the flavor of figs all year long is to make Fig Preserves; they are mouth-watering on homemade biscuits. I have worked on this recipe and I think it is perfect, humbly speaking. My recipe is worthy of the old South, a fact that now promotes me to “Miss Chloe.”
A friend, Nancy Rascoe, who owns the bed and breakfast 1812 on the Perquimans in Hertford, NC, teaches manners — “Miss Nancy Teaches Manners.” (You have to watch this video!) Don’t you just love the South? I will tell you, “Miss Chloe” takes some getting used to; my mother was Miss Chloe. It really is a term of respect and endearment.
A word of caution: Once committed to making preserves, don’t stray from the project. I’m serious. Don’t answer the phone, the doorbell or anything else. This is science. You will be so glad in December when you show up at the party with Fig Preserves on Roasted Brie.
And save a few figs for the best bread ever – Chloe’s Fig Bread with a nip of Grand Marnier baked right in it.
Miss Chloe’s Fig Preserves
A great way to savor the flavor of figs all year long is to make Fig Preserves; they are mouth-watering on homemade biscuits.
Servings: 56 servings
Calories: 110kcal
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ripe figs 4 cups prepared figs
- 7 cups sugar
- Scant 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice 3 to 4 lemons
- Zest from two of the above lemons
- 1/2 teaspoon butter
- 1 pouch liquid pectin like Certo (3 ounces) Do NOT use Ball brand, they have changed the recipe
Instructions
- Wash and drain the figs, handling carefully. Remove the stems and cut the figs in half. You should have 4 cups of cut or mashed figs.
- Measure 7 cups sugar into a large mixing bowl. Wash the lemons and grate the peel from two of the lemons. Squeeze the juice from the lemons. You will need a scant 1/2 cup of juice. Check the expiration date on the pectin. Don't use if it is out of date.
- Place figs, sugar, lemon juice and zest and butter into a large cooking pot (at least an 8 quart pot). Using a potato masher, gently mash some of the figs, leaving chunks. Stir and bring this mixture to a full, rolling boil; a boil that cannot be stirred down. Add the liquid pectin and return to a full, rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Boil for exactly one minute, stirring the entire time.
- Remove from heat and ladle into sterilized jars. Process according to your canning instructions.
Notes
Yield: 7 half-pints, plus some for tasting.
Nutrition
Calories: 110kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 40mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 25IU | Vitamin C: 1.2mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 0.1mg
Don’t fret, you all can still call me Chloe or Chloe Ann!
Big Mill Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787
Our hummingbirds arrive at Big Mill B&B sometime around Easter – and it is with a flourish and a big show, chattering and demanding food.
Hummingbirds love the zinnias at Big Mill B&B
And since we are a designated Bird and Breakfast Bird-Friendly Business, we willingly obliged. Guy’s outstanding photo, taken here at Big Mill B&B, earned him 1st place in the 2010 Beaufort County Arts Council Nature/Wildlife photography contest.
Hummingbird getting lunch at Big Mill zinnia
Guests often ask me if there is any time during the year when you should stop feeding hummingbirds? If you have had a similar question, here’s my answer:
It is perfectly alright to leave the feeders out until freezing weather arrives. The birds usually leave when their food sources (flower nectar and bugs) are no longer available. You may get a traveling hummingbird guest en route to warmer climates. Big Mill seems to be a favorite spot for such hummingbird “refuelings!”
Hummingbird Nectar Recipe
4 parts hot boiling water
1 part refined white sugar
Few drops of red food coloring, optional, but not necessary
Stir this mixture until all the sugar is dissolved. (Audubon suggests that you boil the sugar to kill any bacteria. If you change the water every day, this is not necessary).
Allow solution to cool before filling feeders. This sugar water can spoil in hot weather, so change it often, at least two times a week or more. Store any excess nectar in the refrigerator.
So, have you had any good hummingbird sightings this summer? Share your best photos with us over on Big Mill Bed and Breakfast’s Facebook page .
And while you’re there, take a minute to write on our “Wall.”
innkeeper at Big Mil Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787
Update: I turned on the video camera and caught about 10 minutes of wonderful action at the hummingbird feeder the other day. Check it out here if you could use a 10-minute nature retreat:
Click on photo to SHARE or PIN for LATER
We sailed into Green Turtle Cay in the Abaco Islands in 1978 and I met Hank Cochran that day. Hank was lounging on the back of his Grand Banks 50, aptly named “The Legend.”
