Is it because of our (wonderful) warm dry spell on the Long Beach Peninsula that lasted almost 100 days without much moisture? Or is it because we are having our Wild Mushroom Celebration this weekend at Boreas that the higher power has halted the handsome King Boletus (porcini) mushroom from peaking up from the soil? Even last year, a very dry summer into fall, we had porcini’s and matsu’s. Veronica Williams, our friendly forager and queen of the woods, has been unable to find any mushrooms in her favorite productive spots. We are sad. Maybe today will be the day, after a week of some moisture, that the beauties will show their domes and emerge from hiding. We can only hope! So it’s out with the dehydrated porcini’s and perhaps at Pelicano Restaurant tonight, we will dine on five courses of mushrooms–they just might not be WILD ONES!
We normally worship the King Boletus this weekend. Alas, the King is in hiding!
We are concerned about the lack of rain in the Pacific Northwest because with the rains come the beautiful, plentiful wild mushrooms. Only a couple of tenths of rain have fallen, mostly as mist, since mid-July. The chanterelle season, in and around the Long Beach, Washington Peninsula, was surprisingly good in spite of the dry weather. But come rain or shine, we will be celebrating the Wild Mushroom from October 19-21 for the 11th year of Boreas Inn’s Annual Wild Mushroom Celebration! Veronica Williams, our “All Wild” professional forager will be available to take our guests foraging on Saturday the 20th. She will also host a discussion in the Boreas living room that is open to the public on Sunday the 21st. She always brings dehydrated wild mushrooms to sell along with her Wild Mushroom cookbook. Please call if you’re planning on attending the very informal discussion at 11 a.m. on Sunday, the 20th!
Though we were booked up for this event for over six months, we had a cancellation, and the beautiful Pacifica guest room is open for this extra-special weekend. $590 for two people includes 2 nights at Boreas, 2 lavish breakfasts including our five-course Wild Mushroom Celebration Brunch with Veronica on Sunday, a five-course Wild Mushroom and matching Washington Wine dinner for two (with the celebration group!) at Pelicano Restaurant on the Port, all taxes and restaurant gratuity are also included. Add an extra night at our $150 “Walk-in Rate”! (Most of the guests have added a Thursday night to their weekend!) Mushroom foraging with Veronica on Saturday, the 20th, is $45 pp. Call today to get our last room for this relaxing celebration of the wild mushroom extravaganza! This special is not listed on our reservation site, so if you book online, ask for the Wild Mushroom Celebration in your note to us and we will adjust your reservation for you!
Wild Mushrooms abound around the Long Beach Washington Peninsula!
Boreas Inn is all yours, decorated with love for the 2011 Holiday Season! Utilize one room for the ultimate peaceful and romantic time or bring family and friends and fill all five rooms for a flat rate of $595 plus tax per night for two nights minimum. (Ten people maximum–kids over 8 are fine.) This is a $320 per night savings. Arrive on the 23rd, if you would like three nights at this great rate or stay a little later. This ready-made holiday removes the stress and lets you relax and enjoy the season. All you need to do is bring your own gifts for under the tree. The stockings are already hung by the chimney with care–but you can bring your own! Gather your friends and family and enjoy this unique opportunity to rent the entire inn, one room or all five of Boreas’ beautiful guest rooms for your Christmas Holiday. This once-a-year special even includes our signature breakfasts with a Champagne Brunch on Christmas Day! If you would like to arrive on December 23rd, you can extend your special deal to three nights. We will arrange your holiday dinners too! (The Inn is also available for Hannukah starting December 20th–complete with menorah and candles!) You can see lots of pics of our 2011 decorations on www.facebook.com/BoreasInn!
This magical star-lit view can be yours for Christmas!
This is Susie’s favorite side-dish. That’s right….there’s more! We often harvest the Porcini (King Boletus) Mushrooms within feet of the inn. When Bill is not out tromping around in the dunes foraging, we have two professional foragers supplying us with our local wild mushrooms in addition to other bounty from the area. Boreas Inn sits in the primary sand dunes next to the Pacific Ocean in historic Long Beach, Washington. Noted for fine breakfast dining, ocean views, the most luxurious beds for a dreamy nights’ sleep and beautiful surroundings, this Long Beach Washington Bed and Breakfast has class without pretense!
Gravy:
Wild Mushroom and Sausage Gravy
1/2 pound bulk pork sausage
3/4 pound wild mushrooms, brushed clean, trimmed and coarsely chopped * (see note)
1/4 cup minced onion
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons fresh minced chive
2 cups half-and-half or milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons sherry (optional)
Biscuits:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter cut into pieces
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons fresh minced chives
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly butter (or spray) a heavy baking sheet. For the biscuits, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to blend. Add the butter and pulse until it’s finely chopped and mixture has the consistency of coarse cornmeal. (You can also cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives.). Transfer the mixture to a bowl, add the milk and chives and stir until the batter is evenly mixed–or keep the ingredients in the processor and very gently pulse. Don’t over-mix or you will have tough, heavy biscuits!
