Lakeview Bed and Breakfast's
Most Requested Recipes
(From the Independent Press, March 29, 2001)
BY DIANE MURNION
Hidden away on Castle Rock Lake Drive, at the edge of Colstrip, sits the Lakeview Bed and Breakfast. Debby is the proprietor, a connoisseur of fine food, which she serves to her many guests at the Inn.
Twenty-five years ago Debby came to work in Yellowstone Park and discovered that she was meant to live in Montana.
Growing up in Santa Monica, California, she prepared family meals as a matter of necessity.
When she was first married her goal was to prepare a new recipe every week. Debby has two sons and two daughters, some of whom still live at home, and assist her with the daily preparations. These days Debby enjoys serving and pleasing people, which is reflected in the atmosphere of the Lakeview Bed and Breakfast. Victorian decor fills every nook and cranny.
Between the kitchen and sitting area, a book by Jane Austen is nestled upon a hat box near a collection of china teapots.
Freshly prepared gourmet breakfasts are presented with an "inn-spired" touch. The tables are beautifully set, beckoning guests to the quiche of the day.
Homemade rolls, muffins, scones, fresh fruit, and hot beverages complete the meals.
When we ran our popular Tea Room, we served many different types of refreshing cold soups. This one is especially mouth watering.
SHRIMP BLITZ COLD SOUP
1 bottle (8 ounces) clam juice
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 garlic clove
1 package (8 ounces) frozen cooked salad shrimp, thawed
1 can (32 ounces) tomato juice
1 medium ripe avocado, diced
1/2 cup seeded and chopped cucumber
1/3 cup green onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon dill weed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (Tabasco)
1/8 teaspoon pepper
In a blender, combine clam juice and cream cheese; process until smooth. Pour into a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients; mix well. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours. YIELD: 8 servings (2 quarts)
APRICOT, TOASTED WALNUT, AND WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIP SCONES
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup real butter, chilled
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 ounces of white chocolate chips
1 cup toasted and chopped walnuts (see notes)
1 cup finely chopped dried apricots (they are easier to cut with clean, sharp scissors)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut butter into 1/2 inch cubes and distribute them over the flour mixture. With a pastry blender or two knives used scissors fashion, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, stir together the cream, egg, and vanilla. Add the cream mixture to the flour mixture and knead by hand until combined. Knead in the white chocolate chips walnuts, and apricots.
With lightly floured hands, pat the dough out into a 9 inch diameter circle in the center of an ungreased baking sheet. With a serrated knife, cut circle into 8 wedges. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned.
Remove the baking sheet to a wire rack and cook for 5 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the scones to the wire rack to cool. Recut into wedge, if necessary. Serve warm, or cool completely and store in an airtight container. Scones also freeze beautifully. Microwave a frozen scone about 45 seconds. Makes 8 scones.
Variation: My favorite way to serve them is to make them into heart shapes. To do this, on the lightly floured work surface, roll the dough with a lightly floured rolling pin to about 5/8 inch. Using a floured 3 3/4 inch heart shaped cookie cutter, cut the dough into hearts. Transfer the hearts to a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes or until a very light golden color.
Makes about 9 hearts.
Note: To toast walnuts, place the walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes, shaking the sheet a couple of times during baking, until the nuts are fragrant.
On our Bed and Breakfast guests' first morning with us, I enjoy serving this unique and popular dish, which most people have yet to experience.
PUFF BAKED PANCAKE, SERVED WITH FRESH STRAWBERRIES OR PEACHES
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour - unsifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
About 3 cups strawberries or peaches (canned are fine)
brown sugar to taste
Procedure:
Place butter in a 10 inch oven-proof skillet (I use a cast iron one). Place pan in a 425 degree oven until butter melts and bubbles, about 2-5 minutes. Meanwhile, beat together eggs, milk, 4 tablespoons sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. (I mix it in my blender.) Pour batter all at once into hot butter. Return to oven and bake 25-30 minutes, or until edges are puffed and brown. While puffed pancake is baking, mix about 1/2 cup brown sugar with about 3 tablespoons orange juice in a microwave-proof bowl. Microwave and stir periodically until sugar is dissolved. Carefully stir about 3 cups of fresh strawberries or peaches into the sugar mixture. (Canned sliced peaches in juice can be used in place of fresh peaches and orange juice. Just stir brown sugar into peaches with juice, and microwave and stir until sugar is dissolved.) When pancake is done, remove from oven, cut into fourths and put on plates. Spoon fruit with syrup over the top of pancake. Can be served with sour cream. I also like to serve it with a side of bacon or sausage. Wonderful and special! Serves 4.
Terrific for a special breakfast or brunch, this is a fantastic way to use day-old croissants.
FANTASTIC FRENCH TOAST
5 eggs
2/3 cup heavy or whipping cream
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Finely ground zest (orange part only of peel) of 1 orange
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
6 stale plain croissants, cut lengthwise in half
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
Confectioners' sugar
Procedure:
Beat the eggs and cream together. Add the orange juice, granulated sugar, orange zest, and cinnamon and whisk until well blended. Pour into a shallow bowl or pie plate.
Dip each croissant half in the egg mixture, turning once. Melt a few tablespoons of the butter in a skillet over medium heat. (I like to use my electric skillet at about 350). Add as many croissants as will fit and fry until golden on both sides. Repeat with the remaining croissants, adding butter to the skillet as needed.
Sift confectioners' sugar over the croissants. Serve immediately. Serve with a side of bacon or sausage. Elegant and delicious!
Makes 6 portions.


