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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.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

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

Posted in Bettina Network Info, Bettina's Cookbook, Who are the Bettina Families | No Comments »

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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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

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

Posted in A new home in the Bettina Network, Bettina Network Info, Who are the Bettina Families | No Comments »

Follow ANITTEB on Twitter

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Anitteb is Bettina spelled backwards.

We have a twitter account and we are “tweeting” on how to build a fortune, starting from almost nothing. We are given lots from the bed and breakfast business and are doing two things with it;

1) Building a business which is fully integrated and brings in as many people and ideas as possible – and –

2) Sharing what we get from a great community of people as you all pass through our homes. The middle class is being squeezed today by the banks, and everyone else – how do you not just survive, but thrive. We think we’ve found one way and we have lots of help from all of you, so we are sharing.

With Twitter we are going to try to build a fortune, going from $500 to $10,000,000 in one year.

We need your help – if you have a twitter account, sign up to follow us on Twitter. If you do not have a twitter account it is easy to sign up. Go to www.twitter.com. They will ask for your email – a screen name – and a password.

Once on Twitter put – anitteb – in the search box. Once anitteb comes up, check ‘following’ and you can then log out. You will receive our “tweets” in your email box or you can log onto twitter and get them there.

You can then buy whatever we have bought and hopefully, with this community of people, we will all do very well and that goal of moving from $500 to $10 million dollars will be realized. You might make money and on our bad days you might lose money, Hopefully, it will all work out in the end so that the net result moves us to our goal.

Don’t have a brokerage account? Let us know and we will tell you how to get one where you only need a little money to start.

Its all in good fun and we might wind up making complete nuts of ourselves, but it won’t be the first time so what’s to lose?

We hope you will send us your feedback as you read the “tweets”.

Tell all of your friends!

Let us know what you think!

Sincerely,

All of us at Bettina’s

Keep in touch with a great community of people through Bettina’s Blog www.bettina-network.com

If you are bowled over by us and want to become a host family, putting your home in the Bettina Network to welcome guests from all over the world – call us at 800 347 9166 – and lets talk.

If you have or know of an estate that needs to be sold – redistributed back into the world from whence it has come – call us also.

Have a house you want us to take over and manage – we can do that to.

Geez! What won’t they try next?

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

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

Posted in Bettina Network Info, Making Connections, stock tips, Twitter | No Comments »

Cleaning Furniture the Bettina Way

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Several months ago, we received a telephone call from a host family in the Bettina Network whose home is open for bed & breakfast guests.

She had an exciting experience cleaning and polishing her furniture. Not many of us get excited over such things these days. It has taken a couple months for us to share this with you because we were afraid to try her suggestion to verify her results. We’ve done that now and it is actually, really exciting.

She cleans and polishes her wood furniture every six months. How she does it is what’s at issue: she mixes olive oil with the juice from 1/2 lemon and rubs this into her wood furniture.

Having been conditioned by the petrochemical crowd and their fantastic marketing, we thought this would be a disaster. We asked a few people to try it before we set out on this project and their results were astounding – so, our turn.

We mixed one cup olive oil with the juice of 1/2 lemon, used 0000 steel wool and set about rubbing our furniture. Once we rubbed the furniture with the 0000 steel wool, (always in the direction of the grain), we wiped off the oil and the steel wool residue with a soft cloth and went back over the furniture with plain olive oil. We let the furniture dry overnight.

The next morning I fully expected to find little animals feasting on the oil residue and an oily ugly mess, but instead the excess oil soaked into the furniture and left a hard beautiful sheen. The results are phenomenal. The furniture is clean, bright, and has a shine that is real. Not greasy, nor slimy, nor anything like that, just a good, clean, hard, dry sheen.

The side benefits from this furniture cleaning and polishing expedition came when we looked at our hands. No rubber gloves were needed because we were using olive oil and lemon juice – neither of which would hurt us if it touched our skin. Our hands were beautifully soft because they had been nourished by the olive oil we used as furniture oil. Another benefit came from the house not smelling of petroleum distillates, a really foul smell. I sniffed around in the evening and couldn’t smell anything. We asked bed & breakfast guests if they smelled anything when they came in, they said no – nothing. I was concerned because I didn’t want the house to smell like a salad dressing, but that didn’t happen. The house had a nice, clean, fresh, smell.

A variation on this came from trying a substitute of lemongrass essential oil for the lemon juice. That is an essential oil which we’ve found has side health benefits. The results were not as dramatic as when we used the olive oil and lemon juice combination, but still very good. The smell was a major difference – probably because of the lemongrass essential oil – the house had a fresh, light sort of lemony smell. We didn’t pick that smell up with the olive oil and lemon juice but then lemongrass oil has an old wives tale with it which claims it is an excellent insecticide, so maybe that explains the smell.

Copying from an article on the internet “Lemongrass essential oil is analgesic, anti-microbial, antiseptic, astringent, bactericidal, carminative, deodorant, insecticidal, sedative, nervine and a tonic; in aromatherapy, lemongrass oil is used to treat acne, to repel insects such as fleas, lice, ticks and mosquitoes, to relieve muscle pain, indigestion, fever, disease, headaches, stress and nervous exhaustion.”

Read more at Suite101: Lemongrass Essential Oil: The Properties and Uses of Lemongrass Oil in Aromatherapy http://aromatherapy.suite101.com/article.cfm/lemongrass_essential_oil#ixzz0fEJAqYes

We are going to ask all Bettina homes which offer bed & breakfast to use olive oil and either lemon juice or lemongrass essential oil to clean their furniture in the future. We can’t see anyone objecting. The benefits are – less money spent on furniture polishers; no need for rubber gloves to clean your furniture; does not compromise your health; nice fresh, clean smell; beautiful furniture and possibly an insecticide side-affect; AND its benefits to the environment are immense.

