Thursday, November 29, 2007

Holiday Recipes: Baker St. Harbour Waterfront Bed and Breakfast .. Granbury, Texas ..

Frozen Cranberry Delight

1 14 oz can Eagle Brand Milk
¼ C lemon juice
1 16 oz can whole cranberry sauce
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
½ c chopped nuts (walnuts preferred)
1 large 12 oz carton Cool Whip

Combine milk and lemon juice. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into one of the following depending on your preferred serving style or need: 1 ungreased 9 x 13 dish, or 24 paper-lined muffin tins. The muffin tins work great for a wonderful frozen dessert ready to serve!

Shared by: Baker St. Harbour Waterfront Bed and Breakfast, Granbury, Texas, Betty and Bill Moss, members of the Granbury Area Bed and Breakfast Association

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Holiday Recipes: The Iron Horse Inn .. Granbury, Texas ..

Pecan Sandies

1 cup butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsps. water
2 tsps. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup chopped pecans

Cream butter & sugar; add the water and vanilla; mix well. Blend in flour and nuts. Chill for easier shaping into crescent shapes. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 325 for 24+ minutes. While still warm, dip into red/green sugar for that festive Christmas look. A trick to this recipe is not to underbake! Let them get just golden in color. Makes 3 dz. cookies

Shared by: The Iron Horse Inn, Granbury, Texas, Judy and Bob Atkinson, members of the Granbury Area Bed and Breakfast Association

Holiday Recipes: The Pomegranate House Bed and Breakfast, Granbury, Texas

Panettone French Toast with Apples and Cranberries*

½ cup butter
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
1 TB water

¾ cup sun-dried cranberries or raisins
2 lb Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced ¼” thick

1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
6 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt

6, 1-inch slices panettone

Melt ¼ cup butter in saucepan over low heat. Add brown sugar and water until combined. Spread mixture over bottom of 9 X 13 glass baking dish.

Heat remaining butter over medium heat. Add apples and sauté for 8 to 10 minutes, until cooked but not mushy. Spread apples over the bottom of baking dish; sprinkle with cranberries. Cover with panettone slices.

Whisk together milk, cream, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and pinch of salt. Pour over panettone, coating all of the slices. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake French toast uncovered for 35-40 minutes, until lightly golden. Spoon the apples over toast when serving.

Shared by: Pomegranate House Bed and Breakfast, Granbury, Texas, Betty and Tommy Potts, members of the Granbury Area Bed and Breakfast Association. "This recipe is one we serve only in December. Panettone is an Italian Christmas bread, with currants and other goodies in it."

Reflections of Granbury 1858-1945 .. A Candlelight Tour of Homes

A Preserve Granbury Event
Saturday, December 1st from 2-10 p.m. and
Sunday, December 2nd from Noon to 6 p.m.
Dedicated to the memories of Mary Kate Durham and Glenda Pirkle,
historians and community leaders
  • Tour seven privately owned homes - at each house you'll discover a different era of daily life in a small Texas town
  • Meet and greet Granbury's pioneers and historic characters
  • Savor the sights and sounds of the holidays around an authentic Victorian courthouse square
  • Enjoy Yuletide musical entertainment

Tickets: $15 days of tour ** $12 in advance ** $10 in advance for groups of 20 or more

Sponsored by The First National Bank of Granbury Since 1887

Call Granbury Convention and Visitors Bureau 1-800-950-2212 or 817-573-5548

See our Granbury Area Bed & Breakfast lodging opportunities

for your Granbury Getaway!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Granbury, Texas .. childhood memories

As I gaze over the crystal waters of beautiful Lake Granbury, I am thankful for our many blessings, and my mind wanders back to my childhood days in Stephenville, Texas, just 30 miles west of Granbury. In the late 50's, our Stephenville High School Band and Orchestra traveled to Granbury for competitions in the old Decker Gym, now The Boys and Girls Club of Hood County. What is now the Groggy Dawg Marina and Grill was nothing but a huge calache pit, and as I remember, hardly anything was further down on Highway 144S. We crossed the 377 bridge over the Brazos on our way to shop in Ft. Worth, especially for school clothes and for Christmas, (very special occasions)! Those Were the days! That of course was before the Brazos River was dammed at DeCordova in 1969, and Lake Granbury became a reality. John Graves' "Goodbye to a River" depicts one writer's account of this moment in history.

The Granbury Square was just a mere glimpse of the square today. A few years later renovations began on many of the wonderful historic buildings on the square. Yes, we are very thankful to be a part of this great community, and remember some of those defining moments in Granbury's exciting history. We will be sharing more!

By Betty (Bailey) Moss, Class of '61, Stephenville High School.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Granbury, Texas .. Hood County Courthouse

Erected 1890-1891, this handsome building is the fifth courthouse on this site, and is a Texas version of the french second empire style. The first courthouse (1867) was a 1-room log cabin housing county records, lawyers and land agents' offices, and mail station. It was succeeded by 3 stone structures. Contractors Moodie and Ellis and Architect W.C. Dodson built this native stone edifice. The clock tower, added after completion, was reinforced with steel in 1969. This wonderful historic masterpiece still proudly stands as the focal point of the historic Granbury Square, which became the first in Texas to be added to the National Register of Historic Places, and was the model for the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Main Street Program. It has been described as "one of the most complete examples of a late 19th century courthouse square in Texas." The readers of Texas Highways magazine voted Granbury as "The best Town Square in Texas," in 1998.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Granbury, Texas .. the early days

In 1854 "Uncle Tommy" Lambert and Amon Bond led a group of emigrants, mostly from Tennessee, across the Brazos River to the west bank into traditional Indian territory. That same year, Elizabeth Crockett brought her family from Tennessee to settle on a league of land awarded by the Republic of Texas to heirs of men who fought in the Texas Revolution in 1836. In 1866 brothers J. and J. H. Nutt donated forty acres of riverfront property to form a new townsite, and Hood County was carved out of Johnson and Erath counties and named in honor of Gen. John Bell Hood. The new town was named for Gen. Hiram Bronson Granbury, who led Confederate troops from this area into battle during the Civil War. Three spirited elections were needed to make Granbury the county seat, instead of the older Glen Rose and Fort Spunky further south. The first two courthouses burned, the second one in 1875, at which time Somervell County was demarcated out of Hood County. Granbury's new three-story courthouse was built of Brazos limestone and had a lighted clock tower.