Bed and Breakfast owners, who are members of the Bed and Breakfast Association of Virginia, share their favorite mouthwatering recipes in their new “Virginia Bed & Breakfast Cookbook.”

One of the recipes from the William Miller House included in the 2011 Virginia Bed and Breakfast Cookbook

This collection of recipes includes inn’s signature dishes; breads, muffins, biscuits & biscotti; coffee cakes, scones, granola & parfaits; pancakes and waffles; french toast and bread puddings; breakfast entrees; appetizers & side dishes; soups and salads; luncheon and dinner entrees; fruit  specialties, and desserts!

Chef Mike, from Richmond’s premier bed and breakfast, submitted his recipe for crepes with ham and fontina cheese (a recipe picked up by an on-line blogger a few months ago), his Gluten-free cherry bread (created for guests whose diet was gluten free and who were delighted to have a “bread” option again), cinnamon scones (inspired by a trip to Lancaster County PA), French onion and bacon tart (a treat that is perfect for lunch as well as breakfast), and sunshine yogurt surprise (a first course here at the William Miller House Bed & Breakfast but great for dessert as well).  But, perhaps Mike’s best, most popular, and well-received breakfast recipe is the seared grits cake with poached eggs and chipolte cream sauce that appears on page 237. Mike serves it with sides like bacon or sausage and other accompaniments to round out a hearty gourmet breakfast.  A photo of one of our dishes appears on the cover of the cookbook: poached eggs on asparagus with a boursin sauce, a recipe that appeared in the last edition of the cookbook.

William Miller House Most-Requested recipe: Seared Grits Cakes with Poached Eggs topped with Chipolte Cream Sauce

Even if you have previous editions of the Bed and Breakfast Association of Virginia’s Cookbooks, you need to add this one (2011) to your collection.  Whether you purchase it for yourself or as a gift, you’ll find that the recipes are new and updated, the categories have been expanded, and 65 of Virginia’s bed and breakfast inns from country retreats to historic city homes, like the William Miller House Bed and Breakfast, share their secrets. Order from Bed and Breakfast Association of Virginia! Or better yet, make a reservation,  visit the William Miller House Bed and Breakfast to purchase a copy. Mike will be happy to sign your cookbook and include at no additional cost his recipe photographed on the cover.

And, if you make a reservation for a stay in one of our fabulous guest rooms, you’ll be treated to our hearty gourmet breakfast featuring fresh, local ingredients in great recipes that bring the flavors of Virginia to your tastebuds!

Summertime and its blistering heat always brings the desire for ice cream or gelato to cool down your insides.  What do you do if you’re lactose-intolerant or allergic to milk products?  We tried a new recipe here at our bed and breakfast this morning for a guest who had that exact issue.  We had planned on our signature lavender panna cotta as our first course – well, that wouldn’t work very well.

So Saturday, Mike came up with a sherbet/granitas-like concoction using watermelon.

Refreshing watermelon makes a cool treat for breakfast's first course! Try the recipe!

Here are the ingredients:
2 cups of cubed and seeded watermelon
1/2 cup sugar
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup cranberry juice

First, place watermelon cubes in a food processor, or a blender. Cover, process or blend until smooth. You should end up with about 3 cups of pureed watermelon.

Stir in sugar.

Then combine the gelatin and cranberry juice in a small saucepan.  Let it stand for 5 minutes. Stir  the cranberry juice and gelatin mixture over low heat until the gelatin is dissolved.

Pour dissolved gelatin into the pureed melon and stir.  Then, pour entire mixture into an 8X8X2-inch baking pan. Cover and freeze two hours until firm.

After two hours, break up frozen mixture and place in a chilled mixing bowl. Beat with a mixer on medium to high speed until it is fluffy. Return it to the pan. Cover and freeze about 6 more hours until firm.

To serve, let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes and scoop into serving dishes. We made this the night before and, for our first course, served it in a sherbet dish with a triangle of watermelon on the side.

Makes 8 1/2 cup servings.

Here at Richmond’s premier bed and breakfast, we incorporate our guests dietary restrictions into our menus to create hearty gourmet breakfasts that everyone can enjoy. We focus on seasonal items available from local producers to bring the best flavors and regional favorites to our guests’ plates. If you’re looking for a very special treat, make a reservation for a getaway soon!

I’m always thinking about food, at least new items for breakfast here a the William Miller House Bed and Breakfast.  Last week I was out planting some vegetables and herbs for the season and while planting the basil it occurred to me that I always plant too much basil.  While I do use some for pesto for our vegan guests I rarely make it for Pat and myself, mostly because Pat does not really care for it.

