8 breakfast recipes worthy of Christmas morning

It’s Christmas morning. The presents have been opened. Everything is festive and there is a sense of good cheer in the air. Now: What’s for breakfast? Christmas breakfast is a special occasion that does not get the attention that is given to many other noteworthy meals. But it should stand out as a particularly happy time, a meal for celebration. A bowl of Cheerios just won’t cut it.

If you had the good fortune to grill a standing rib roast for Christmas Eve, the next day’s breakfast is a no-brainer: Chop up some of the leftover beef, add diced potatoes and slap a poached egg on top, and you’ll have the best hash of your life.

But if you happen not to have leftover grilled standing rib roast on hand, Christmas breakfast can still be a time of comfort as well as joy.

To prove that theory, I made seven dishes

— or so I thought. When I later checked, I

discovered I had actually made eight. I am apparently not great at some of the higher levels of advanced math, such as counting.

In my defense, one of them is so easy it barely registers as a dish. But it is too good to ignore. Tangerine-Grapefruit Juice is made by combining freshly squeezed tangerine juice with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.

It’s simple, but it’s wonderful. The juice is light and refreshing, without the heaviness and sour tang of orange juice. The flavors of the two citrus juices play off each other in a most delightful way, and there is something else about this drink, too: It is even better with a splash of gin. You know, to make your day merry and bright.

All the best breakfasts begin with muffins, so I appropriately started mine with Coffee Pecan Muffins. They were so insanely addictive I probably ate far more of them than I should. In fact, these are the muffins that will launch a thousand day-after-Christmas diets.

The coffee flavor is subtle in them, but it is also the most important taste. The pecans and brown sugar in the batter bring out the best undertones in the coffee, but none of the bitterness. The recipe comes from a now-closed inn in California that said the muffins were one of their most-requested items in their rotating breakfast buffet, and it is easy to see why. If you stayed there, you’d ask for these muffins, too.

Because Christmas breakfast is a dressedup brunch, I decided to make an irresistible brunch favorite, Deviled Avocado.

These are always the first item to go at any brunch. They are the same idea as deviled eggs, but with an avocado. Instead of a mashed yolk-and-mayo mixture in the hole, these have homemade hummus. This hummus is an especially easy recipe that only takes a few minutes to bring together.

A bit of turmeric turns the hummus an appealing (and yolk-like) shade of yellow, and a sprinkling of roasted pumpkin seeds — also known as pepitas — I got them at my local grocery store — adds a pop of nutty flavor and a nice crunch.

Any brunch worth its syrup involves one of the Big Three morning carbohydrate plates: French toast, pancakes or waffles.

I made French toast, but it was far more than French toast. Cubes of bread soak in eggnog, eggs, maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla extract and orange zest, and are then baked in the oven like a strata.

If that were all that is to it, it would be pretty amazing. But this insanely decadent dish reaches to the stratosphere, courtesy of a middle layer dotted with cream cheese and berries.

I used fresh berries. That way the whole thing was, um — healthy?

Obviously, protein was called for. So I made a truly fabulous potato quiche. It is a quiche without a crust, which is a good thing if you are also eating Baked Eggnog French Toast.

This is a hearty, filling quiche, just the thing you want on a chilly day. It is the sort of brawny quiche that real men love to eat. Coincidentally, a number of the same ingredients that went into the quiche — potatoes, onions, bacon, eggs, half and half — are also part of the other main course I made, a Hobo Breakfast.

Do not let the name concern you; a Hobo Breakfast is a sophisticated, multilevel meal.

The base is a meatless hash, just potatoes and onions cooked together until the potatoes are crispy. On top of that layer goes poached

eggs, and few foods create more of a sense of elegance than poached eggs.

And on top of that is a cream sauce, but it is so much more than a cream sauce. This sauce begins with a roux, which is pretty fancy to begin with, and then adds half-and-half, bacon and shredded cheese that melts into the sauce. Hobos never had it so good.

I also took the festive route for dessert. I made Aromatic Pears, which are pears that are poached in a simple syrup spiced with cinnamon, cloves, vanilla and a bit of ginger.

When you eat it, you will not be the first person to say, “This tastes just like Christmas.”

Don’t forget to serve whipped cream on the side. Not only does it add another dollop of luxury, it also softens and rounds the tones of the spices that have soaked into the pear.

And then I made one more dessert for your family and guests to nibble on while they sit at the table after the meal is over but they are not yet ready to leave the good company and good feelings that come from a wonderful meal.

Cinnamon Cookies are just the thing for that lazy time of post-meal fellowship and love. They are simple to make, crisp and unfussy. They taste of nothing but cinnamon, butter and brown sugar; an unbeatable combination that everyone loves. Think of

them as one last Christmas present.