By Rachel Hergett EBS COLUMNIST
I was not expecting to get a food column from the Stories and Songs writers retreat at Chico Hot Springs this month. I could easily wax poetic about the weekend brunch in Chico’s restaurant, but this trip was about the craft and not the food. Or so I thought.
Stories and Songs is a weeklong retreat, but I was there on a special day pass for locals—one offering a taste of the whole experience that was better suited to my budget. I wandered blindly into the first session, scanning the questioning faces as a new person entered their space. That’s when I met Sherrie Hansen, who gave me a small smile from under the brim of her fabric hat. I was immediately drawn to her warmth, sliding into the seat next to her as the facilitator asked about my writing.
This was Sherrie’s third such retreat, I learn between sessions. She’s the author of 22 novels, often mysteries with an element of romance and second chances at love. Each features a wildflower in the name and weaves the flower’s attributes into the story. You can learn about Sherrie’s novels at bluebellbooks.com. More importantly for us, though, she has also written a cookbook.
Back in 1991, Sherrie “paid $18,000 for a dilapidated Victorian house in St. Ansgar, Iowa, narrowly rescuing it from the bulldozer’s grips.” From that house, she created the Blue Belle Inn B&B and Tea House, which she ran for 30 years, treating guests to a variety of recipes she culled from her own family and travels. I love hearing her talk about the places that have inspired her, of living in Germany or roaming the Scottish Highlands. The book, “The Blue Belle Inn B&B and Tea House Cookbook,” draws from these experiences, from the decades of travels, of catering special events and murder mystery dinner parties at the inn and refining the offerings for customers.
I started taking notes when Sherrie started talking about legacy. Her beloved Blue Belle Inn is no longer hosting guests. She sold it a few years ago, moving to “a picturesque acreage” in rural Iowa, near her pastor husband’s church.
“I don’t have any children, so it really is the way that my memory will live on,” Sherrie said.
I rifle through the pages, finding a section of cheesecakes that speak directly to my stomach, and perhaps my own history. Among them is a clootie dumpling cheesecake. She’s impressed that I have any knowledge of clootie dumplings, so I tell her about my search at the end of last year for the origin of my family’s “big dumpling.”
Sherrie’s cookbook is nearly 300 pages, and though many of the recipes sound fancy, their preparation is not complicated. These recipes were meant to be those she could whip up for hungry guests on short notice, or create in large quantities in a small kitchen.
“They had to be recipes that sounded elegant and tasted exquisite, but were easy to cook,” she said.
Sherrie’s cookbook, which was published in 2023 and is available on Amazon, was a labor of love. Writing a cookbook, she said, was harder than any of her 22 novels. It was a proofing nightmare, requiring an extraordinary amount of time. Before she hands me a copy to take with me, Sherrie rifles through the pages, pen in hand. She’s intent on fixing two errors that slipped through. One is shorting the amount of sour cream in a cottage pie that only makes it a bit more healthy. The other is double the amount of butter in a caramel whiskey sauce. Too much butter doesn’t sound so bad, I tell her, but apparently it takes away from the sauce’s silky texture.
Somehow, Sherrie’s corrections make it feel more authentic, akin to a well-worn cookbook with notes in the margins and all manner of drips scattered over the pages. It feels like home.
Recipes include little snippets about their history, where share first encountered them or why they call to her. There are also excerpts from the novels that speak about food. I ask the impossible: What is her favorite recipe in the book? Sherrie’s first thought is the Swedish meatballs from an old family recipe smothered in a cream gravy. She then points out an inn staple from the book’s cover, a seasoned pork and Parmesan stuffed pumpkin.
I can imagine Sherrie bustling about the kitchen, infusing each recipe with love for the guests at the Blue Belle Inn. Though the inn is shuttered, Sherrie hopes its spirit carries on anytime someone makes one of the recipes and thinks of her or the tea house.
“Recipes are so provocative,” she said, and the Blue Belle Inn is alive through them.
Rachel Hergett is a foodie and cook from Montana. She is arts editor emeritus at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and has written for publications such as Food Network Magazine and Montana Quarterly. Rachel is also the host of the Magic Monday Show on KGLT-FM and teaches at Montana State University.