Debby serves lunch to guests at her Lakeview Bed and Breakfast in Colstrip. Overlooking Castle Rock Lake, it was opened in December 1997.
Colstrip:
From company town to
community at crossroads
(An excerpt from The Billings Gazette, Sunday, March 28, 1999 - front page of Magazine Section)
Story by MARY PICKETT of Gazette Staff
Colstrip isn't like other communities in Eastern Montana. And it isn't the town it used to be.
...
Some businesses have made their mark in the community.
Debby and Jim Vetsch opened the town's only bed and breakfast in December 1997 in their custom-built, cedar home overlooking Castle Rock Lake. Last year, they began serving lunches and then reservation-only dinners.
The business was a dream the couple had had for many years.
If Colstrip was once thought of as a town to live in for a while and then move on, that is changing.

B&B combines quiet, pampering in overlooked area
(From The Billings Gazette, Friday, July 2, 1999 - Enjoy! Section)
STORY & PHOTOS by CHRISTENE MEYERS
Gazette Entertainment Editor
COLSTRIP- Southeastern Montana often gets overshadowed by the more dramatic central, northern and western parts of the state.
But the people who live there are fiercely loyal to the prairie grasses and the bird life they protect.
And this year has been a spectacularly green one for Castle Rock Lake, a body of water unknown to much of the state.
While the lake is a secret, so is one of its residents, the Lakeview Bed and Breakfast.
"There just wasn't anything like a bed and breakfast," says Debby, "and we really didn't know how to go about making one. But here we are."
So from a large brown home lined with hollyhocks and other perennials, a B&B took shape, as the couple turned three bedrooms into a thriving enterprise.
Debby became booking and reservation agent, designer, decorator and proverbial cook and bottle washer, with help from the four Vetsch children, an 11-year-old and three teenagers.
"They help with the beds and lawn and some of the basic chores," says Debby, "and they're actually getting to be more helpful than we would have guessed."
The "cook" part of her moniker is literal, not just because of the typically lavish B&B breakfasts she prepares at 5 or 6 a.m., but because she also opened an eatery.
The Lakeview Tea Room took shape at Christmastime and has outdone even Debby's expectations. "We are doing about as much business as we can," she says, "considering that I do all cooking and serving."
Open all but Sundays, the tea room offers sandwiches, quiche and crab salad, with additional a la carte items.
"We have very little waste, which is something I'm glad of," says Debby. A surprising variety of breads, meats and cheese is offered. The five flower bedecked tables in the tea room (the room guests breakfast in) offer such delicacies as spinach strawberry salad, mushroom and bacon spinach salad, a crab salad sandwich on croissant and various changing daily specials on homemade breads. Prices range from $3.25 for halves to $4.50 with offerings like grilled chicken on rye and ham on sourdough.
Fruit plates, chef salads, and a variety of drinks round out the menu and desserts are a Lakeview specialty, so save room for caramel rolls, crepes or flavored cappuccinos if you want simply to sip and enjoy the view.
Debby also does limited dinner service - contracted on an individual basis, or offered to guests staying overnight as an option.
The three B&B rooms are priced from $52 to $70, and if you stay in B&Bs you'll expect the inundation of craft and antique touches - dried flowers, wicker, bows, wooden animals and scenes of nature.
A pretty sunset is a usual occurrence on the lake, and the Northern Lights are visible from the deck. If you like, you can take your breakfast outdoors. Or stay in the cozy nook-like tea room, where Debby's specialty, apricot and cherry scones, will complement a fruit plate and main course.
She'll serve breakfast almost anytime you like, but is thinking of limiting her hours to consolidate preparation time for lunch.
Reservations for both lunch and overnight are advised, by calling (406) 748-3653. The toll free number is 1 888-LAKE BNB (525-3262).

Taken from the book: