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A Wonderful Concord Christmas Story

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

A few days before Christmas I was giving a friend’s out of town visitor a tour of the house. My friends six year old son David was with us and did he get excited when I showed him a secret place to store treasures. It was in our main bed and breakfast bedroom above the fireplace mantelpiece. Our “restoration” carpenter from New Hampshire created that little cavern when he tore down the wall above the mantelpiece and put shelves in the recess. David was less impressed by my description of what we found when the wall was torn. The major items were a ladies button boot, a breast pump, and some letters, each offering consolation for the death of a child. Losing a child was apparently a common event for families from the time our house was built in the early 1700s through even later times.

One of the letters, three pages long, and now in the Concord library, showed beautiful handwriting similar to our forefathers’ writing of our Constitution. It was a letter from Cyrus Barrett to his sister Sally, who had married into the Wood family living in our house. The Barrett family house is now being restored as part of Concord’s historical park. The Minutemen had ammunition hidden in the Barrett’s cornfield the day of the shot heard round the world. Written in New Orleans in 1819, Cyrus first offered condolences over a son’s death and continued by describing a familiar theme, an economic downturn. I have not corrected the spelling in the following quotes:

“I was much affected by the maloncholly intelligence contained in your letter of the sudden death of your affectionate and much loved little John. I recollect him perfectly and have often been amused by his innocent playfulness. I am not surprised that his death should occasion the deepest sorrow in you, yet at the same time you are left with the comfortable assurance that he is happier than your fondest wishes and care could have made him.”

“New Orleans has for some time past been suffering under a heavy weight of commercial embarrasement. Many of her most enterprising Merchants have failed and those who continue in business are constantly complaining of heavy taxes. The Produce of the country is extremely low. Cotton which formerly sold for 30 cents now sells for 16 cts and other articles have suffered the same depression in values, but notwithstanding the times look so gloomy we are looking forward for a change.”

Thinking about the letters makes me glad to be alive today. In spite of all the economic and political problems, we are saved the grief of losing so many children.

And of course so many of our tasks are much easier, for instance baking these Russian tea cakes I gave my friend to take home. They make excellent cookies for any occasion.

INGREDIENTS AND DIRECTIONS FOR BAKING RUSSIAN TEACAKES:

1 cup butter 1 teaspoon vanilla (or brandy)

½ cup confectioners sugar ¾ cup chopped pecans

2and ¼ cup sifted flour 1 cup confectioners sugar

Cream shortening and sugar. Stir in vanilla. Add flour and then nuts. Form 1” balls and bake 14 to 17 minutes in 325 oven. While still hot roll carefully in confectioners sugar.

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USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK YOUR BED & BREAKFAST!
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Tags: 1700's house, Barrett family, Bed and Breakfast in Concord MA, Cyrus Barrett, economic downturn, Fireplace, Historical Home, Minutemen, New Orleans, Recipe, Russian tea cakes
Posted in Bettina Network Info, Bettina's Cookbook, Historical Support, Making Connections, Preserving Family History and Stories, Who are the Bettina Families | Comments Off

Thanksgiving at a Bettina Bed & Breakfast Home

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I would like to write a blog about it. Hope you find this up to your standards, kiddo!

We decided to do the “Bettina” thing and invite the guests staying with us to join us for Thanksgiving Dinner. It happens all over the Bettina Network,but we have not done this before. Somehow, we were hanging onto our – Thanksgiving is for family – routine.

Truthfully, when my grown daughter comes for Thanksgiving, it is not always a happy time, but we force it and do it again the next year. Please don’t publish my name – she will never come again. This year , thanks to the combination of family and Bettina Network guests, we had a super holiday.

We only had two guests – we normally only have two guests so that is nothing strange.

What made this Thanksgiving so special were the guests and your turkey stuffing. A “New Orleans Creole” turkey stuffing!

I had it at your house a couple years ago and have tasted it in my mouth every since. I added a bit of a Yankee touch and it was still very good. I am tempted to include my recipe, but I would prefer your sharing the recipe as you gave it to me.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK YOUR BED & BREAKFAST!
1-800-347-9166 inside U.S. or 617-497-9166 from wherever!

Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Who are the Bettina Families | Comments Off

So Much To Do – So Little Time

Friday, March 11th, 2011

“After reading your blog on Rev. Gomes and looking at my own life – this may be a morbid post, but it is where I am at the moment and I think it needs to be said.

It is great being a host family in the Bettina Network. Bed & breakfast has focused my life and used all of my talents. Sometimes, I really didn’t understand why I was going through so much upheaval and unhappiness as I tried to get life together. I tried several careers, but none seemed to fit. Each one didn’t like me – so I moved on to something else. With bed & breakfast, its different. I like this career. It allows me to use every talent I have.

Funny thing about that – I started with a very different set of lifestyle values. I needed to have a perfect house and garden. I knocked myself out 24/7 trying to make sure the house was absolutely spotless. If a guest came along who knocked into the wall with their luggage going to their room I was right there within an hour with a little sandpaper and paint to take away any indication that humans had passed on that stairway. I was a nervous wreck.

