Weekend Cooking is a weekly feature hosted by Beth Fish Reads, linking up food-related posts. Click here for links to this week’s Weekend Cooking posts on Beth Fish Reads and other blogs.
On weekdays, breakfast for me is usually dry cereal that’s easy to eat in the car (e.g. Quaker Oat Squares) and black coffee. Also, orange juice fortified with calcium and vitamin D, if I have time. I’ve had Mollie Katzen’s Sunlight Café for years, but the recipes usually seemed too time-consuming, even for weekend mornings. Especially when my husband could whip up a big breakfast of pancakes bacon, and home fries for the whole family without looking at a cookbook, in less time than it took me to decide which new pancake recipe to try!
I have found a few favorite recipes from this very appealing cookbook, though. Really, they ALL sound delicious, just time-consuming. Her Vanilla Ricotta Muffins are pretty much the best ever (although I suspect I might like this Cherry Vanilla variation even better) and the Egg “Muffins” – hand-held, eggy, muffin-shaped rounds that the author describes as “highly portable” (a big plus for someone who eats breakfast while driving to work) are also incredibly tasty. I’ve also used the Spring or Summer Frittata recipe (with scallions, roasted garlic, zucchini and crumbly cheese) quite a few times.
But it wasn’t until I overbought on gluten-free grains over the holidays (more than we could possibly use unless we hosted a couple of large dinner parties every day for a month) that I decided to experiment with more interesting breakfasts for myself, and tried out these oat-free breakfast recipes. The leftovers were great lunches to take to work, too.
Like all of her earlier cookbooks, Mollie Katzen’s Sunlight Café has no photos, but copious notes, asides, and readable mini-essays about taking pleasure in food and eating. If you’re looking for vegetarian breakfast or brunch ideas that use a huge variety of fresh ingredients, this is a must-have cookbook. There are a good number of gluten-free recipes in it, but it’s probably not great for people on gluten-free or low-carb diets.
Disclosure: I own my own copy of Mollie Katzen’s Sunlight Café.
Sunlight Café
Katzen, Mollie
Hyperion, 2002
0786862696
304 pp.
$29.95 US/$44.95 CAN