When Cath at ABlithPalate and Stephanie at TheHappySorceress  asked me to participate in a Cookbook Spotlight, I could hardly have said YES faster than if you’d invited me to Brunch.  Have you ever wondered how Brunch came about?  Wikipedia suggests two possible origins.  My personal idea is that it’s the most civilized meal that ever was or will be.  It isn’t like breakfast requiring that the cook is in the kitchen before the sun comes up.  It isn’t like lunch being wedged in between the morning rush and the afternoon crunch.  It isn’t dinner requiring a certain degree of stiff formality.

Brunch is all the glorious foods of breakfast and lunch (dinner too actually) but in a relaxed time frame.  If I’m on vacation, I don’t want breakfast in bed, I want Brunch, good company and/or something good to read.

Gale Gand’s

Brunch!

100 Fantastic Recipes for the Weekend’s Best Meal

My book arrived the day after we retuned from Seattle, some three weeks ago.   I started out with a pac of post-it-notes . . . I had to give that idea up fast.  I wasn’t marking every other page, I was marking every one.   Not every recipe comes with a gorgeous photo but almost; and every photo is so glorious it will set up a longing for the week-end and a Brunch.  When I showed the book to my husband and asked him what I should make out of it, his immediate response was “This is really stunning photography.”  He didn’t give me an answer as to what to make, just kept repeating what great photos.

I first tried, I think it was the very next morning, the Chai Tea.  I’ll never order Chai in a place of business again without comparing it to this one.  I’ve been making it so many mornings and afternoons now.  The only reason I can think I haven’t tried this before is fate must have been waiting for this book to arrive.

You see those Baked Eggs in Ham Cups there on the book cover, there’s a reason they put that on the book cover.   (The ham came with the black edges, I really didn’t burn it.)

When I was growing up, that would be the late 40’s & 50’s by most counts even if I still think I’m growing up today, my mother made fabulous French Toast (and put my hair up in French braids) but she never made me French Toast like Gale’s.  I wish I could have served some of this to my mom.  (oh, that bread I made this French toast, WOW, a post must surly follow.)

I could tout to you Gale’s fancy credentials (she has them in spades) and tell you about her restaurant and how many cook books she has out (I have several) but I don’t buy a cook book for any of those reasons and I don’t recommend a cook book for any of those reasons. 

Here’s why I’ll happily cook and bake my way through it’s near entirety:

The recipes are accessible, filled with variations but they also twist the usual and inspire me.

The section: Brunch Basics 101.  Omelets, Frittata, Crepes pages 40 to 57 - gives you the basics and then takes each one over the top with variations to keep you in Brunch for many week-ends.

Remember how I said not every recipe has a photo?  Try the one on page 182 with that French Toast.   I think you’ll know what Gale’s about then. 

The book’s subtitle almost says it:

100 Fantastic Recipes for the Weekend’s Best Meal

What that leaves out is then all the variations sometimes almost a dozen for a recipe.

I told Natalia at GATTIFILIEFARINA that I wanted very much to participate in the Happy Baking Easter event and bake the Coloma.  I went on a search for the mold but I just had too many things getting in the way and I’m so sorry.  But you will want to check out all the bakers who did bake this.  I believe you will find the round up at Cindy’s HERE on about the 24th.

We’re traveling for the next 8 days into the outlands in northern Michigan and will be out of internet for much of the time.  I’ll hope to post for the BBB on 20th (Monday).