You need to thaw out 2 cups of shredded hash brown potatoes for this one.
Butter a two quart casserole dish and preheat the oven to 350. Beat a dozen eggs with 1 cup of plain yogurt. (A word of caution here, I made my own yogurt and it was a little runny. The centre of the casserole didn’t gel, so now I use only bought yogurt.) Melt 1/3 cup of butter gently, lightly sautéing ¼ cup of chopped onion with a teaspoon of MSG free seasoning salt. (There’s a good one called Johnny’s.) Add 2 cups of thawed hash browns, stir to mix, pour in egg mixture and stir a little to blend. Pour into casserole dish, top with 1 cup grated cheddar. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes—or more, until a knife comes out clean.
There are any number of other delicious things out there to feed guests in the morning, and the eager host will experiment with many different recipes, always remembering that the most important ingredient is love.
Love poured lavishly into the ingredients always makes everything taste better.
Finally, there’s a motto I kept as a reminder, just inside the door of the armoire where I stored guests’ coats, and where I noticed it daily. It seemed the best advice I’d ever come by for running a B&B.
It’s by Mother Teresa, and it says,
LET NO ONE EVER COME TO YOU WITHOUT LEAVING BETTER AND HAPPIER.
BE THE LIVING EXPRESSION OF GOD’S KINDNESS,
KINDNESS IN YOUR FACE, KINDNESS IN YOUR EYES,
KINDNESS IN YOUR SMILE.
I didn’t always succeed—some guests at the Blue Collar were more challenging than others, and my final encounter with Louie was my most regrettable mistake—but I usually tried my very best.
And maybe that’s all we can do.
Thanks for listening. And may your B&B bring you the joy and laughter mine brought to me.
Thanks also for reading B&B. I’d be so grateful if you’d leave me a review on Amazon, here.
I’ve written two memoirs—you’ve read the first.
The second is TILL DISEASE DO US PART—CAREGIVER BURNOUT, which may not seem to be a love story—but actually is.
If you enjoyed this book, or have stories you’d like to share about staying at B&B’s, I’d be delighted if you’d email me at [email protected].
Also available on Amazon are my quirky, passionate romances:
NOW AND THEN
LOVE OF A RODEO MAN
GRADY’S KIDS
A LEGAL AFFAIR
FOLLOW A WILD HEART
EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE
FULL RECOVERY
THE BABY DOCTOR
MAKE ME A MATCH
ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT
STAND BY YOUR MAN
DRASTIC MEASURES
ALMOST AN ANGEL
PATIENT CARE
SPECIAL EDUCATION
EARTH ANGEL
DOUBLE JEOPARDY
ARE YOU MY DADDY
PICKING CLOVER
A LANTERN IN THE WINDOW
NURSING THE DOCTOR
AND A KID’S BOOK!
DEETER, THE DOG WHO DIDN’T LISTEN
WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT HOW NOT TO RUN A B&B
Yvonne Phillips (Pittsburgh, PA):
Bobby Hutchinson got my attention the moment I opened the book. Since I am a Foodie, I went right to the recipes and I never set the book down until I completed the whole book. Bobby is such a great writer and I immediately wanted to go and visit her B&B. She sure has the magic touch with all of her guests, they keep returning. Her characters are so interesting that I almost called her on the phone to find out even more information about them! You will certainly enjoy this book, great reading for a winter evening.
Tony Maxwell (author of The Queen’s Cowboys)
(Alberta, Canada)
All you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask! If you are thinking about operating a bed and breakfast, I suggest you start by reading Bobby Hutchinson’s book, HOW NOT TO RUN A B&B. Now don’t get me wrong—it’s not the sort of book that will seek to dissuade you from going out on a limb, nor will it convince you with facts and figures that your chances of success are akin to a snowball in a very hot place. No indeed, Ms Hutchinson instead concentrates on the most important part of any B&B—the guests who, for a short time, will temporarily become part of your family.
Her book recounts, with a blend of humor and sympathetic understanding, the stories of a wide variety of guests who make her home their home while they enjoy vacations, settle in as immigrants or recover from the vicissitudes of failed love affairs.
Even if you have no intention of ever starting your own B&B, but have stayed or perhaps are planning to stay in one, then it’s even more important that you should read this book. There is much to be learned!
And, as an additional bonus for the reader, Ms. Hutchinson has included some of her favorite recipes. Her Blue Collar Creative Muffins recipe is easily worth twice the price of the book.
