cover image Country Breakfasts

Country Breakfasts

Ken Haedrich. Bantam Books, $14.95 (258pp) ISBN 978-0-553-37246-5

Haedrich (Home for the Holidays) is well known for his expert baking, and this book goes the extra mile in summoning imaginative breakfast items. His hot pork and bulgur sausage patties, for instance; Tunisian eggs, including Mediterranean vegetables and spices (red pepper flakes); a blue cheese and walnut omelet; pancakes incorporating rye flour, fennel and orange zest. His chapter ``The Savory Side'' is outstanding, offering recipes for avocado and hard-cooked eggs with Gorgonzola, and a blue cheese rarebit. And while trifle may strike some as a bit much for breakfast, it's reassuring to find the dish mentioned at all, anywhere-and Haedrich supplies several versions. His Shaker-style lemonade is cooled with fresh spearmint and lemon thyme. He devotes an entire chapter to jellies. So even if you aren't much of a breakfast eater, the range of his gathering here may entice you out of your bad habit into a much better one. (Oct.)