I’ve always been entrepreneurial. I’ve started and owned about 4 different companies, and sold 3 of them… sometimes by myself and sometimes with partners. I’ve always loved the idea of working for myself, and it’s part of the reason why I ended up going to business school in the first place. However, straight out of university I ended up working at a video game company.

I’ve been working in the video game industry in Vancouver for the past 4 years. In all honesty, I can’t imagine myself working in a different industry… at least not for a long, long time. Still, I often find myself thinking of new business ideas, thinking of new opportunities… and how to implement them. The strange thing is, out of all of the ideas… the one I want to do the most is the simplest one.

When I was growing up, I always wanted to open a bed and breakfast. In recent years, this dream and desire has intensified, and I am sure now that I would open it in Tofino. I’m so passionate about this idea that I find myself thinking about it almost every night.

I’d like to purchase a home in Tofino, and move out there when I am 40 or 50 to open it as a bed and breakfast. I’ve always known that I wanted to get out of the city and move to the Island when I am older, and it just seems like the perfect plan for Allan and I. Sure, we’d be old farts out there surfing… but we’d have our piece of land, a home, a business to get us by (cost of living is a lot lower out of Vancouver), and we’d get to surf whenever we wanted. And still be close by enough to do trips every once in a while to Mount Washington to get our snowboarding fix.

And of course, the next level to this idea is to also own a bed and breakfast on Mount Washington, or a small mountain town somewhere in BC. We’d work at the Tofino B&B in the summer, and the mountain B&B in the winter, and have a manager to run the operations in the low seasons.

It would definitely be a dream come true.

I feel like it is well-suited to our skills and interests as well. Both Allan and I love entertaining, we can cook and clean, and we love meeting new people. We’d have a social media strategy for the business, and we’d use our other interests like photography and filming to round out our offering. Allan is great at teaching surfing and snowboarding, so it could be a nice little package add-on with photography included. I could go on and on with more ideas we’ve thought up.

I’d love to think of new breakfast ideas to serve to our guests each morning. There would be numerous personal touches to surprise our guests at every turn, like freshly baked warm chocolate chip cookies with milk before bed on stormy nights.

The property would be west-coast style with vaulted ceilings and exposed wood beams, with a focus on earthy elements like wood, stone, and plants.

However, it would be warm and cozy in décor…  lots of lamps, comfy couches, flowers, and warm colours.

Ideally, we’d be living on the beach… or at least with a view of the ocean. The property would be heavily treed, so that guests feel like they are living on the ocean and in the forest at the same time. There would be wooden walkways around the garden where we grow our own produce, surrounded by flowering vines and foliage. The walkway would be lit with lanterns at night, leading to a secluded hot tub where you could gaze at the stars or at your loved one.

At one point, I even spent a few days creating the business plan and some spreadsheets. I crunched the numbers… I did the cashflows and investments required and even detailed licensing and legislature considerations. It looked good on paper. But paper is very different than reality.

I guess we’ll just have to see if the dream ever comes true…

What’s your dream?

In continuation of posts from baking and cooking over the holidays… a crepe and cheese blintz recipe! I’ll be back to my regular programming soon. Although, I’m not really sure what my regular programming is… and maybe it’s better that way. A mix of things, right?

I woke up one morning over the holidays having a craving for a breakfast that I had with my dad every once in a while on Sundays when I was growing up. Cheese Blintzes. Of course, that requires making crepes which scares me half to death, but I thought I’d give it an attempt anyway, especially after having some mild success with croissants.

First up, making the crepe batter. I used Julia Child’s recipe, because well… is there anyone better (and safer) to use than Julia?

Julia Child’s Crepe Recipe (for about 14 crepes)
1 cup cold water
1 cup milk
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 Tablespoons previously melted butter, plus more butter for cooking
I also added a teaspoon vanilla and a Tablespoon of sugar since I was making sweet crepes.

1. Mix all the ingredients in a blender. I recommend sifting the flour in if you have a small sifter, because it really makes for a nicer texture. After blending (do not overmix), strain all the ingredients through a sieve. Refrigerate mixture for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

I also wanted to include my own recipe for the filling, for the cheese blintzes. I like the filling to still have the cottage cheese lumps (I like the texture), so if you don’t like that, you can just mix all the ingredients together until smooth.

Cheese Blintz Filling Recipe for Strawberry Cheese Blintzes
1 large container of cottage cheese (approx 14-16 oz)
Half a package of cream cheese (about 4 oz)
1/3 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla (or a vanilla bean if you have one)
Squeeze of lemon to taste

1. Combine the cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla together with a whisk or electric beater till smooth. Carefully fold in the cottage cheese until combined, but do not overmix so the texture of the cottage cheese remains.

Procedure

Now it’s time to make the crepes! It’s nice to have a bit of a “crepe making station”… I recommend having a bowl of pre-melted butter with a pastry or silicone brush on hand… as well as a long flat spatula, a 1/4 cup (for measuring the batter), and a good medium sized non-stick frying pan.

Step 1: Prepare your fillings (see below for ideas).

Step 2: Heat the sauce pan to medium heat. Melt a very thin coating of butter on the pan.

Step 3: Ladle a 1/4 cup of batter into the pan, and QUICKLY tilt the pan to cover the bottom with a very thin and even coating of the batter.

Step 4: When the edges shrink and brown away from the pan, it is time to flip it. Flip with the pan, or use a long spatula to turn it over. Repeat with the other side until golden brown.

For Banana-Caramel Crepes: Fill the insides of the crepes with thinly sliced bananas and some chocolate sauce, maybe like nutella… and roll up. Drizzle caramel over and serve with vanilla bean ice cream and fudge or chopped chocolate pieces.

For Strawberry Cheese Blintzes: Fill the inside of the crepes generously with the cream cheese/cottage cheese filling. Roll up. Generously drizzle maple syrup over and top with lots of sliced strawberries.

A good way to start the morning!