Photo of Hank Cochran by Chloe Tuttle
Garland Perry “Hank” Cochran was born in Isola, Mississippi in 1935. Hank moved to Nashville in 1960, and with Harland Howard he wrote “I Fall to Pieces.” Patsy Cline recorded it in November of 1960 and, as we know, it became a big hit.
Hank wrote many songs including “She’s Not You,” “Don’t You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me?” “Little Bitty Tear,” “Why Can’t He Be You?” and “Make the World Go Away.” 
Hank Cochran, Chloe Gurkin McHorney Tuttle and Captain Joe 1979
(Photo by Joy Greyer)
Hank invited us to go fishing one Sunday afternoon – we didn’t get back until Wednesday. But that was Hank. It was fun to watch his creative process – it would just happen. Someone would say something, or a thought would come to him. He wrote it down on anything handy, and soon it was a song. He told me heartache made writing easier. He surely knew how to do that.
Hear no evil, See no Evil and Speak no Evil… photo of
Chloe Tuttle, Captain Joe and Joy Greyer
(Photo by Hank Cochran using Joy’s camera)
When I met Hank, I had no clue I was meeting such a character. That same day I also met a wonderful woman Joy, who would became a cherished lifelong friend. We weathered many wet days that winter in the Bahamas, the guys played lots of Crazy Eights and Hearts. We took many trips to Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar.
Back then I was cleaning conch and making slaw. Now I am an Innkeeper growing blueberries and making jam. What a great life, eh?
Some times when I am here on the farm that is now Big Mill Bed & Breakfast, my mind wanders back to my sailing days. I remember places I went but mostly the people I met. And Hank Cochran, The Legend, the Man…is high on that list.
The world lost Hank on July 15, 2010. He left behind a legacy in country music. We will miss you, Hank. And you made it to the Rolling Stone.
Big Mill Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787
Did you know that bees are responsible for every third bite of food that we eat?
Bees are fascinating little creatures and they are in trouble.
Sunflowers at Big Mill B&B
The Great Sunflower Project was begun in 2008 by the biology department at San Francisco State University to study the wild bee population. In 2009, lots of us were given free lemon sunflower seeds to plant in our gardens. We were to monitor the bee activity for a certain amount of time each day. There were 50,000 participants!
Bees love our Bee Balm
Well, something ate my lemon sunflowers … bummer … so I couldn’t participate. But this year, they have expanded the flower list to include bee balm, tickseed, cosmos, purple coneflower and rosemary. So I am fired up and ready to go!
Coreopsis (tickseed) in the Big Mill Garden
Why don’t you join in this Hunt for Bees? All you have to do is plant one of the flowers listed, get comfortable in your garden, watch the bee activity and record it. Any size garden will work – even container gardens! The bonus, of course, by planting these flowers, you increase the odds of attracting hummingbirds and butterflies too.
Learn more about the project at Great Sunflower Project.
PS — Share your Great Sunflower Project photos over on Big Mill’s Facebook Page!
Let’s create a buzz!
Bzzzzzzz … I used to keep bees, but that is next year’s project. Innkeeper at Big Mill Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787
Well, we did it….Big Mill is now on Facebook!
Photo by Guy Livesay
For oh so long, I have resisted — but now that we are on Facebook, it is quite fun.
We do hope you will “LIKE US” over on Facebook. And while you’re there, be sure to write on our wall to keep the conversation going. We’ll be keeping you up to date on local attractions, special events and other happenings going on in and around eastern North Carolina’s Inner Banks. And, as always, I’ll post links to new recipes and other items of interest there too.
Better hurry on over … before I come to my senses. 😉
Big Mill Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787
Not for the squeamish ….
(Truthfully, if you want to remember all farms as Green Acres, maybe skip this post)
It seems my meat-eating city friends seem to think sausages commit suicide or that hogs retire to Florida before becoming bacon. So be forewarned – this is what really happens just before the bacon becomes bacon.
Some years ago, cold weather on the farm here in eastern North Carolina meant hog killing time and that happened at first light on a cold, cold morning usually in January or February.
