Let’s face it, weekends are precious. They offer a chance to slow down and unwind with family and friends. A relaxed brunch sets just the right tone. Sure, you can go out to your favorite diner or café, but waiting in a long line while starving is not always appealing, and the crowds make it awkward to linger at the table as long as you might like. Making brunch at home is fun and allows you to get creative with local and seasonal ingredients—like blueberries, black raspberries, cranberries, pumpkins, and maple syrup—which New England has in abundance. And straddling two meals (breakfast and lunch) means you can splurge without guilt while expending half the energy. The other benefit of brunch is that it’s basically an excuse to have dessert as an officially sanctioned meal. Bring on the muffins, doughnuts, and cinnamon rolls! For someone like me, with a major sweet tooth, that makes it my favorite meal of the week. But I don’t just love the sweet stuff. Brunch is also about veggie-forward frittatas, coastal seafood, and creative uses for leftovers from the night before. Combine traditional Yankee cookery with vibrant culinary influences of Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, Irish, French, and Latin-American immigrants who’ve settled in New England, and you have a year of fantastic seasonal brunches ahead of you. New England Brunch offers enticing recipes for homemade pancakes, muffins, doughnuts, cornbread, biscuits, scones, cinnamon rolls, bagels, oatmeal, hash browns, frittatas, stratas, and more—all year round. As with New England Desserts, this cookbook will feature classics like Boston Cream doughnuts and blueberry muffins alongside creative twists on traditional recipes—think Cinnamon Sugar Popovers, Cranberry Irish Soda Bread, and Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls. And, of course, it will include savory seafood recipes from New England’s extensive coastline, like Lobster, Potato, and Chive Pot Pie and Cod Cakes. These brunch recipes will be organized by season to allow th
