Captains House Inn Traditional Scone Recipe

Due to popular demand, here is our famous scone recipe:

Captains House Inn Traditional Scones

Oven Temperature 350°
Yield 10 - 12 scones
Cutter #3 Plain Circular Edge Cutter

Ingredients
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
3 Tbsp Sugar
½ Cup Butter
2 Large Eggs
1/8 Cup Heavy Cream

Ingredients - Egg Wash
1 Egg
A Little Heavy Cream

Method
1. Sift the dry ingredients into the mixer and cut in the butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
2. Add the eggs and then the cream a little at a time. Do not over moisten the dough.
3. Roll the dough LIGHTLY to a ¾” thickness and use a #3 plain circular edge cutter to shape the scones.
4. Place the scones on a greased cookie sheet and brush them lightly with egg wash (beat the two egg wash ingredients together).
5. Bake for 15 minutes at 350° until they have risen and are lightly browned.

Presentation
Serve the scones with raspberry jam and freshly whipped cream. (decorate with sliced fresh strawberries if available)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way Home For Christmas

This post has nothing whatsoever to do with innkeeping or the inn except that it happened to two people who happen to be innkeepers. Long ago, I dubbed my husband’s family’s Christmas traditions the “Meyer Christmas Spectacular.” It starts Christmas Eve with late church service followed by an elaborate opening of the stockings whereby each family member (there are six of us) buys everyone two stocking stuffers, wraps each gift, and provides a handwritten clue on each package. That makes sixty gifts, which, as tradition dictates, cannot be opened until the recipient guesses the contents. This typically carries on until about 3 a.m. Luckily there are homemade cookies and after dinner drinks available. We hit the sack exhausted, but not for long. Christmas morning finds us scrambling to wrap a couple last minute gifts, pumping our veins full of caffeine, and packing a well stocked diaper bag for our daughter who I’m feeling slightly resentful toward for having a good night’s sleep. Breakfast is at James’ parents – eggs, bacon, stollen scones, biscuits, and plenty of coffee. As gift opening gets underway, I’m wired and don’t anticipate the crash that will inevitably hit mid-afternoon. Time flies as we help prepare dinner, pack up gifts, set the dinner table, and welcome a sea of relatives. The day culminates with a huge spread of appetizers, a roast dinner, and dessert I don’t need, but eat anyway. We retire home in a food coma, drained, but content.

The prelude to the Meyer Christmas Spectacular is a five hour car ride to New Jersey several days prior where we spend Christmas Eve day with my dad and siblings before making the journey back just in time for church and stocking stuffers. This year, we decided to make the trip back slightly less painful by treating ourselves to take-out sushi for dinner. Sushi is our favorite meal, and though challenging to eat in the car, we figured it would be manageable and a fun splurge for the holidays. If you take anything away from this post, let it be this: DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ATTEMPT TO EAT A SASHIMI BOAT FOR TWO WHILE DRIVING. The whole experience was a disaster – our GPS system steered us way further off the highway than we had anticipated, setting our already delayed trip back by a good twenty minutes. When we finally arrived, we decided our daughter was due for a diaper change and struggled through a surprise messy one while the poor thing was scrunched up on James lap which we were using as a very awkward makeshift changing table. When we finally settled her back into her car seat and began unpacking our spread (complete with soup which we didn’t realize was included), we realized our mistake. There were little foil to-go containers balancing on our knees, the console and the dashboard. The whole car smelled of raw fish and soy sauce and wouldn’t you know they forgot to include napkins. Our GPS was displaying an estimated arrival time back on the Cape of 10:04 p.m. and church started at 10. There was no time to pull over and organize properly. So, we shoveled $85 worth of not so good sushi into our mouths by hand in record time and thanks to James’ lead foot, we pulled into the church parking lot at 9:58. There were soy sauce stains on James’ shirt and we were feeling a bit remorseful about our expensive indulgence gone bad.

After church, we started to see the humor in the whole sushi fiasco. When I recounted the story to the family, we were all rolling with laughter picturing the scene. At least we had an $85 story to tell now, we reasoned. But then James’ sister handed out her own holiday tradition – scratch off tickets for everyone. And what do you think our combined winnings were? You guessed it - $85.

While, perhaps not always so obvious, I really do believe that there is a balance to life’s pleasures and disappointments. I can even relate this lesson to innkeeping – we may get a last minute cancellation, but then often take an unexpected booking. In any case, this time it worked out for us – but next time, we’ll stick with Subway!

Managing Staff – Finding my Management Style

Clearly going from six to sixteen guestrooms required a period of adjustment. For the first six months or so, I had to relinquish my inner control freak and realize that until we had a handle on what was what, we were going to have to be reactive as opposed to proactive. I could deal with that as I knew that over time, I would gain a better sense of control over day to day operations. What really scared me, though, was managing a staff. I had never managed people before and didn’t know if I’d be any good at it. Any time I had tried to train somebody to do something, I felt bossy and guilty for asking them to do something. I knew that I would have to rely on a staff to help manage the inn properly, so I tried to mimic the management style of the previous owner of the inn who was helping transition us into our new roles.

