Customer Reviews

Specialties of the House: A Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook

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This huge book is an excellent resource for location a B&B and is packed with over 900 delicious, time-tested recipes. From family favorites to international delights this book as something for everyone.

A vast array of recipes include French toast, pancakes, crepes, eggs, breads, cereals, cookies, cakes, pies, salads, soups, sauces, & beverages. Appetizers, fruits, vegetables, & main dishes are included as well.

Recipes are arranged by state and then by B&B. There is a brief description of each B&B along with contact information and one to four recipes. The index lists recipes both by title & food type making things easy to find.

Some of my favorite recipes include sourdough cinnamon waffles, cheese soda bread & orange fluff beverage. I also enjoyed the green chilies soufflé. My dinner guests loved . chicken casserole & the buttermilk pecan pie.

While this has hundreds of diverse recipes, representing the foods of the regions of the U.S., one of its strengths is in plenty of recipes that can be prepared the night before. Just think, all these innkeepers who have to serve breakfast don't want to be up before dawn cooking and they pass these recipes for excellent breakfast statas casseroles, etc on to us! Nothing like putting a baking dish in the oven in the morning and breakfast is done! This is a huge, tastefully compiled cookbook.

This volume contains a huge variety of useable and interesting breakfast and brunch ideas. Be careful, however, that the directions and ingredients are complete. For instance, one recipe for Cherry Almond muffins omitted any salt for six cups of flour, didn't instruct to combine the wet and dry ingredients, and said that the yield is one dozen when the volume is much greater. I plan to use this book a lot, as so many ideas sound so good.

This book includes both descriptions of the Inns and some of their recipes. Arranged by state, you can turn to your favorite Inn and try one of their recipes. It can be a little difficult to use though if for example your looking for a specific category like pancakes. The pancake recipes are all listed together in the index but you have to switch back and forth a lot to check out the recipes. The recipes range from simple, corkscrew bacon (pg. 344) to different and delicious Danish abelskiver (pg. 361).

I haven't made one single dish from this book that wasn't SCRUMPTIOUS!

Cooks: Plan on spending a lot of INTERESTING time hunting around in the index. You'll be happily amazed at what you can find!

Travelers: The brief and personal write-ups for each place are outstanding. Julia manages to pack a lot of info into a small space and it's just the kind of info you would want to know. Phone number and beautiful line-drawing included for each location.

Maybe it has something to do with Nashville (the author's home town)...but I bet there's a very good reason the price of this delicious book has not come down in the last 14 years! :)

Time to go learn something more about Julia Pitkin...bye!

My mother and I have been cooking out of this for years. There are many great breakfast recipes along with gourmet lunches and dinners as well. A large cookbook that is worth the price. The book is broken down by states so you can find a recipe to suit any mood or occasion.

Sooo many great recipes to choose from! If you love breakfast or brunch I highly recommend this book!!!