Birthday Bookings

It's been a crazy week (ok, it's pretty much been crazy all year...but it was really crazy this past week) here at the inn.  We've had more bookings than normal for May, which has been a pleasant surprise.  The inn was actually completely booked on my birthday, which was excellent for the bank account but kind of put a slight damper on any sort of birthday celebrations.  We did manage to run over to Red Lily Vineyard on Saturday in the late morning, which is one of my absolute favorite places to relax.  

Because it was Memorial Weekend, they had some food platters available - including a delicious antipasta platter and the most amazing chicken caesar salad I have ever eaten!



I wore my 1940s navy blue suit and my ridiculously-expensive Frank Palma hat.





We sat at a table overlooking the property and munched our way through a delicious lunch, while sipping glasses of their phenomenal tempranillo.



CHEERS!

Monday Breakfast

Our veggie-bacon frittatas have been an enormous hit! They are made fresh, using local ingredients. The eggs come from our flock of chickens and ducks, and the kale, baby garlic, oregano, thyme, and borage flower decoration are also from our property. The bacon & asparagus are naturally grown by our neighbors up the road, and even the breadcrumbs are from our own homemade sourdough rolls!

Four fresh frittatas, made to order! 

Another delicious new dish appearing on the breakfast menu this year: Apple-Oat Crisp with maple syrup and our own apple butter. This dish is sweetened without using additional sugar. Instead, we let the natural flavors of the maple syrup and apple butter sweeten it, and the lemon verbena adds a refreshing citrus finish that helps to cleanse the palate! The dish is garnished with lemon balm and borage from the garden...a bright and cheery breakfast plate! I like to call this "edible art."

 

Saturday's Breakfast

Spring veggie & bacon frittata, & individual watermelon cups with local strawberries & chocolate mint.

A (Mostly) Farm Fresh Dinner

 

 

Tonight, I wanted to do a test run of my new frittata recipe (which I will be using for B&B guest breakfasts this weekend).  So, I turned the evening's meal into a "breakfast for dinner" theme.  There were individual veggie-bacon frittatas (the kale, onions, thyme, parsley, oregano, and eggs all came from our own property; the bacon and asparagus were from our lovely neighbors at Yale Creek Ranch and Cowhorn Vineyard, respectively), cups of chilled zucchini soup with fresh basil (all from our garden!), and bowls of watermelon and strawberries with chocolate mint (ok, ok, so the watermelon wasn't local...we had to purchase some to accommodate the dietary requirements of a guest, and since we had extra, it seemed a shame to waste it!  Anywho, the strawberries are local, and the mint is from our garden).

Insanity & An Early Tourist Season

It's been hectic around here in an over-the-top manner that I did not think we were capable of achieving!  I've felt terribly guiltily for having had to actually turn potential guests away, simply because we had too many projects going on to manage guests on top of that.  Well, the projects are still not complete (sigh), but we've finally got guests staying here again.  This week/end is actually perfect for B&B guests - temperatures in the high 60s, partly cloudy, ripe strawberries, and loads of fragrant flowers!  I've filled numerous vases around the inn with irises, valerian, heirloom roses, and honeysuckle.  The entire house is perfumed...

Lots of tasty breakfasts planned for this weekend too!  I have added two new dishes to my normal repertoire: a frittata, and an apple-oatmeal crisp.  Your taste buds will love you for staying here, and your eyes will be delighted by these culinary masterpieces of color and presentation!  But don't take my word for it (I'll let the prior evidence speak for itself)...

Caspar-Davis Strikes Again!

I know what you're thinking, "Come on!  ANOTHER Caspar-Davis bird hat?!"  Well, what can I say?  They just keep flying into my greedy little hands (this time, thanks to the amazing duo over at Fab Gabs Vintage!)...

It was too warm out to wear the hat with its "made for each other" vintage outfit (a 1940s navy suit and red blouse), so instead I paired it with that lovely red & white linen dress I rescued a while ago.  The red of the dress perfectly matched the red ribbon of the hat.

Happy Mother's Day!

 

 

Whether your kids have two legs or four, you deserve recognition!

Edwardian Eye Candy

Things have been Busy-Busy-BUSY around here lately!  Not only are we dealing with an early-start tourist season, the final huge spring planting push, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, etc., but I've also had the unbelievable luck to purchase the remaining clothing-related inventory of an antique store!  As I said, it's been quite hectic!

Along those lines, I wanted to share some of the amazing COLOR images from a 1915 "National" fashion catalog.  I actually purchased four magazines/catalogs from the early part of the 1900s, and then was given this particular catalog as a gift.  It had originally been headed for the landfill, but the kindly owner saved it, and gave it to me.  The images are incredible (as are the hats!), and I wanted to share them with you...

Suffice it to say, I've been having quite an enjoyable time flipping through all of these...The publications span from a 1905 "Life" magazine to a 1919 "National" fashion catalog.  It's fascinating to flip through nearly two decades of history, from the turn of the century to the end of WWI!  Along those lines, one of the absolutely AMAZING pieces I purchased from this antiques store was a WWI American Army Officer's Dress Coat by "John G. Haas."  It's in very good condition, and the craftsmanship is exquisite!  Haven't decided if we will be selling it or keeping it, so stay tuned...