Welcome to the blog of the Innkeepers of Main Street Manor Bed & Breakfast. The blog will be written and maintained mostly by me…I’m Donna, the Inn’s owner, full-time Innkeeper, baker & gardener. Contributions will come from part-time Innkeeper & full-time husband Ken, with observations and tidbits from assistant Innkeeper Quincy, our three year old labrador retriever.
We hope you’ll find the information here inn-spirational, inn-teresting and we really hope it will make you want to visit us here at our beautiful Bed & Breakfast in bucolic Hunterdon County. Being an innkeeper is fun and we love meeting new people and showing them whats so special about our quaint, historic town and Main Street Manor Bed & Breakfast Inn. Come visit us and let us spoil you!
- Preppin’
Have you ever wondered what innkeepers do on a snowy weekend when a major snowstorm forces guests cancel their reservations and we all-of-a-sudden have a weekend to ourselves with no guests staying at the Inn??? Well, hone our bread-making skills, of course!
On this particular day, we tested 2 recipes for Focaccia…a flat-bread of sorts which is typically dressed with herbs and sometimes roasted vegetables and a little cheese, similar to pizza. One recipe came from a quite renowned so-called ‘Bread Bible’,…a $50.00 hard-bound cookbook with a some inspirational photos; …the other from a thin Focaccia-only paper back book written by Carol Field with tempting photos of simple italian breads throughout. Attempt # 1 for focaccia from the ‘Bread Bible’ was trashed, but we tried the same recipe a second time and blamed the first failure on the yeast. At the same time, we made a basic focaccia from the cookbook of the same name and figured however it went, we would have at least one focaccia for a hearty dinner.
As we combined the yeast and the flour and waited for the ‘RISE’ , we roasted red potatoes, carmelized some onions, and roasted a head of fresh garlic…fresh rosemary from our herb garden(still alive inside!) waited to be plucked and added to the finished product!
Well, the Bread Bible recipe prooved to be the problem…not the yeast…but the Focaccia recipe won out and rose and worked to perfection!
Focaccia in the pan with roasted garlic...
...adding the roasted potatoes...
Yummy focaccia...Almost done!
...from Oven to Table...
We wound up adding a little gorgonzola cheese to half the focaccia and a little freshly-grated parmesan cheese to the other half…It was delish no matter how you slice it! If anyone out there wants the recipe, please e-mail us and we are happy to share the recipe along with our suggestions for additions….or visit Main Street Manor sometime in the future and you may just get some of this special treat to try at tea-time!
In the meantime, bake some cookies, some bread, make a soup or a focaccia in a snowstorm and enjoy the cockle-warming delights while its still winter…This is the time of year to create & savour some real home-made comfort food!
Kenny says Bon Apetit!
Bananas are just one of those things that are always in the kitchen at a Bed & Breakfast. All good innkeepers know it is a cardinal sin to waste ANYTHING at all…so we at Main Street Manor have come up with a fab-o recipe for when our bananas are starting to get really brown and funky… and are no longer use-able with morning yogurt or as a mid-day snack. So here goes…we hope you will enjoy this recipe. Its simple and really tasty!
Here I am... bodaciously mixing my banana bread!
Bodaciously Beautiful Banana Bread
3 or 4 mashed, ripe bananas
¼ c melted butter
1 c sugar
1 ½ c flour
¼ t salt
½ t cinnamon
¼ t freshly grated nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
1 t baking soda
½-1 c chocolate chips
(can add walnuts if you like!)
Preheat oven to 350. Mash bananas in a bowl. Add all remaining ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon. Bake in buttered loaf pan until toothpick or tester comes out clean…55-60 mins. Slice, serve & enjoy!
Posted in Feed The Need, Food, From The Innkeeper, Our Kitchen & Recipes, Uncategorized, Wintertime
Tags: aroma, Baking, bananas, breads, Eat Local, Farm, Food, food inc, lunch, Organic, recipes
If anyone has actually made a New Years Resolution and has had it come to fruition…they will understand my excitement and my extreme need to write this post! For YEARS I have wanted to put together a program for women that will inspire them in every facet of their life. Well, I have finally done it!
Several years ago I attended a class with a group of women given by a friend who was a recent graduate of the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in NYC…and it changed my life. Lori expanded our awareness on food and ‘feeding ourselves’ in all aspects of our lives. Through the classes with Lori, I have been better about my life choices & and recognizing the unity of body, mind, and spirit (although sometimes the business of the Inn gets in the way me of practicing what I know) She taught us to empower ourselves and to tune in to our inner wisdom when we need answers.
Well, on March 5-7, 2010, Lori will be here at the Inn along with other gifted teachers for our Woman’s Weekend of Renewal…just in time for Spring! We will be guided through the weekend with gentleness and ease to spur us to live 2010 in total joy! Come join us for a weekend of inspiration and sharing. I am thrilled that a resolution made a few years back has finally come to be. As we all know…sometimes it just takes a while!