So what to do this summer when the basil is in full swing?  How about a new first course, so with the basil I have on hand, store bought, I embark on a crazy idea, making a basil mousse, now I do not think the idea of making mousse from herbs is new, but it is for me and our guests as well.  The dish is actually a Basil white-chocolate mousse over a layer of strawberry (did I mention that its strawberry season here in Virginia) greek yogurt.  After they finished the dish and licked the glasses I suggested that they have the honor or coming up with a name and the name they chose was a “June Bug”, sort of a play on a grasshopper, the cocktail made with creme de menthe.

Basil white-chocolate mousse layered over strawberry yogurt (June Bug)

The process. Because I knew that this would not be something to whip up in the morning I decided to make it the night before.  Besides the gelatin in the mousse really needed time to set up.

The first step was to puree some of the fresh strawberries that we had picked at the local berry farm.  I always lean towards fresh local ingredients if at all possible and it is the beginning of the strawberry season here in Virginia. Following the pureeing of the berries I grabbed some of my favorite Greek Yogurt and added some of the pureed strawberry to the yogurt and stirred it to combine and placed it in the bottom of 4 - 9.25 ounce martini glasses. I then place the glasses in to the fridge.

The next step was to make the mousse.  I grabbed a pot and put some heavy cream into the pot and then brought it up to a slight simmer and added the basil leaves and removed it from the heat.  I allowed the mixture to steep for 10-minutes, then pureed in my Vita-prep.  I got mine several years ago when Jimmy Snead of the restaurant The Frog and the Redneck closed his restaurant and was selling of his equipment.

I then strained through a fine china-cap and returned to the heat, brought it up to a boil and poured the mixture over some Callebaut White-Chocolate and let it melt and then made the mousse (see actual recipe). I tasted the the mousse and it was a bit strong, but it was still warm so I was confident that chilling would make the basil a bit more subtle, which it did.

The results are 4 happy guests with expanded palettes and one chef with a new knife in his drawer.  If you make the recipe please comment on this blog so it can be shared with our guests.

For the Basil Mousse:

284 ml heavy cream or about 9.6 oz
30g or 1-oz basil, leaves only
150g or 5-oz white chocolate, broken into pieces
2 leaves of gelatin
100 ml water or 3 1/2 oz
1 medium egg plus 1 egg yolk

1. Warm cream gently to about 100 degrees, add the basil leaves and stir to ensure they are submerged. Remove from heat and let leaves steep for 10-minutes. Puree the mixture in a blender and strain.
2. Place white chocolate in a bowl and reheat strained cream to just boiling and then pour over white chocolate and let sit for about 5-minutes, after about 5-minutes whisk mixture until creamy.
3. Break up the gelatin into a small bowl with 100 ml of warm water and let it soften.
4. Put the egg and egg yolk in a medium bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk until thick and creamy, this should only take a few minutes.  Add the softened gelatin, and the white chocolate and basil creme mixture and stir well.  Strain the final mixture again and pour in to 4 prepared martini glass with the strawberry greek yogurt.

For the Strawberry Yogurt

10 oz greek yogurt
118 ml or 1/2 cup

1. Fold the strawberry puree into the greek yogurt. and divide equally into the 4 9.25 oz martini glasses.

Note: This could be converted to a dessert by adding a bit of sugar to the strawberry puree.

Mike Rohde
Chef and Co-owner of the William Miller House
Richmond, VA

Most everyone has heard of Julia Child (1912-2004). It was in Paris that Julia met two French women, Simca Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who were writing a cookbook aimed at an American audience. They needed an American collaborator. Julia was perfectly suited for the job. She began testing recipes. For nearly ten years, she devoted herself to writing, testing and re-writing. She confided to her sister-in-law: “Really, the more I cook the more I like to cook. To think it has taken me 40 yrs. To find my true passion (cat and husband excepted).”

She was invited to appear on a television program called “I’ve Been Reading”, produced by WGBH, Boston’s public television station. The host of the show was reluctant to take time for a subject as trivial as cooking. But Julia was undeterred. She arrived with a hot plate, giant whisk and eggs, and made an omelet. Twenty-seven viewers wrote to the station, wanting to see more. The station produced three pilots, then launched into production of The French Chef. Produced and directed by Russ Morash, the series broadcast a total of 199 programs, produced between 1963 and 1966.By the end of 1965,

The French Chef was carried by 96 PBS stations. Sales of Mastering the Art of  Cooking” were picking up speed – 200,000 copies sold. In 1965, Julia won a Peabody. In 1966, she won an Emmy. Time put her on the cover in a feature article on American food – “Everyone’s in the Kitchen.”

But this series is not about Julia, although America will miss her, it about Romaine Chatard Champion, the author of of the book “The Art of Cooking Omelettes” published in 1963.

