Great Cooks: Dixon innkeeper shares her favorite bed and breakfast recipes

DIXON – How would you like to wake up to puff pancakes with strawberry sauce and sausages on the side? That is one of Lyn Miliano's favorite dishes to make for her bed and breakfast guests at the Crawford House Inn in Dixon. Not only because it tastes good, but because it is so pretty.

"I like to make pretty things for them," she said.

Miliano leads off our new feature, "Great Cooks in the Sauk Valley," which begins today.

Most of her cooking is done on the weekends at the Inn, where she serves a full breakfast – juice, coffee, a hot entrée, fruit and muffins – all homemade. French toast and puff pancakes are her morning menu basics.

"The puff pancakes look really good," she said, explaining that these are made in a Pyrex pie plate. "When they cook, the bottoms rise up the sides and make a bowl. They raise up about 3 inches above the sides. It is about 5 or 6 inches high, like a taco shell."

Another breakfast dish she makes is apple puff, in a ramekin, with caramel sauce.

"That is a little heavier than the puff pancakes," she said.

Michael VanDeVeire is Miliano's partner in the business, but Miliano is the innkeeper – the chief cook and bottle-washer. She has operated a bed and breakfast there for 11 years. She and VanDeVeire have owned the house for 17 years.

Miliano went to school in California to learn how to be a bed and breakfast innkeeper. She looked for a suitable house there to begin her new career, but they were all too expensive in California. She moved back to the Sauk Valley area, where she had previously lived, in Mount Morris. She moved to Geneva and started looking within a 50-mile radius. It wasn't long until she spotted the house that would be perfect for her venture.

"I looked at the house and fell in love with it," she said. "We bought it purposely to turn into a bed and breakfast."

The Crawford House offers three guest rooms, and will have a fourth ready by the end of the year. Most of the guests come on Friday and Saturday nights.

"But we will take guests   during the week, if they come there," she said.

Miliano works for Lutheran Social Services during the week. She cooks breakfast at the Inn, but enjoys cooking other meals, as well, for family and friends.

"I like to cook Italian meals, especially lasagna," Miliano said. "Also chicken Marsala, which is nice and quick and easy, although it doesn't look like it is. I like to cook what I like to eat."

Her dad cooked, and she has enjoyed cooking since childhood, but does not recall cooking much as a child. Her mom cooked for the family, she said.

"I was fortunate, I met a lot of chefs in California, who introduced me to various forms of cooking," she said. "I've done a lot of traveling. I went to Bangkok, Thailand, where I learned to cook Thai. But I probably learned the most while I was in California, cooking with a group of friends. That's where I did most of my experimenting."

She also got excited about dressing up the tables while having dinner with her friends, cooking with and for each other – just having fun.

"I learned a lot in that group," she said.

She also is not shy when she finds a dish she likes in a restaurant. She goes to the chef and asks how the dish was put together. "And they will usually tell you," she said.

Miliano shares a few of her favorite recipes:



Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Makes 2 loaves

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups granulated sugar

1 (15-ounce) can Libby's pure pumpkin

4 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup orange juice or water

1 cup sweetened dried, fresh or frozen cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans. Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and orange juice or water in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans. Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.



Peaches and Cream Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

MUFFINS

1 cup canned peaches, drained (save juice)

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons oil

1 cup milk

FILLING

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon reserved peach juice

1 teaspoon almond extract

TOPPING

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar

For muffins: Dice drained peaches to the size of peas. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, combine eggs and oil. Then whisk in milk. Combine egg and flour mixtures. Then fold in diced peaches.

For filling: Beat cream cheese, sugar, peach juice and almond extract.

Fill greased muffin tins half full of batter. Drop 1 teaspoon of the filling into each
muffin cup of the batter. Top with 1-1/2 more tablespoons of batter.

For topping: Mix cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle over muffins.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve warm.



Crepe Cups

CREPES

Makes 24

1 1/4 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

2 tablespoons butter

Up to 1 teaspoon lemon extract

FILLING                                                       

Makes filling for about 12 crepes

8 to 10 eggs                                                          

1/4 to 1/2 cup milk                                                  

1/2 teaspoon salt                                                          

1/4 teaspoon pepper                                                    

Chopped red, green or yellow peppers may be added if desired.         

1/2 pound cubed, lean ham or cooked sausage          

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded   

To make the crepes, blend or mix all crepe ingredients well.

Pour into 5-inch circles on a well-greased skillet or crepe-maker and cook.
(Makes about 24. Refrigerate extras or make all crepes ahead and store between
waxed paper.)

For the filling (fills about 12 crepes), mix all ingredients except the meat and cheese.

Generously grease 12 muffin tins. Press cooled crepes into tins, being careful not to tear them while lightly ruffling the edges. Fill the bottom of tins with meat. Pour the egg mixture over the meat until the crepe cups are two-thirds full. Top with cheese. Put aluminum foil loosely over the crepe (so edges don't burn) and bake in a 350-degree oven for 45-50 minutes. Carefully remove the crepes from the tins with a spoon.

Pass sour cream and salsa for topping.



Bacon/Cheese Muffins

12 muffins

6 slices bacon                                                   

2 cups all-purpose flour                                               

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup bacon drippings/or corn oil

1 egg

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter/spray standard muffin tins.

Cook bacon until crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain and cool.

Crumble the cooled bacon and set aside. Reserve drippings to 1/3 cup. Add oil if necessary to make 1/3 cup.

In a medium-sized bowl, stir and toss together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, drippings/oil and egg until smooth. Add to the combined dry ingredients, along with the crumbled bacon and 1 cup of the cheese, and stir just until blended.

Spoon into prepared muffin tins, filling each cup about three-quarters full. Sprinkle tops with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the tins for 3 minutes, than remove.

All recipes courtesy of The Crawford House Inn/Lyn Miliano, innkeeper

Tip of the Week

No buttermilk in the fridge? Just add a dollop of lemon juice or vinegar to regular milk and let sit for a couple of minutes.

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Grace Whitten
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Daily Gazette
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