Good morning! Happy Sunday!
Can we take a second to talk about brunch?
What a great verb, noun, way to spend a morning, excuse to leisure. Gosh, I am a fan. But what makes brunch, brunch? Here’s where I sit with it: if there’s not both alcohol and coffee available as beverage options, it's not brunch. It cannot happen before 10am and anything after 1pm is pushing it. You must have a few hours to enjoy the experience (no rushed brunches thank you very much). It's also asking for a spread. Multiple options to nosh on. Some sweet, some savory. It's like a morning choosing your own adventure… here’s my menu:
- Champagne, coffee & orange or grapefruit juice
- Olive oil muffins with powdered sugar and jam
- Wild Rye waffles w/maple syrup and butter
- Soft scrambled eggs with chives
- Simple green salad w/shaved parmesan & lots of black pepper
The secret to stress-free entertaining is getting some of the prep out of the way the night before. Thirty minutes of prep time makes for easy, breezy brunching that still feels lux. I like to serve warm muffins because I’m fancy like that. If the olive oil cake batter is made the night before, they stay warm for 20 minutes, which gives you time to get them on the table before they cool down. I also make the waffle batter before I turn in for the evening so all I have to do is preheat my waffle maker and let the magic rip when the guests arrive. I grind my coffee the night before, juice the oranges or grapefruits, and pull butter out to soften on the counter for the waffles and muffins. Heck, I've even set the table the night before too!
In the morning, the first thing I'm doing is preheating my oven and getting the muffins in. When they come out, they get dusted with powdered sugar and go into a basket with a tea towel. Next, coffee gets made. Then I’m cleaning the lettuce and dressing my salad simply with olive oil, lemon juice, flaky salt & pepper, and shaved parmesan (use a vegetable peeler to shave big shards of parm and go heavy). Eggs get scrambled when guests arrive and the same goes for the waffles. Waffles are kept on a platter in the still-warm oven from the muffins earlier. Pro tip for a perfect soft scramble: cook over medium-low heat and turn the heat off just before your eggs reach soft scramble. They should be too soft at this point. Then add a dab of butter to the eggs. The residual heat from the pan will finish cooking them and the butter will make them glossy and delicious.
I have my friends help by pulling the champagne and juice from the fridge, handing out the beverages, and bringing everything to the table. Then it's off to sit our booties down and ENJOY LIFE together.
Going slow. Taking it in and basking in the afterglow of brunching done well.