This month’s Bibiliobites meeting found us exploring that most important meal of the day, breakfast! Our two main selections were comprehensive tomes that covered the full range of possibilities for breakfast, from savory to sweet and everything in between. A Real American Breakfast was an enjoyable read for many, as it had numerous entertaining sidebars with historical and cultural tidbits about American breakfast customs. The New England Bed and Breakfast Cookbook also had positive reviews, as did Eggs and The 250 Best Muffin Recipes. But it appears that while we enjoyed our reading, there wasn’t that much cooking going on! Most people who tried recipes made them for lunch or dinner. Recipes we liked include: huevos rancheros; herbed popovers; ham and sweet potato hash; baked eggs in individual ramekins; granola; Vermont cheddar pie; egg and tomato stacks; chocolate chip muffins; rhubarb bread with rhubarb conserve; and fresh strawberry scones with ricotta cheese.
Unsurprisingly, we discovered that most people eat the same breakfast almost every day– and even these excellent books didn’t really change our habits! We took a survey during our meeting to discover what everyone really makes for breakfast, and found that (also unsurprisingly) the most popular breakfasts are the quick and easy ones: toast or English muffins; cold cereal; fruit; yogurt; and oatmeal. Coffee was a clear favorite, and a large minority can’t stomach the idea of any food first thing in the morning. However, weekend brunch has definite appeal for most, especially when cooked by someone else, preferably a restaurant chef. So some recipes we tried may find their way into a brunch repertoire, but don’t look for them to appear on your average Tuesday before work!
If you want to widen the scope of what you eat for breakfast, or you need a special and/or regional recipe for a special brunch, then check out the above titles. They’ll give you plenty of new and interesting ideas for days when you want something a bit more exciting than “the usual”!
For all you oatmeal fans out there, in the course of researching titles for this month’s meeting we came across the following:

If you like to eat oats hot or cold; in a smoothie, a soup, a stew, or a cookie, then this book is for you! The author uses oats in imaginative ways; you may not like all of her ideas, but the recipes will certainly expand your notion of how they can be incorporated into your everyday cooking.