Pinehurst Inn is seeking your help in expanding our breakfast offerings. We work hard to offer our guests wonderful breakfasts each morning with recipes that honor our local produce and products, provides options for various dietary needs and is simply good food. But it’s time for some fresh (no pun intended) recipes!

Send us your best recipe that might work for breakfast by January 15, 2011. We will select the top 5. These recipes will then be offered for breakfast to our guests through February 28, 2011 with the guests rating the recipes on a “1-5 muffin scale.” These overall ratings will be used to determine the winner.

The winner will receive three of the best Wisconsin Bed and Breakfast cookbooks along with a $50 Pinehurst Inn Gift Certificate.

Some suggested parameters:
• The recipe should be able to be prepared the night before or prepared in the morning with no more than a 20 minute prep time.
• Creatively make use of ingredients that we might be able to source locally or regionally (not mandatory, but helpful

Send your recipe along with name, address, phone and email to: innkeeper@pinehurstinn.com with the subject line: “Pinehurst Recipe Contest.” We look forward to seeing what you have to offer!

While there may not be as many water activities to participate in at this time of year, there is still plenty to keep one occupied. There are still plenty of shops open, restaurants to dine at and of course trails to hike. Please contact us if you’d like more information on things to do at this time of year. Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that we have some great specials running right now! If you stay with us during the midweek (Sun-Thur) you can get as much as 25% off your third night, or come in November and don’t miss out on the “Two for $222″ special.

Finally, this is a particularly nice time of year for baking! There’s nothing quite like the smell of fresh bakery warming you after a long cool hike. We have been sampling some newer recipes this year, and I think that this is one of our bigger successes:

Caramelized Apple Bread Pudding
Serves 8

Ingredients:
Apple filling:
4 Dudley apples, cubed (or any firm, tart baking apple)
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Bread Pudding:
1 tsp nutmeg
1 loaf french bread (or any bread you prefer)
8 large eggs
1 cup half-n-half
2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dash salt

Topping:
about 1 cup rolled oats
about 1 cup pecans (or nuts of  your choice) chopped
left over liquids from apples

1. Slice and cube bread and place in 9×13″ baking dish (spray pan, or use parchment paper)
2. Melt butter in large frying pan, add brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg – add apples to mixture and saute for a couple of minutes – careful not to over cook the apples (keep them firm)
3. Using a slotted spoon spread the apples over the bread cubes. Reserve butter mixture.
4. In a large bowl mix the eggs, milks, sugar, extract, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt – whisk well and pour evenly over bread and apples. There should be enough liquid to almost cover the bread.
5. Cover with foil and let rest in the fridge overnight.
6. Take the reserved butter & brown sugar mixture and mix with rolled oats and pecans – you’re looking for a pretty “goopy” consistency here.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
8. Before putting in the oven, spread the topping over the bread and apples, and bake for 45-60 minutes.
9. Let rest for 10 minutes or so before serving to let the custard set.

Serve & Enjoy!

One of our more popular fall dishes is our Apple Cheddar Muffins, and of course we use apples from one of Bayfield’s many orchards. These muffins go very well both with an omelet at breakfast or with chicken or pork as a side dish.

We encourage you to take advantage of this wonderful time of year in Bayfield by taking advantage of the different fall promotions happening both at Pinehurst Inn, but throughout Bayfield. We are happy to be participating in the Bayfield Fall Harvest Lodging package. If you book 3 nights (Sun.-Thursday), you will receive 25% off of your third night AND a $25 Bayfield Gift Certificate good at any Bayfield Chamber member business.

So, while you enjoy your Labor Day holiday this weekend, don’t forget to make your fall plans and be sure to include Bayfield and the Pinehurst Inn.

Fortunately Bayfield is blessed with amazing orchards providing berries throughout the summer. Fresh organic eggs are delivered to the Pinehurst kitchen weekly from Angel Acres Farm. Big Water Coffee provides freshly roasted coffee beans on a regular basis – ah, the aroma! Sour Dough Breads used for Pinehurst French Toast recipes come from Ashland Baking Company. Dairy products come from Tetzner’s Dairy – a great multi-generation farm that allows milk, cheese and more to be purchased on the honor system (oh, and let me tell you about their ice cream!!).

Consider the Pinehurst Blueberry Oven French Toast – incorporating Bayfield blueberries, organic eggs, fresh dairy whole milk & cream cheese and locally made sour dough bread. YUM!

Why purchase local foods?

• Health benefits – fresher means high nutritional value
• Taste benefits – fresher mean better taste and truly ripe
• Economic benefits – supporting local businesses just makes sense as we keep our money recycling within our own area
• Environmental benefits – sustainable farming supports the environment by enriching the soil, protecting air and water quality, and minimizing energy consumption.

Perhaps just as important are the great farmers and producers that we’ve gotten to know – all characters in their own right – who share not only their products and produce, but their love of the area and the knowledge that we are creating something yummy for our guests using their ingredients.