What's a Bed and Breakfast blog without a breakfast recipe? We recognized that in all these years of blogging, we have not shared any of our recipes with you! Tut-tut. It's not that we mind sharing trade secrets. We just had so much more to share that it totally slipped us.

I have this fabulous recipe for Tangerine Peel Chicken which I got from a regional Chinese cook book and which is most delicious. So when my cousin, Kayla, took me to lunch at Dynasty in the Lexington in Manhattan and I saw it on the menu, I just had to have it. Why? To see if I made it right. To my amazement it was EXACTLY as I do it. Same thing happened when I had the Herbed Minestrone Soup at The Lowes Miami Beach. I kept going back there for lunch. 

So, when we share our recipes we hope you will join us for breakfast so that we can compare notes.

This is our Signature Breakfast, a Jamaican Toast, and I have named it:
Good Morning Honey!
Ingredients:
2 Eggs, beaten
2 Tablespoons Whole Milk
6 Slices Whole Wheat Bread
6 Tablespoons Melted Butter
6 Tablespoons Cooking Oil
A Pinch each of Cinnamon, Salt & Black Pepper
1 Ripe Banana, sliced
1 Ripe Orange, remove pulp from pit and de-seed
1/2 Ripe Papaya, peeled, de-seed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 Tablespoons Wheat Germ
4 Tablespoons Pure Honey

• Make a Tropical Fruit Salad using the bananas, orange pegs and papaya
• Beat eggs with milk and add salt, black pepper, cinnamon 
• Coat the whole wheat bread slices on both sides with the egg mixture (Do not make the bread soggy)
• Melt half a tablespoon of butter in a frying pan with half a tablespoon of cooking oil
• Fry the egg coated bread slices until light brown 
• Flip the bread slices, adding the same amount of the butter/oil mixture
• Plate the bread, 3 slices per serving
• Top with a generous dollop of Tropical Fruit Salad
• Sprinkle with Wheat Germ
• Drizzle with pure Jamaican Honey (Order yours from us)
• Serve with Jerk Sausage or your favourite smoked meat, if desired.
• Enjoy!

A tour of the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies is highly recommended to guests who want to get to know our city. It is a beautiful campus, rich in history, with 18th Century aqueducts telling a story of slavery days and plantation life, and archaeological digs unearthing relics of 15th Century Arawak inhabitants.   

Today, a different history is being written. The Norman Manley Law School, which is on the Mona Campus, recently retained its World Human Rights Moot Court, with victory over the famed and highly respected Yale University of the United States in the final held in Pretoria, South Africa. In 2010 too, Norman Manley, led by top oralist Merrick Watson, a former Kingston College cricketer, beat the world by taking the title over Sydney University of Australia.
 
Now, the Jamaica-based law school stayed on top of the competition, organized by the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, and the United Nations Office of Human Rights, and which saw three selected law schools from each of the United Nations regions in the semifinal round of the competition.
 
“I am ecstatic that Norman Manley has once again brought home the World Human Rights title,” said principal of the law school, Professor Stephen Vasciannie.
 
The Norman Manley Law School team comprised Jermaine Case and Love Odih, with Leslie Mendez as the reserve speaker. The team’s coach was well-known human rights advocate and lawyer, Nancy Anderson, who teaches at the law school.
 
The Norman Manley Law School is named after the famed politician and lawyer, the late Hon. Norman Washington Manley Q.C., National Hero. One of the leading statesmen of his time, he was Chief Minister of Jamaica from January 1955 to July 1959, and was Premier of Jamaica from July 1959 to April 1962. He was one of the architects of the Jamaican Independence Constitution. He died on September 2, 1969.

The Norman Manley Law School opened its doors to its first students in September 1973. 

Are you heading to the Greenfield Stadium in Trelawny for Jamaica Jazz and Blues? Whether you are landing at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston or at the Donald Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, a tour of Kingston before or after this 3-day music festival will just round off your vacation. Book you seat on the Knutsford Express and your stay in Kingston at Neita's Nest bed and breakfast. You will be glad you did.

December guests of Neita’s Nest bed and breakfast in Kingston brought special joy in our home and left with joy in their hearts after a wonderful exchange of Christmas tree ornaments.

Our own offering included the sweetest handmade Jamaican angels all dressed up in our National Costume of Indian Bandana plaid and white cotton lace. ‘Out of Many, One People’ we are! And we must thank and congratulate our neighbour Yvette whose endless creativity churns out new designs each year. Craft Cottage also sourced delightful rasta angels and bejeweled shells, much to the delight of our guests. 

