Anglo-American Breakfast, Yam Soup and Meatballs

Well, we launched Sally's Poolside Cabana With Gourmet Flair on AirBnB last week, and within 24 hours had booked our first guests. Within a few days we booked several more guests for overnight to week-long stays, into February!

Decades ago, after having stayed in several BnBs, I thought how neat it would be to run one. Now we are. If you travel, even to the next nearest city, check out www.AirBnB.com. Enter a city, number of guests and when you want to travel.Much cheaper and more friendly than a glass-and-plastic hotel!

 The company is one of the most successful Internet companies, and takes very good care of both guests and hosts. It's for folks like Sally who have a cabin, a spare bedroom, a mother-in-law apartment, etc. who want to make some money on the side. In state like Florida where there are special taxes, the company collects and pays those for us, handles all the money matters, calendar and bookings, does all the marketing, and takes a very small fee for each booking. You can find AirBnB properties not just in the US and Canada, but all over the globe!

Anglo-American Full Breakfast

Part of what we offer, that few AirBnB properties do, is a cooked Full Breakfast, by yours truly. Lots of places have cold cereal, milk, juice, stale bagels, toast and store-bought jelly... that sort of thing. To me a BnB is all about the breakfast. I created a menu of a dozen or more choices. 

One of our first guests asked for the Anglo-American Breakfast, and I just had to show off my take on the classic English Breakfast. 

 

Here you have two eggs, fried tomato, sausage, baked beans, and sauteed mushrooms.  Kinda proud of the giant wine-cork trivet, too.  We had to drink a LOT of wine to make it!

Creamy Yam Soup

 Sally wanted something different for dinners during this week while I'm at the boat.  So I came up with this Creamy Yam Soup.  Even with the sweetness of the yams and the added sugar and apple, it's still more savory than my Butternut Squash-Onion-Apple soup.

3 lbs Yams, peeled and grated large on a box grater

1 Red Apple chopped small

1 cup diced Onion

1 tsp Cumin

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

1/4 tsp Cayenne

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

3/4 cup Greek Yogurt

1/2 cup Half & Half

5 cups Water

Combine everything, simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the solids away from the liquid and puree the solids. Return solids to the liquid in the pot, and cook another 30 minutes until it starts to reduce and thicken. 

 

Bisquick tm Meatballs

Sally needed another potluck item for work, and signed me up for meatballs.  There are several versions of this recipe floating around out there, with varying amounts of Bisquick per unit of sausage. Many call for far too much flour and cheese.  Mine makes a moist, dense meatball that doesn't taste 'bready'.

1-1/2lbs bulk Sausage - hot or sweet Italian, bratwurst, whatever you fancy

2 cups Bisquick

2 cups shredded Cheese

1/8 tsp Pepper, fresh cracked, of course

In a large bowl, combine the Bisquick and the cheese. Then "cut" the sausage into the Bisquick-cheese mix, in the same way you cut butter into flour for making scones. Use your Mark I hands to do the squishing, folding, squeezing and mixing. Try to incorporate all of the flour mixture into the meat, but don't worry if it won't all go into the mixture.

Pull off pieces of the breaded sausage and squeeze it in each hand 6-10 times to compress the mixture. Then roll into a 1" ball between your palms. This recipe makes about 36 balls. Place on a roasting pan or wire rack above a sheet pan to catch the drippings. Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes. 

Leftover Bisquick-cheese mix can have a few tablespoons of water added, kneaded into a dough, and baked as a sort of cheese scone.

Next Week

Mini Mince Pies and more!