About Breakfast(s) & Bed & Breakfasts
Posted on 25 June 2007 under Food Philosophy
At the end of my post from a couple days ago, I blogged about a unique Bed & Breakfast we’d found. In case you missed it, here’s what I’d written:
… we’d passed a Bed & Breakfast that looked quite nice. It had a wrap-around porch, and there were quite a few people enjoying breakfast at tables on that porch. On our way back, we realized the house was surrounded by a pair or narrow rail lines! I turned the van around, pulled into the driveway, went to the door … and was greeted by Linda Brinkman, Innkeeper of the B&B Railroad Depot. Five years ago, Linda’s husband Nate, a boilermaker by trade, had put together the ridable train that surrounds the house. At the time, the house was a third as big as it is now. Being a commercial contractor, Linda, as she put it, “blew the roof off” the one-story house and expanded it into her dream of having a Bed & Breakfast that the home is now.
All of this, again, is quite a coincidence. One of the dreams Mary and I have is that of owning our own Bed & Breakfast, where I can cook breakfast meals in the mornings for anyone who’s staying with us. What we found at the B&B Railroad Depot is incredibly similar to the kind of thing we’ve discussed. While giving us a tour of the house, Linda also gave us the current breakfast menu. At this time, guests can chose from omelets (including seafood), crepes, pancakes, fresh fruit, muffins … oh yeah, this is our kind of place! And that’s certainly my kind of menu.
Have I mentioned breakfast as being my favorite meal of the day? It’s not even so much just the eating of a breakfast-style meal for any of the three meals in a given day. It’s that I also seriously enjoy cooking breakfast for others. There was a time not too long ago that omelets and fried egg sandwiches were about all I would cook for myself or others. A couple years ago I wrote up an omelet tutorial. After enough practice, I also wrote up the recipe for my dad’s Eggs in a Frame breakfast dish. At this point I’ll cook just about any kind of breakfast dish there is, and if there’s something I’m not sure about … I’ll look it up!
Mary’s asked me to do another omelet buffet like this one here and there, and a couple in particular. They’re a serious amount of work, but once I get going with such a buffet it’s really more fun than it probably should be. I’d have to rework my Omelet Ordering Menu to be a bit more generic, but that actually shouldn’t be too difficult.
Note: You may need to download and install the free Adobe Reader to view the menu.
I think the most difficult part of breakfasts isn’t so much what to cook for folks. It’s what not to cook, or rather, what not to include on a menu as being available. Think about it for a moment. How many breakfast dishes are there? I have no clue, but I’m thinking it runs into the thousands. Frankly, I don’t quite feel like including all that on a menu …
I think after the upcoming weekend’s nuttiness, what with the City Wide Yard Sale on Saturday and a dinner party we’re throwing next Monday, I really need to sit down and flesh-out this whole breakfast thing. I need to put together a whole set of recipe and menu concepts, and then actually implement them in recipes and such (with photos). I want to make breakfast my specialty.
As for the Bed & Breakfast thing? We’ll go visit such places when we can. But I’ll tell you what, if Mary and I ever end up with the dream of our own Bed & Breakfast … I’ll be ready.
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25 June 2007 @ 7:32 pm Posted by gp
as an innkeeper in montana, i realized our dream come true opening up our b&B. I used to frequent B&B’s alot when I traveled ’round the world to compete in running - now i spend more time running around after guests and our horses.
Go for it!!!!
gp in montana
25 June 2007 @ 9:03 pm Posted by LunaPierCook
Thanks, GP! In our blended family, five of our six kids are still school-age, and four of them are only here on alternate weekends. Once all that settles down (eight years from now or so), we’ll be able to take a closer look at our own B&B. Yours looks great! Mary and I both love the look of “Bill’s Room”. Maybe we’ll have to come try it out sometime!
BTW, as an omelet person, I have to say your Farmhouse Omelet sounds and looks amazing!
26 June 2007 @ 9:57 am Posted by Leslie
I love B&B’s too! Besides the breakfasts — also my favorite meal! — I love the historic charm, and the peace and quiet. Since we now have noisy kids, we haven’t been to a B&B in years. But one of these days we just might make a special weekend and stay at one of the cute B&B’s here in Chelsea. Have you ever stayed at one near your home town?
Our favorite B&B to date was the Albert House Inn in Ottawa. http://albertinn.com/. It’s been years and years since we’ve been there.
26 June 2007 @ 11:42 am Posted by LunaPierCook
Leslie, I haven’t stayed at a B&B in a couple decades! The last one we stayed at was in Toronto in 1982 (called a “tourist home”), and it looks as though the place might still exist. I think the whole B&B thing is something Mary and I need to explore further, especially during some of our travels.