Recipes

Our guests often request the recipe for the spectacular and delicious oven pancake we usually serve on their first morning. Here it is - simply wonderful!

Finnish Oven Pancake
As found in
Breakfast in Bed
by Carol Frieberg

  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt (optional)
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup small-curd cottage cheese
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • Fresh berries and confectioners' sugar (optional)
  • Real maple syrup

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut butter into small pieces and place in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet or a 9- by 13-inch glass baking dish. Heat in oven until butter is melted. Combine eggs, sugar, and salt, if desired, in blender or electric mixer; mix at high speed for 1 minute. Continue to mix while slowly adding milk, then flour, then cottage cheese, then baking powder. Pour blended mixture into hot skillet or baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes, until pancake is puffed and beginning to brown. Remove from oven. Let sit 5 to 8 minutes before cutting. (Centre will fall.) Serve with berries and confectioners' sugar or with butter and warm maple syrup.

And here's another winner:

24-Hour Omelette
We usually serve this with chorizo, but have also had good results using sun-dried tomatoes.

  • 3 T unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing the dish
  • 10 slices high-quality sandwich bread (white or wheat, as preferred)
  • 3 C shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 C oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained, coarsely chopped
  • 8 large eggs
  • 3 C whole milk
  • 1 onion, grated
  • 1 t salt
  • 1 t ground black pepper
  • 1 t dry mustard
  • 1/2 t Tabasco sauce

Grease bottom and sides of 9" x 13" baking dish with butter. Spread the remaining 3 T butter on the bread, one side of each slice, then cut bread into 1-inch pieces. Scatter half the bread evenly into prepared dish and sprinkle with half the mozzarella, Parmesan, and tomatoes. Repeat with remaining bread, mozzarella, Parmesan, and tomatoes. Whisk together eggs, milk, onion, salt, pepper, mustard, and Tabasco and pour evenly over bread. Press lightly on the bread to submerge. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or as long as 36 hours.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove dish from refrigerator and uncover. Bake until puffed and golden brown, about 1 hour. Serve immediately.

A new addition to Rick's repertoire is a "Turkish breakfast," a savoury way to start the day.

Coat ramekins with olive oil, in which you crumble feta cheese. Slice healthy pieces of focaccia bread (Rick makes it topped with rosemary and coarse sea salt) and toast them under the broiler while poaching eggs, one for each guest. After the bread is toasted, slide the feta-filled ramekins under the broiler, just until slightly melted. Then top the cheese with a poached egg and sprinkle with aleppo pepper. Serve with the toasted bread and garnish with kalamata olives.

This is quite a savoury meal, so we finish it with a few scoops of homemade lemon sorbet - an unusual breakfast that always results in compliments to the chef!


Even the most finicky of dog guests like these special biscuits. Silas gets them as training treats, and highly recommends them.

Oatmeal and Cheese
Dog Biscuits/Training Treats

  • 1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
  • 1/3 cup margarine
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • ¾ cup cornmeal
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons instant bouillon
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 2 to 3 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.

In large bowl, combine oats, margarine and boiling water; let stand 10 minutes. Stir in cornmeal, sugar, bouillon, milk, cheese and egg; mix well. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition to form a stiff dough.

On a floured surface, knead in flour until dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Roll or pat out to ½-inch thickness. For biscuits, cut with cookie cutter (dogs prefer bone shapes!). Place 1 inch apart on cookie sheets and bake, 325 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Turn off oven and allow biscuits to cool overnight or until oven is cool.

Note: for training treats, roll out dough. Using a flat edge (such as a ruler), score a grid of little squares, without cutting through the dough. Bake and cool as above, then break the squares apart.

Freeze biscuits or treats, taking them out as needed.