After a request for a ‘plain’ breakfast, and a bit of discussion, guests have had a breakfast basket delivered daily with ‘plain’ food. Today’s was a pretty crystal tray of fresh cut fruit (nectarines, kiwi, and grapes) with no dressing or yogurt or sauce, per request. Frittatas made with eggs and ham, potatoes, peppers, onions and herbs (and a little cheddar because I can’t help myself). Cheese grits, by request, and yes there’s a little jalapeno in there because, well, I’m pretty sure there’s a law about that… And some decidedly un-plain cherry scones. I just love this Southern man to pieces – he wants sweet tea at every meal. How precious is that?
It’s always a pleasure for me to find the BnBFinder innkeeping newsletter in my Inbox. While reading it this morning, I found myself nodding and saying, “Yes, exactly!” Mary has captured the essential difference of hotel vs bed and breakfast -not just in amenities, but in how we view our guests. Even upscale hotels, like the one Mary writes about, simply cannot provide the experience of a bed and breakfast… Their focus groups and market research, and determination to “break into our market” with B&B-styled packages, is completely missing the point. They can’t help it, really. Their focus is corporate and bottom-line, which is of course as it should be. Our focus is on our guests and you just can’t get that at a hotel.
A Note From Mary White –Mary is the President & Founder of BnBFinder
It was more than an “aha!” moment. It was an “Oh my gosh, hit me over the head, how can they not realize moment” when I once again grappled with the question, “Why do guests not realize how special B&Bs are?” The moment I’m referring to happened recently when I attended a conference with my husband held in a very nice and well-known hotel chain. To thank him for being an Preferred Guest, they gave us a card upon check-in entitling us to a free bottle of water at no charge (how generous). We needed to replace the small bottle of water in the mini-bar with the card so we wouldn’t be charged. Then, one evening we wanted to have a cup of coffee in the room. As a coffee snob, I don’t like the powdered creamer provided; so, in order to have milk or cream I would have to order room service, pay for the milk, and add a $4.99 delivery fee as well as a 20% gratuity (an additional tip also would be welcomed). These and similar experiences are all accepted in the hotel world and why, when guests try a B&B for the first time, they are blown away by the value not to mention the personalization, service, amenities and more.
This would be a good time to mention the Better Way to Stay campaign, being promoted world-wide. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. B&Bs truly are a better way to stay. And then…. take the time to treat yourself. Come see us. We’ll show you the difference.
It should come as no surprise that my closest friends are innkeepers. Right now, most of them are at the Innkeeping Conference put on by PAII (Professional Association of Innkeepers International) in Little Rock, Arkansas. They’re posting on facebook, and sending me email, and telling me what I’m missing… as if I didn’t know!
At last year’s PAII convention, in Charleston, I took reams of notes. Everything from wedding contracts to food photography was covered, including all the stuff you expect to see about internet presence and good website design and stain removal and breakfast recipes. There was an astonishing amount of information – far more than I could absorb – and I’ve still only put about 20% into practice. (Isn’t that always the way?) So I really didn’t have an excuse to spend the thousands of dollars it would have cost to attend the conference this year. Cardinal rule: All Expenditures Must Be Justified. And I couldn’t very well justify it as play time, since we just spent the first part of a week in New Orleans with a dozen of us, and then a bunch of us went sailing to the Caribbean. Oh yes, I qualify for the ‘plays well with others’ t-shirt.
Lots of information from the conference is online for me, and we have friends/innkeepers in attendance who are coming to visit us when it’s over, and I’m sure they’ll be bubbling over with insights and new products from the vendor floor. And still… I am sooooooo jealous. I want to hang out with my buds! I want to take reams of notes! I want to try new stuff! I want to… um… sleep on substandard hotel sheets with flat pillows and get up predawn to drink hotel coffee with powdered creamer from a styrofoam cup and hike to the convention floor… no… wait… (Oh baby, B&Bs have spoiled me rotten for the good stuff.)
[SIGH] Ok, that’s the stuff you put up with to go to the conference. But it’s worth it. It is. And next year, I’ll be back at the PAII conference.
That is, unless I can get ten besties onto another cruise ship.
Now: If only we could convince the cruise lines to make a wonderful breakfast…
A wedding, a re-marriage, a renewal of vows ceremony… Lifelong friendships forged, commitments made, shared laughter and lots of love in the air… This was such a joyful day for all!
I took the wedding fairies to the Disney World EPCOT Food & Wine Festival for a little team-building. Oh, fine, all right, ok, it was an excuse to go be foodies in Florida now that wintry weather has set in. And it was fabulous! Photos and recipes and inspirations to follow. Just a heads up: anything you can serve for dinner can find its way onto a breakfast plate, with just a little bit of creativity. Stay tuned… There’s more to come…
Ahhhh…. Of course! A lid for the coffee mugs. Why didn’t I think of that? Well, no matter. The folks at Deneen Pottery thought of it for me. And you.
