This review was prepared by Lisa of Cocktails and Small Bites.
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I had the pleasure of reviewing Brunch: Recipes for Cozy Weekend Mornings by Georgeanne Brennan.

Georgeanne runs a cooking school in Haute Provence, France. She is also a regular contributor to Fine Cooking and Bon Appétit. I was excited to review a brunch cookbook because it is one of my favorite meals. It is also a fabulous way to celebrate any occasion.

The cookbook is well laid out and the photos are gorgeous. Brunch is separated into six main sections: Starters, Egg Dishes, Morning Sweets, Main Dishes, Side Dishes and Beverages.

The introduction, called Brunch Entertaining, is full of great tips and advice on planning the menu, setting your table and serving styles. Georgeanne offers great advice on what you can prepare the night before in order to make your brunch a success. The start of every chapter has very helpful tips. Tips for making the perfect pot of coffee and brewing the perfect cup of tea are examples of what's covered in the cookbook.

The Starter chapter features several salad recipes. Fresh Berry Salad with Mint and Citrus Salad are two of the recipes featured. Georgeanne offers advice on setting up a lox and bagel bar and provides an interesting Granola and Yogurt Parfait recipe. Her granola recipe includes yellow millet and sunflower seeds in addition to more traditional granola ingredients. I am going to try this recipe in the near future.
The chapter on Egg Dishes includes ten recipes. The recipes range from the very basic (Scrambled Eggs) to a more complicated Salmon Eggs Benedict recipe.

In this chapter I chose to try the Baked Eggs recipe. The recipe is very basic. You can make it your own by adding a flavorful ingredient to the bed of spinach prior to cracking the egg. I added lightly sautéed mushrooms. However, pancetta, cheese, ham, bacon, sausage, tomatoes or caramelized onions would make nice additions to the dish.

The chapter on Morning Sweets includes recipes for French Toast, Waffles, Pancakes and Scones among other sweet treats. I made two recipes from this chapter. I made Ricotta and Banana Pancakes. The recipe made about ten 3 inch pancakes even though the recipe says 24 small pancakes. The ricotta pancake recipe was good but not really anything special. The ricotta pancakes were topped with spicy bananas.

The spiced bananas also make a great topping for ice cream. Imagine a bowl of chocolate ice cream topped with Spiced Bananas. Yummy!

I also made the Orange Zest Scones. The recipe was incredibly easy and created a great scone. They were moist and flavorful. I substituted regular raisins for the golden raisins.

The third chapter is called, Main Dishes. It features more substantial dishes like Steak and Eggs. Georgeanne provides recipes for Red Flannel Hash, Chicken and Fontina Panini and Croque-Monsieur. From this chapter, I created the Sausage and Cheddar Strata recipe. While the dish was baking, the aromas swirling through the kitchen smelled wonderful. I couldn’t wait to taste my strata. Unfortunately, after tasting it, I was a little bit disappointed. It was very plain. Again, it was a very basic recipe that could have been made better by adding more flavorful ingredients. The next time that I prepare this dish, I will use bulk sausage instead of slicing links.

The next chapter is named, Sides. Sautéed Cherry Tomatoes, Sweet Polenta with Pecans, Savory Bread Pudding and Herbed Pork sausages are some of the recipes covered in this chapter. I am going to try the Pepper Bacon recipe from this chapter the next time I serve brunch. Beverages is the last chapter of the book. The chapter begins with tips for making a Brunch cocktail bar. She provides recipes for non-alcoholic beverages in addition to brunch cocktails.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed testing the recipes from this cookbook. Brunch: Recipes for Cozy Weekend Mornings is a nice addition to any cookbook library. This is a basic recipe cookbook. However, the recipes are easily altered by adding more flavorful ingredients. The tips offered throughout the book will help create a successful and beautiful brunch.