Now, I am thoroughly enjoying myself and understand this business a lot better. Guests are returning at a higher rate and we are all a lot better off because of my epiphany.

I realized my home is not a funeral parlor. It is a place for real-live-functioning-people, who want most of all to find ‘home’ away from their actual home. There is enormous stress in traveling. We all experience it and want it to stop, but then we travel again and have high moments of enjoyment, but the stress is never very far away.

My home has become that ‘home’ away from home – if I can be a bit immodest. My focus has changed. My concern is about the guest and not the house. The Bettina people told me to make that my focus when I joined the Bettina Network. And, they said, I would have a much fuller and better experience than if I made the house the focus.

Probably because I didn’t understand what they meant I said – yes, yes – and went about making the house the focus. I now have a bed & breakfast HOME, which is different from a bed & breakfast house and everyone is happier for the transformation. It is still clean and looks very nice, but not the hyperness of yesterday nor the fussiness of how I used to be.

Thanks folks – Bettina folks and guests too! You have changed my life for the better and I look forward to a long career as a bed & breakfast host family in the Bettina Network and a researcher (which is what I do in my spare time). I owe all of you for enriching my life beyond what I expected.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email info@bettina-network.com
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USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK YOUR ACCOMMODATIONS!

1-800-347-9166 inside U.S. or 617-497-9166 outside the U.S.

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Breakfast Apples

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

One of the Bettina Host families has finally sent us her recipe for the apples which are a trademark of her breakfasts. Every morning, you can count on geting these apples, no matter what else she serves.

We loved them from first taste. They are not stewed apples, which break down to a kind of mush and are nice with certain dishes. These apples pretty much keep their shape and taste fantastic.

They are quick and easy to make if you have the right equipment and what you need is a very good apple corer and a VERY sharp knife for slicing.

“I use organic Granny Smith apples for this dish and buy them by the box. Needless to say a box barely lasts a week.

I wash the apples carefully because I use the peel. It gives a nice semi-caramel taste and texture to these apples. With organic apples I don’t have to worry about strange and awful stuff on the outside because that isn’t allowed, but I still wash them with great care.

Core the apples with an apple corer.

Slice the apples with a very sharp knife. The width of the apples depends upon your taste. Experiment! When you came to stay with us I was slicing the apples about an inch thick, now I slice about half an inch and I like that better.

Put a generous amount of butter in a flat, iron skillet. The skillet probably has another name, but I don’t know what it is. The flat skillet with a little lip around the side is perfect for these apples. The lip catches any butter that strays.

Once the butter starts to bubble, but long before it browns, put apples in the butter and let them fry for just a minute. Turn them and fry on the other side.

Sprinkle the apples with a generous amount of organic turbinado sugar (I read the blog and changed from what used to look like sugar to me and now looks like white death, to this wonderful coarse brown-in-color sugar). Some people think I fry them in brown sugar, but the organic turbinado sugar is different. Most brown sugar (see I do research too) is white sugar with some molasses – which was originally taken out of the sugar – put back.

Once you’ve sprinkled them with organic turbinado sugar, let them fry about another minute on both sides and take them out with a spatula. The ‘no-no’ with this dish is to avoid the temptation of frying the apples too long. A very quick fry on both sides is all you need – this is not apple mush, but fried apple rings and apples will mush very quickly. This is the step which makes the difference between my apples and everybody else’s. (Wow, I’ve been around you too long, my ego is shooting to the moon).

If you need more you can continue to fry the apples in the same skillet adding more butter and sugar as you go along. The last batch is usally the best and I save that for me while I am cleaning the kitchen. Enjoy and stop hassling me for recipes and articles for the blog. You now have my most treasured recipe.

It takes time to really get these right. I made them for weeks before I got the hang of frying them in butter so that the apples would come out in whole slices and look really gorgeous on the plate. Don’t give up, just keep trying and one morning it will click.”

ed. note: I hope our readers’ appreciate all the guff I take to bring them the best from bed & breakfast host families and guests.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email comments to info@bettina-network.com
TO LEARN MORE about the Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com
IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK YOUR ACCOMMODATIONS WHEN YOU
TRAVEL!!! 1-800-347-9166 inside U.S. or 617-497-9166 outside or inside the U.S.

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Mosquitos and Vitamin B1

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

We talked about many remedies for mosquitoes at breakfast this morning. The one we all decided to try is Vitamin B1. This conversation took over breakfast because my beautiful garden can’t be enjoyed without enduring mosquito bites and everyone was scratching from spending time outside.

One of our bed & breakfast guests gave her children Vitamin B1 before they went out to play. She didn’t believe in mosquito repellants. Since her children are all grown and have families of their own, this remedy must have been around for quite awhile. She didn’t ever use mosquito repellants because she thought they were probably harmful over the long term. The rest of us were amazed at the thought that something so simple, healthy and readily available could be used to repel mosquitoes.

The table pretty much divided into pro-mosquito repellant people and anti-mosquito repellant people.

