We've been served the ubiquitous 'broiled half grapefruit' enough times in the past few months that we might just try it ourselves. We were told it is so good that guests forego their statins just so they can eat it. (Knowing my guests, however, they will just not eat it at all.) But, it's looking like it will be on the menu this year.
Crepes- savory & sweet.
Eggs bennie.
Where we are really changing things up is in the starter course. We've been dinged for using 'canned' fruit so we'll be dressing the bottled fruit up a bit so it passes muster. Guests who live in the land of fresh fruit don't seem to understand that not every location in the US has fresh fruit year round at affordable prices. Guests who never eat fruit for breakfast love the bottled stuff but they never say so online..
I just never liked a half a grapefruit presented to me no matter how it was prepared. I always used the "jarred" refrigerated grapefruit slices for our guests. I made a simple syrup and steeped a vanilla bean in it. Put the grapefruit pieces in the syrup overnight and YUMMMO! That is the only way will eat it. Even grapefruit haters seemed to enjoy it.
Of course you could slice up your own grapefruit and use it. I just never wanted to take the time to section it all out nice and neat :-(
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We have avoided grapefruit for about 2 years because so many guests left it. If it was mixed in with something else, they wouldn't touch the whole dish. So, that said, not really sure why we would even bother with the broiled grapefruit at this point. Seems like a really big waste in the long run.
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Madeleine said:
We have avoided grapefruit for about 2 years because so many guests left it. If it was mixed in with something else, they wouldn't touch the whole dish. So, that said, not really sure why we would even bother with the broiled grapefruit at this point. Seems like a really big waste in the long run.
I usually don't serve it for the same reason - too many people leave it. I might try it in an arrangement like this one:
Winter Fruit Salad. I would have just a few grapefruit sections and maybe some clementine sections, so people who don't eat grapefruit can just leave it.
Now, about breakfast changes. When I've been to other B&Bs and seeing these recipes, I feel like we're serving way too much in our fruit servings, which runs up our costs quite a bit. I want to look at that for an area to make changes this year but I don't want to be chintzy. What do people think about that? Is a fruit serving like the linked recipe enough (that's about 1/3 to 1/2 of what I usually serve)?
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The way it is served it looks chintzy. It needs to be in a smaller dish with the fruit cut up in bite-sized pieces so it looks like more. If you put it on top of a leaf of spinach or mesclun mix with a drizzle of balsamic it would be fine.
We went to smaller serving dishes so it looks like more.
In my experience, some people have been scared witless by their dr's so they avoid anything that came in touch with a slice of grapefruit. They leave the whole fruit course. The really bad ones won't consider picking out the grapefruit, they won't touch it at all.
I guess I've talked myself out of the broiled grapefruit. We can't eat it so it would go to waste. (That said, we have eaten it in the past few months and we didn't die.)
Looking at this photo I would say we serve twice that amount as well. We've seen about this serving size in the places we have stayed recently, so my take is we're serving too much. How to cut back? Add yogurt and granola. A 6 oz plain yogurt goes a looooong way and a tbsp of granola is plenty on top of the fruit and yogurt.
If you serve the fruit on plates, get creative with the plate garnishes. A little drizzle of raspberry puree makes a big statement. (So says me.
) This is how I spread the wealth when it's my turn to plate the starter course. We get 16 slices from a loaf of banana bread and I make it look like more with the garnishment. (I thought I had a photo on the blog but I don't.)
Who knows, maybe with the revelation that Ms Deen is a diabetic, we might get folks interested in less is more!
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