Diner Food

Pasta serves as a foundation for anything.

Chocolate cake is always a favorite.

Breakfast can be fun!

Minted strawberries and grapes tastes fresh.

A flat bread pizza with seasoned oil,sausage, red pepper and mozzarella.

Life consists of moments.  

It would be convenient if the moments that are the defining moments were labelled.  We might better appreciate how our choices in that moment catapult us down a specific path.  Sadly, it often takes the benefit of hindsight to recognize that we were even at a crossroad of any magnitude. 

It was one such moment that routed my destiny.  I had longtime aspirations of owning a Bed and Breakfast.  I first became enamoured of the idea when I wrote an article on local B & B’s for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, a local newspaper.  To my mind, my husband and I had the perfect complement of skills to undertake such a venture; he was excited by the idea. He is a skilled carpenter, a capable contractor and an astute businessman. Our skills were compatible.  I am endowed with an ability to produce copious quantities of what I call “diner food.”  It is homey, filling, and fundamentally tasty.  Delicately plated mise en bouches  are not part of my repetoire. 

A hearty meal with generous proportions is what I produce. I can preserve, bake, roast and saute with skill.  I read cookbooks with intensity and enthusiasm.  You have heard of armchair travelers?  I am an armchair foodie.  I imagine the amalgamation of flavors and textures as I read the instructions for a recipe. In addition, I am a renowned queen of laundry.  I was prepared for the mountains of sheets, towels and wash clothes that would be generated by paying guests.  What’s more? A twelve year period of my life was dedicated to marketing and organization; what better place to apply these skills than the managing of the marketing and reservations of a busy B & B?  

In 1993, my husband and I entered a lottery to win a Bed and Breakfast in northern Maine.  With two young children in tow, we drove over six hours to investigate the property that was offered through an article in Yankee Magazine.  There were some issues structurally, but overall, the building and outbuildings were sound. We mailed our $500 check with a 500 word essay selling ourselves as the new innkeepers.  Our future seemed to hang in the balance as we awaited the announcement of the winners.  

In retrospect, it was one of those few moments in life when there was a clear divergence of paths.  Our path did not lead toward Maine.   I have not found myself laboring over bookings, reservations and scheduling of staff.  Laundry is limited to what my family of five produces.  Long ago, I relinquished the dream of owning a Bed and Breakfast. 

However, it is still my habit to plate up diner food.