Bed and breakfasts pass cookbook taste test

A cup of dark brown sugar, a stick of butter and a teaspoon of vanilla are a few ingredients in the Crème Brulee French Toast that Sherry Corder prepares for guests at the Old Victorian Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast.

Corder contributed that recipe and one for Overnight Coffee Cake, two favorites off her menu, to the recently released "Illinois Bed and Breakfast Cookbook."

The Old Victorian Farmhouse, 26668 N. Main St., Wauconda, is one of two Lake County bed and breakfasts featured in the Illinois installment of the series of home-cooked recipes.

About 60 bed and breakfasts from across the state have recipes in the book, including establishments in Lake Zurich, Algonquin and Barrington.

"People even come back to the bed and breakfast and ask to have (Crème Brulee French Toast) served again, they like it so much," Corder said.

She opened the Old Victorian Farmhouse for business four years ago after buying and fixing up the property.

Corder said she was excited to share recipes that have been favorites of her guests, who sometimes get along well enough to exchange e-mail addresses.

"It's very interesting to see them meet each other for the first time at the breakfast table," she said.

Linda Doyle, publisher for 3D Press, a Big Earth publishing company, attributes some of the popularity the bed and breakfast series has had to a cultural backlash against fast food.

"(The recipes) are very, the whole movement of slow cooking and the back-to-the-farm sort of cooking. The all-American, grandma sort of recipes," Doyle said.

Many of the recipes include ingredients that bed and breakfast owners grow themselves, although that does not always mean they are especially healthy.

"You won't find something like Smart Balance in these recipes, you will find butter ... these are not low-calorie kinds of things," Doyle said.

Shady Oaks, a Lake Zurich bed and breakfast owned by Lake Zurich Village President Suzanne Branding, is also featured in the book.

Branding, who has run the bed and breakfast at 15 Lakeview Place since 2006, contributed her sausage casserole recipe.

"That particular recipe is one that a dear friend of mine gave me years ago, and we always enjoyed it as a family," Branding said.

She usually decides what to make her guests based on how many people stay at the inn on a given night, because some recipes are better for more people and some serve less. That variety is one of many factors that differentiates a bed and breakfast from a hotel chain.

"Bed and breakfast people are travelers who are looking for a little different experience," Branding said. "They are not people who wish to travel anonymously. They're looking for an experience in staying someplace as well as the experience in the travel."

The cookbook features recipes from seven bed and breakfasts in the collar counties.

<p class="factboxheadblack">In the book</p> <p class="News">Victorian Rose Garden Bed and Breakfast, Algonquin: cranberry pecan scones, caramelized French toast</p> <p class="News">Barrington House Bed and Breakfast, Barrington: cheese blintz</p> <p class="News">Shady Oaks Bed and Breakfast, Lake Zurich: sausage casserole</p> <p class="News">Harrison House Bed and Breakfast, Naperville: zucchini bread; nutty orange coffee cake; no crust turkey sausage quiche Florentine; carrot cake</p> <p class="News">Lynfred Winery Bed and Breakfast, Roselle: crab cakes with lemon butter and mango salsa, Lynfred's German sauerbraten, baked rhubarb compote</p> <p class="News">Old Victorian Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast, Wauconda: Overnight Coffee Cake, Crème Brule French Toast</p> <p class="News">Harrington Inn and Spa, Geneva: herb duck breast with seared folisgrass, cherville polenta and asparagus</p>