Here’s a tip: ditch your managing people books and don’t try to imitate someone else’s management style. While the previous owner was a great manager and trained a hard working staff, we have very different personalities and therefore different management styles. The trick for me was finding that style and realizing that by just being myself, I could effectively manage a staff. Here are some techniques that worked for me, but again, I stress that it is important to do what works for you:

1. Never ask a member of staff to do something you won’t do. James and I are often found scrubbing pots and pans, serving breakfast, mopping floors, and even pitching in with housekeeping. Not only does it set a good example, but it makes us appreciate our staff and all they do for us.

2. Don’t yell. Just get a really disappointed look on your face when a member of staff does something wrong. We didn’t even realize we were doing this until one of our interns pointed out that James’ “look of disappointment” is far worse than yelling.

3. Have fun at work. Recently one of our interns said she thinks she laughed at work every day since she arrived last June. That means a lot to us – sure there are bound to be moments of stress and frustration. After all, this is work. But if we have a good time, our positive attitude reflects on the level of service we provide to our guests.

4. I remember someone telling me never to make friends with staff. I can’t imagine that person had a very good report with his subordinates (by the way, that’s a really demeaning word). While we maintain some boundaries and authority, we have the whole staff to our house for Thanksgiving and even indulge in the occasional drink after work. When we all feel like family, it makes it much more natural for, say, our chef to help the housekeepers in a pinch and vice versa.

5. Let them make fun of you. Everyone should be able to laugh at their boss – it’s fun. Just recently I spotted a picture of myself on Facebook with the captain “Geeeek” underneath posted by one of our interns. I know it’s all in good fun. And let’s face it, sometimes I really am a geek.

6. Give them authority. We put a huge amount of trust in our staff and rarely look over their shoulders. Sure mistakes are made from time to time, but they’re worth it – not only are they lessons learned, but the trade off of having a sense of ownership and pride outweighs the occasional goof.

Buying and Selling an Inn

I’ve never officially been diagnosed with ADD, but every couple of years I start feeling restless. Let’s just say if there’s not something new and exciting to report in my annual holiday card, I start seeking out a new adventure. Such was the case in late 2005. We had a couple solid years at the Carriage House Inn under our belts and had tripled the occupancy rate. We were in a busy, but predictable routine…and ready to move on. There are a lot of advantages to owning a smaller six guestroom inn – without a staff, we had total control over every guest interaction, we were able to get into the rooms daily for inspections, we didn’t have to hire/fire/train staff, and we could answer emails and phone calls in our pajamas. There are also a number of disadvantages – without staff, we were ALWAYS at work. If someone said they were going to check in at 3:00 and they still hadn’t arrived at 6:00, we had to call off our plans to go out to dinner. If someone wanted an extra pillow at 10pm, guess who’s got to get dressed and bring it to their room? And going on vacation meant hiring, training, and paying a professional innsitter or closing the inn. Basically, with a smaller inn, you forfeit freedom for complete control. We were young, and couldn’t envision living the next twenty-five years married to the inn. So we began seeking out a bigger venture.

As luck would have it, the Captains House Inn, just next door happened to be on the market. We were familiar with the inn and knew it had an outstanding reputation. With sixteen rooms and a separate house for the owners, it was just what we were looking for. The problem, of course, was the price. Let’s just say that two acres of property in close proximity to downtown Chatham doesn’t come cheap. Unlike our more spontaneous purchase of the Carriage House Inn, this purchase required a lot more number crunching, a formal business plan, and some creative marketing ideas to convince the bank that we could sustain a profitable business to support the huge mortgage we were requesting. With some creative financing and a very trusting loan officer, we managed to seal the deal and settled on a closing date for June 2006.

I’ll never forget how overwhelming it was to walk through the engineering inspection. We went from dreaming up a business plan and fantasizing about owning a four diamond inn to the reality of maintaining eighteen bathrooms, seven whirlpool Jacuzzi tubs, seventeen fireplaces, commercial washers and dryers, a commercial kitchen, two acres of landscaping, a swimming pool, a fitness center, and a gift shop. We would have to learn how to do payroll, market and execute afternoon tea, train a staff, manage a large reservation system, track inventory, and maintain all the standards to meet AAA four diamond criteria. Needless to say, we had many sleepless nights as the closing date approached.

While this was all going on, we were also in the process of selling the Carriage House Inn. We were lucky enough to have six offers over the course of just a few months and ultimately sold it to a couple from South Carolina, Paula and Tim Miller, who were seasoned and savvy innkeepers. It was important to us to sell to a couple who would sustain and improve upon the business we had worked so hard to build and the Millers fit the bill.