Jan (B.C. Canada)
Reading HOW NOT TO RUN A B&B was a great fun romp. The book is full of eccentric characters and humor with touch of pathos. The recipes were a clever touch, (shades of Like Water For Chocolate.) The romance writer is always there, just under and sometimes on the surface. Most entertaining!
Nancy Warren, writer (FROSTED SHADOW, A TONI DIAMOND MYSTERY)
I read this wonderful book in one sitting because couldn't put it down. I could not stop laughing as romance author turned B&B hostess Hutchinson relates her adventures. The book is a memoir, in the tradition of Eat, Pray, Love, about a woman who tries something completely new, at an age when most women are slowing down, and discovers a cast of charming, eccentric and sometimes truly strange characters along the way. Hutchinson has styled this book as a sort of tongue-in-cheek how-to advice book for anyone starting their own bed and breakfast. The book begins, 'Utterly petrified, I cowered in the kitchen as the doorbell announced my first guest.' I found her honesty and self-deprecating humor charming and as she finds the courage to quit cowering and answer the door, a world of fun begins. Hutchinson has a way of telling her story, entwined with the stories of her guests, so that they almost feel like linked short stories. Long after I finished reading HOW NOT TO RUN A B&B, I found myself wondering what had happened to some of the people who wandered through these pages. What of the Spanish Armada? The family from Spain who came to Canada to start a new life? Or The Junkman, who liked to bestow odd gifts on the author, leaving them on her front porch. You may not put this book down and immediately decide to open a bed and breakfast, but you will learn what goes into running a successful B&B, enjoy the recipes liberally sprinkled through the book and you'll meet some fascinating characters -- including the author.
S. Wemp, Sparwood B.C., Canada)
Bobby Hutchinson's book about running a bed and breakfast is a surprising gift. Her stories from her bed and breakfast are so vivid and believable that when you are reading her book you become an invested partner in her business and her life. HOW NOT TO RUN A B&B is full of gritty practical tips about running a b&b (really gritty), daily life philosophical suggestions, recipes, jokes and even some really teary tragedy. I read it obsessively in one day, laughing and crying all the way and wishing it would never end.
Terry C. Hume
From copulating gerbils to spiritual Tourettes, HOW NOT TO RUN A B&B gives an enlightened insight into the bed and breakfast world. Mix together complete strangers with the “regulars”, blend in one nuisance cat and you have the recipe for a highly entertaining read. Author Bobby Hutchinson displays her wit and sense of humor as she skillfully guides us through her adventures from the opening of Blue Collar until the final click of the door lock.
Dare I ask for a sequel??
ABOUT BOBBY HUTCHINSON
Bobby Hutchinson was born in a small town in interior British Columbia in 1940. Her father was an underground coal miner, her mother a housewife, and both were storytellers. Learning to read was the most significant event in her early life.
She married young and had three sons. Her middle son was deaf, and he tau
ght her patience. She divorced and worked at various odd jobs, directing traffic around construction sites, day caring challenged children, selling fabric by the pound at a remnant store.
She mortgaged her house and bought the store, took her sewing machine to work, and began to sew a dress a day. The dresses sold. The fabric didn’t, so she hired four seamstresses and turned the store into a handmade clothing boutique.
After twelve successful years, she sold the business and decided to run a marathon. Training was a huge bore, so she made up a story as she ran, about Pheiddipedes, the first marathoner. She copied it down and sent it to the Chatelaine short story contest, won first prize, finished the Vancouver marathon, and became a writer. It was a hell of a lot easier than running.
She married again and divorced again, writing all the while, mostly romances, (which she obviously needs to learn a lot about,) and now has more than fifty-five published books, many of which will soon appear as e books.
She decided she needed something to do in the morning in her spare time, so she opened her first B&B, Blue Collar, in Vancouver, B.C. After five successful years, she moved home to the small coal-mining town of Sparwood, B.C., where she now operates the reincarnated version of the Blue Collar.
She's currently working on three or four or eight more books. She has six enchanting grandchildren. She lives alone, apart from guests, meditates, bikes, reads incessantly, changes beds, cooks breakfast, and writes.
She likes a quote by Dolly Parton: “Decide who you are, and then do it on purpose.”
Visit Bobby at her website, http://www.bobbyhutchinson.com and find out what inspired each of her romances.
Email her at [email protected]
How Not To Run A B&B: A Woman's True Memoir Page 15
