I am a huge fan of the Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks that you can find in the checkout isle of your grocery store or by mail order. I would have to say that my favorite issue is the Brunches & Desserts issue from April 2001. I have made at least twenty plus recipes from this book and continue to make variations of the recipes every sunday. Being an advocate of sleeping late and having a breakfast/lunch meal to feed my family, these recipes give me inspiration to try new combinations of food without a lot of new editions to my pantry.

My favorite of all these recipes is a dish I made for my mother and grandparents right after I got the book, Spring Skillet Frittata. A beautiful display of small red potatoes, crisp asparagus, feta cheese and fresh basil in a fluffy cushion of eggs. I still make variations of this dish when I few veggie leftovers from the week that need to be used up. You can add what you like to this dish and serve it at any time.

Some of my other favorites include the Overnight Brunch Bake, Cheesy Egg Bake with Strawberry Salsa and Sausage and Egg Brunch Bake. These recipes I made the night before an office party and they were a wonderful success. Their Ham and Cheese Breakfast Wheels would a perfect fit for my nieces and nephew, with their fun pinwheel design.

Six years later and I still love to make my husband the Crescent Breakfast Pizza but I add sauteed onions, peppers and sausage since he isn’t a big fan of mushrooms. That’s why I love these recipes, you can swap out anything you have or like to make them suit your families tastes.

Another all time favorite is the Florentine Egg Baskets, I have made so many variations on this recipe, I have listed my own version on this site for your enjoyment. Flaky phyllo (filo) dough, sweet spinach and a perfectly oven-cooked egg. Yummy, yummy!

Did I mention that this book has desserts too. My favs are the Strawberry Mousse in White Chocolate Cups, the Gingered Strawberry Shortcakes and the Raspberry-Kiwi Fruit Pizza. As you can see in the below photograph, I made this fruit pizza with peaches, strawberries and blueberries.

The Easy Orange Crescent Swirls and the Strawberry Shortcake Kabobs listed in the Breads & Sides section are delightfully different.

Needless to say, I have made close to every recipe in this issue and would love to say that it is available for purchase but the pillsbury site only has back order issues through 2005. You can do a search for any of the brunch recipes you are interested in on their site www.pillsbury.com.

Like I said, I am a big fan of their easy, fun-filled recipes and recommend you pick one up at you local grocery store and try it out. If you are a parent with a picky eater, I am sure you will find some fun recipes your kids will find irresistible.

PS – thanks to my husband, Adam, for the great photographs of my food.

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