We hosted a brunch Sunday for friends and family. The guests were Mr. Kim’s parents and our good friends the McMahons. Momma and Ted planned to come up this weekend, but just couldn’t manage the drive. We all missed them so much – they are very popular with the Richmond crowd.
It was a very win-win occasion. I got to have a cooking orgy on Saturday and Sunday, my house got clean (we are terrible about using company as an excuse to finally do all those chores that should be done weekly) and everyone got a good visit and a good meal.
Daddy and Katie gave me a subscription to Cuisine at Home magazine, a publication I really love. They have no ads, the recipes are well explained and clear and I’ve had success with every recipe I’ve ever tried. I found an issue in my magazine stack from April 2010 that I don’t remember seeing before and it had a lot of interesting looking brunch recipes. Lots of what I did for Sunday was from this issue.
Lots of pictures of this day – so Momma and Ted can feel like they were here.
The table:
Centerpiece:
We started with a pitcher of Lemonade Sangria:
Really refreshing. Mr. Kim accused me of pulling a Sandra Lee with ‘choking hazards’ in my drinks!
Doughnuts from the new doughnut shop near us, “Daylight Doughnuts”:
They were pretty good, but nowhere near as good as Country Style in the East End. Plus the fact the Daylight Doughnuts is a chain and Country Style locally owned.
Benedict Baskets w/ Julia Child’s blender hollandaise:
These were great. English muffin baskets with eggs, Swiss cheese, spinach and tomato. Everyone loved them.
Breakfast kebabs:
Bacon, sausage and ham kebabs glazed with pecan-maple syrup, apple jelly and cinnamon.
Genius! Why hasn’t anyone ever thought of THIS before. Pork sticks!!!
Steamed shrimp w/ cocktail sauce:
Mike’s smoked leg of lamb and Yogurt-garlic-mint sauce:
Hanover tomatoes:
Marinated cucumbers:
Fruit salsa and pie crust chips:
I confess that the geometry of the chips was a challenge to me. The directions said, “Cut into 8 wedges. Cut each wedge into 4 triangles.” I almost cut each wedge into LONG, SKINNY wedges. But then I realized that I needed to cut off the tip of the wedge to make one triangle and cut the bottom of the wedge into the other three triangles. This will be obvious to a person of normal intelligence, but I felt extremely proud of myself
Hot potato salad:
Tiny red skinned potatoes baked in a sauce of cream cheese, Cheddar, buttermilk and herbs. Another popular dish – everyone wanted the recipe for this one.
Purchased mini croissants:
Dessert was Pots du Crème and Limeade Pie w/ Tart Cherry Sauce:
I’ve done this recipe a couple of times before. It’s a Pioneer Woman recipe and amazingly good and easy. It’s all done in a blender with super hot milk or coffee. Incredibly smooth and rich.
Really rich and creamy and refreshing. The cherry sauce was too thick – I misread the amount of cornstarch!
Plated:
Once we were replete, the rest of the afternoon stretched out with quiet conversation and FOOTBALL (real, actual Amurican football – NOT that shortpants girlie-boy stuff they play ELSEWHERE) since the wonderful, amazing cableguy, Kevin, came by to install the HD on SUNDAY morning. It was NFL reruns, of course. But that will do until August. (My writing style relies WAY too much on commas and dashes.)
We missed you Momma and Ted! And I wish Daddy and Katie had been here, too! I miss all my parents.
Oh, Dear Lord!! I have to go lie down.
ReplyDeleteIt was pert night bedtime here when I wrote that last comment, and I couldn't do justice to the grandeur of the beautiful food on your table. And all made by your dear hands, as well.
ReplyDeleteI want to taste everything---to have a vast plate of each and every item, ranged round like a palette of many colors and tastes and textures.
This just looks BEYOND wonderful---how did you EVER do it?? That "excuse to clean" thing is just beyond me---I grumble and grump until the house can pass muster. And it's all just so perfectly served and arranged and how DIDDDD you DOOOO it?
I want to know about the eggs with that glorious fluff of Hollandaise, and the salsa's ingredients and that absolutely genius pork stick, and OH, MY those potatoes!! Our same recipe Hollandaise will pour---slowly and voluptuously, but it will not make that wonderful pouf. It just lies there.
And the PdC---I hope, I hope that EVERY recipe is in your file, so I can steal them. All but the lamb---I've never cooked lamb, and Chris is the only one who eats it, so he does a rack on the grill now and then. Yours looks juicy and succulently tender.
Sangria, too, please, you genius, you.
OH, My. Brunch will never be the same again.
And you're the people I served Pink Salad and Pet Milk quiche to. I blush, I cringe, I slink away.
Thank you, thank you, my dear friend! I wish that you and Chris and Caro had been here to share. Mr. Kim and I cracked up at your first, pithy comment! All the recipes should be on the site. Let me know if you can't find something. It was all EASY, too. And never, ever apologize for Pink Salad or Pet Milk (a Southern icon, that)! Every single thing that I had at your house was delicious! I've made those Piggies, your Redneck Gazpacho, Paminna cheese and your incomperable chicken salad to ACCOLADES! We love ALL food - which is why we are food people (not to mention fat people). Now - imagine a hug from me. Go give one to Chris and Caro and Miss OH, too, please! Love you!
ReplyDeletePosting back to remark that while you would like to know the secret to the super thick hollandaise, I would like to know how to get it to flow voluptuously like yours! Mine always, ALWAYS turns out the consistancy of mayonnaise. Maybe I pour in the melted butter too slow?
ReplyDeleteDear God.
ReplyDeleteThe Beethoven's Fifth of brunches, the Sistine Chapel of brunches,the 'Great Balls of Fire! of brunches.
Thank you, Miss Maggie! That is quite a compliment, coming from you! Brunch is probably my favorite way to entertain. You get all day Saturday to prepare and all Sunday night to recover. Sometimes you can even sneak a nap in!
ReplyDeleteBeethoven's 5th?! Hell, it's Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand!!! How does one person get all that many plates of scrumptiousness on the table at one time? Even with all day Saturday and Sunday morning. How are your feet? You gotta get yourself some of those gel mats!
ReplyDeleteGel mats! What I wouldn't give for gel mats. I do have a couple of those squishy mats in front of the work areas and they help, but I have horrible feet. I hobble around for a few minutes when I first get out of bed, but once I'm up awhile, they settle down.
ReplyDeleteThe music reference and knowledge of kitchen mats makes me think that I can guess who you are, Anonymous. Welcome, no matter who you are, but a BIG welcome if you are who I think you are. (That sounded like something Inigo Montoya would say).
I would guess that who I am is who you think I am! How's that for a sentence!?
ReplyDeleteEven one gel mat would help. I love mine. They save your feet and back.
"The Princess Bride" is one of my favorite novels.
I actually would have used a name, but I don't know the system here.
:^) You've convinced me - I just put a gel mat on my Amazon wish list.
ReplyDeleteAs far as signing on to make a comment with an ID, all you do is get yourself a google ID (I think that you can do that at google.com) and then use that where it says "select profile".