Pizza for breakfast may sound weird to anyone out of college, but this pizza has all the components of a classic breakfast: cheesy eggs with hot sauce, bacon, and “toast.” If making pizza dough first thing in the morning seems overwhelming, prepare it the night before and refrigerate it, or use a good-quality, fresh, store-bought dough.

There are many different ways to cook eggs but most of them are purely of interest to invalids, children and the feeble-minded. The correct or 'proper English egg' is fried with lightly browned edges in the fat left over from the bacon. At the last minute, oil is flicked over the top of the yolk to seal it. This dangerous procedure causes the yolk to form a perfect, golden, viscid capsule, the violation of which with a rough shard of toast, is the nearest that an Englishman will permit himself to unbridled sexual ecstasy.

Is kedgeree the breakfast of kings or is eating fish before lunchtime a bit too 19th century?

For the record, I add a small cup of oats to the same volume each of cold water and milk.  Add a pinch of salt and bring to a simmer.<br />
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"Porridge is keeping me going during these icy mornings. Few breakfasts can offer such instant insulation as oats simmered with water until thick and creamy. The exact texture of porridge is a personal thing and both coarse and fine mixtures have their fans."

How would you like your eggs? What a question. The eternal struggle between what I want – a creamy pile of golden deliciousness – and what I suspect I'll get – a pallid, quivering mess – sucks me in every single time I treat myself to breakfast out. Wimpishly, I generally end up ordering fried instead or, if I'm feeling particularly brave, poached, because nothing brings on a hangover quicker than bad scrambled eggs. Equally, not much beats the lazy, luxurious pleasure of well-cooked ones and, unless you breakfast regularly in smart hotels, they're something best left to slow weekend mornings at home.

Crumpets are made from a thickish, yeasty batter and poured into rings. If you don't have rings, make thinner pancakes, or pikelets. Whether they are thick or thin, crumpets or pikelets, toast on the flattened bottom first and then on the holey side, so that maximum butter will melt into the crisp toasted holes. Now all you need is a big pot of tea, a fire and, possibly, a clean shirt standing by.

A dish that will stand or fall by the quality of the sausages you choose. I prefer a good old-fashioned butcher's sausage with plenty of pepper and herbs in it. A slightly spicy one would be fun, too. The egg is entirely optional, as are any other ingredients you may want to include, like a little crumbled black pudding in the patties or some fried mushrooms or tomatoes on the side. Essentially a breakfast dish, but I have eaten this as a quick supper on occasion, too.

At the store this weekend, I counted no fewer than a dozen different varieties of pre-packaged pancake mixes. And this was a fancy, highfalutin store that doesn’t even bother to stock the aerosol or otherwise weaponized shake-and-pour varieties. What’s the lesson here? That pancakes are hard; here, gentle consumers who are far too busy to bother making from scratch, just add water.

More breakfast ideas for the busy (wo)man-about-town.