Breakfast with Papa

Every family has traditions that are recalled as the generations evolve. Many focus around the family dinner table and include specific foods prepared in special ways. Ours is no different with the notable exception that our family began to mature as my wife and I retired from our careers and started a bed and breakfast. It took this long to mature because in this era of blended families, ours is no different. Thirty plus years ago, Sandy and I brought two families together. Sandy brought Anne, Christy and Matt to the marriage and I brought Scott. We stumbled through the step-parenting process as the kids went through elementary, high school and finally college. Each is successful in their own right, and if Sandy and I are to be congratulated on being successful as parents and step parents, one should first consider the quality of the kids instead of the parents. Each child brought their own gift to the mix, and the whole became a family despite the predictable parenting blunders. One of the catalysts very probably was the decision early on to insist that we all sit down together for at least one meal per day. Sometimes it was noisy and contentious. Other times it was warm and endearing. All were informative. When Anne, our oldest, passed away from breast cancer in 2009 leaving a husband and five children, we had already begun to continue this tradition. This book is simply a recording of some of the foods we served at the bed and breakfast, and the many meals, recipe testing and innkeeping stories that we, as a family, enjoyed and shared during special times.