With the sale of the Carriage House and the purchase of the Captains House successfully orchestrated, our next step was to make the transition. It would be a long, but educational summer!

Love is in the air at the Captains House Inn

My favorite thing about being an innkeeper is the fact that the guests I meet are often celebrating a momentous anniversary, birthday, or honeymoon and I get to not only share that with them, but contribute to making these occasions special and memorable. Just the other day I was able to participate in one of my favorite memories to date.

Less than a week ago, one of our interns received a call from Laura, a guest who had stayed with us seven months earlier with her boyfriend Ian. Ian had departed to serve in Iraq shortly after their stay and they had just received word that he was due to return home in three days. The couple decided to make his homecoming extra special by getting married as soon as possible – i.e. just hours after he set foot on U.S. soil. Remembering their visit to the Captains House Inn fondly, they visited our website and discovered our elopement package – perfect!

Since we are in the midst of our quiet season, we were able to pull together all the details in just days – red and white roses for the bride’s bouquet, a simple, yet elegant white cake with rose petals, a dinner at their favorite Chatham restaurant, the Impudent Oyster, and of course, a bottle of bubbly to celebrate. Laura arranged for Reverend Nick Boas to officiate the ceremony and since we weren’t terribly busy at the inn, I was able to go offsite for the ceremony which was held at Chatham Light Beach.

It was the coldest day of the winter to date with temperatures topping out in the low twenties and gusty winds coming off the water. But we all bundled up and somehow forgot about the arctic air as Laura and Ian became husband and wife and walked along the shoreline arm in arm – now together forever.

The Many Hats an Innkeeper Wears

If the following story sounds like something that might happen to you, you might be cut out for the innkeeping profession: I was in college. One night, I was chatting on the phone with my cousin, Rachel, who was also attending university. She lived in an off-campus apartment and had just welcomed a new roommate. I’ll call her Kristen. Kristen and Rachel weren’t exactly hitting it off. “For starters,” Rachel complained, “she insists that we color code our sink sponges – yellow for dishes and orange for countertops….she says it’s gross to wipe down the counters with a sponge you’re going to clean dishes with.” I feigned horror at such a proposition, but was really thinking what a brilliant idea Kristen had come up with and was adding “colored sponges” to my grocery list. Who knows what happened to Kristen, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she joined the ranks of obsessive compulsive innkeepers like me. I knew that becoming an innkeeper would only encourage this behavior. What I didn’t realize were the many other hats I’d wind up wearing – here are just a few:

Traffic Analyst – I may look like I can predict the future, but trust me, nobody, not even Sky Chopper 4 News guy can tell you exactly what time to leave to avoid any traffic. As much as I try to sidestep this question, guests always counter my “leaving in the morning is probably your best bet,” with, “so should I leave at 10:00 or are you saying I should wake up really early and leave at 8:00?” The truth is, I have no idea when accidents will happen, exactly what time construction is going on, or when every other person in the area will decide to hit the road and head home.

Handyman – Guess what? Innkeepers don’t typically have plumbers, electricians or IT consultants on their payroll. I’ve plunged many a toilet in the last five years and have even learned how to use a snake (don’t ask). I can relight the pilot on gas fireplaces, solve a lot of computer problems, and even fix the occasional broken table leg. Despite being a true “girly girl,” I now know the difference between a Phillips head and flat head screwdriver. Usually, though, I hunt James down for the maintenance issues.

Weather Forecaster – I’m happy to advise guests about typical weather patterns and temperatures during different seasons. Please bear in mind, however, that even professional weather forecasters can be completely wrong two days ahead, let alone months in advance. If I could guarantee the weather, trust me, I wouldn’t be an innkeeper.

Exterminator – One of the first investments we made after buying our second inn was a screen for the top of the chimney. If you’re serious about innkeeping, you better not be too squeamish about “nature” because you’re not going to have time to call in the pros when a raccoon finds its way down the chimney and a guest is due to check into the room any minute.

Locksmith – What happens when a lock jams on a guest’s door and you want to avoid calling in a locksmith on a Sunday when you’ll have to pay time and half? You climb through the window in a dress and fix it yourself.

Detective – I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve left items behind at hotels, in taxi cabs, and at restaurants. I’ve locked keys in my trunk, looked high and low for my watch which is on my wrist, and left the oven on overnight. I attribute being a little scatterbrained to the fact that I am running a busy inn while trying to raise a family coupled with the fact that I didn’t have the greatest short-term memory to begin with. So I am very sympathetic when a guest calls and asks me to hunt down a missing item – once I even unearthed a diamond ring from our vacuum cleaner!

Psychologist/Marriage Counselor/Referee – I really can’t divulge too much about the stories behind these hats I’ve worn. Just trust me – innkeepers are a lot like hairdressers – we listen, advise, and save marriages.