I tried it and within 1/2 hour my skin had this slight mosquito repellant smell to it. Going out into the garden I was not bothered my mosquitoes for the rest of the day as I spent my time weeding, and spreading compost. Hope it helps Bettina Blog readers.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email comments to info@bettina-network.com
TO LEARN MORE about the Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com
IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK YOUR ACCOMMODATIONS WHEN YOU
TRAVEL!!! 1-800-347-9166 inside U.S. or 617-497-9166 outside or inside the U.S

Posted in Health, Making Connections, Who are the Bettina Families | Comments Off

A New House in the Bettina Network

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

In CONCORD, MA. – This home is for all of you who love American history and want to explore some of its beginnings and important early events. Not to mention those who love music, outdoor activities, small festivals with meaning, historical sites, really old homes and especially those looking for a bucolic-quiet-pastoral-retreat getaway.

This “new” home to the Bettina Network dates back to the 18th century. It has all the modern conveniences, but the home, as it was originally built, is still intact. There are many fireplaces in this home, which have not been fancied-up and ruined – they work and are wonderful to sit in front of during those cold, snowy, wintry days. Breakfast, with bread baked from scratch, home-made yogurt, granola and more keep you enjoying your stay and particularly appreciating the family and how they extend themselves for you.

If you love walking around and looking at construction from the 18th century; in a home with old beams and floors in tact; BUT you also want your Wireless, your satellite TV and your modern bath; – AND you enjoy having breakfast at a table facing a large picture window where you can look out over a garden with birds and other small animals frolicking, eating, playing – this is the ideal place for you.

Have you thought of visiting Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, the Old Manse, North Bridge, Orchard House, Wayside Minuteman National Historical Park, Estabrook Woods – stop thinking about it and make reservations to stay where it will take only minutes for you to reach so many wonderful places full of national memories and historical events. You will still be only 20 miles from Boston/Cambridge and a short drive to the highway to take you to the ‘city’. You can hike, bike, boat, fish, skate, go horseback riding, visit and swim in Walden Pond. In winter you can go snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and in any season sit outside your room on the grass where you can read Henry David Thoreau’s Novel “Walden, Or, Life in the Woods” in authentic territory.

It is also a place to have a lovely wedding, birthday party, anniversary celebration or small meeting. A colonial farmhouse – furnished in a style which maintains the integrity of its origins. It is full of music, a grand piano and other instruments. To the musicians among us – avoid those anxiety attacks, don’t stay where you are away from your music, stay where you have a small vacation from your music, but access to other musicians, musical events and music lessons which you can give or take.

What more can we say!!!!!!!! It is a Bettina home with an authentic Bettina family.

Call us for more information and to make reservation.

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A New Bettina House in Washington D. C.

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

Each new addition to the Bettina Network is more exciting than the last.

This house, which will now welcome some of Bettina’s bed and breakfast guests is in Takoma Park, MD. Just 1 block from the D. C. line; a short walk to the metro, restaurants, easy access to the beltway and in 10 minutes you can be at the Capital, on the National Mall or?

Takoma Park itself is a fantastic area to visit! It is a small town with a population of about 18,000 people. It is northeast of Washington, D. C. and was a place of retreat during the Washington D. C. summers because its high elevation eliminated mosquitos and malaria so prevalent in the city. It was the world headquarters of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which has a college, hospital and radio station in Takoma Park. It is also a Sanctuary City. Sounds like another city we know – Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA.

Your home away from home in this location is wonderfully furnished with its own private entrance. You have a bedroom, living room, bathroom and kitchen – all to yourself. In the bath there is a jacuzzi and treadmill – to keep your energy level up while making those great and difficult business decisions.

The bedroom has a king bed with luxurious linens, and lots of comfort. In the living room there is a Shiatzu Massage Chair to welcome you home after a long day of meetings, or touring, TV with cable, wii games, sofa, desk, wireless internet, fax machine, telephone and more. In the kitchen you have laundry facilities so you don’t have to worry about running out of clothes, and the kitchen is fully furnished with lovely porcelain, crystal, pots, coffee, tea, etc. Everything has been newly renovated just to welcome guests.

A lovely way to travel, especially in and around the nation’s capital, which can be a hectic place on its best days.

The rate for this self-contained space is $175/night including breakfast – which you can make yourself, join your host family for conversation and networking, or ask for a tray brought to your apartment so you can enjoy breakfast in bed – or take a different option each morning of your stay!

What more could you want!!! Lie back, read the Bettina Blog, learn about Takoma Park, visit Washington, D. C., take care of your business there and head out of the city for a quiet evening retreat away from the hectic city. Or…. head home for a quick nap, refreshing shower and back to Washington D. C. for a night on the town – it is close enough to make that possible.

Add much depth to the rest of your life with this serendipitous exposure to people you wouldn’t meet otherwise and you don’t have to go out of your way to Network via Bettina’s.

Shopping? You will find many unusual items in Takoma Park to take home – how about antique kimonos! There are wonderful places to eat, parks to stroll, plays to take in and more.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG e-mail comments to info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about the Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK YOUR ACCOMMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!!! 1-800-347-9166 within the U. S. or 617-497-9166 outside the U. S.

Tags: Bed and Breakfast in Washington
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