The Good Enough to Eat Breakfast Cookbook

Manhattan's tiny Good Enough to Eat restaurant is a local treasure. Featuring delicious breakfast fare, it's become the better-come-early stop of choice for fabulous omelets, pancakes, blintzes, waffles, and more. The Good Enough to Eat Breakfast Book, by the restaurant's chef-owner, Carrie Levin, offers over 150 of the spot's best recipes for its famed American dishes. Those of us who wish we could eat breakfast three times a day, as well as anyone hankering for the likes of a Vermont Cheddar-Apple Omelet, Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping, and Lemon Poppy Seed Waffles, will be delighted.

In chapters that cover the full range of breakfast specialties--from eggs (Levin supplies 20 recipes for these alone) to waffles, French toast, quick and yeast breads, doughnuts, and more--Levin presents easy, approachable formulas. Also included are tips and techniques (her beating method ensures creamy, golden scrambled eggs), serving ideas, and recipes for condiments like the house's beloved strawberry butter. Included also are chapters on salads and sides like hashed brown potatoes, spoonbread, and broccoli slaw, as well as brunch menus and beverage recipes like those for Pink Cherry Lemonade and Coconut Grapefruit Smoothie. It's hard to imagine a better compilation of start-the-day recipes, or one that's easier to put to use. --Arthur Boehm