Innkeeper secrets revealed!-Part 3

Welcome to the next to last installment of my series, in which I reveal more of the tips and tricks that innkeepers use in the kitchen to be efficient and well-prepared for guests. These are easily transferable to your home kitchen, and hopefully will give you more time to relax and enjoy your friends and family, and the reason for the season

If you have missed the other posts in the series, you can find them here, here, and here Make sure to visit, as there are wonderful ideas and tips to be found. I have a gift for you today: a free PDF download that includes all of these great ideas along with the recipes that just made our guests dream about our hearty, homemade breakfasts and afternoon treats!

Get your paper and pen, and let’s get to planning!

Breakfast casseroles

We had a variety of egg and french toast casseroles that we used over and over, along with the two potato side dishes for breakfast. We found that having just a few rock solid, high performing recipes of each type allowed us to create multiple breakfast buffets, much like having great quality separates in your closet allows the creation of many different outfits.

Potato, egg and french toast casseroles

If you have never made or eaten a breakfast casserole, you are in for a treat. Most egg and bread based casseroles can be made the night before, covered and refrigerated until morning.   In the mornings at the Inn, we would remove the dishes from the fridge first, then pre-heat the oven and bake as directed. This made the mornings go very smoothly, gave our guests yummy homemade food, and allowed us to sleep in about an hour later.

If you have never taken advantage of make ahead dishes when you are feeding a crowd, I heartily encourage you to give it a whirl. The good news is that these can be served from breakfast to brunch to buffet dinner. We have had them at every meal and they are equally at home and enthusiastically received. I have shared these techniques and recipes with moms before, and they always say the same thing: Breakfast was amazing! It was so easy-we just popped the dishes into the oven and chatted and relaxed while they baked. Then we enjoyed a great breakfast, and cleanup was so easy!

A tip to make your cleanup extra simple – Pansavers Pan Liners

There are many tools and supplies that commercial kitchens use that are now available to purchase for home use. Most of us don’t know that these helpful items even exist, but once you do, and you use them, you will be so glad to have them in your arsenal.

Pansavers Pan Liners rank as one of our all-time favorite finds, and are similar to the bags that you might use to roast a turkey. You put a liner in your casserole dish, and then scoop your casserole mixture into it. The liners are generally rated for up to 400 degrees, so they are very safe for these recipes, and especially for other really messy dishes like lasagna. They are sized for the restaurant style half size pans, so they will need to be trimmed a bit after filling when you use them on a 9 x 13 baking dish. Otherwise, you will bake your dish as directed. When you are done, you just lift the liner out of the pan (I’m sure there won’t be leftovers :-)), and throw it away. Update: the link goes to a more retail oriented page, and there is a link there to the Amazon sales page. The smaller packages make for a pricier per-use item, but they are priceless when you want to keep cleanup fast and simple!

Favorite Cooking Resources

When we started as innkeepers, we had cooked informally for our families and friends. We were never trained as cooks, chefs or bakers, but we knew how to research and test, which we did in earnest. We discovered that there were a few things that helped our food get rave reviews: great recipes, quality equipment, practice, and a willingness to learn.

Today I have a list for you of some of our favorite resources for recipes and baking ingredients.

Cooks Illustrated contain my absolute favorite, go to recipes of all time. The company tests multiple versions of each recipe, and explains what they did and what made the final revision the winner. They simplify ingredients and steps as much as possible without sacrificing quality. They review equipment as well, and I have always been very satisfied when I have purchased their recommendations. If you would like to be delighted when you try out new recipes, turn to Cooks.

They also have the TV show The Test Kitchen, which is based just outside of Boston, and the accompanying website has videos, recipes and equipment reviews. Cook’s Country -both the magazine and website-is based more on homey country cooking, while Illustrated is more gourmet (with great flavor, without the fussiness and stuffiness, IMHO). Both Country and Illustrated have cookbooks, a website (subscription) and a free newsletter (sign up at their site).

King Arthur Flour, America’s oldest flour company. As their website says, “To put it into context, George Washington had just been elected to his first term in office.” Their products are an outstanding quality and they have lots of great supplies for the kitchen, whether you are just learning or very experienced. Their store in Norwich, VT, is wonderful, and if you are ever in the area, I highly recommend it.

Penzeys Spices, the go-to place for fresh and fragrant herbs and spices. The website is deceptively basic, and contains hundreds of alphabetical listings from Adobo Seasoning to Zatar, with additional listings of salt free and specialty seasonings, and mills and containers. The spices are available by the ounce and by the pound, and increments inbetween.

Cook’s Thesaurus When you need to do an ingredient substitution, or when you are not sure what an ingredient is, head over to this site. Bookmark it, as you’ll find you will find it very useful.

Pamela Lanier’s Bed & Breakfast Inns  When I first began to search for great recipes that would feed a crowd and leave them very satisfied, I started at the Lanier site. Many inns are great about sharing their recipes, so if you are looking for something different, be sure to check this site out. Of course, there are lots of wonderful Inns to go as well, so perhaps you could find a great getaway for another day…

Update: This site no longer has recipes unfortunately. However, this B&B site has quite a good collection.

Be sure to come back tomorrow when I wrap up the series, and I will have free PDF for you-available for a limited time, that contains all of these helpful hints, along with the recipes our guests loved.

Here is the link: Innkeepers Secrets Wrap-up

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Image credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid