Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette photos The Appletree Inn serves up caramelized apple pancakes. Click photo for larger image.

Frequent travelers know that some of the best out-of-town accommodations and meals can be found at a bed and breakfast.

Most traditional hotels simply can't match the feelings of warmth and coziness that radiate from a good B&B, or the kind of personal attention you get from an innkeeper who treats those who check in like welcome guests instead of mere customers.

Chances are that hotel room you snagged for such a good price on hotwire.com isn't going to include a carafe of custom-roasted coffee outside your door in the morning (and for free, no less), or a complimentary cheese tray in a beautifully decorated parlor before you head out to dinner.

And unless you booked your accommodations at a four-star facility, the price most certainly won't include a four-course gourmet breakfast featuring such succulent dishes as Poached Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Potato Pancakes (a fall favorite at the Inns on Negley in Shadyside) or the equally tasty Cinnamon Bread Pudding French Toast with Bourbon Sauce (a specialty at the Morning Glory Inn, a six-room bed and breakfast on Sarah Street on the South Side).

Such dishes carry more than their share of calories, of course, but most guests feel they can indulge a bit during a vacation, bed and breakfast owners say. And if friends or family members are staying with you during the holidays, a B&B-style breakfast might be the perfect special-occasion treat for them, too.

Any bed and breakfast worth a second visit is going to serve you something you're usually not going to find at home. And for good reason. Not only does the typical B&B staff have more time and energy than you have to put something fabulous on the table (it's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't have to worry about doing all the laundry piled up in the basement or rushing the kids to soccer practice), but they know you expect it.

Liz Sullivan, owner of the Appletree Inn, serves breakfast on elegant place settings, the ideal complement to caramelized apple pancakes. Click photo for larger image.

As Nancy Eshelman, proprietor of the Morning Glory Inn, explains, "People like to be pampered at a B&B."

Much of the pleasure of the B&B experience derives from the details: the crisply pressed high-count cotton sheets and imported down comforters in the bedroom, the fresh flowers and elegant place settings in the breakfast room.

Liz Sullivan, for example, proprietor of the luxury Appletree Inn and the Inn at 714 Negley in Shadyside, always serves breakfast on fine Villeroy & Boch china and dresses her dining tables in elegant Peacock Alley linens. And there's always a centerpiece on each individual table, notes Jackie Karkowsky, the inns' chef and event planner, along with soft music playing in the background.

To heighten that pampering experience, many inn owners including Ms. Eshelman forgo serve-yourself buffet tables and instead wait on their guests at individual tables. Others make it a rule never to allow guests to clear the table themselves.

And because not everyone feels sociable in the morning, some inns will also put your breakfast on a tray and serve it to you in bed, or allow you to invite business associates or family members to dine with you.

The food served can make or break your stay, so most B&B owners choose dishes that are somehow out of the ordinary yet not so adventurous as to scare a timid eater. So while Sunday morning's scrambled eggs and bacon or buttermilk pancakes might seem like a big deal at home, they're probably not going to make their way onto a table at a B&B.

	Another breakfast option at the Appletree Inn is a dish of pink grapefruit, mango, orange and pomegranate. Click photo for larger image.

They also tend to feature seasonal ingredients, such as fresh berries in the summer and apples and pumpkin in the fall. November dishes served at the Sun & Cricket, a rustic, country-style B&B on 35 acres in West Deer, for example, might include Pumpkin Sour Cream Pancakes or Overnight Apple-Cinnamon French Toast. But not always. One of Sun & Cricket's signature dishes, a warm banana crumble made with orange juice and vanilla and topped with oatmeal, is served year-round. It's equally delicious at night, served with vanilla ice cream. Most of all, the food has to be pretty, because, as the Morning Glory Inn's Ms. Eshelman points out, "people eat first with their eyes."

To that end, many of her dishes feature local produce and baked goods she buys at the South Side Farmers' Market, held on Tuesdays at the corner of 18th and Carson streets. Her favorite way to serve her famed Butter-Crumble Eggs (poached eggs rolled in bread crumbs and then fried) is with a crunchy slice of toast made with cranberry-walnut bread from the Wood Street Bakery in Wilkinsburg.

To keep things interesting, most bed and breakfasts will rotate their menus so they don't serve the same entree two days in a row. That means cultivating a pretty large repertoire of recipes. That forces B&B cooks to be pretty creative.

"You have to think outside the box," says Sun & Cricket owner Tara Bradley-Steck, who finds her recipes "all over the place," including magazines, catalogs such as Williams-Sonoma and even the chef at her local Giant Eagle. She also sometimes borrows recipes from other B&Bs. The Western Pennsylvania Bed and Breakfast Association (www.westernpabandb.com; 1-888-400-6380) has published two volumes of favorite recipes titled "Recipes From Our Kitchens" compiled by its members.

Others turn to cookbooks, and not necessarily the highfalutin variety favored by serious foodies. Many of the dishes Ms. Karkowsky prepares for The Inns on Negley come from old classics such as "The Joy of Cooking" and "Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook." But she also occasionally gleans recipes from epicurious.com or, having trained at Pennsylvania Culinary, creates her own.