Madame Romaine was born in Lyon and grew up working in her parents’ restaurant. She learned everything from her mother who was ‘an instructive cuisinère, and saw to it that I learned in proper order: first principles; then recipes; and, finally, style.’ Madame Romaine lived in Lyon until she married, at a very young age, and moved to New York City with her new husband. She spoke no English whatsoever when she arrived in the US and took a bit of time building up confidence to do so. While still very young, her husband tragically suffered a heart-attack and died. Madame Romaine was then left wondering what to do and eventually opened a Salon de Thé in Manhattan. Her eventual location was at 156 East 56th Street, which is now an Antiques shop.

Beginning in May Mike the Chef and co-owner of the William Miller House will begin preparing one of the 500 different style omelettes from Madame Romaine’s book.  We will begin with the cheese omelettes, and on to tomato, if the timing is right and so on.  I promise you each will be a delight and we will ask that our guests leave comments here on the blog so that you may draw you own conclusions as to whether or not to try a particular omelette.  We promise to alert you if the omelettes are falling into one of the less well know culinary areas of liver, kidney, sweetbreads, etc.  I figure with 500 omelettes it will take over 8-years to complete the effort as this should not be a problem.  In the case of the more obtuse items Mike and Pat may choose to have those for dinner on Monday night and invite the neighbors, should they be so brave.

Here is the beginning of the journey:

Cheese Omelettes (Omelettes au Fromage) NOTE:The cheese will always be swiss cheese in keeping with the recipes

GUIGNOL (onion, cheese)
PARMENTIER (potatoes, cheese)
CHAMBERY (potatoes, onions, cheese)
LAURENTIENNE (fines herbes, cheese)
DAUPHINIOSE (potatoes in cream sauce, cheese)
VALENCIENNES (onions, peas, croutons, cheese)
AELEGEOISE ( onions, spinach, rice, cheese)
CHOISY (peas, onions, rice, parsley, cheese)
ARGENTEUIL (asparagus, parsley, cheese)
FONTAINEBLEAU (eggplant, garlic, fines herbes, cheese)
MORNEY (tomatoes, croutons, fines herbes, cheese)
BRESSANE (croutons, CREAM SAUCE, cheese)
LORRAINE (chives, bacon fines herbes, cheese)
LIMOUSINE (potatoes, bacon, fines herbes, cheese)
BEAUVILLIER (bacon, crouton olive, cheese)
FRANCHE-COMTOISE ( asparagus tips, bacon, parsley, cheese)
DAUPHIN (bacon, spinach, croutons, cheese)
ROCHAMBEAU (sausage, spinach, mushrooms, cheese)
BAMBOCHE (chicory (curly endive), croutons, bacon, garlic, cheese)
DUMONTEIL (carrots, onions, bacon, fines herbes, cheese)
CHAMPENOISE (oyster plant, rice, parsley, CREAM SAUCE, cheese)
AURILLIC (oyster plant (salsify), bacon, croutons, noodles, cheese)
MONTPELLIER (cauliflower in CREAM SAUCE, croutons, cheese)
COLMAR ( cauliflower, bacon, croutions, cheese)
FANTASIO (apples, croutons, walnuts, cheese)
MARGOT (truffles and cheese)

What do you do with all that orange rind all winter?  At our historic Fan District Bed and Breakfast, we carefully remove the zest, making sure that we do not take any of the bitter white pith, chop it up and store it in the freezer.  On a hot spring or summer day, we treat our guests to a chilled fruit first course that is so good, guests have been know to sneak the opportunity to lick their bowl.

Delightful morning first course is in high demand at the William Miller House Bed and Breakfast

We’ve uploaded the recipe to our website and it’s downloadable for your use.  It even makes a wonderful dessert! Its ingredients consist of Greek Yogurt, orange juice, orange zest, and honey, chill well. Then just before serving top with fresh fruit, like strawberries and kiwi, and toasted almonds, or berries, or any other topping that suits your fancy.  Another great option is sprinkling granola over the yogurt mixture to add that great crunch.  Here at our inn, home of the “killer” breakfast, we use Zaydie’s Granola, each batch hand tossed, and naturally delicious, not too sweet.

Zaydie’s Granola is another locally produced product that furthers our commitment to give our guests the best in regional fare.  Zaydies Ladies, producers of Zaydie’s Granola, were featured in Richmond’s skirt! monthly magazine and offer their granola in two flavors: Almond Blueberry and Walnut Cranberry.

Our Richmond inn is happy to share recipes and kitchen secrets with our friends and guests. So make a reservation for a stay in one of our fab guest rooms now to enjoy a scrumptious breakfast with regional Richmond ingredients in the morning.