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Press the dough into a circle about six inches across and one inch thick. Cut the dough into quarters, setting the biscuits on the baking sheet with one inch or so between them. Bake the biscuits until they are puffed and lightly brown on top, 12-15 minutes. Transfer them to a rack to cool.
Cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat until cooked through and lightly browned, 12-15 minutes. Stir often and break up the sausage chunks as they cook. Spoon out and discard excess fat. Add the mushrooms and onion; increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are tender and any liquid they give off is evaporated, 5-7 minutes. Add the four and cook for 1-2 minutes longer, stirring so that the flour evenly coats the sausage and mushrooms. Slowly stir in the milk or half and half and cook until the gravy has thickened, 5-7 minutes. Stir in the chives and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the sherry just before serving.
To serve, cut each of the biscuits in half horizontally and set the bottom halves on the individual plates. Generously spoon the mushroom-sausage gravy over, top with the top of the biscuit. Sprinkle with paprika and garnish the plate with fresh herbs or edible flowers. Makes 4 servings.
*I prefer to use 1/2 pound dried porcini mushrooms reconstituted in a cup or so of water. Drain the mushrooms and save the liquid. Make the wild mushroom and sausage gravy the night before and then use the saved liquid to thin the gravy prior to heating and serving. The liquid adds more depth to the wild mushroom flavor of the dish. You can double or triple the recipe and freeze. Freeze extra unbaked biscuits and bake as needed. Delicious!
Bill and I just returned from our brief weekly disappearing act to eat Serious Pizza at Cape Disappointment State Park in Ilwaco on the Long Beach, Washington Peninsula. First of all, this park is NOT a disappointment–it is our favorite Washington State Park. It was named “Cape Disappointment” because in 1788, Captain John Meares, a fur trader, was disappointed because this was not the opening to the river–and is, in fact, is located just north of the infamous Mouth of the Columbia River! Cape Disappointment is also home to the National Park housing Maya Lin’s “Confluence Project” honoring the Indian tribes Lewis and Clark encountered at the confluences of the rivers on their journey west. Captain Clark and 11 of the “Corps of Discovery” hiked all over the land that is now Cape Disappointment State Park and from McKenzie Head, saw their first panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean! Then they proceeded to hike north up the Peninsula, right across the property that is now Boreas Inn, located on the 1805 high water mark. So you get to sleep right on the Lewis and Clark Trail!
Of course, one of the most scenic parts of the Park are the two lighthouses, The North Head Lighthouse and the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. The North Head is easily explored by parking in the lot and walking down to the lighthouse on a road alongside the rock face overlooking the Pacific Ocean and just north of Benson Beach. This is a place to linger. All day. The waves, huge in the winter but omnipresent, are hypnotic. The color of the water seems to change from blue to green to gray in a storm, but always a stunning contrast with the white tips of the peaks of the waves. Whale watching from the North Head is often rewarding. We look for the clumps of kelp offshore and occasionally see the spouts. The pelicans, eagles, many varieties of gulls, terns and a huge array of seabirds make this spot make for some of the best birdwatching in the West. Cape D lighthouse is a hike from the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (in winter and anytime, the best view of the Mouth of the Columbia and the jetties), around Dead Man’s Cove. Our guests come from around the world to see these two lighthouses, within miles of Boreas!
I mentioned Serious Pizza! Well–seriously now, take the combination of a wood-fired pizza oven, burning cherry and apple, the “00 fino” flour imported from Italy, imported cheeses, meats from a great Seattle butcher chop and a location at Waikiki Beach at Cape D (as we call it), and you have not only the recipe for the best wood-fired pizza in Southwest Washington, but a spectacular setting near the amphitheater at Cape D State Park. With eagles flying overhead (perhaps looking hungrily at your pizza-or maybe at your dog) and osprey circling around with crows and gulls harrassing them, you have an experience you will never forget. Our favorite pizza is, you guessed it, “The Boreas”–the vegetarian pizza with garlic olive oil base, sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives and pepperoni. How special is it to have a pizza named after Boreas Inn? State Parks built Jim and Chi, the purveyors of this fine pizza, a permanent structure so that visitors to the park, including campers staying in the 240 campsites, can have pizza! We call ahead to avoid waiting perhaps an hour for the most memorable pizza. It’s truly Neopolitano–a thin delectable crust and just the right amount of cheese for a non-guilt producing light meal. They also have wood-fired oysters and mouth-watering wood-fired wings. Homemade ice cream and brownies….oh my! Watch for Jim and Chi’s Serious Pizza to come soon to the town of Long Beach!
