Breakfast and Brunch Recipes

Apple Coffee Cake
Almost every Sunday morning growing up, my father would make a huge apple coffee cake for us after church. Recently I pulled this recipe from the Boston Globe; they had it listed as an apple cake for the Jewish high...
Asparagus Frittata
My father got bit by the frittata bug this week and made these for us for lunch a few days ago. This is a quick and easy, no-nonsense recipe that makes a terrific frittata in hardly any time at all.
Asparagus Soufflé
Have you ever attempted to make a soufflé and it just didn't live up to your expectations? That's when it pays to have friends who actually know what they are doing. After trying unsuccessfully to recreate a fabulous soufflé I...
Bisquick Apple Coffee Cake
Can be prepared in 30 minutes or less. A favorite family ritual growing up was apple coffee cake on Sunday mornings. My dad would prepare it for his six greedy kids, all of us begging for him to pile on...
Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
"Elise, I have the perfect recipe for your website!" my young friend Audrey (age 10) exclaimed recently. "Blueberry buttermilk pancakes!". Audrey loves making these blueberry pancakes for her family. Easy, fluffy, totally addictive, and by the way, the blueberries are...
Blueberry Maple Breakfast Bake
This is one of those great party brunch casseroles. It's easy to assemble the night before and just pop in the oven an hour before needed in the morning.
Caramelized Onion Quiche
Ever wake up in the morning with a craving for a specific food? This morning it was quiche, specifically an onion quiche. To my dear father who turned up his nose at this masterpiece, mumbling something about real men, I...
Cheesy Crustless Quiche
I had this crustless quiche recently at a ladies weekend (you know, the kind where husbands and kids are left to fend on their own and the gals take a well deserved break from the regular chaos) and couldn't wait...
Chorizo and Eggs
Growing up, we had some of the standard American foods for breakfast - cream o' wheat, oatmeal, waffles, fried eggs, pancakes (no sugar coated cereals in this household!) - and a couple things I never saw in any of my...
Crab Mango and Avocado Salad
I first encountered a crab mango salad at Fringale, the exquisite French-Basque restaurant on 4th St. in San Francisco. Recently at a restaurant in LA I had another delicious crab mango salad, this time with avocado and surrounded by peeled...
Crispy Hash Browns
Updated. From the recipe archive. The debate usually begins like this. ME: Dad, how do you make your hash browns turn out so crispy? DAD: Use a potato ricer. It's the only thing I've found that really gets the moisture...
Crunchy French Toast
On a recent visit with my goddaughter Piper and her sisters Alden and Reilly, the girls surprised me one morning by making me their favorite version of French toast for breakfast - a "crunchy" French toast coated with corn flakes...
Dee's Oatmeal Pancakes
Do you love oatmeal? Do you love pancakes? You should try them when they are one and the same. Seriously. Dee Johnston whipped up her favorite family recipe for a recent gathering of friends and this is now my new...
Easy Poached Eggs
Poaching eggs is one of the easiest, quickest, and lowest calorie ways of preparing eggs, as there is no added fat. Poached eggs make great additions to salads, such as the French salad Lyonnaise, or sandwiches, or just served simply...
French Toast
The wonderful cookbook The Silver Palate has an over-the-top French toast recipe. By using croissants instead of regular bread, and cream instead of milk, it is enough to harden anyone's arteries. I prefer a slightly healthier version of French toast...
Fried Green Tomatoes
Ever since that wonderful movie with Jessica Tandy I've wondered about fried green tomatoes. People really eat green tomatoes? I recall being served fried tomatoes for breakfast while visiting London, but they weren't green. Curious as usual, we found some...
German Farmer's Breakfast
One of my mother's favorite breakfasts to prepare for our family has always been German Farmer's Breakfast, also known as Bauernfruhstuck. I remember eating this several times a month as a kid. It's sort of like a large breakfast hash...
Ham and Asparagus Quiche
For the Easter holiday, I thought I would adapt my mushroom quiche recipe into a Spring brunch dish, with asparagus and ham. It turned out great, my one note is to not add any salt as the ham brings enough...
Ham and Potato Hash
Sunday breakfasts are a favorite activity around here. More like a brunch, they are usually somewhat more elaborate and filling that what we eat for breakfast during the week. Ham and potato hash is a perfect side dish for fried...
Home Fries
We had dueling home fries here the other day, a veritable home-fry cook-off between my mother and father. Mom makes her fried potatoes sliced, using raw potatoes, and usually serves them as a side when we have fish for dinner...
Huevos Rancheros
One great benefit of growing up in California (LA actually) and having a Hispanic mother is being exposed at an early age to Mexican food. From the time I was 5 it was my job to prepare the salsa for...
Huevos a la Mexicana
Huevos al la Mexicana, or Mexican-style eggs, are essentially eggs, cooked and scrambled in salsa. My mother has been serving "huevos" (pronounced weh-vose, with the beginning like "when" without the n) prepared like this forever, as her mother before her...
Mushroom Pie
Call this mushroom pie a California quiche, with its Monterey Jack cheese, parsley, eggs, sour cream, garlic, and a whole pound of mushrooms. Great for company, and pretty easy to make, especially if you have an extra pie crust all...
Mushroom Quiche
Now I see why people use frozen pie-crusts to make quiche. It's a lot of work to make the crust from scratch, especially when you "blind bake" (pre-bake) the crust. But there is nothing better than a real butter crust...
Papaya, Prosciutto, and Lime
One of my most favorite breakfasts is a poached egg on toast, with a side of papaya and lime. Including some prosciutto with the papaya just takes it up a notch further. Papaya is filled with enzymes that help digestion...
Persimmon Pomegranate Fruit Salad
Based on a tip in Alice Waters' new cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, that fuyu persimmons make a good fruit salad, I begged some just picked fuyus from my neighbor and fellow blogger Andrea and set about to make...
Poached Egg and Bacon Salad - Salad Lyonnaise
I saw this very tasty salad on Ben Trott's Vox page and just had to make it. It is a traditional French salad, called Salad Lyonnaise, made with frisée or curly endive, hot bacon, and a freshly poached egg. Not...
Rustic Onion Tart
I recently observed my friend Suzanne whip up a couple onion tarts for a family meal and was so impressed by the wonderful flavor of the caramelized onion, I decided to try my hand at it. I've deviated a bit...
Sausage Breakfast Casserole
I think this recipe is based on one from a Jimmy Dean ad. I got it from my friend Heidi, and we've both made it several times for brunch gatherings. If you want you can make it ahead the night...
Shrimp Quesadilla
Quesadillas have to be my favorite go-to food for lunch. They're just so easy to make! Especially when you have tortillas and cheese in the fridge, which we almost always do. Recently I had lunch with an old friend at...
Spinach Frittata
According to the Wikipedia a frittata is "a kind of Italian omelette that can contain cheese, vegetables, or even leftover pasta. Frittatas are cooked slowly. Most often, they are cooked on the stovetop on low heat until the eggs are...
Tuscan Scrambled Eggs
I honestly don't know if they serve scrambled eggs this way in Tuscany, but ever since we started making eggs this way, pulled from Tuscany: The Beautiful Cookbook we've called them "Tuscan Eggs". They are very easy to prepare; the...
Zucchini Ricotta Frittata
Did you know that yesterday was "Dump Your Extra Zucchini On Your Neighbor's Doorstep Day"? According to our local newspaper it was, though I think they may have been joshing. Then again, maybe not. This excellent zucchini ricotta frittata recipe...