Breakfast at our Richmond lodging today included an experiment in developing a bread-type accompaniment for our guests who require a gluten-free diet.

This tasty gluten-free cherry bread was a great hit!

Our guests this weekend had avoided bread for so long and were delighted to see a basket of this tasty bread on the table.  Left-overs will be made into French Toast (made with soy milk) tomorrow.

The recipe was modified from a recipe in “Gluten-Free Baking with The Culinary Institute of America” by Richard J. Coppedge Jr.

Mike, the chief cook at our Fan District B&B, can handle just about any special dietary needs.  Come visit and indulge in our southern hospitality!

Here’s an INNsider Tip from the William Miller House Bed and Breakfast lodging in Richmond!  

Did you know there is a Valentines, Virginia? And, yes, Postmaster Kathy Fajna, will hand-cancel your Valentines greetings with a postmark that says “Valentines, VA.” and hand-stamp each with her special red, heart-shaped seal.  Hurry and get your Valentine’s greeting cards to her by delivering them to her at the Post Office/General Store in Valentines.  Or, you may send her your addressed cards in a large envelope to

Postmaster

23 Manning Drive

Valentines, VA 23887

You may either put your postage on the greeting cards (Remember that square, oversized and envelopes with rigid objects require extra postage) or enclose a check for the proper postage for each card. You can find out all the particulars on postage at the United States Postal Service website!  All you need are the dimensions, the weight, and the zipcode.

INNsider Tip 2: Use one of Mike’s recipes from the our Historic Fan District Bed and Breakfast recipe page to surprise your special someone with breakfast in bed. From muffins to pancakes to all sorts of egg dishes, there’s plenty to choose.  Serve your special breakfast on a tray, using your best china and flatware, cloth napkins, add piping hot coffee or tea, fresh squeezed orange juice ( add champagne for a mimosa), fresh fruit and a single red rose in a bud vase to show your appreciation , love, and affection.

Here at our Richmond Virginia Bed and Breakfast, we tested a brand new muffin recipe. You all know that I am only a helper in the kitchen – mostly cleaning up anything that hits the floor. But I watched this test very closely and the smells coming out of the oven were divine. Our guests who sampled them said they were great, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you. Here’s what they look like! YUMMY!

This recipe was taken from a cookbook given to my people by Paul and Shelley from Pennsylvania. The cookbook is titled: Specialties of the House: A Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook, a compilation of recipes from inns and B&B’s all across North America assembled by Julia M. Pitkin. Naturally, Mike altered the recipe a bit.

Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup raisins

In a large bowl pour boiling water over the oats. Let stand for 30 minutes.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream the butter with sugars until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients, oats, nuts, coconut, and raisins until blended. Spoon into muffin cups lined with greased paper liners. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes (32 to 38 minutes for the jumbo muffins).

Makes 1 dozen or 6 jumbo muffins.

The recipe will be up on our website in a few days – but I wanted to give all my friends in blogger-land a head start! Enjoy!

One of Mike’s recipes for our first/fruit course for breakfast here at our historic Richmond lodging was picked up by cooking.com. Our recipe for banana coconut crepes was posted on a bed and breakfast web search site and, as of August 12, is now posted at http://www.cooking.com/Recipes-and-More/recipes/Banana-Coconut-Crepes-recipe-10000759.aspx.

This recipe is one of our offerings that guests have threatened to lick their plates to get all of the sauce. Make the recipe, wrap the extra crepes and save in the freezer for up to a month, make the filling and topping and ENJOY! Can be served as an extra special dessert. Burning off the alcohol in the coconut rum is almost as exciting as a flambe!

If making the recipe sounds too complicated, just make a reservation for one of our guest rooms in our Historic Fan District inn and ask Mike to make it for you one morning – he just may do that!

Here at the William Miller House Bed and Breakfast in Richmond Virginia’s historic Fan district, we have enjoyed the company of some real foodies! They lingered over breakfast, asked for our recipes, and left nothing on their plates. I was hoping to see some bacon or sausage from Keenbell Farms make it back to the kitchen and, then, hopefully, into my food bowl. So far, no such luck. At least I get to enjoy the wonderful aromas of the bacon and sausage cooking on the stove!

One of our guests even asked Mike about cooking lessons. So I guess he will be back soon. We’re going to show him how to buy a whole chicken and make it into four meals instead of buying frozen chicken breasts. Hopefully, he has good knife skills, or maybe that will be the first lesson!

The editor of Richmond magazine called our breakfasts “killer breakfasts” and I guess they are – based on the comments I’ve heard recently at the breakfast table. I keep scouting for crumbs but I never find any! Come and join us for a fabulous breakfast; Mike is in the kitchen….