Category Archives: Recipes

Build a Gingerbread Lighthouse for Christmas

1457729_227027730804333_1283741170_nAuthor and friend Elinor DeWire posted the photo at left on her Facebook page.

I was interested to see if it was real or not so I did a Google Image Search for the photo and look what I found!

This is definitely a gingerbread lighthouse and the page below from Coastal Living has the instructions.

Build Your Own Gingerbread Lighthouse

Building a gingerbread house has many steps, and it does take awhile. But it’s not as difficult as it looks. Just relax and have fun with it—we’d love to see what you come up with!

Craft a Gingerbread Lighthouse   Coastal Living Continue reading Build a Gingerbread Lighthouse for Christmas

Now You Have to Cook Them!

After posting the story Then You’ve Got to Clean Them! I obtained permission from Pacific Wild to use some photos showing the cooking of the salmon by the people in Bella Bella, British Columbia (BC). These pictures just made me drool. The people were cooking planked salmon which has to be one of the tastiest ways of cooking salmon over an open fire. See the photo and gallery below:

Planked Salmon - Bella Bella - Pacific Wild
photo courtesy of Pacific Wild

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The photos above are in no set order – just as I downloaded them. On the lighthouse we used to cook the salmon many ways but this was the most fun, and the tastiest. Continue reading Now You Have to Cook Them!

West Coast Recipes – Part One

 

I thought this might be interesting for people in other parts of the world who read this website. There are many food recipes associated with the West Coast of Canada and USA – many from the First Nations people, and many from the residents be they mariners, lighthouse keepers, villagers, prospectors, hunters or others. I will try and see what I can find. I will try and post about five (5) recipes per post. If others have any contributions, please pass them on. Full credit will be given.

 

One recipe I have posted can be found here: Thomas Crosby Muffins. Also a book was written about British Columbia lighthouses called The Lighthouse Cookbook by Anita Stewart. It is an excellent book and is available from Amazon.com.

 

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1. Salmon Fish Cakes

Now this is one of the simplest recipes to make, and I learned about making them from my wife Karen who’s father used to cook them while out on the West Coast fishing for salmon. His recipe was pretty simple: Use whatever is available! Take some leftover cooked salmon, mix it about half and half with some leftover cooked potatoes, throw in an egg to help hold it together and season with salt and pepper. If available, add a few chopped green onions. Make into patties and fry in one-quarter inch (1/4″) oil, flipping once until brown on both sides. Serve with whatever condiment is available – lemons and/or ketchup.  Enjoy!

Below is a more cookbook style of making the same thing:

Salmon Fish Cakes

1 1/4 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1 lb salmon fillets, skin on, scaled and bones removed (or in a pinch try using 2 cans of Clover Leaf’s canned boneless/skinless salmon) Continue reading West Coast Recipes – Part One

Are You Looking for Lighthouse-Related Items?

When I was browsing a crafty website called Completely Coastal which I reviewed earlier I came across an advertisement for Etsy. Searching for things lighthouse, I typed that into the Etsy page search box. The page in the picture below came up.

It is page one (1) of two hundred eighteen (218) pages of lighthouse-related items, for a total of 8,696! Enjoy! Tell us what you bought!

Clicking on the photo below takes you to the lighthouse search items on Etsy.

Lighthouse Restaurant in Indiana, USA

If we can have a Lighthouse Restaurant in British Columbia, Canada, then why not another, but different one in the USA? You are guaranteed that if it has a lighthouse theme, then seafood will be served. This one appears to have a great reputation.

The Lighthouse Restaurant of Cedar Lake, Indiana was voted “the best seafood” by nwi.com in the Times of Northwest Indiana “Best of 2012”.

Manager Rich Arthur attributes the Lighthouse Restaurant’s popularity to its fresh food and culinary expertise. “First of all, the seafood is fresh and flown in daily,” Arthur said. “Secondly, we have an incredibly talented culinary staff.”

“We are obviously also well-known for our location which is right on Cedar Lake,” Arthur said. “When the sun goes down in the summer time this is the place to be.” Continue reading Lighthouse Restaurant in Indiana, USA

The Lightkeepers by Graham Chandler

Originally published in the January/February 2007 issue of Legion Magazine

We hadn’t expected gourmet Hungarian goulash served up on Royal Doulton china. But at the Cape Scott light station on the remote northwestern tip of Vancouver Island–a place that is normally engulfed in wet grey and storms–today is an exception. The sky is azure, there’s not a puff of wind, and Principal Keeper Harvey Humchitt and his partner Assistant Keeper Todd Maliszewski have house guests.

After sweating through 24 kilometres of squishy rain forest trails we’re no match for the fine linens and silver flatware spread impeccably before us on the dining table. The trek through the forest is the only way to get here without a boat or helicopter. After a couple of greeting barks from their dog Lady, Humchitt welcomes us to Cape Scott. Continue reading The Lightkeepers by Graham Chandler

Mother’s Day Brunch in Canada 2012

Many Canadians celebrate Mother’s Day by showing their appreciation for Mothers or Mother figures. The Mother’s Day date in Canada is on the second Sunday of May each year and it will be on Sunday, May 13, 2012 this year.

Lighthouse Bistro and Pub, Nanaimo, BC

For all of you living on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada (or in Vancouver) there is a special Mother’s Day Brunch at the Lighthouse Bistro and Pub in Nanaimo, BC (Vancouver island). Continue reading Mother’s Day Brunch in Canada 2012

Thomas Crosby V – One of the “Bookboats”

TCV underway

One of the most frequent visitors to the lighthouses, beside the Coast Guard (CG) ships and helicopters, was the United Church medical mission boat, nicknamed a God-Boat or Godship, the Thomas Crosby V (TCV).

The following article used to be on the Prince Rupert Library (PRL) website. The article was borrowed with their permission before it was removed from their website.

In this story the boats were nicknamed the “Bookboats” because they brought with them a library of books, both fiction and non-fiction for all ages, plus an assortment of magazines. After the Prince Rupert Library ceased sending boxes of books to the lighthouses, the TCV was one of our only sources of reading material.

TCV at Boat Bluff - photo Ed Whitebone

Not only books, they also brought friendship, and on many trips, a nurse. The nurses were most welcome to families with young children, advising on baby problems and administering inoculations when required. The minister on board came as a friend and was welcomed as one. They performed baptisms and weddings, and provided counselling when required. Just like the lightkeepers, the ministers on the Thomas Crosby V were jack-of-all-trades. – JAC Continue reading Thomas Crosby V – One of the “Bookboats”