This tradition of exchange began only this past December and has resulted in an eclectic array of ornaments from around the world, each with its own story. Here is one. Greg’s late dad worked at Tom Smith Ltd., a London factory which made Christmas tree ornaments back in the 1970’s. He found some while clearing his dad’s attic recently and gave us a couple of the sweetest and most delicate, vintage items you could imagine.

With her own hands, Martine from Limoges made a red felt elf shoe, a perfect fit for any elf who might have tip-toed under our tree. With those same hands, this daughter of a French Chocolatier also gifted us with a box of the most delicious, surprise-filled, premium dark chocolates your palates could imagine! Had Christian not told us that they were of her own making, we would have missed out on the most important part of the savouring. Cela était bon! 

Then, there were a pair of Croatian dolls in their national costume, and hand-painted hearts marked Zagreb to remind us of Kolja and Petra who visited with us from the coastal town of Split in that same country.

Vinod and Sheila from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia brought practical pieces with intricate batik print and hand-carved wood to last long after the holidays are over.

From the Kennedy Centre, Jean brought us a lovely metallic memento which invites you to tour D.C. with her. And there were bells and balls from the Janzen family in Abbotsford near Vancouver. From Samantha, our Jamaican friend in Fort Lauderdale, a playful pirate reminding us of a history shared by all countries with Caribbean shores.

And so it was. History was made at Neita’s Nest over this past Christmas season. Here we are building lasting memories based on a tradition started over two centuries ago when some wise men found their way to a humble place in Bethlehem. Forgive the analogy, but I am at once excited and humbled by the fact that persons, from all over this globe, make a mecca of Jamaica and find their way to Neita’s Nest bed and breakfast.
!Increible!

We just did a walk through 2011 at Neita's Nest. Come walk with us and let's make plans for 2012. Happy New Year!

We’ve started something new at Neita’s Nest; something that we hope to become a tradition. It has all the virtues/values/elements of Christmas…sharing …caring…giving…joy…friendship…simplicity…

Our December guests have been invited to exchange gifts with their host. Not just any gift. The requirements are actually quite rigid. The gift must be small. The gift must be unbreakable. It must have been made in their own country. It must be an ornament for the Christmas Tree.

Yes, rigid, but not too difficult. Or so I thought, until I started looking around for the gifts I would give to my guests this season. It was an OMG moment for me. I was clearly locked in the 70’s when Jamaicans were very nationalistic, took pride in labels saying “Made in Jamaica” and when “Tun yu han’ mek fashion” meant creativity to the max.

Sadly, the only thing we have left to import is snow.

I asked around, called around, went around to a couple of shops, even went to a Christmas Fair and ended up being interviewed on radio. I used to opportunity to make a special appeal for this rare item. No calls as yet.

My last stop was The Craft Cottage, hoping it would have been open on this Sunday in December. Not only was it open, it had just the thing I was looking for. A small, unbreakable, Jamaican-made, Christmas Tree ornament. But I have these at home, I remarked to myself. These are the very ornaments I bought from ny neighbour some 5 years ago and which I have been hanging for the past few years. I rushed out of the store and went to my very own neighbourhood and rang Yvette’s gate bell. I was able to add to my collection of angels, santas, donkeys and gingerbreadmen, and was all ready for the exchange.

My first December guests to get the heads up on the exchange of gifts checked in tonight. Our chat over dinner included some of their Christmas traditions back home with their book club, and this new tradition of which they were glad to be a part. Tomorrow after breakfast we will do the exchange, and I will have more than Canadian-made ornaments from these two couples.

I will have memories of a couple whose trip to Jamaica was the culmination of a six-month celebration of 50 joyous years of marriage. I will have memories of a family who lived in Jamaica 35 years ago and whose visit to Kingston today was to take a walk back in time, a sort of stepping into a wardrobe to the 1970’s of which they have fond memories. I will treasure memories of a family whose grace before dinner was the words to our National Anthem, “Eternal Father Bless Our Land, Guide Us With Thy Mighty Hand…” and I will, with pleasure, remember their son and spouse who were also reliving clear and fond memories of previous visits to Jamaica, like their welcome drink today, the sorrel was spiced with ginger and mellowed with cinnamon.

Come! Be a part of our tradition. Bring your ornament and we will cheerfully exchange it for one of ours. Yours to take home will be a little something to help your mind reflect on a time when you gave yourself the gift of a couple days in Kingston at Neita’s Nest Bed and Breakfast, and all it has to offer.