(Brother John backside with boots-a hammock hangs here today.
The big old truck in this photo is still running)
The hogs were about nine months old and weighed about 200 pounds. No boar hogs were slaughtered – only females and castrated males; this part they didn’t explain to me. My dad, Ops, couldn’t kill his own hogs.
My brother John told me that sometimes they fed coal to the hogs – he said it made their intestines smooth. Hmmm. I remember that they poured burnt cylinder oil on the hogs. I guess that was for dry skin.
Neighbors helped neighbors. Each week my folks would get up really early and go and help other farmers kill hogs. They, in turn, came and helped us.
(That’s my mother, Chloe, in the middle with the hat)
As a child, it was alright for me to go in the pasture with the mules and cows, but not with the hogs. But the best fishing worms were in the hog pens. I did sneak in to get those Rocky Mountain crawlers. Don’t tell anybody.
When it was our turn to have the hog killing, I was very excited. I could stay home from school. The food was phenomenal: fried chicken, country ham, sausage, collards, succotash, sweet potatoes, corn bread, biscuits and so many desserts.
(My dad, Johnnie Gurkin, is on the right foreground in the photo above. Uncle Jimmy is at the end of the table and Henry Peel is leaning on the picket fence)
My dad couldn’t kill his own hogs – someone else had to do that job. We killed 20 hogs each winter.
(Stuffing sausage. Brother John is walking away on the right.
That is also my back door here at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast 252-792-8787
That well-bench is still there, only now it has pansies growning on it.)
Uncle Charlie was the sausage man-he seasoned all the sausage. Aunt Annie had a sage bed and grew sage for everyone. Ops liked sausage to be HOT so lots of red pepper flakes were added to our sausage The ground up pork, fat and seasonings were stuffed into casings of small intestines (chitterlings) and hung in the smoke house to dry. Fresh sausage was called green, as opposed to dry.
Just beyond this scalding vat is the hole where the chitterlings were cleaned. It is now my glorious organic garden. It grows tall sunflowers and lots of wonderful fruit and vegetables that we serve to our guests here at Big Mill Bed & Breakfast.
Hogs were killed, bled, scalded (to remove bristles), cut up, salted, cooked or cured. Five families lived here so we needed the food. The smoke house and all the buildings in these photos are still here. So are the lard paddles and scrapers and the large crocks that were used to store the salt pork.
Same farm, same family, same trees, same outbuildings, same house. Heritage is a precious thing.
These wonderful black & white photos were taken almost
60 years ago by my brother-in-law Barney Conway, Sr.
Kermit never looked so cute…and green!
Photo by Guy Livesay
Wildlife in North Carolina magazine’s 2009 photo competition had over 7,000 entries. This photograph taken by Guy Livesay, who lives right here in eastern North Carolina, was a winner! Other winning photos can be seen in the January, 2010 issue.
Many a late afternoon here at Big Mill you might see Guy and other photographers wandering around looking for that perfect photograph. Some of the folks are snapping shots of brides, graduates, babies — often with Old Red Truck taking center stage.
Photo by Guy Livesay
But Guy can be seen patiently waiting by a zinnia, sunflower, cleome or azalea for just the right shot of a hummingbird or butterfly or bee – any of Mother Nature’s creatures are beautiful in the photos of a gifted artist like Guy.
Photo by Guy Livesay
With these wonderful photos each perfect creature momentarily stands still for us to see. When you come to visit Big Mill B&B, be sure to bring your camera. These birds and butterflies will pose for you.
Note: You can see more of Guy’s work at Livesay Photography. If you see a bridge, a pack house or an old red truck in their photos, chances are that the photo was taken here at Big Mill.
Big Mill Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787
Merry Christmas from Chloe Ann and all of us here at Big Mill
I still have this outfit.
Life on the farm is always magic at Christmas time. Today I walked to the woods (too wet for Old Red Truck) and found holly with berries. When I was growing up my dad and I would go into the woods to gather holly, pine and cedar. We had such fun. We hope all our friends, family and wonderful guests have a very merry holiday. You have made every year a special year, we will remember for a long time. Thank you.
Love from all of us at Big Mill: Chloe Ann & Miss Moses – Moses is gone, but she is still in my heart Big Mill Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787
