Your Favorite Easy Breakfasts for Guests

There are so many great conversations on the Hotline -- it's hard to choose a favorite. But we'll be doing it, once a week, to spread the wealth of our community's knowledge -- and to keep the conversation going.

Today: Meals for guests shouldn't be stressful. Here are your best suggestions for simplifying breakfast.

Breakfast: You already know it’s the most important meal of the day. But it becomes even more important when you have guests dropping by at 9:00 AM… and you have to feed them. Posie turned to the Hotline for suggestions, noting: “I am leaning towards muffins, but I need a solid, impressive-but-not-fancy, reliable recipe. Help!” 

Luckily, our community knows a thing or two about a good breakfast, and you all were more than happy to chime in with ideas from savory to sweet:

Savory breakfasts

• Danielle likes to make her guests a frittata, “because it’s easy and never fails.”
• Aargersi suggests her Texas Breakfast Beer Bread.
• Hardlikearmour recommends Scrambled Egg Muffins or a savory bread pudding.

Quick breads, muffins, and scones 

• Robin White insists that you can’t go wrong with Banana Bread, while Pegeen recommends her grandmother's soda bread, saying: “[It’s] very easy, not too sweet, a little different than typical fare."
• Drbabs offers her favorite Buttery Blueberry Bran Muffins, beloved for their versatility: "If you don't have All Bran, they work with rolled oats or a mixed grain cereal. If you don't have blueberries, they work with bananas, applesauce, dried fruit. You can throw in some nuts if you like. I think the secret to these muffins is butter. I make them every week, and they have never come out badly."
• Chef Lisa loves mrslarkin's Royal Wedding Scones and aargersi swears by the Irish Cream Scones from The Baking Bible, calling them: “Magic. Genius. Easy. Fabulous." 

Other sweet fare

• Ktr swoons over 20 Minute Apple Turnovers. 
• ChezHenry suggests a make-ahead breakfast standby: baked french toast.
• Creamtea puts in a vote for David Eyre’s Pancake.
• Keg72 says: "If you want to do something less heavy, these Cinnamon Sugar Puffs are really delicious."

What are your favorite baked goods to whip up when company comes calling? Tell us in the comments below!

First photo by Nicole Franzen, second and final photos by James Ransom, and third photo by Alpha Smoot.