Afterthoughts: The 0000 steel wool for the initial cleaning was our idea and it is not something that is a necessary part of cleaning the furniture. We are the only ones who used the 0000 steel wool, everyone else rubbed the olive oil and lemon juice combination onto their furniture with a soft cloth and rubbed the furniture until it was clean. They also wiped off the olive oil and lemon juice combination and followed that with rubbing plain olive oil into their furniture as a second step. Everyone let the oil dry overnight for an added benefit instead of wiping off the excess oil immediately and went over the furniture the next morning with a soft dry cloth. We all also found that the oil was gone from the furniture the next morning and the hard, dry shine was in place.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

Posted in Bettina Network Info, Making Connections | No Comments »

What I like most about Bettina homes!

Friday, January 1st, 2010

I read your update on adding computers to Bettina homes. I call only Bettina’s when I travel and because of my research I mostly travel to Harvard Square Cambridge. I wouldn’t stay anyplace else. When you leave home you leave all your conveniences. I like to play the guitar when I get home from a tough day. When I get to Cambridge, the home where I stay has a guitar which I take over and take to my room and play it evenings. I’ve met other people who stay in your homes because they have access to other musical instruments. Another house in Harvard Square has a harp which people can use. I’ve been there to see friends staying there so I’ve seen and played the harp (sort of). I met a woman there who plays beautiful harp – jazz harp, that was quite a while ago. She played a brief concert for us and I will never forget hearing her. Don’t remember her name!

Your network is really a fantastic way to travel.

Thanks for your holiday greeting. Keep up the good work and lots of luck in 2010!

A reader (no name please)

editors note: Whenever we receive an email or phone call or etc. We put your notes in Bettina’s Blog, but we don’t ever put your name or other identifying information unless you tell us its alright to do so.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

Posted in Bettina Network Info, Guest comments and talents, Making Connections, Reader Feedback, Travel Bettina Style | No Comments »

Changes in Bettina Homes

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

In 2010 you will find wonderful changes in Bettina homes for your added comfort and need for ever more elegant surroundings. The major change is around technology. All Bettina homes have broadband internet access – the kind which has a very fast response time, doesn’t need a telephone dial-up and is accessible to you in your room at no extra charge. That broadband includes wireless internet access in all homes. In some homes, you have immediate access to the wireless by simply turning on your computer; in others, where your host family is super-security conscious, your computer IP number is entered into the security system and you then have immediate access to the internet. Eventually, that kind of secure access will be common across the Bettina Network.

The change about which we are most proud is now YOU HAVE ACCESS TO A COMPUTER, at no extra charge, as well as internet wired and wireless when you stay in a Bettina home. You may request a computer when you make reservations and you will find one in your room when you arrive.

Some are computers without lots of bells and whistles; others are totally equipped with what you wish you had at home. On the plain vanilla computers, you will have to sign into your home/office computer and use your programs remotely. You will be able to access your email on the computer in your room. In other homes, the computers are complete with every little thing available. The difference is the level of technical competence of the host family. As those host families become more comfortable and knowledgeable about their increased technology offerings, those computers will be upgraded and other things will be added. Although, some host families, who are technologically challenged, have so many technical people staying as guests, they tend to have better equipped computers because of their guests contributions to their knowledge and they have added other little gadgets like iPod docking stations.

We are constantly working to keep our position ahead of the pack. Its no fun doing business when you are running with or slightly behind everyone else. It is not about offering cheap service at a cheap price, that has never been what the Bettina Network is about. – It is about offering quality, convenience, luxury, an elegant and very green lifestyle as economically as we can possibly offer it, with both our guests and our host families surviving and thriving nicely.

We had some interesting side developments in 2009. One couple – who met in a famous Bettina home in Harvard Square Cambridge – are now engaged and planning a wedding in June: one Bettina host family is helping them plan the wedding; and they are going to be married by another Bettina host family member, but unfortunately not in a Bettina home, in their family home – which we would love to add to the Bettina Network. A family, who stayed in Bettina homes for many years, lost a loved one and a Bettina host family member, who had been involved in the last months of life with the family, was at the funeral and officiated. Another Bettina host family member, who is a photographer/videographer produced a beautiful documentary, which is available in Bettina homes if you would like to see it and/or buy it.

Several guests registered their talent with the Bettina Network and we were able to find work for them -painting, sculpting, photographing, musicians, etc. Concerts are now being held in a couple homes where the families are professional musicians. Its great for the family member because they have an audience on which they can try a new program, before they present it in a public concert, and great for the guests who see and hear musicians perform, up close, able to ask questions, talk about what they’ve heard and enjoy an hour of beautiful music.

We are very happy about the direction in which we are moving and hope you will let us know how we can improve to better suit your needs in 2010!

One disappointment was to see our motto – “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” – being prominently used by an Inn in Cambridge in their advertisements. We keep hearing that imitation is the highest form of flattery, so we will take it as such and know that we must be succeeding in what we do or we wouldn’t be imitated. We know our guests are discerning and know the difference between follow-the-leader and the real thing.

Happy New Year! May you think of us first and foremost during 2010 and beyond!

__________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

Posted in Bettina Network Info, Travel Bettina Style | No Comments »

Archive for the ‘Bettina Network Info’ Category

Breakfast Apples

A New House in the Bettina Network

Follow ANITTEB on Twitter

Cleaning Furniture the Bettina Way

What I like most about Bettina homes!

Changes in Bettina Homes

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