"It's sort of loose," she says. "It really just depends on what you feel like."

Copies of WPBBA's "Recipes From Our Kitchens" can be purchased for $10 at the various inns or via mail by sending a check or money order for $12 to WPBBA, 151 Bennett Drive, Ellwood City, PA 16117.

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Baked Banana Crumble

• 3/4 cup orange juice
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 4 ripe, firm bananas, peeled
  
• 1/2 cup flour
  
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
  
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (fresh ground, if possible)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 6 tablespoons cold butter, in 6 pieces

Slice bananas lengthwise and place cut side up in four buttered baking dishes. Combine orange juice and vanilla extract and drizzle over bananas. Combine flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, nutmeg and salt. Add butter. Using pastry blender, blend until mixture resembles small peas. Spoon crumble topping over fruit.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm, alone for breakfast, or with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Serves 4.

Tara Bradley-Steck
Sun & Cricket Bed and Breakfast

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Caramelized Apple Pancakes with Vanilla Bean Butter

• 6 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cut into quarters and sliced
  
• 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 3 tablespoons sugar
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1 1/2 cups milk
  
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
  
• 2 eggs
  
• Mint for garnish

To caramelize apples:

Slice apple quarters into five slices each, and toss in bowl with sugar. Melt butter in a large saute pan and add apples. Stir to coat and cook over medium heat. Juices will be produced; stir occasionally. Once juices start to reduce, stir more frequently, being careful not to scorch. Once apples start to caramelize, cook until golden brown. Reserve for service (this can be done a day ahead).

For pancakes:

Combine flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk together. In another bowl, combine vanilla extract, milk, melted butter and eggs. Pour mixed wet ingredients into bowl of dry ingredients and mix to incorporate.

Spray hot griddle with pan release, and pour batter by the ladle full. When bubbles form on the surface of the batter, flip. Pancakes will rise. Check to see that color on bottom is golden. Remove from heat. Repeat with remaining batter. Cover cooked cakes with foil and keep warm on a plate in oven set at 250 degrees.

Vanilla Bean Butter:

• 1/2 pound unsalted butter
  
• 1/2 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise so seed are exposed
  
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put butter in bowl with electric mixer. Scrape vanilla beans into the butter and add sugar and vanilla. With a paddle attachment, whip butter first on low speed and then on medium speed. Whip until smooth and light in color. Reserve for service.

To serve:

Place a small pat of vanilla butter on plate and pancake. Top with caramelized apples. Repeat every so often for your serving platter, ending with apples and butter on top. Dust with powdered sugar and garnish with mint.

Serves 4 to 6.

Jackie Karkowsky,
The Inns on Negley

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Roasted Asparagus, Camembert Cheese and Shallot Bread Pudding

• 4 eggs
  
• 1 cup heavy cream
  
• 1 cup milk
  
• Salt and pepper
  
• 4 cups day-old bread, such as challah or brioche, cut into large dice
  
• 1 pound asparagus
  
• 6 shallots, peeled and halved
  
• 1 pound camembert cheese, pulled into chunks
  
• 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley

Brush olive oil on asparagus and shallots, season with salt and pepper and roast in 400-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Shallots will be lightly caramelized. Cut asparagus into chunks.

Whisk together eggs, heavy cream and milk in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper. Add bread, roasted vegetables, cheese and parsley. Allow to sit a half-hour to absorb custard.

Pour into a greased casserole dish. Place that dish in a larger one, and place in a 350-degree oven. Fill the larger pan with water, creating a hot-water bath. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until set. Serve hot.

Makes 4 entree-sized servings.

Jackie Karkowsky,
The Inns on Negley

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Butter-Crumble Eggs

This dish is melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Toast made from cranberry-walnut bread adds a nice crunch.

• 10 eggs
  
• 8 tablespoons butter
  
• 2 cups fresh bread crumbs
  
• Salt and pepper
  

Poach 8 eggs and blot dry with a paper towel. In a shallow dish, beat remaining 2 eggs with a fork until blended.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat, taking care not to brown the butter. Meanwhile, pour bread crumbs in a shallow bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper. Dip each poached egg into the beaten egg and gently coat all over with bread crumbs. Place eggs on wax paper.

When butter is melted and smells buttery, slide the eggs carefully into the skillet and fry until lightly golden.

Serves 8.

Nancy Eshelman,
Morning Glory Inn

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Aunt Gertie's Winter Fruit

This fruit concoction can be served over waffles or alone, as a first course.

• 2 pears, peeled and sliced
  
• 1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled and sliced
  
• 3 tablespoons butter
  
• Lemon juice
  
• 2 tablespoons orange marmalade
  
• 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier
  
• 1 or 2 navel oranges
  

Saute pears and apple in 2 tablespoons butter. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Remove from pan and add orange marmalade, Grand Marnier and 1 tablespoon butter. Gently fold into fruit.

Peel and remove membranes from 1 or 2 navel oranges and fold into cooked fruit. You can also add sliced bananas for extra yum. Heat gently before serving.

Nancy Eshelman,
Morning Glory Inn