Cornmeal Flapjacks Camai Bed & Breakfast

Caroline Valentine at Camai Bed and Breakfast in Anchorage, Alaska, tried a new breakfast recipe this week for Cornmeal Flapjacks served with berries. Winter is almost over and the revision of the recipes for summer guests has almost been completed. Table is set and breakfast is ready. Come stay at Camai Bed and Breakfast and join us for breakfast.

Cornmeal Flapjacks

1 cup cornmeal
¾ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 tablespoons molasses
1 ½ cups low-fat buttermilk
2 cups strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or mixed of berries
If doing this in the winter you could use frozen berries or bananas.

Mix together the dry ingredients. Add the beaten egg, oil, molasses and buttermilk.
Heat griddle to 325 degree, then oil. Drop almost ¼ cup batter onto griddle for each flapjack. Cook about 2 minutes on each side. Keep in warming drawer until ready to serve.

Serve with berries and maple syrup or blueberry syrup.

Makes about 12—4 inch flapjacks.

To make this recipe more healthy I suggest using ¾ cup wheat flour instead of white flour.

Either way you will enjoy!

Kodiak Alaska Fishing

Abundant fishing on Kodiak Island of Alaska occurs due to several factors. One is plankton. Many of the forces of nature come together in the waters off Kodiak Island in Alaska. Why? It’s all about plankton’s needs.

Plankton need nitrate, iron and sunlight. The Pacific Current heads west from Japan, sometimes fast, sometimes slow and it slams into the panhandle of Alaska. There it splits into the Southern California current and the part going north is the Alaskan Current. The Alaska bight swings it around and directs back west. In the u-turn a gyre is set up pumping up deep cold nitrate rich water.

Storm fronts also heading west hit the Alaska Panhandle’s 14,000 foot mountains and dump enormous amounts of rain. When this rain reaches the sea, it is nitrate poor but very rich in iron. In the winter this water forms a narrow vertical wedge that is weakly stratified. The weak stratification drags what plankton that grows deep and out of the sunlight. In the Summer this vertical wedge re-forms as a shallow horizontal layer on top of the cold water in a highly stratified system where the plankton can't get at the nitrates. During Spring and Fall life is good for plankton.

But that isn't all. As the Alaskan Current moves west irregularities in the coastline, small islands, and the drag against the ocean floor sets up eddies. These eddies promote some mixing. And when the Alaskan current slams against Kodiak Island currents from the deep are forced up and marine life, birds, and sea lions, harbor seals become very thick and abundant. Welcome to Kodiak one of the world's richest fisheries. The Kodiak Project documents fly fishing on the Karluk.

For Easterners you have a similar situation with a cold deep layer laden with nitrate and iron forced up by the Grand Banks into the sunlight.

While Craig and Caroline of Camai Bed and Breakfast in Anchorage have lived in Alaska for more than 34 years, this weekend is the first that Craig has visited Kodiak, Alaska. He wrote the above report.

Pecan Cinnamon Rolls recipe

This breakfast recipe for Pecan Cinnamon Rolls is a modification of the recipe for Bacon Pecan Cinnamon Rolls found on food.com. At Camai Bed and Breakfast’s house for breakfast this past weekend I prepared the recipe for Bacon Cinnamon Rolls. I always prepare the recipe exactly is written the first time. While it is tasty, in my opinion, it is not as good as the one below which I have modified, as indicated.

The recipe is easy to prepare and its presentation is impressive.

Please let me know what you think of this recipe. You may post a comment to this blog if you wish.

Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 cup pecan halves
• ½ lb bacon, cooked crisp crumbled (I suggest omitting this.*)
• 24 refrigerated biscuits (large ones)
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• ¾ cup butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar* (original recipe calls for regular sugar)
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Spray bundt pan with non-stick spray. Spread pecans on bottom. If you are using crumbled bacon, also spread it on bottom of pan. Set this aside.

In gallon size Ziploc bag mix ¾ cup sugar and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. Place biscuit three at at time in Ziploc bag. Shake well until each is coated.

Place pieces into a bundt pan on top of the pecans. About six biscuits will form a first layer. Stagger each layer. You will have about four layers.

Combine melted butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. Pour over biscuits.

Bake until golden brown for about 35 minutes in 350 degree oven. Serve warm.

Camai Bed & Breakfast House’s Bathroom Remodel

The Rose Suite bathroom’s newest remodel at Camai Bed and Breakfast is now completed. Our house is frequently under construction which makes it challenging to schedule work while making sure that guests are not aware of the construction. We have done fourteen major remodels.

