Laura Zahn

I have wonderful calorie-laden memories from Wisconsin of dinner-plate-sized cheese danishes, sour cream coffee cakes and cream-cheese stuffed french toast, and cherry muffins the size of basketballs. Fans of the distinctive non-low-fat Midwest food that helps keep you warm in winter will love this cookbook featuring recipes from many of the most well-known bed and breakfast inns. And with recipes from the Midwest, you can count on your breads and cakes and scones containing heaps of show more cranberries, rhubarb, blueberries, and cherries. There are eggs, too, in this cookbook, but a more typical category is "Dessert for Breakfast." As you read through recipes for "Coffeecake Muffins" and "Buckwheat Pecan Pancakes" and "Grandmother's Morning Treat," you will long to go back to Door County and Galena and Stillwater and Mineral Point, bundle up in your handmade quilt, grab a comfy chair in front of your cottage fireplace, and have a hearty 5,000 calorie breakfast. The recipes seem remarkably uncomplicated, and each is accompanied by a little anecdote from the bed and breakfast inn where it is featured. It's fun to read even if you take Lipitor, haven't baked since 1985, and only think about butter and real maple syrup in wistful moments of remembering things past.

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