May the new year be blessed
With good tidings
'Til the next time I see you again
If we must say goodbye
Let the spirit go with you
'Til the season comes 'round again.

Christmas Around The world.

Christmas is a-coming and the pudding’s steaming hot…

Yes, Neita’s Nest is in Christmas mode and the family tradition of preparing one of the tastiest Christmas puddings around, continues.

From earliest memories of Mummy allowing me to cream, fold and mix the ingredients in the yabba with a wooden spoon in exchange for that spice-y, rum-y, wine-y, fruit-y tasting at the end, to wrapping them carefully for mailing to family and friends abroad, to receiving the unwritten recipe from Mama over 40 years ago; the end result, now practiced to perfection, is yours for the tasting.

Call me at 469-3005 to order for yours for home, office, gifts and occasions. They are delivered to your home or office (otherwise, outside of Kingston & St. Andrew by special arrangement). Order now and receive in time for your special celebrations.

And, until your pudding is delivered, enjoy the warm-up to the Season. Things can get hectic, if you allow it. So, take it in stride and remember the Reason for the Season.

Contrary to images held by foreigners and prospective visitors to our island of year round sunny days and balmy nights, Jamaica offers much more variety. Our sweltering summer days give way to October rains which cools November in preparation for that chilly Christmas breeze. It is that time now, and as we bring out the blankets at Neita’s Nest Bed and Breakfast, I have vivid memories Novembers heralding the promise of Christmas being “Just around the corner!” It was more than a comment. It was at once a tantalizer and a threat used tactfully by our parents to elicit the best cooperation and behaviours of their four little ones as Christmas drew near.

We knew then that sitting on Santa’s lap at York Pharmacy was just around the corner. We knew that the annual Christmas Eve stroll down King Street with our shillings for shopping was just a step away, and that the most exciting part, that of opening the beautifully wrapped gifts on Christmas morning, was any moment now. Those corners, those steps, those moments were however a long time in coming for a little girl. Year after long year!

Time didn’t fly as fast then as it does now. This allowed our parents ample time to change behaviours. During the year, for cooperation Mummy had a way of pursing her lips and dimming her eyes to give that silent look which spoke volumes. Other times it would be the promise to “Just wait until your daddy comes home!” We more feared her silent treatment and threat than the actual return, because Daddy’s punishments paled.

When Christmas was around the corner however, the threat was just that. Change your behaviour or no Christmas. Easy alignment! But how did that come about?

Being the enquiring, literal child that I was, I needed proof. So one afternoon, having had my 4 o’clock bath, and all crinolinned, coiffed and ribbonned, I set off with my Nanny for our usual evening walk. We walked and talked as we moseyed down Dayton Avenue. I stopped and looked all around, and back we went up the Avenue. As we reached our gate and Nanny was about to turn in, I told her, “No. I want to walk some more.” So, off we went, up Dayton Avenue this time. Half way up she was ready to turn back. I said “No. I want to go on.” So off we went, she reluctantly, I with a mission, all the way to the top of Dayton Avenue.

I stopped. I glanced. I looked up. I looked down. I looked around. Insistently, I held her hand and let her take me across the avenue to the other side. Again, I looked all around. Peeping through the fences of the homes on all corners of the avenue I saw nothing in those gardens that would put my anxious heart at ease.

It was then that my eyes caught site of a pile of brown bramble. Thinking back, it must have been the dried shrubbery left there after the pruning and clipping of someone’s garden. Slowly, I walked up to the pile, and peered. There, threaded and tangled in the brown woody pile was a tattered ribbon of red cloth that told a tale; the brightest red you could imagine, and the only bit of colour in this heap of seeming rubbish.

My heart was full of joy. I was gladdened with the tidings. Nanny could now take me home. Mummy and Daddy were right. Christmas was just around the corner.

In fact, Christmas was on my corner!

National Geographic, in its book Food Journeys of a Lifetime, has placed Jamaica’s National Dish, Ackee and Saltfish (salt-cured cod) as Number 2 in the Top 10 dishes in the world.

At Neita’s Nest we have always included it as a staple. Any 4-day stay at this Kingston bed and breakfast is sure to include this signature dish. And before the crop on our tree is over, we stock up on the best tinned ackee on the shelves, the one labeled Linstead Market Jamaica, in order to keep this promise.