I have attached a very fine video about Cape Disappointment State Park to this blog! It stars a few of our favorite State Park employees and some of the best scenery this area has to offer. The Park is located 10 minutes from Boreas Inn. We are soooo lucky to have Cape D State Park in our backyard. So come to Boreas Inn and we will direct you to our favorite park, Cape Disappointment! Enjoy the YouTube about Cape D.!
SandSations, in Long Beach, Washington, was voted #1 Best Sand Castle contest in the USA by Coastal Living Magazine! The sand sculpture weekend is coming right up on July 20th-24th. Boreas still has rooms available if you would like to build castles and sculptures or if you simply enjoy marveling at the artistry of the masters, watching teams working together to achieve a goal and learn how the process works. I used to participate in the Cannon Beach competition for around 12 years and my team used to place #1 in our sand sculpting masters category. We sculpted completely by hand. We were consistently top prize winners–that is, until this group of architects from Seattle were added to our category and used sophisticated forms and packing devices…and we didn’t always place first after that. (Coincidentally, we had one of those Seattle architect/sand sculptors as a guest at the Inn!) But talking about immediate gratification–you take a plot of sand, dig up a pile, decide who on your team does what well (I’m good at packing, making hands and letters) then together, the team works magic and achieves a goal within hours. Nothing artificial…just sand and water. It is wonderful! We used to finish off our plots with perfectly smooth borders and beautifully worked lettering. I haven’t seen anything to match our fine finish work anywhere. We usually constructed the sculpture with a theme that was based upon a pun. We were so good and getting a blue ribbon was the icing on the cake. Our Captain’s mother, Betty Lou Tolan was the founder of the contest in Cannon Beach in the early 60′s. The party to celebrate our achievement afterward was always the best time of the year. Ah… those were the days.
This contest in Long Beach awards cash to the winners. We got only ribbons at Cannon Beach and maybe a printed certificate. It didn’t matter. The intensity of taking on a project with sand and sea water and coming up with a fine sculpture was reward enough. SandSations is a great event here in Long Beach, Washington and it’s growing every year. You can experience the great hospitality at Boreas Inn, dine on our feast at breakfast time, walk our trail to the beach and watch the SandSations competition! So come to the beach for a long weekend, July 21-24!
Boreas Inn still has a couple of really beautiful rooms open for the 4th of July holiday weekend! Since the 4th is on a Monday, a few of our guests coming for the weekend are actually leaving right on the 4th–so we have a couple rooms open on the 4th proper in addition to the 1st and 2nd of July. This is NEXT weekend–wow! We are asking for a three-night minimum over the weekend, but as we approach the holiday, we will compromise on two-night stays, if we must, but three nights is so relaxing at Boreas!
We love the 4th of July in Long Beach, Washington. Well–sort of. It is clearly the most exciting day of the year on the gorgeous Long Beach Peninsula. We would love it more if all the people packed out what they pack in. (Our Boreas guests are always perfect–it’s the other 20,0000 guests on the Peninsula who aren’t so perfect!) The Long Beach Peninsula is truly a place for amateur and professional pyromaniacs!
To address this post-explosive and partying beach clean-up problem on the 4th of July on the Long Beach Peninsula, there are now “Treasure Our Beach” volunteers at all the beach approaches, handing out trash bags and fliers encouraging everyone who comes to the beach to picnic and blow things up, to take their trash home with them! We treasure our Treasure our Beach volunteers. Thank you all! If any of our readers would like to help in this effort, please let us know. Shelly Pollock’s Grass Roots Garbage Gang will have hundreds of volunteers combing the beaches on July 5th to pick up after the 4th of July revelers and we are grateful to those volunteers also! This is a big beach clean-up and we always need more volunteers!
Well first of all, on Saturday, the 2nd of July, to lead off the pyrotechnic displays, there is a stunning and sparkly professional fireworks show on the Port of Ilwaco over the harbor. We like to reserve tables for our guests at Pelicano on Saturday at the Port of Ilwaco, before the 4th so that they have front row seats for the Ilwaco Fireworks display. So in addition to wine pairings at Pelicano that evening, there are fireworks pairings also! If you have dinner at Pelicano, you will also have a place to park right on the harbor for the fireworks. It is truly inspiring to see the glittering on the water and this display just whets the appetite for the total pyrotechnic craziness that is the true 4th of July in Long Beach, WA. We’ve never seen anything quite like Long Beach on the 4th. So there is a method to our madness–we like our guests to dine on the best for breakfast and dinner and watch the celebration of our nation’s independence!
