Mother’s Day Brunch

Ever since we bought the house, I have been DYING to throw some sort of party or get-together.  I like hosting, I like cooking, and our house is so cute, I just want to show it off to everyone.  We closed on the house the day before Thanksgiving, and I wanted to have Thanksgiving dinner in our house.

I have lofty aspirations.

However, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, the Superbowl, my birthday, Easter, Cinco de Mayo.  All possible shindigs came and went, and while I cooked some pretty amazing meals, it was just Nick and I.  We had some friends and family over here and there, but no parties.

Along comes Mother’s Day.

Now, I love nothing more than going out for a big brunch buffet on Mother’s Day.  But so does the rest of America, and I can’t stand crowds and having to wait forever to be seated only to find half-emtpy serving dishes of cold eggs.  So I decided to bring the brunch buffet home.

The size of the party was small.  My parents, my sisters, my grandmother, and Nick’s parents.  Nine people, in a house with four chairs.  Not to worry.  My mom came to the rescue, finding a beautiful set of four slatted wooden folding chairs that someone was giving away.  I put the extra leaf in the table, and figured we would be cozy while eating.

The brunch took about a week to organize and shop for.  I delegated some of the dishes out.  Nick’s mom could bring a fruit salad, my grandma would make bacon, my mom had a monkey bread she could make.  I took special requests, such as what to put in the quiche and then also making regular scrambled eggs for Michelle.

I did my final shopping trip the Saturday before Mother’s Day, and spent most of the day cleaning.  I made flower arrangements and organized my ingredients.  All cooking happened in stages on Sunday morning.

My brunch was a huge success.  It was the first time Sarah and my grandmother met Nick’s family, and our first big family meal together.  I hope to make this brunch a tradition.

• My table set-up consisted of all plastic, and I am not even ashamed to admit that.  I am a big believer that family gatherings should be spent together, not washing dishes, so this helps keep clean-up minimal.  All the silverware, plates, bowls, cups, and napkins are generic brands, but they are made similar to Chinette; that heavy duty, practically dishwasher safe stuff
• At Michael’s they had these cute flower-shaped pieces of card stock on clearance for $2.  It made for great, color-coded name cards for place settings.   (Pink was the moms, yellow for girls and blue for boys)
• Also at Michael’s were these slightly flared clear vases that I believe I paid $3 each for.  I bought fresh-cut tulips (a Big Y silver coin deal) and arranged them with clear colored stones that I already had.  Not only did these make a gorgeous centerpiece, I also sent them home with the moms as a gift

• I bought the tiny easels at Michael’s for $1.50 each.  I wrote on them with a chalk marker.  The great thing is all I have to do is wash the chalk off, and I can use these for another function!
• In the Crockpot is homemade hot chocolate.  It is so sweet, my sister called it “Liquid Diabetes.”  It is a great Christmas (or brunch) addition during coffee hour.  Find the recipe here.
• My grandma makes the best bacon in the world.
• I made scrambled eggs with cheese as a last minute request from Michelle.  I think she was wary of my screwing up the quiche, plus scrambled eggs are a brunch staple.
• Nick’s mom made the delicious fruit salad

• My mom had this frozen monkey bread in the freezer.  It was just about as good as the homemade kind.  then she gave me that fancy Tupperware cake stand.  Thanks Mom!
• I was very nervous about making a quiche.  I know that is is very easy for it to become too dry or too custard-y.  I had asked my sisters about what they wanted in the quiche, and they said cheese, bacon and broccoli.  After eating it, the consensus was while it was very good, they would like it with slightly fewer “things” in it.  I loosely followed this recipe.
• That Berry Croissant Casserole was my favorite thing ever.  We’ll come back to that.
• I am wildly in love with Cracker Barrel’s hash browns, and I am forever trying to recreate them.  This attempt came close.  One of my downfalls was using really high quality cheddar cheese; great for flavor, bad for greasiness.  Here is the recipe I followed.

Back to that Berry Croissant Casserole.  When I saw the recipe, it was simply a blueberry croissant casserole.  I, however, prefer a plethora of berries, so I added blackberries and raspberries.  The blackberries were so big they had to be cut in half.  This was SO GOOD.  Similar to a bread putting in texture, so it that isn’t your thing, you might want to pass on this one.  This also warmed up really well the next day (the tiny corner that was left after everyone devoured it.)  I highly recommend this dish for your next breakfast/brunch party.  Check out the recipe and keep in mind, I added extra berries!

So that about does it for this party.  I was hoping to throw a Memorial Day cookout, but that ship has sailed.  Perhaps my next party will be a Father’s Day BBQ!