Harrison House Suites Bed & Breakfast - Friday Harbor, Wa

Springtime on San Juan Island - Lodging on Friday Harbor

2008-04-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

Spring has definitely sprung at the Harrison House and on San Juan Island. The gardens look like a giant Easter Basket with tulips, daffodils, and Camellia in full bloom. While the weather has been a bit seasonally cool, the blue skies and afternoon sun do not deter. The transient whales have been around for the last week so many of our guests have enjoyed encounters on their whale watch adventures. While on the water, our guests have also had the pleasure of seeing Stellar Sea Lions, Eagles, Seals, and other migrating marine birds who are still hanging around the Islands. Restaurant Coho has been open for three weeks and has been receiving rave reviews from guests. One of the most popular specials last week was our smoked duck breast with a morel mushroom wine sauce. Due to our limited seating with only eight tables, we recommend advance reservations so that we can accommodate all of our guests.

Coho Restaurant opens on San Juan Island

2008-04-13T23:12:00.000-07:00

It was really gratifying to see the beautiful food emerge from Coho Restaurant's kitchen during our opening weekend. All the months of planning and weeks of cooking brought the restaurant to life. Having patrons enjoy the fresh local ingredients from the Island's local farms was really gratifying. We showcased some amazing local ingredients - spring greens from Sweet Earth Farms, Blue Moon Farms, and Synergy Farms, tenderloin from Barlow Bay Fish Company on Lopez Island, and Westcott Bay Oysters. Our signature whole seed encrusted salmon was a beautiful dish. A bed of greens provided the foundation for a grilled rice cake and salmon fillet and slightly sweet mirin sauce. The plate also had a spring medley of asparagus spears and golden beets. We are placing our farm orders and already preparing for our specials for this coming weekend. We took lots of pictures and will post them soon.

Harrison House Welcomes Diana & Greg to our Innkeeping Team

2008-04-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

The Harrison House Suites and Tucker House Inn are pleased to welcome Diana and Greg to our Innkeeping Team, San Juan Island's newest residents. Diana & Greg, follow a path similar to many of us who have moved to the Islands leaving jobs, family, and secure careers behind. They packed up their belongings in a small 8 x 6 trailer and drove from Sante Fe, New Mexico with their three four-legged friends late last week. The larger trailer that they planned to use was not compatible with Diana's hitch so they had to downsize their belongings even more! We promise that summer will be alot easier than your move! We are thrilled to have here. So next time you call or email, welcome them to the Island.....because before long, they will be welcoming you.

Coho - New Restaurant on San Juan Island, Washington

2008-03-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

Dave and Anna Maria will continue their passion with food with a new restaurant Coho opening April 2008. The restaurant will feature fresh local and seasonal northwest cuisine with a bit of an international flavor. Coho will draw its menu inspiration from La Cucina Anna Maria: Good Life Recipes from Friday Harbor as well as from the collaborate talent of their restaurant team. The wine list will cull from the best wines of the Pacific Northwest but also wines from the great international food producing countries of the world. The restaurant is small and intimate with only 8 tables so reservations are definitely recommended. The Coho website launches in early April so you will be able to keep track of our special seasonal menu offerings. Here is our menu.

Restaurant Coho Menu Spring 2008

Starters

Smoked Duck Breast on a bed of Spring Greens with dried cherries

Roasted Beet and Quail Croft Farms Goat Cheese on a bed of spring greens

Six WestcottBay Oysters Your Way

Raw on the Half Shell Broiled with fresh herbs, parmesan, and garlic

Dungeness crab cakes with wasabi aioli

Soup of the Day

Mains

Homemade pasta de giorno tossed in a fresh tomato basil sauce

Coho’s Whole Seed Encrusted Salmon with a mirin ginger sauce served on a grilled sushi rice cake and sautéed spring vegetables

Alaskan Weathervane Scallops on bed of wilted greens drizzled with a brandy cream sauce

Hazelnut Encrusted Lavender Chicken on a pillow of sweet potatoes and sautéed spring vegetables

Grain Fed Tenderloin with roasted root vegetable jus and sautéed spring vegetables

Veal Scaloppini Your Way

Marsala with Mushrooms and shallots

Oscar with Asparagus and Crab

Parmesan with cheese and tomato marina

with side of homemade pasta

Sweets

Crème Brulée

Chocolate Mousse

Flourless Chocolate Torte

Tiramisu

Cheesecake

Fruit Crisp

Fruit Torte

Selection of Homemade Ice Creams and Sorbets (Lopez Island)

Roche Harbor Cottage receives Face Lift - Friday Harbor Lodging

2008-01-24T11:05:00.001-08:00

We just finished a renovation of the Roche Harbor Cottage. We installed beautiful Birch hardwood floors and new tile in the kitchen and bath. The kitchen underwent quite a transformation with a a few cans of paint, new lighting and some new cabinet knobs. We can't wait to post the new photos. Bob Villa would be proud! We installed a new bathroom vanity with a vessel sink and have beautiful wool Oriental Rugs throughout the suite. The wonderful earth tones and textures are soothing, relaxing, and are comfortable. There is a great counterpoint between the contemporary color schemes and fabrics and the exquisite old world antiques. Looking forward to sharing the fruits of our winters labors with our guests!