The latest work, a minor one, was to remove a huge cabinet which served no function. By removing the cabinet the bathroom now looks even more spacious.

Last Friday the very large cabinet which extended up to the ceiling was removed. The cabinet is still good and was donated to Habitat Re-store where it will be re-sold. At Camai B&B we are an eco conscious and green award-winning bed and breakfast.

After the removal, the wall was taped and mudded. Finally the wall was textured. Two days later I painted. A framed piece of Chinese art which Craig’s mother gave to Craig now hangs on the newly painted wall. New guests arrived same evening the project was completed.

Camai Bed and Breakfast's House Energy Efficient Plan

Anchorage Alaska's Camai Bed and Breakfast had an energy audit done for our house this past fall. Our house is undergoing several important jobs to become more eco friendly. A major part of becoming more energy efficient was installing a Weil McLain Ultra boiler. I suggest to everyone considering a new boiler is that you find a reputable company. Moore Plumbing and Heating in Anchorage has been incredibly good! They worked very long days to get the job done and to do it correctly.

Secondly, I suggest having the new installation done in the winter. You will know immediately if something was not done exactly right. We have had two situations we would not have known about if it had not been winter and we needed the heat. The first occurred because two of the seven zone valves were mixed-up. Moore came immediately to fix it. Second problem was not getting heat from a zone valve to our garage. Moore Plumbing and Heating came promptly to fix that. Neither one of these situations would have been evident if we were in the summer months when we did not need heat from the boiler.

Now that the boiler installation is complete and working well, we contracted the job of adding insulation behind all the outer walls’ electrical outlets; insulating behind the molding around all of our windows; replacing windows where the double pane is no longer sealed.; and insulating light cans on our upper floor. This insulation job is not very exciting; however, it will save us considerable energy.

We will also be replacing all of our outer doors and weather stripping around them. While all of the outer doors have storm doors, replacing the doors will save substantial energy.

These are the major energy saving jobs we have contracted to have done at times when they will not impact our bed and breakfast guests.

Fall 2011 we will have our second energy audit and expect to have greatly improved our efficiency.

Moose at Camai House's Anchorage Garden

This moose visited our Anchorage Alaska bed and breakfast’s backyard winter garden. With more than 1600 moose living in Anchorage it is inevitable that you will see moose in the city. Camai B&B’s house has a backyard which borders Chester Creek where moose often browse especially during the winter months. Alaska wildlife within our city is abundant.

Our bed and breakfast guests often ask when the next moose will stroll by. It is unfortunate that the moose do not have a published time-table for their visits to our neighborhood. The more frequent time for their appearance is either early morning just after dawn or late afternoon.

This moose came and rested in the yard in the late afternoon before continuing her browsing trip down Chester Creek.

She is a frequent visitor this winter making it important for all of us to be aware of our surroundings before using the Chester Creek Trail system.

Energy Efficient Boiler Installed at Camai Bed and Breakfast

With temperatures dropping to minus 10 degrees F at night in Anchorage, Alaska, the installation of Camai Bed and Breakfast’s Weil MacLain ultra energy efficient boiler was done this past week.

The plumbers, Rich and Dustin, arrived from Moore Plumbing and Heating ready to do the first day’s work for the installation on Thursday. A snag with the venting was almost immediately discovered. With the more than fourteen major remodels to the B&B that have been done, the pipe from the boiler at the lowest floor up to the top floor some 2 ½ floors up was not a straight length. There were elbows. The new energy efficient boiler required special intake and exhaust pipes. Day one ended without the usual work being completed.

Day two brought the simplest solution. Only two different levels would have to have cuts in the sheet rock to access the pipes. One was on the top floor in our area. The other was in the kitchen’s pantry. Fortunately, neither one would effect our bed and breakfast guests.

The two plumbers arrived early Friday morning and worked at the getting the intake and exhaust pipes installed by mid-afternoon. Meanwhile the old boiler and the recently discovered broken water heater were removed. Late in the afternoon the new installation began. The plumbers worked until beyond midnight to get heat in the house. When they left, we had heat which was on and would not go off. Everyone was thankful for the heat since we had been without since early in the morning.

Day three only Dustin returned to wire the zone valves. He worked until 9 that night. He thought it was working; however, it needed trouble-shooting. A third plumber, Roy, came to do that. Roy left before 10 PM and declared that all looked good.

When we awoke this morning with our bedroom’s temperature at 86 degrees, we knew they switched at least one of the zone valves. Roy returned. It seems to be fixed.

This was a major project which we have needed for several years. It is good to have the high efficiency boiler. We look forward to using less energy while staying warm in the winter.