Breakfast Recipes

Every Halloween I like to cook something warm and pumpkin-y for dinner. This year I’ll pair my favorite pumpkin tortilla soup with enchiladas de pipián rojo, a smoky, nutty, spiced (but not too spicy) sauce made with pumpkin seeds, chile peppers, and roasted vegetables. In Mexico, pipián is a type of mole or sauce served with meat or over enchiladas. Made with ground seeds or nuts, it may be green (verde) or red (rojo).

Peaches? In October? Yes, I nabbed a handful of extra-soft, very late season peaches at the market last week, and after I ate a couple I decided to sink the rest into an easy cake for a dinner party. And this turned out to be just the right decision. This is a yogurt cake — just about the easiest cake of them all. It’s a one-bowl cake, with yogurt, oil, and eggs whipped up into a batter and the flour and leavening dropped right on top of the liquid ingredients.

Eating a hot breakfast is a challenge in the fall as mornings get darker and colder and we snuggle into warm beds until the last possible second. But eating a hot breakfast just makes the whole day better, don’t you think? The answer is to make your evenings work for you, and to prepare a hot breakfast the night before. I have found that one of the best ways to do this is oatmeal. But oatmeal is mushy, you say! Reheated oatmeal for breakfast? No thanks. Well, hold on a minute.

I had my first experience of the Nickel Diner in downtown Los Angeles a few weeks ago, and you can bet I zeroed right in on the “Eggs Baked on Polenta with Spinach.” My decision did not go unrewarded. In fact, I couldn’t stop thinking about this dish and its divine trifecta of savory breakfast treats, even after I’d boarded my plane and flew home. The creamy polenta was the first piece of the puzzle.

Do you love granola? Do you make it at home? Here is our very best recipe for you — a step-by-step tutorial to help you make wonderful granola, and also to let you customize it to your taste. This is a basic template to memorize and customize in your own kitchen, to please your every granola desire.

Last week we received a bunch of cute little eight-ball zucchini from our CSA. We thought of stuffingeggs baked inside pattypan squash We hollowed out each squash, filled the shell with a bit of tomato sauce and tangy goat cheese, topped it with an egg, and popped it in the oven until the yolk was just set and still creamy. We ate it with crusty bread for brunch, but it would also be delicious as a simple summer dinner.

Sometimes the best kitchen discoveries aren’t because of a fancy new pan or the latest addition to your cookbook library. Sometimes they happen by pure accident. Some of a chef’s most cherished recipes probably came about from a careless error or minor mishap. That’s what happened with the case of my English Muffin French Toast—a delicious mistake I will happily make again and again.

The days when you allow the farmers market to dictate what you make for dinner are kind of awesome days. To be quite honest, they’ve become rarer and rarer around our house as we’ve become busier during the weekends. But there’s something quite sweet about ambling around the market and chatting about what you could make with certain ingredients. This weekend, we had time to visit our local farmers market and found some beautiful looking sorrel, leeks, and farm eggs.

There are two secrets to very good, very crispy diner-style hash browns. The first is squeezing the shredded potatoes as dry as possible. The second is a generous — though not gratuitous, mind you — amount of butter. Here is how it’s done. Definitely use a cast-iron skillet to cook your hash browns if you have one.

Breakfast is typically not my most creative meal of the day—early morning is not often the time I feel the most culinarily inspired. The truth is, I could live off a poached egg atop toasted sourdough (with a generous dousing of Cholula) every single day for the rest of my life. It would never get old to me.Every now and then, however, I get a wild hair and branch out. In the case of these eggs Florentine in hash brown nests, it was an experiment in pantry raiding.

I’ve discovered muesli. If you’re not familiar with muesli, it contains many of the same ingredients as granola, but instead of adding sweeteners and oil, you toast the ingredients as they are. No oil. Only as much honey or maple syrup as you’d like to serve it with. It’s certainly drier than granola and won’t have that characteristic clumping or crunch that some people love.

I love lazy holiday weekends, emphasis on the lazy. This creamy slow-cooker porridge of steel-cut oats, dried fruits, and spices cooks overnight and is ready when we wake up. Perfect for when I have family visiting and want an easy breakfast that makes everyone happy. Make another pot of coffee and bring on the lazy morning! Cooking steel-cut oats and dried fruit in a slow-cooker does something amazing to both.