I like my coffee hot. Not mostly hot, or a little bit hot, or fairly hot. Steaming, piping, right-from-the-pot hot. Now, it takes me a while to drink a cup of coffee at my desk, sitting at this computer. And I have a really good coffee warmer (which fits my new mug perfectly). It keeps my coffee pretty hot. (Sigh.)
Then one day, I asked Niles Deneen if I could order a few of those lids. They came right away, and wow was I ever surprised! I popped one of those babies on my hot coffee and twenty minutes later, I took a sip and it was still really hot! Not a little, not mostly, not acceptably warm. Well, honey, color me happy!
Larry actually lets his coffee cool a bit before he drinks it. (Horrors!) So he just rolls his eyes at my hot coffee nirvana. That said, if you’re like me, you’ll want one for yourself.
This morning, a bride requested the recipe for the Blueberry White-Chocolate Chapelure she enjoyed here on her wedding day. My reply is included below. Just so you know, Chapelure is just French for ‘bread crumbs’. To the best of my knowledge, nobody else calls their oven-baked French toast ‘bread crumbs’, so if you’re offered chapelure anyplace besides Timberwolf Creek… well… you might want to get more information! Ok, here’s my answer for Annette:
It’s sooo easy. And I just typed it up for Letitia – so, voila! If you’re using commercially frozen blueberries, you’ll need to rinse off the juice oryou’ll have grey food. The blueberries you had here were from my Uncle Carroll’s garden, and picks them “in the morning before the sun hits them” and then dries them on cookie sheets so that they are “neat”. Best when using commercial to tuck in the berries *after* pouring the egg/milk/sugar/spice mixture over the bread, the prevent them from smearing.
Berry White Chocolate Chapelure
Baker’s Joy cooking spray
4 slices of bread (approximate!)
2 croissants
1/4 cup berries (either frozen blueberries, or dried cranberries)
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
4 eggs (if using ‘medium’ eggs, you’ll need 5)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
dash of nutmeg, mace, cloves
maple syrup
Using individual ramekins, spray with cooking spray.
Into a big mixing bowl, cut leftover bread into cubes. Be careful not to ‘smoosh’ the bread. Use more than one kind of bread (French, sour dough, oatmeal). Tear the croissants. Toss the bread to mix it up. Distribute randomly into the dishes. You want the dishes to be over-full. Don’t press it down.
Tuck in frozen blueberries OR dried cranberries, and then add white chocolate chips.
Mix eggs and milk with brown sugar, spices and vanilla. Pour carefully over bread mixture.
Put in the refrigerator, and then cover lightly with plastic wrap -don’t tuck it in around the dishes, just lay it over the top. You want the bread to lift as it soaks up the eggs & milk. Refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, remove from the fridge, take off the plastic, and let stand at room temp for 20-30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees about half an hour. It should be puffed and lightly browned. Serve with warm syrup on the side.
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Note: this adapts really easily to whatever ingredients you have on hand. You’ll want two add-ins… like
–Raisin Walnut
–Blackberry Pecan
–Apple Cinnamon (peel the apples & chop small, sprinkle the top of the chapelure *lightly* with cinnamon and then sugar, before baking)
–Brown Sugar Peach (this is added AFTER the chapelure comes out of the fridge, in the morning – drain a can of peaches and toss with a little brown sugar and lay the fruit right on top of the bread, and then bake)
So, we have this really wonderful breakfast. It’s delicious. You start with a giant muffin tin, and line each ‘cup’ with thin slices of Black Forest ham. Then you want to melt a little butter in a saucepan and add cooked spinach (well-drained), cream cheese, and some good parmesan, plus a dash of nutmeg. Once that’s thoroughly heated and blended together, spoon it into the ham. Now, carefully break an egg over the spinach. Pour a bit of heavy whipping cream over the top of the egg. Bake until the eggs are set and the edges of the ham get crispy.
Put some pepperjack cheese grits on the side – preferably coarse stone-ground grits from a local mill (we like the one in Cherokee) and serve with raspberry-chocolate scones.
Now, we’ve been trying to come up with a name for this lovely meal for ages. When my son, Nicholas, was cooking, he actually pioneered the dish and put the ingredients together to get just the right flavor. (He also makes another version with diced portabello mushrooms in a creamy shallot sauce in place of the spinach -swoon!) He dubbed them ‘Eggs Nicholas’. Today, I was told that with the spinach filling in there, they should be called Green Eggs and Ham.
