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.

Finding My Passion

Let’s rewind five years to the summer of 2003. I, like so many of the guests who envy my lifestyle, was working in corporate America. I was in administration at a consulting firm in downtown Boston, the latest of several jobs I had held over the last five years or so out of college. I should digress a moment and point out that we are young innkeepers. That’s why you will see phrases on this blog like, “I came home after a rough day at work and pounded down a bottle of Chardonnay,” as opposed to, “I decided to blow off some steam after a long day by finishing the sweater I’ve been knitting my grandson.”

Anyway, I couldn’t stand working for someone else and hopped from company to company hoping to find a job I felt passionate about. Finally, one particularly depressing day when I was feeling restless once again, I made my way down the elevator of the high rise office complex where I worked to the Barnes and Noble below. Impulsively, I bought a copy of Running a Bed and Breakfast for Dummies. I distinctly remember the cashier asking if I owned a B&B to which I responded, “not yet.” I flipped through the book in the confines of my cubicle and noted a website the authors had created – http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/. Perfect…I could pretend to do work while perusing the site. I found a link on the site to “inns for sale” and immediately did a search for properties on Cape Cod. My husband, James, who worked at a prestigious downtown Boston hotel, and I had fantasized about owning a B&B in Chatham - where he had vacationed as a kid - when we retired thirty years down the road. But we had never even broached the idea of doing it any sooner. My search generated a list of three B&B’s on the Cape, one of which – the Carriage House Inn - looked just like the dream inn we had envisioned. I spontaneously emailed the link to James at work and got back to alphabetizing files or whatever I was supposed to be doing.

For the next three days or so, I put my little fantasy out of my mind. I didn’t even mention it to James at home and completely forgot that I had emailed him the listing. Then, on a Friday afternoon, a response from James appeared in my inbox. As is typical of my fiscally responsible husband, his reply was a preliminary hypothetical profit and loss statement based on current interest rates, a rough estimate on occupancy rates, and the average daily rate provided on the sales specs. His analysis? Maybe this could work! Now, I should point out that in our relationship, I am the idealist and James is the realist. The fact that James was fueling my enthusiasm meant something here. We had plans to spend the weekend with his parents at their vacation home on the Cape that weekend so I printed the listing and stuffed it in my suitcase.

Turned out, my enthusiasm was contagious. Over dinner that night, we showed the listing to James’ parents who encouraged us to call the realtor. To me, this was even more huge than James’ optimistic spreadsheet. His parents are conservative by nature. For them to encourage even the possibility of us uprooting our stable (though in my case, fickle) careers, complete with health insurance and 401k plans to embark on a business that could sink or swim, was the push we needed to call the realtor. I was already deciding what coffee to serve for breakfasts at the inn as I dialed the number, but my bubble burst when I was informed that there was a bid on the inn which had been accepted. Other offers were being entertained, though, as there was a home sale contingency on the contract and the sellers were eager to sell. We set up an appointment to view the property, but with an overwhelming sense that we were wasting the realtor’s time – the likelihood of being able to counter the offer if we even liked the property was slim.

The cards were in our favor though. The inn was in fantastic condition cosmetically with six well appointed rooms and a comfortable apartment for the innkeepers. What was lacking were the essentials of a viable business – occupancy numbers were low, the website was practically non-existent, and it was the middle of summer. We wouldn’t be able to close on the property until fall at the earliest and there were no reservations on the books after mid-October. It would be a rough winter of eating Ramen noodles and leftovers, but we were game. After all, there is a certain romance about scrimping and saving to fulfill your lifelong dream, right?

To make a long and fairly boring story short, we were able to put together a business plan and get backing from a bank to move forward with the sale and outbid the previous offer. This all happened fairly quickly and while we knew we had the business sense and personalities to be innkeepers, those talents couldn’t be put to the test unless we had guests. We would need to figure out a marketing plan – and fast!