This, if you can’t tell, is an enormous zucchini. It’s the the type that shows up this time of year, somehow having hid beneath leaves all summer long until reaching proportions too gargantuan to ignore. There’s only one thing to do with a zucchini of this size: stuff it. This particular zucchini was bequeathed to me (as such things usually are) by a friend’s mother.

Wow. Have your ever had a gastronomic moment when you know you’re eating the best version of a particular dish? Eyes light up, noshing sounds commence and belly sighs exhale as fellow diners exclaim, “No THIS is the best!”, “Oh my God!” and “Praise Mac & Mornay!” This happened recently and thank goodness I had my camera and notebook to document and jot down the ultimate mac and mornay recipe.

While I was baking up my second batch of this cheesy corn bake, I realized just how out of control my corn obsession has been as of late. My recipe lineup has recently included creamy corn grits, corn & jalapeno dip, corn & red pepper quiche, corn & heirloom tomato pizza, and a corn & roasted summer squash pasta bake (and some of these items on multiple occasions). Corn much? Despite the corn overload, I couldn’t resist baking up this delicious corn casserole the other day.

The boyfriend adores waffles. They come second only to pancakes in his favorite food department. So when I bought a waffle iron a couple of years ago, it was a sure sign that I was in the relationship to win it. But purchasing the device was the easy part. It was finding the perfect recipe to accompany it that was so hard.So the search began. I pored over cookbooks, food blogs, and magazines, all in search of a great waffle. And you know what? I found it.

My ideal Mother’s Day brunch includes one my very favorite breakfast casseroles: A simple strata of brioche bread, layered with lemon zest and custard, and baked until puffy, golden, and silky smooth inside. This recipe is lightly adapted from one in my recent book, Not Your Mother’s Casseroles. • Not Your Mother’s Casseroles, Harvard Common Press. $11.15 at Amazon. It is so incredibly simple. Just slice any rich, eggy bread, such as brioche or challah.

After I made this crazy hot pink Valentine’s confection, one of the comments on the strawberry milk required for the cake was, “Why not make your own?” Now that was a great idea! Creamy, smooth and straight from the diner of my dreams, a glass of chilled, pink, and homemade strawberry milk will make your after-school snack gee whiz terrific! While preparing that cake I mentioned, I thought I fell in love with the bottled (eek, super artificially flavored!

Food is always coming out of my kitchen. So it seems most folks are envious of my other half. He must have it pretty good, they assume. But to be quite honest, dating me isn’t always as delicious as it seems. As a food blogger, I have a very strange cooking schedule. Mainly, “dinner” is usually made in the middle of the afternoon, in an attempt to catch the best natural light. And some days can be all dessert, all the time.

This past weekend in San Francisco, the weather forecast was a bold one. Each news station insisted snow was on its way. People dug out their winter coats. Kids prepared for snow-man marathons. And I made a very fine casserole&mdash one with healthy whole-wheat pasta, Swiss chard, and goat cheese. It was definitely a casserole occasion as it hasn’t snowed in San Francisco since the 1970’s.

I happen to own an extensive collection of Southern community cookbooks. My library includes tomes from junior leagues, churches, and schools, and all are equally cherished. Why? Because a community cookbook is like a time capsule. Its year of publication marks what families were cooking and eating and reflects the taste and traditions of a generation.My collection ranges from the early 1900’s to present day.

A sformato is a close cousin to the soufflé. It has all the same creamy custard-y goodness, but without the hassle of whipping egg whites or the anxiety of collapsing domes. It’s meant to be rather humble. This is also an easy dish to make gluten-free, and it works well as the first course for a fancy dinner or as a light lunch with a salad. Like a soufflé, a sformato starts off with a bechamel sauce.

I have to admit that the pairing of grapefruit and cinnamon does not immediately make sense. At least, it didn’t to me. There was something about the tartness of the grapefruit and the distinct spice of the cinnamon — I was dubious. But then I finally tried it, and hello! This is my favorite breakfast dish right now. For a long time I was also dubious about the idea of hot grapefruit. It just sounded… odd. But again, I have been made to see the light.