Friday Harbor Bed & Breakfast - Life on an Island - a Happy Ending

2007-11-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

As we were preparing for a houseful of guests on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving weekend, we had a family emergency with our yellow lab, Mollie. Mollie got terribly sick and began failing quickly. Our local vet who has taken care of all of our animals since we moved here 3 years felt helpless with the diagnostic tools available to him. He was concerned about her well being throughout the night. Our only choices were to drive her off on the next ferry or fly her off. Dave, couldn't fathom the idea of flying a very sick dog with an IV in her arm to Bellingham on the eve of Thanksgiving. For the first time in our 3 years of living on San Juan Island, we felt isolated. We quickly packed a few things for Dave since he was probably spending the night with Mollie on the mainland. After a few days in the animal hospital - we had a diagnosis - gastritis. Mollie came home on Sunday with her perky personality. She was in the check-in office on Monday greeting guests and helping everyone feel welcome. We were really thankful for our local vet and the staff at the animal hospital for taking time away from their holiday to make our Thanksgiving holiday whole.

Bed and Breakfast Friday Harbor - Thanksgiving preparations

2007-11-18T15:13:00.001-08:00

The Harrison House Suites is preparing for the holidays. Earlier this month, we purchased over 25 lbs of three different varieties of pumpkins from one of the local farms. We roasted them and made our own pumpkin purée. We will be featuring pumpkin throughout the holidays in Pumpkin pancakes, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Cookies, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Praline Pie, and Pumpkin Panna Cotta. Our fall soaps also have a pumpkin theme - pumpkin cinnamon.

Friday Harbor Accommodations - Fly to the Islands

2007-11-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

Flying is quite a popular hobby on the Island - almost a necessity for Island life. Dave fulfilled his dream and got his private pilots license this past April. This winter he is going to work on his instrument rating. This past summer, Dave made good use of his new hobby. He flew off weekly and sometimes twice a week to pick up supplies and produce. The most important part of his shopping were the trips to the local farms for fresh berries and stone fruit. Now that the summer fruit season is over - his shopping is less exiting. He still goes to the Fairhaven Flour Mill to pick up our fresh ground organic flours.

Talking about flying, this morning we hosted a group of pilots who flew in from Payne Field - a local airport outside of Seattle. They flew in two Cessnas and a Moonie. We enjoyed a relaxing breakfast and talked about flying and food. Breakfast consisted of homemade granola, fresh season fruit, homemade sour dough everything bagels, lox, cream cheese and salmon and Crème brulée for dessert.

Lodging San Juan Islands - Innkeepers seek underwater retreat

2007-11-18T14:52:00.000-08:00

Dave and I enjoy taking our annual winter retreat underwater. We spent last week in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico diving, diving, and diving. This was the first week in almost a year that we were away from the Inn not tethered to a phone or email. It was weird not making breakfast each morning for guests. The highlights of our 18 scuba dives were the ones where we interacted with whale sharks, sea lions, hammerheads. The later of the three were rather skiddish thereby limiting our views. Each night, we enjoyed great Mexican food and sampled different queso - cheeses. We were hard pressed though to find a chille rellenos as good as Elsa's, our head housekeeper.

Friday Harbor, Washington Holiday Preparation

2007-10-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

San Juan Island and the Town of Friday Harbor are preparing for the holiday season. The town will be decked out for the season and there will be lots of festivities throughout the season. The parade of lights in the harbor features the most amazingly decorated boats and ends with Santa. Shops in town will stay open late to make holiday shopping more convenient. Check out our specials and consider a stay at the Harrison House this holiday season or for a break after the holidays. Winter is a cozy time to visit.

San Juan Islands Lodging - Fall is a Special Time!

2007-10-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

Guests are enjoying the serenity and quiet that fall on the San Juan Islands has to offer. Two of our honeymooners are relaxing by their fire place and hot tub, while others are enjoying wine tastings at San Juan Island Vineyards or Brazenly Lucid Wines - just down the street. Others are using their get-away to purchase some holiday presents at Crystal Acres Alpaca Farm. The San Juan Community Theater is hosting the Seattle Opera's Young Artists this weekend and the Tommy Castro Band plays on the 4th. Stage Left presents Doubt the month of November.

