Sometimes it's easy

I am the first to admit, I'm not the best baker. I even put it in my anniversary FB post - I still can't bake.
But it's funny, we still get compliments. I think anything they don't make themselves is good.
Two examples:
I had three separate people compliment today's muffins and the blueberry flavor. They were made with strawberries and banana, but if they want to compliment the blueberry, it works for me.
I had a woman rave over breakfast - she was having an English muffin with jam. She wanted to know if it was homemade jam. Ummmm. well....no. The store brand. Not even Smuckers or a leading brand. So a Thomas' English muffin and no name store brand jam.
I still want to learn to bake, but for now, what we are doing is working.
I hear you all and your very well put together breakfasts and I have to wonder what other places are serving if ours is getting raves. I know it's nothing compared to most of yours. But my guests have obviously not been to your B&Bs yet.

I have been serving homemade jam for 2 months now. Has anyone mentioned it in a review? Not a chance. They say they love it but who knows! Sometime soon I'll be making blueberry jam. Maybe that will get reviews.

We're had two reviews in the last few months complaining about boring, uninspired breakfasts. Both mentioned scrambled eggs & bacon which they could do at home What they didn't mention is that the scrambled eggs & bacon were actually side items to something else. Makes us look bad and just completely chaps my A**! I am the main cook, coming up with recipes and trying new things. I only work in the kitchen on the weekends, so I'm trying to teach more interesting stuff to the other Innkeeper. We've made some things & froze them so she could have fancy stuff, mid week.
Every once & awhile find a new recipe to try. Do it on a slow morning for just yall (no guests) or for one or two couples. Do it until you are comfortable with the process, taste and presentation. Then try to do it for larger groups. I've learned that some of my recipes are just not practical at all or not good for large seatings. Others I've perfected and they are our go-to meals when we have a full house. Just try it one new recipe at a time and before you know it you will have a whole recipe box full of things to choose from!

Just about everything we serve is home-made (except the croissants which are TJ's and home-baked) and, although guests rave about our breakfast, and often give us great reviews, including the breakfast, they rarely mention anything specific in their reviews.
I think they love it all, especially because they have not made it. Did they really notice the home-made yogurt and home-made granola? How about the freshly baked lemon-ginger scones and cheesy-chive soufflé? They eat it and say everything is delicious but never pay attention to the details. Perhaps if they are cooks themselves, and hope to serve an impressive brunch, just maybe they will pay attention to the food enough to take note.
So don't take it personally...even though you may have slaved over the stove for hours getting all that home-made good food ready for them.

Having a passion about what you do- caring about how it is presented- putting some L O V E into it. Could that be part of it? It can make all the difference for a lot of folks.

I started to mix up biscuits this morning for the couple who did not give me a breakfast time. 7 Am got the English Muffin Bread breakfast. Then I looked at the RezKey entry - fruten glee please (he DID say bit to worry that this short time would not hurt. Did a Goo for gf biscuits and found one that said it was not like hockey pucks. Printed it off and the recipe for the flour it said to use. I had everything except the arrowroot flour (oops, should have looked it up before now). I used white rice flour - now I know I should have used corn starch, grrrr. They kind of crumbled and now I know why - but they were NOT hockey pucks. They were appreciative of the effort. Since omelets can be done last minute - I made sour cream & chives cheese omelets while the biscuits baked. Gave one to Himself - he said they were dry. (They even bought mugs.)
I have found that just trying makes guests happy.
When I went up to flip the rooms, i found $3 stuck in the gumball machine for the Lord's Pantry in one room and the funeral guy, in addition to buying mugs, left a NICE tip.

Sometimes the jam is homemade, but for when it's not I keep jars of decent jam with no high fructose cone syrup. Surprisingly hard to find in my neck of the woods.
My husband grew up on wonderbread and I've worked for years to make a loaf as soft as a store loaf for him. I'm darned close. The guests get "the husband loaf", alternated with the artisan loaf. They seem to love both. I have to agree the best breakfast is the one you don't have to prepare or clean up after!

happykeeper said:

Having a passion about what you do- caring about how it is presented- putting some L O V E into it. Could that be part of it? It can make all the difference for a lot of folks..

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We bought some nice square white plates and put a lump of parsley on each plate as a garnish,l and it was noticeable from that point onward how many people complimented the breakfast. It's exactly the same breakfast, just goes to show what a difference presentation makes.

Anon Inn said:

Sometimes the jam is homemade, but for when it's not I keep jars of decent jam with no high fructose cone syrup. Surprisingly hard to find in my neck of the woods.
My husband grew up on wonderbread and I've worked for years to make a loaf as soft as a store loaf for him. I'm darned close. The guests get "the husband loaf", alternated with the artisan loaf. They seem to love both. I have to agree the best breakfast is the one you don't have to prepare or clean up after!.

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You can't make anything like wonder because it's a commercial process. Jimmy's Food Factory Series 1, Episode 2 actually explains it.