We brag about our 28-mile long beach. Well just about every foot of our very long beach will be filled with cars, families, picnics and We’d estimate–millions of dollars of fireworks that will blow your socks off. This doesn’t include the very fine professional show that happens at dark on the ocean-end of the Bolstad Beach approach five blocks south of Boreas Inn. It’s all FREE and quite insane. Stay on the boardwalk or sit in the back yard of Boreas Inn, (the hot tub has a great view) and stay a safe distance from all the pyromaniacs and you will have a great time in Long Beach, Washington on the 4th of July, 2011. I found a video taken by visitors to the Peninsula last year and you can get a little idea of what it’s like in front of Boreas Inn on the 4th. Hang onto your sparklers, baby!
Grab our last rooms and watch the 2nd and 4th of July shows at Boreas Bed and Breakfast Inn on the lovely Long Beach Peninsula!
Come to Long Beach this weekend and get the best of both worlds–luxurious B&B, great food and razor clamming–which is getting right down to the real nitty gritty (to coin a phrase from the 70′s)! Crawl out of your beautiful, warm, cushy Boreas bed in the morning an hour or so before low tide on Sunday, then freeze your fannies off in the early morning digs and be back at the Inn with your limit of 15 razor clams, warming up by the fire with our great coffee by 9:30 am breakfast time! The first dig on Saturday is actually a late afternoon dig–so you can work up an appetite for dinner at one of our fine dinner houses! We will make all arrangements!
Long Beach, Washington will open for razor clam digging for FOUR days at noon March 19! Dan Ayres, WDFW coastal shellfish manager, advises prospective diggers to pay particular attention to the shift in digging times during this month’s razor-clam opening. “It gets a little tricky scheduling digs at this time of year, but the goal is to arrange openings during the best clam tides,” Ayres said. “The split schedule also provides an opportunity for back-to-back digs the evening of Saturday, March 19, and the morning of Sunday, March 20.”
Digging days and low tides for March are:
Saturday, March 19, 7:04 p.m. (-0.1 ft); Long Beach
Sunday, March 20, 7:36 a.m. (-0.5 ft); Long Beach
Monday, March 21, 8:23 a.m. (-0.9 ft); Long Beach
· Tuesday March 22, 9:12 a.m. (-1.0 ft); Long Beach So get your clam digging license, required if you are age 15 or older and come down and dig some razor clams. Ayres reminds diggers that WDFW is tentatively planning another razor-clam opening April 7-9 until noon each day at Long Beach and Twin Harbors if marine toxin tests show the clams are safe to eat. Licenses expire on March 31, so you need to make sure, for the April digs coming up, that you get a new license.
It was a beautiful, calm day of razor clamming at Beard's Hollow
We promise you a beautiful, lazy weekend at Boreas if you decide to visit us. We have room for you and would love to cook up a storm in the morning if it’s not stormy enough outside–and even if it is. Don’ t listen to the weather guys–they are usually wrong, unless they tell you it’s going to be wonderful–because sunshine, rain, wind…it’s always wonderful here. The fireplaces beckon and we’re offering our Walk-in Special at our romantic getaway by the sea. $150 a night including our “perfectly plated” 3 course or more breakfast (plus tax of course). We don’t want to be lonely–so come to Long Beach and we will fix you up with two fabulous dinners out at our fine dinner houses and promise you the most relaxing weekend with fireplaces blazing and our new hot tub beckoning. We hope to see you soon!
Not only will you be treated to sumptuous beds with the softest linens and feather beds placing goose down above and below your tired and deserving bods enticing you to sleep like babies, you will be treated to a weekend of culinary expertise starting with your daily candle light brunch feast by the fireplace! With only one guest room remaining, you can count on these “simple” pleasures continuing on for President’s Day weekend (February 18,19,20–we have rooms available!) and throughout the year. Boreas Inn specializes in romance, there’s no doubt about it! We consistently treat our guests like royalty, but with style and humor (at least we hope you will think we’re humorous!). Fine dining, whether at the breakfast table at Boreas Inn, partnering with our local restaurants, is of crucial importance to all of us on the beautiful Long Beach Peninsula in SW Washington State. We are in “foodie heaven”. That’s why we all have to work out at the gym a few times a week! (New Year’s Resolution #1!)
Valentine’s Weekend calls upon not just us, but also our restauranteurs, to “pony up” with the most wonderful special Valentine’s weekend menu’s. Sample the Shelburne Inn Restaurant’s menu–itself a beautiful piece, not to mention the cuisine that completes their package! Take a peek at the hotlink and then let us know if you would like us to book you a table at The Shelburne Inn Restaurant over Valentine’s or President’s Day weekend!
Valentine's Day at Boreas Inn will be the highlight of your February!