Everyone loves a good casserole, right? The key word here is good. We’ve all had goopy, unappetizing messes inflicted upon us in the name of casseroles, but that really should be the deviation — not the norm. I love casseroles — the good ones. In fact, I just spent a year writing an entire book with 225 recipes for modern, fresh casseroles. This recipe isn’t in the book, but it’s very much in the spirit of things.

Last week I was talking with a new friend (hi Sara!) and she mentioned how much she loves overnight, no-cook oatmeal. I am familiar with this (also known as muesli) but the new thing here was that she said that she especially likes making it with steel-cut oats. Really? I said. They’re so… chewy. Steel-cut oats without any cooking at all?Why yes! And they are delicious. This has got to be the simplest way to make steel-cut oats (and all of us here at The Kitchn love steel cut oats).

Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but who has time to cook a hot one before heading out the door? Make a batch of these mini-quiches; they freeze great and reheat in minutes as hot breakfast bites. The lack of crust makes them a snap. A pinch of grated cheese in the bottom of each mini muffin cup forms a shell, and the eggs and filling set inside.

I don’t usually use the microwave to poach my breakfast egg, but it can come in very handy for a lunch egg. Lentils, brown rice, or a salad can be elevated from a side dish to a main dish with a tender, gooey poached egg on top. Here’s how to make a quick, freshly poached egg in the office microwave. Huge caveat, before you try this: Remember that microwaves come in lots of different configurations.

Yeah, we know. It’s hard to see the raisins. Looks like a plain old grilled cheese. But trust us, they’re there. And they made our cobbled-together lunch a smidge more delicious.It helps that our raisin bread was raisin challah bread, too. It’s sweeter in general than regular bread, so it made a nice foil to our sharp cheddar cheeseRaisin bread isn’t something that’s normally on our radar.

Earlier this week we talked about giving your guests individual dishes of butter for a fancy brunch or breakfast. Here’s a quick look at how to create little molded pats of butter — it’s a tiny, extra-fancy detail, but sometimes we just delight in silly things like these!It’s really simple to make these. All you need is some softened butter (we prefer homemade or unsalted butter) and something to mold it.

With fall on the horizon, we find ourselves craving something a little hearty that will carry us through the rest of the day with gusto. Oatmeal is an easy and inexpensive option; let us show you how to make your own instant, ready-in-two-minutes version for work, home, or even on the go!

You may have heard about one-ingredient ice cream, one of our all-time most popular recipes here at The Kitchn. It’s a marvelous trick of a treat, made from frozen bananas that have been whipped furiously into a smooth, dreamy dessert. And yes, it tastes (and scoops) just like soft-serve ice cream.

How do you fry an egg? Do you do it fast, with a smear of butter? Or all bubbly, with lots of olive oil, like the Spanish do? Here’s one basic way to fry an egg — it’s simple and foolproof. Want more smart tutorials for getting things done around the home? See more How To posts We’re looking for great examples of your own household intelligence too! Submit your own tutorials or ideas here!

For a long time we avoided poached eggs out of a misplaced impression that they were extra-difficult or tricky. But they are not! A perfect poached egg is quick, simple, and foolproof. Here’s how we make poached eggs now. Want more smart tutorials for getting things done around the home? See more How To posts We’re looking for great examples of your own household intelligence too! Submit your own tutorials or ideas here!

What are you drinking on Valentine’s? (Or, for that matter, Chinese New Year, President’s Day, or Fat Tuesday?) A little later today we have a roundup for you of creative and delicious Valentine’s Day cocktails. But first, let’s consider breakfast. Why not start the day off with a spiked mocha? Here’s one recipe that looks so good; we’d love to curl up with a hot mug of mocha on this snowy weekend!

I am not exactly sure what most people eat for breakfast on Christmas morning. There is often a lot of talk about dinner: roasts and hams, traditional side dishes, and glittering desserts. But the day has to start somehow; you can’t dig through stockings and unwrap presents on an empty stomach. And it’s Christmas, so it better be special. That means no bowls of cold cereal or skimpy slices of toast.