Posted in Feed The Need, Food, From The Innkeeper, Local Interest, Uncategorized, Wintertime
Tags: aroma, Food, health, resolutions, wisdom, women
Everyone has their Christmas traditions and my favorite of all is cookie baking! Before we owned the Inn and especially now I spend about one solid week baking dozens of cookies to give as gifts, share with friends and snack on in the evening with a ritual cup of tea at bedtime. Each year I like to add one or two new kinds, but I always have my staple-favorites that I make without question. My all time favorite is a melt-in-your-mouth cookie my mom started baking when I was a little kid…a walnut crescent cookie. The original recipe is from a Woman’s Day magazine from 1963, and I still have the original clipping of the recipe from the magazine! Over the years I have tasted variations of this recipe…but this old original is still the best!
I will share the recipe with you along with some pics from the process we took while baking. Real butter, confectioners sugar & walnuts…now what could be bad about that? So here goes:
Womans Day Walnut Crescents (1963)
- 1 cup soft butter
- 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon water
- 2 teaspoons GOOD vanilla extract
- 2 cups white flour (unsifted)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Cream butter and confectioners sugar. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Shape in rolls about 1/2 inch in diameter and cut in 1 inch pieces. Put on cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment and pull down ends of cookie slightly to form a crescent shape. Bake in 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes.
warm crescents...just out of the oven
Remove from oven after baking and while cookie is warm, roll in more confectioners sugar. Makes about 6 dozen cookies.
thats me...rolling the warm cookies in more confectioners sugar...
I hope you will make this delicious cookie and if you do, leave a comment about my favorite Christmas cookie recipe…(or maybe share one of YOUR recipes here!) Whatever the cookie…whatever the tradition…we wish you and your loved ones a ‘ deliciously sweet season’ and a very Merry Christmas!
the completed cookie...yum!
We are IN THE SPIRIT with the Inn all ready and decorated for Christmas!
The twinkle of lights, the scent of pine and the magic of Christmas is in the air at Main Street Manor B&B!
Here’s a peek at what we’ve done…my collection of Santa’s were compiled over 30 years and many were gifts from Ken to me over the 20 Christmasses we’ve spent together; others were gifts from close friends and one, hand painted by me. The library bookcases host a collection of antique tin-toys on loan to us from a friend who has been a collector for about 20 years!
I just love setting up the snowbabies each year…the collection belonged to my maternal grandparents and unwrapping the whimsical bisque figures, remind me of the childhood ritual of my mom, aunt & I working together to decorate my grandpa’s house for Christmas.
We really love Christmas and look forward to our tradition of decorating together the week after Thanksgiving and we do it with Christmas music playing, candles glowing, wine flowing and Quincy in his bells.
Is there some Christmas tradition you look forward to each year or a wonderful Christmas momento that makes your heart sing? Leave a comment and tell us about it! …and in the meantime, make the most of this magical season!
Last weekend we took a ride out to preview the trees at our favorite and local Christmas Tree Farm, Cherryville Farms. Picturesque Cherryville Farms is totally storybook and offers about 6 different species of trees from beautiful blue-spruces to the aromatic concolor firs. The farm has a sweet gift shoppe, offers hot cocoa and is family owned and run.
Main Street Manor’s Christmas trees have come from this wonderful Christmas tree farm for the past three years!… This year, a 9 foot blue spruce will grace the Inn’s parlour, decorated in vintage and antique glass ornaments & a smaller tree for the library will be decorated in an old world theme paying tribute to the love we have for the animals in our lives, especially our Labradors!
If you are in search of the perfect tree this Christmas, DO visit Cherryville Farms…AND if you need some Christmas inspiration, come by the Inn on Friday evening, December 18 from 6-9pm when the Inn will be open to visitors for Candlelight tours. The tour will benefit a local non-profit, this year, K9Soldiers is our ‘non-profit of choice’ and will aid in supporting the K9’s and their handlers in all four branches of the service. Join us in celebration of the Season and in support of these heroes that we all owe so much to.
Posted in Ahhh...Mother Nature!, From The Innkeeper, Local Interest, Quincy's View, Uncategorized
Tags: Christmas, ChristmasTree, dog, Farm, K9, labrador, Quincy, retriever
Last week I was able to make a pilgramage to the new location of author Liz Gilbert’s store, Two Buttons in nearby Frenchtown. The space is even better than that of their previous location…it is warmer, larger and packed with so many more unimaginable treasures! Jose, Liz’s husband was there the day that I went and through our conversation, I found he has the same warmth and friendliness that Liz has. They are both genuinely thrilled that Two Buttons has been so very embraced by the community and they are happy to take time chatting with shoppers and answering questions about specific items and telling of their origin.