Randy, our recent B&B guest, when asked by his Jamaican friend of the breakfast fare at Neita’s Nest, could not remember the name but confidently stated “I had Scrambled Eggs with Yellow Yam”! Bobby, our mutual friend, with his quizzical chuckle and even more confidence came to my defense. “There is no way that Michelle would serve you eggs and yam!”

The ackee is aptly described by National Geographic as a nutritious fruit with a buttery-nutty flavour and resembling scrambled eggs when boiled”. Despite ackee’s unhappy origins as slave food in Jamaica around the mid-18th to 19th centuries, Jamaica claimed it as our national fruit when we became an independent nation nearly 50 years ago. The boiled ackees are sautéed with the prepared saltfish, onions and tomatoes, with every good cook claiming one additional ingredient or other to making their version special.

Here, we proudly serve our National Dish with any one or combination of starches from a list of favourites; boiled green bananas or yams, roasted or fried breadfruit, fried or boiled dumplings, bammies, hot buttered toast or fried green plantains. Depending on the season, you may also find some avocadoes or ripe plantains on the side.

The truth is, the sides don’t matter, as long as the ackee takes centre stage.

Mama is 99 today!
Today our family celebrates love and longevity with Mama, Rose Gwendolyn Campbell, as she likes to refer to herself when she stands on point. Known also as Rose McGhie, widow for the past 18 years of Sydney, she has held her own for all this time and for the near 60 years before that while she was married to this strong, stalwart. Rose, Roses, Mama Rose, Rosebud, Mama Losie, Misses McGhie, or Mama, whatever the name that you use; it is said with love on your lips and genuine warmth in your heart.

They say that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, our Mama has raised a whole village. Before Dada died, she declared to us that she will not be moving to Kingston to live with the family. “I was born in Brown’s Town, my church is in Brown’s Town, my husband will be buried in Brown’s Town and I will die in Brown’s Town.” Mama has lived in Brown’s Town, St. Ann all these 99 years, and counting.

The ‘village’ of Brown’s Town began as an inland market town and is a major commercial centre for Jamaica’s north coast and the multitude of smaller towns in the interior of the parishes of St. Ann, Trelawny and Manchester. Located just 8 short miles from Discovery Bay where Christopher Columbus first landed in Jamaica, it is now much more than a market town. It is a town of many schools and many more churches. St. Mark’s Anglican Church is Mama’s church and she is celebrated there as their oldest member. Today, her Rector will visit her at home, as he often does, and celebrate the Holy Eucharist, with fellow members of her Mother’s Union joining her.

She raised two children of her own and married them off to wonderful husbands, Hartley Neita and Lloyd Adams, whom she loved as her own sons. When her first daughter died at the tender age of 32 years, amidst their grief, she and Dada took their 4 young grandchildren and raised them with double love, as only grandparents can. And there are many more. In addition to her 7 grands, she has loved and cared for 7 great grand children. But that’s not all. Mama’s and Dada’s love and generosity extended to endless families, such that wherever they are in the world they claim her as their own and they bring up their own families to know her and love her and to walk in her ways.

Longevity and short lives have played equal roles on the stage of our family life. Mama, the last of her 9 Campbell siblings has outlived them all. She has not attributed that to her daily cup of coffee, neither to her daily devotions. After all, she does not claim to be holier than thou. She made no plans for a long life. Anyone knowing Mama knows that many a plan begins or ends with, “…if life is spared…” Her promise however is, “If you want to live as long as I have, live down plenty things and don’t put people’s foolishness on your head”.

A 99th birthday cannot be celebrated in a day. The cards were mailed and received long before today. The birthday calls started coming in at day break. Yet they did not change her routine. After breakfast she was wheeled on to her verandah with her Bible, Book of Common Prayer, Daily Word and Daily Bread, her address and telephone book and her cordless telephone. There she holds court with her God and the world. Daily! As the ‘villagers’ pass by on the road they waive and call out to her by name; whichever name they have chosen. She replies, “Alright Darling”. Today, there will be more visitors than usual, and the weeks and months ahead will continue to be filled with expressions of love in all sorts of wonderful ways.

This may sound like her remembrance. But it is not. Mama is alive and well with all her mental acuity in tact. And when the time comes there will be no remembrance. Mama will have none of that. She has already made that clear. Her Minister has been briefed. She says that too much foolishness is spoken after you are gone. And so I take the chance to speak of Mama now so that I can stand corrected. After all, the last word is Mama’s.

Happy Birthday, Mama. You continue to be blessed and remain a blessing to all of us.