Brunch

The Original: Eggs baked (or poached) in a spicy tomato sauce. Our Version: A heartier (and healthier) meal, thanks to the addition of artichoke hearts and potatoes.

"America needs more bran," says food editor Ian Knauer. It's hard to argue when your mouth is full of one of his crumbly, deliciously buttery bran muffins. Golden raisins add sunny bursts to this healthful snack.

Use leftover ham or good-quality ham from the deli counter in this dish.

Very versatile and not too sweet, this fruit tart is perfect to serve at breakfast or brunch or with wine and cheese after dinner.

Pears bring out the earthy, roasted flavor of the buckwheat crepes.

Here's a new take on breakfast.

These are great for sandwiches. Just split them in half, slather with some Dijon, pile on thinly sliced ham, and add a lettuce leaf.

A delicious winter salad that would also be great alongside pork chops.

This breakfast dish is served at Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach.

This is great with a fried egg.

A chocolaty, coffee-cake-like treat that would be terrific for dessert, afternoon tea, or brunch.

Like many delicious treats, this preparation takes a bit of time and planning. You can speed up the process of proofing the dough if you leave the dough covered at room temperature for an hour or so, instead of letting it rest in the refrigerator overnight.

This is a recipe lost to most New Orleanians, save for a few old bucks and grannys who can remember calas fried rice fritters being sold in the streets first thing in the morning in the French Quarter by women of African descent who carried them in baskets balanced on their heads, shouting out "Belle cala! Tout chaud!" Crisp around the edges with a plump, toothsome belly, these fritters beg to be served with obscene quantities of earthy, sorghum-like cane syrup, though traditionalists may opt for confectioners' sugar instead. A cup of strong coffee or a café au lait is the ideal accompaniment.
While old school recipes call for cooking rice until it's mushy and then letting it rise with yeast overnight, I like my fritters with distinct grains of rice suspended in a light batter that's leavened with baking powder rather than yeast. It's important to make the fritters with cold rice so the grains remain separate and don't clump together in the fritter batter.

I believe the secret to my grandmother Grace's biscuits is that she would talk to them, saying, "Rise, Mr. Biscuit, rise!" And they would. Her buttermilk biscuits were quite similar to these, made with whole milk, but sometimes she'd substitute buttermilk and use baking soda instead of baking powder. I find that biscuits made with European-style high-fat butter have less water and therefore taste and look a lot better. After you have made the dough, carefully pat it down with your hands and fold it over two or three times; it's the layers that make biscuits so flaky. Let the dough rest for half an hour or so, roll it out to the thickness you like, then cut it into circles and bake it.

Up until I was about 12 years old, my parents took my sister, Tracy, and me to Easter service at St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. The only way they could keep us in check during mass was by bribing us to be good and quiet with promises of post-church beignets at Café de Monde across the street. We'd get so excited about the prospect of massive quantities of sugar that we probably would have done pretty much anything to ensure we got beignets before going home. Mom was a bit of a stickler when it came to sweets; I mean, at our house, Raisin Bran® was considered toeing the line of junk food! So you can only imagine how amped up we were at the mere prospect of real, honest-to-goodness fried dough piled sky-high with a mountain of powdered sugar. Like good southern kids we were dressed to the nines—me in my blue blazer, khakis, and white oxfords, Tracy in her Easter dress—and Mom, like all the proper matriarchs, with an Easter hat perched on her head that has a wingspan of at least 18 inches. No sooner had the crispy-fried beignets arrived than our holiday best was coated in a dusting of white powder, as it was our tradition to see who could blow the snowy confectioners' sugar off of the mountain of beignets and onto the other the quickest. After we'd made a complete mess of ourselves, we'd get down to business and devour our crispy-fried beignets, still hot from the fryer and so amazingly tender.

Editor's note: Serve these fried eggs with Chef John Besh's Green Onion Sausage and Shrimp Gravy . A simple dish like fried eggs can be so good, and because it's so simple it's important to start with the best eggs, butter, and salt you can find. Pay attention to the cooking process and you'll have the most memorable eggs ever.

In South Louisiana, any sauce is called gravy. This dish would be our equivalent of biscuits and sausage gravy, except we've got all this seafood down here that finds its way into nearly everything. Serve this gravy over biscuits ) with Oeufs au Plat , and you've really got something. As a chef, I make this a bit more complicated than it needs to be: I start with the shrimp in the pan, then remove them so they don't overcook, and then I add them back once it's all come together.

Haute ham and eggs! These appetizers are protein-rich, and cutting out the crust makes them incredibly low-cal.