Did you make Ivy Manning’s Apple Cornbread Dressing with veggie sausageWe aren’t usually fans of vegetarian “meat” products, but we took Ivy’s (and at least one commenter’s) advice and tried the sausages from Field Roast Grain Meat Co. in our stuffing. They were delicious! We used the Smoked Apple Sage variety – perfect flavors for Thanksgiving.

Here is a very, very last-minute food gift that takes literally five minutes to make, and yet everyone you share it with will love it (and you). Too good to be true? No — it’s just chocolate-dipped pretzels.The other very nice thing about this pretzel project is that it is quite inexpensive. All you need are pretzel rods, chocolate chips or another chocolate good for melting, and some sprinkles or coarse sugar.Here are a few tips for making these salty-sweet treats.

I was sick with a bad cold over the weekend and although I was raised a WASP in midwestern USA, when I’m down for the count I usually cook up a big pot of congee, perhaps one of the most ubiquitous of all Asian foods.In my experience, there’s nothing simpler and more comforting than congee, which is basically rice cooked with a lot of liquid until it forms a soft and creamy porridge.

We’re not exactly going to win a medal for figuring this one out, but still. We’ve eaten this simple, creamy, peppery dish several times at Cafe Gitane in New York City (for breakfast as well as an appetizer at dinner) and finally made it at home…We don’t know the restaurant’s exact preparation, but the bread is always a thick, nutty whole grain and there’s a kicker — a big sprinkling of red pepper flakes over the top of the mashed-up avocado.

You may remember our last attempt at this jam, when it turned out a wee bit hard. But because the flavor was so good, and because we were determined not to let the jam win, we gave it another try…This time, we made a couple of changes. We peeled the peaches, making the jam a little paler than our last batch.

Okonomiyaki is a savory Japanese pancake-like dish that is very easy to prepare at home, and makes a good “ clean the fridge” meal as many different types of meat, vegetables, and seafood can be added to it.The “base” ingredients for okonomiyaki can be found at your local Japanese grocery store or online.

At the Alemany Farmer’s Market right now we’re seeing a lot of cardoons in season. Cardoons are closely related to – and taste very much like – artichokes. Why is this vegetable not well-known, then?Cardoons are high-maintenance vegetables. They look like very large hearts of celery, but have thorns in the stalks, so handle with care. The stalks are not solid like celery, and are semi-hollow and stringy.

During the week, I’m often too busy to cook breakfast, but as the weekend approaches, I start making mental menus for Saturday and Sunday morning. Freshly brewed coffee, fruit salad, toast with jam, fresh-squeezed juices, frittatas, pancakes with maple syrup, crabcakes Benedict with hollandaise …Hollandaise is one of my most favorite sauces ever, and it is ridiculously easy to make.

Plums are in season, and we have been busy thinking up more ways to use them. We were inspired by Heidi Swanson’s Rosewater Plum Compote a couple weeks ago, and we set out to make our own plum sauce. We love tea and plums together, so we played around with an Earl Grey concentrate and sweet-tart red plums until we found a combination we liked. The tea gives the sweet plums undertones of tannins and herbs, and these deep flavors ripen as it sits.

Eggs on toast are go-to comfort food, a meal to be eaten alone on a spring evening, standing up in the kitchen, or on the couch with a book. When all else fails, there’s always eggs and buttery toast. Here’s one of our favorite ways to spruce up the old standby with a smattering of grownup flavors – briny, juicy capers, fragrant rosemary, and a dash of Romano cheese.

We made pancakes last weekend, a hearty Saturday brunch for a crowd. We are great fans of maple syrup, but we also love the chunky fruit toppings found in diners and family restaurants like Bob Evans. You can buy these industrially pre-packaged in jars, of course, but it is just too easy to make your own. You don’t even need fresh fruit; frozen does just as well, and bags of organic frozen peaches and blueberries are easily available from Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.

It is finally snowing here in New York City! And Florida grapefruit are at their peak now. This is the perfect morning to pucker up, keep warm in front of the oven, and make yourself a sunny broiled grapefruit for breakfast.

Jam looks intimidating – boiling and canning and sterilizing and botulism all rolled into one specter of potential food poisoning. But while canning itself is much easier than it looks, you don’t need to mess with that for just one or two quick jars of jam. An hour or two will give you a jar of jam that can be frozen for up to six months or refrigerated for a month with that taste of summer fruit locked inside.