Dana Moos

The premise of this cookbook:

using simple ingredients in creative ways. With a few advance prep steps, putting together a beautiful, creative breakfast can be easier than it looks. I'm told my recipes are approachable!

My story:

I'm a former commercial property manager who had a great desire to break away from the non-creative corporate job, suburban sprawl, road rage, commute and traffic issues around the Washington DC area. So in 2004 my husband and I moved to Maine to buy The Kingsleigh Inn, a Southwest Harbor bed and breakfast, to fulfill my love of cooking and entertaining others.

Like many, I find great joy and gratification in cooking and providing for guests. And helping enhance their vacation was just a really satisfying thing for me. A bed and breakfast was a way for me to fulfill my crazy desire to have a restaurant, despite that I realize I'm not cut out to handle the pace of a restaurant kitchen. I wanted to serve a set chef's menu. A way to accomplish that would be with serving an upscale breakfast at an inn. And because our inn was already surrounded by wonderful restaurants, I decided to push the envelope when it came to gourmet three course breakfasts. My feeling was that breakfast could be as special as fine dining in the evening. But I also learned techniques to make things simple and easy to prepare in advance. My high school and college years of art and photography all came back to me once I became an innkeeper. And I was finally free to be creative! Now when I walk through a food market, the shelves are filled with food to paint my canvas or empty plate. Fresh fruits and vegetables are my preferred medium. Butter, cream and sugar are a close second. My favorite kitchen tool is a torch (and not a mini-torch, I'm talking a real one used for plumbing jobs). We sold the inn in 2009 to buy the next one but I became involved in the bed and breakfast brokerage industry and am now Director of Lodging and Hospitality Brokerage with Swan Agency Real Estate. I represent buyers and sellers of lodging properties throughout the state of Maine.

Down East saw some of my food pictures and a couple months later asked me if I wanted to write a cookbook. I quickly responded with a YES! And years later I have 2 editions to The Art of Breakfast and an all lobster cookbook: "LOBSTER: 75 Recipes Celebrating the World's Favorite Seafood".

When I'm not on the road showing property or on the computer blogging and marketing Maine real estate and tourism, I'm either in the kitchen or enjoying the natural beauty of the Maine outdoors with my husband and my camera. I love wine & cheese, crusty bread, Foie Gras, cooking and entertaining friends and family, skiing, snowmobiling, hiking, photography, travel, Seinfeld and flip-flops, in no particular order. Maine is a big state and I'm happy I have a job that allows me to cover it.

I have three mottoes: everything in moderation; wine and cheese daily; and my glass is always half full, unless I'm drinking from it...

Follow me on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/TheArtofBreakfast

https://www.facebook.com/cookingwithlobster

For all things related to my cookbooks: https://www.danamoos.com/cookbooks

https://danamoos.com