breakfast-for-dinner wednesdays: maybe i should stick to omelets...

Alright, so this week I tried to make a version of eggs Benedict, called Eggs Blackstone, from our Williams-Sonoma breakfast cookbook.  Instead of the traditional ham that's served with eggs Benedict, this version features tomato slices and bacon. (Mmm, bacon.)  I love eggs Benedict even though it's an egg dish.  I think this is mostly because of the Hollandaise sauce, aka butter. Wow, bacon and butter, does it get any better?  (Side note: I wish this whole bed and breakfast thing came with a free gym membership.)

Let's just say that when I thought I was bad at making omelets, I didn't realize just how bad it could get. Mostly, it's my fault for not really prepping correctly--the top of my makeshift double boiler touched the boiling water, resulting in quickly cooked egg yolks, which, fyi, is not what Hollandaise sauce needs.  Also, I think my water was too hot, because the Hollandaise kept getting really thick and I kept having to add more water.  So, I'm not sure if it really reached the right consistency. The recipe shows a really pretty light yellow Hollandaise sauce, but mine turned orange (no that's not just my bad photography skills), even though I put in the right amount of cayenne pepper.   It was also really spicy...maybe I didn't realize I used too much? I dunno, but it's definitely a possibility.

Furthermore, poaching eggs? I went through the entire carton of eggs trying to get this right.  Water too close to boiling, water not close enough to boiling.  Lemon juice vs vinegar to help set the whites.  Undercooked, overcooked.  I tried everything.  I'm still not there, but I'm much closer! I've hence looked online for more tips...I learned that if you swirl the water first, it helps the egg whites to set better.  Also, I've determined that it takes about 4 minutes, at this altitude anyway, to get them done correctly.  But you have to serve them right away, or they'll keep cooking. I knew this culinary principle, but apparently decided to forget about it Wednesday night. I am already planning to go buy a double carton of eggs and try again. I refuse to let these poached eggs get the best of me! 

Thanks to Dan for helping me take the pictures this week.  He's much better at it than I am! 

the good with the bad

Last night marked springtime daylight savings.  I both love and hate daylight savings...I hate the hour of sleep I miss out on, but I love, love, love that it stays light later.  Spring is officially on its way! I can't wait! Every sign of spring means I'm one day closer to Camden and the b&b.  Granted, it was cold, grey and incredibly windy today in Vail...I'm talking gust of 50-60 mph...but I'm refusing to let that get me down.

My mom called and told me she received the license from the town of Camden, saying they have officially approved the b&b! Very, very exciting! I'm one step closer to making this dream come true! And a huge thanks to my mom for helping me with the paper work.  I couldn't do it without her! I am trying to help as much as I can, but it's more difficult when you're in Colorado, not Maine.

But, as always, there's a catch. According to State standards, we need to have water sprinklers in every room in case of a fire...uh-oh.  That is most certainly not going to happen.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can be grandfathered into not needing this, since my grandmother ran this bed and breakfast without sprinklers for years.  Please keep your fingers crossed for me too! More detective work to be done tomorrow.  Oh, I hope we can get around it.

whoa. things to work on.

Eeesh.  Okay, so this whole food preparation/photography thing isn't as easy as it seems. I have some serious new found respect for all of those really impressive food blogs I read.  They make it look so easy! Just like gymnasts on tv.  Side note: I took gymnastics for years growing up and was convinced I would make it to the Olympics and become best friends with Dominique Moceanu.  Too bad I could barely do a cartwheel...

Thursday morning, I used the leftovers from Wednesday night dinner and made breakfast for Dan and myself.   I had these really grandiose ideas of beautiful pictures to post that would make readers swoon...haha. Whoops? First of all, who knew how difficult it is to make a parfait! I ended up with greek yogurt everywhere.  Everywhere except neatly in lines in the glasses. I tried to wipe it out with a dry cloth, then a damp cloth, even my fingers (I promise not to do this when preparing food for guests)...but that stuff is stubborn! It stuck to the sides of the glasses like you wouldn't believe! Wth? Is there something wrong with me? How do people do this? And (!) if this is so hard for me, how on earth am I going to succeed at making tricky things like poached eggs and hollandaise sauce?? (Are you sensing my obsession with eggs Benedict yet?)

Here's the proof...

Furthermore, these pictures are so dark and unappetizing.  I need to figure out a better picture setting/lighting. I guess it will just be a lot of trial and error.  I can't afford a fancy camera, and honestly,   even if I could, it wouldn't do me and my serious lack of photography skills any good.

So, the parfaits were course numero uno.  Numero dos was an omelet filled with seasoned black beans and vegetables and garnished with the left over homemade salsas from the night before.

Believe it or not, this was my very first time actually trying to make omelets.  I must confess that I don't really like eggs (eek maybe that's against the rules when you run a b&b), so normally I scramble them with lots of vegetables and tons and tons and tons of cheese to mask the egg taste.  And guess what? Folding over omelets is hard. I think my need to overpower the egg taste with lots of other ingredients took over and I filled them with too much stuff.  I need to come to terms with the fact that most normal people do like eggs and maybe want to taste them when the order an omelet.  This is an earth shattering realization for me.  Wanting to taste eggs when you order an egg dish? Absurd.

I guess I need to remember that even if these things didn't look as pretty as I would have liked, they still tasted good.  And at least I'm figuring this out now, while I still have time to practice.

Aprons!

Every good chef needs an apron, right? Not that I'm necessarily a good chef (yet!), but a girl has got to dream.

Anthropologie has had some really adorable aprons on their website for awhile now. In my imaginary, perfect bed and breakfast, I wear one while serving impeccable quiches and pancakes to smiling guests.

Inspired by these beauties, I kept searching and stumbled upon Jessie Steele's collection of vintage inspired aprons.

And of course, there's always etsy:

Aprons (clockwise from top left): Fancy Boutique, reversible from prettyditty, and a short hostess apron from LaurenClaire Handmade

I'm going to start a collection of posts called Good Things...like the Good House, get it? And it will include all things cute that I covet for the bed and breakfast/me. This is the first post for the category! Ok, clearly I need to figure out a new way to post pictures before I delve too deeply into this...but, for the time being, please ignore how ugly the layout looks and just look at how cute the aprons are!

breakfast-for-dinner wednesdays

Dan and I need to start honing our breakfast cooking skills. There's nothing worse than a bed and breakfast with over(or under!)-cooked eggs and soggy pancakes. Plus, breakfast is delicious and why not eat it all the time?

I decided that we should try out a new breakfast recipe every Wednesday night. Tonight, we made this recipe that is kind of a take off on huevos rancheros, called Fried Eggs, New Mexico-Style. We have the recipe thanks to Dan's mom, but I don't know who to give proper credit to...in any event, it was delicious. I should have taken pictures and been all food-bloggy, but I forgot. Here's a picture of beautiful Camden Harbor instead:

The recipe was a lot of work (another reason why photo documentation would have been nice) and involved making 3 different salsas from scratch. This is especially difficult when you don't have a blender or a food processor. I figured that our hand held immersion blender would suffice, and then spent what seemed like hours trying to scrub tomato fragments off of the walls. All that effort didn't go unnoticed; two friends came over to serve as taste testers and the meal passed with flying colors!

Next week we're trying our hand at Eggs Blackstone with Meyer Lemon Hollandaise...basically eggs Benedict with bacon and tomato instead of Canadian bacon/ham. I can't wait...I loooove eggs Benedict. The recipe is from the Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Breakfast and Brunch cookbook, which can be found here. We have yet to cook something from it, but all of the recipes are so enticing it was hard to pick just one to start.