There are lots of must-do’s for shopping in the area surrounding Main Street Manor, but after having visited Two Buttons again, it has catapaulted to the top as one of my favorites! The day I was there I bought three beautiful hand-beaded bracelets for gifts and a fabulous stone morter and pestle to use for herbs in the Inn’s kitchen. If you are a lover of unique, hand made, exotic and one-of a-kind treasures, this is totally a place you will not want to miss! Two Buttons hours are Wednesdays through Sundays 11am-5pm and the store is located on Trenton Avenue in the neighboring village of Frenchtown.
We look forward to showing and telling you more about Hunterdon County and our quaint town of Flemington when you come stay with us at Main Street Manor Bed & Breakfast Inn.
Its always magical at Main Street Manor Bed & Breakfast…but this October has been especially so for us, as the Inn has hosted two Weddings these past two weekends. Each wedding was intimate with immediate family and close friends in attendance, but each totally different and to a ‘tee’ what each couple wanted for their special day.
Samantha and Mark planned a very untraditional wedding with simple vows exchanged in the Inns library. Family & friends toasted the couple as they enjoyed light nibbles and quiet conversation throughout the house and on the front veranda. Guests savoured an intimate dinner at a local Italian restaurant where cannoli’s and tiramisu were stand-ins for the traditional wedding cake. The happy couple and some of the family returned to the Inn for more conversation and an overnight stay. The next morning, all enjoyed a farm-to-table buffet breakfast served informally in the dining room.
Sheena & David wanted a simple intimate outdoor vow exchange from the moment they arrived at the Inn in anticipation of their wedding. They required little fuss but one tradition, precious to Sheena’s Phillipino family was a must and prooved to be fun for all! The couple was married in the boxwood garden and the day was perfect for an early evening outdoor wedding. After traditional family photos, the best man & the bride’s twin sister toasted the couple. A cd of familiar songs allowed the couples first dance along with the traditional dances of father/daughter & mother/son. The ‘fun part’ for all was the Phillipino tradition of the money dance, which is done to allow the newlyweds some extra dollars on the day of their wedding. A dollar bill is offered to the bride or groom, and pinned on by the guest wanting a dance, followed by a short dance the two do together. The bride was presented with a crown of dollars by her dad, and all at the wedding took part in this fun tradition! Later that evening, all guests dined at a local restaurant for the celebration dinner. The newlyweds returned to the Inn after dinner and stayed the night. They enjoyed an intimate candlelight dinner the next morning in the dining room and then left to begin their new life together.
All couples that marry at the Inn are special to us and unique in some way…it is wonderful getting to know them and seeing the love and joy of their friends and family. The magic for us is in the making of the memories! Congratulations Samantha & Mark and Sheena & David…we wish you a love-filled, long and happy life together!
Prior to our departure for vacation, we had an opportunity on a sunny, late August afternoon to journey to Solebury Orchards in Bucks County and what a treasure we found! The colorful road sign hints at the wealth of Mother Nature’s offerings once you arrive. The brilliant cutting garden alive with buzzing bees and butterflies is a joy to behold! Visitors can borrow a pruner from the farm store and clip the posies they choose.
The day we were there, the orchard market was brimming with baskets of beautiful berries & peaches, herbs, assorted vegetables and all kinds of ‘Solebury’ preserves, fruit butters and applesauce. They had some small and delicate early pears in little baskets that looked irresistable, so we bought them for a guest we had staying who was on a very restricted diet. The orchard also makes and bottles (in glass!), their own apple juice …so we just had to try it! OMG…It was out of this world and tasted more like apple cider than the watered down so-called apple juices we have had before. What a wonderful treat on a hot August day!
Picking your own fruits & vegetables (if you’ve never done it) is an amazing experience. It puts you in touch with Mother Earth and demonstrates how very perfect the law of nature is. Delicate berries are carefully protected by prickly leaves that envelop the tender fruit…and when you find & pick a perfect & glistening berry, it feels like you have won a prize. Then you taste it…and you KNOW you’ve won a prize!
Solebury Orchards offers pick-your-own for all kinds of fruit and also cherry tomatoes. The Orchards, when we saw them back in August, were brimming with luscious apples & pears of all kinds. We can’t wait to go back when its picking season! 
Treat yourself to trip to Solebury Orchards this season and spend some time there picking your favorite apple variety this fall! Maybe you’ll even find a new fave. Solebury grows 18 varieties of apple, so be adventurous when you visit!
While deadheading and doing general garden clean-up, I decided to take some pics to show the beautiful goings-on in our garden…Leave a comment and tell us whats growing in your garden! ~~~Enjoy!