Wedding at Harrison House

2007-10-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

Candia & Dale and their extended family celebrated their wedding day on San Juan Island. They were married on the Odyssey (one of the whale watching boats) and the Harrison House staff prepared a wedding feast upon their return - a fall harvest meal from the Islands. Thousand Flower Farm & Nootka Rose Farm from Waldron Island and Synergy Farms from San Juan Island provided lots of great fresh produce. Their guests enjoyed Columbia River King Salmon, roasted new potatoes, broccoli, fresh greens, and home made blueberry and apple pie (the apples were picked from the Harrison House). What could be better than vanilla and cinnamon ice cream from Lopez Island Creamery to top things off!

Harrison House Hosts Two for the Road Cyclists

2007-10-01T15:58:00.000-07:00

Last week, we had the pleasure of hosting Naomi and Paul who are biking from Alaska to South America. You can check out their adventures at www.twofortheroad.info.
Naomi and Paul fell in love with our granola and they bought some to keep them fueled on their journey. We sent them our recipe so when they get home next summer they can make it for themselves. In the meantime, we offered to send our granola to their next stop.

Guest Recipe Requests at the Harrison House

2007-09-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

We have requests from our guests for many of the items we prepare for breakfast. This week one of our guests, Sterling S., enjoyed our zucchini pancakes so much that he wrote to ask for the recipe. That particular morning, we served them with omelets made with Gruyere cheese, sun dried tomato, basil and prosciutto. As the summer squash season is coming to a close, make sure to enjoy them soon! You can find this and many other recipes in our cookbook, La Cucina Anna Maria: Good Life Recipes from San Juan Island.

Here is the recipe:

Savory Zucchini Pancakes
1 1/2 cups zucchini finely shredded (about two 8-inch zucchinis)2 large eggs beaten1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup milk
½ cup grated parmesan cheese or grano padano1/2 tsp salt1 Tbsp vegetable or extra virgin olive oil1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp garlic
1 tsp basil
¼ tsp rosemary
¼ tsp black pepper

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs then add oil and milk. Add dry ingredients and then shredded zucchini and mix until combined. Preheat griddle or heavy frying pan. Spray with non-fat cooking spray. Spoon batter on hot grill; about 2 tablespoons for each pancake. Cook until bubbles almost stop. Flip pancakes and cook on other side until pancakes are done.
Serve with sour cream, yogurt, or syrups. Makes 24 small pancakes.

A peak into the kitchen at the Harrison House

2007-09-16T14:42:00.001-07:00

Our guests are enjoying all the fresh fruits the local farms have to offer for breakfast. We have been getting local raspberries (red and gold), strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries and have been making wonderful berry tortes, berry short cakes, cobblers and crisps for our breakfast dessert. The peaches and plums are the best ever. We tried a new recipe inspired by our summer intern, Alicia for the fruit course. We baked a half of peach, brushed with a bit of butter and sprinkled it with sugar and cinnamon. Then we served it with a bit of marscapone cheese and garnished it with a fresh berry and mint. Not only were they beautiful by tasty as well. This would be a perfect summer dessert for dinner with a scoop of Lopez Island vanilla ice cream! This morning we made our famous lemon ricotta pancakes for breakfast with a side of chicken apple sausage. Dessert was a plum pudding with almond cream! All these recipes and more are in our cookbook, La Cucina Anna Maria: Good Life Recipes from San Juan Island.

Fall Fun on San Juan Island

2007-09-16T14:35:00.001-07:00

The Island has lots to offer this time of year. Take advantage of the smaller crowds and some wonderful fall weather. Our guests have been enjoying great hikes in American and English Camp. One group hiked up to Mt. Young on English Camp and were treated with amazing views over the north part of the San Juan Islands. Others are enjoying the plays and concerts at the San Juan Island Community Theater. The restaurants are all still open and cooking up some fabulous food. Dave and I enjoyed some wonderful oysters and scallops at Back Door Kitchen, a scrumptuous seafood coconut curry at Golden Triangle and some out of this world salmon at 120 Nichols over the last few weeks. This is one of the tough parts of our jobs. We want to make sure that we are up on the latest menu offerings so that we can share them when you visit.

Fair Week 2007 - August 15-18

2007-08-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

San Juan County fair ends this evening. It has been a great week of music, eating, and competition. Our Carrot Cake and Flourless Chocolate Torte both won blue ribbons! These recipes are in our Cookbook - La Cucina Anna Maria: Good Life Recipes from San Juan Island. Each night at the fair there is a featured dinner in the 'pit' - ribs, chicken, salmon, or steak sponsored by a local charity. Dave and I eat our way through the fair and end each night with ice cream from Lopez Island Creamery. There are two performance stages going simultaneously and lots of animals to pet and visit with. Last night the baby pygmy goats got our personal award for Best of Show!

Welcome Post

2007-08-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Harrison House Suites Bed & Breakfast blog! Feel free to share highlights and must do's of your stay on San Juan Islands with your fellow travelers - your favorite hike, best meal and most memorable moments. We will keep you abreast of Island events and news from the Inn!