Brunch time

Hello hello my friends. Did everyone have a good Easter (I know now its nearly 3 weeks ago, oops)?  Ours was quite delightful, if you follow along on social media, you know that I hosted my first ever Easter brunch, and I was VERY excited about it. For me, hosting a holiday was always one of those monumental things on to qualify you as an official adult. In our old space in Minneapolis, hosting was nearly impossible. We had a tiny, tiny place that would host 4 comfortable in the kitchen, max 6, and the floor plan was so boxy and compartmentalized that it felt crowded ALLL THE TIME. Now, our new place in CO isn’t necessarily that much larger, but it has a much more open floor plan making hosting much more doable. With that, I decided go full speed ahead and host a little brunch with my sister/brother in law and our new Colorado friends.

The menu:

Fruit and Veggie Tray

Cheese Platter

Strawberry –Feta Salad (courtesy to my sister)

Cauliflower – Sausage Frittata

Roasted Carrots with Carrot Pesto (my favorite dish)

Asparagus with Lemon and Parm

Whiskey Glazed Ham

Bacon (duh, gotta get that flava flave in)

Berry Scones

Southern Biscuits, served with Whipped Honey, Apricot Jam or Pepper Jelly

Carrot Cake

Cupcakes

The menu was on my mind for weeks, do I stick with lemony springtime flavors or do I utilize that last bit of winter produce, do I go the traditional brunch route or do I do something completely random and fun? I ended up going with a fun, traditional springy menu with a few minor twists. 


I broke up the food preparing, which was probably one of the BEST things I did. 

 Mainly because, I had a few blips in the road ( of course, it can't be perfect, am I right?!)  and the blips may have included a smoke alarm (something, VERY, common in my kitchen, dreaming of homeownership one day and having one epic hood) 

Breaking apart the grunt work over two days was amazing and made for one, stress free morning and resulted in most of the food being ready at the same time (half of entertaining for me is trying to get all of the food to be done at the same time)!

Lemon- Parm Asparagus

1 pound asparagus

½ cup grated parm

Zest and juice of lemon

1 tbsp of butter

Salt

1.     Cut ends of asparagus to remove the bitterness, then cut in half

2.      Fill pot with a few inches of water, place asparagus in a steaming basket, steam for 5-10 minutes or until tender

3.     Do not over cook, which results in vegetable turning pale and having a soggy flavor

**would also be very good with a hollandaise sauce (goal for next year)

Roasted Carrots with Carrot Pesto

¼ cup pine nuts

1½ pound small carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise if larger

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 small garlic clove, finely grated

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Toast pine nuts on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing occasionally, until golden brown, 8–10 minutes; let cool.
2. Increase temperature to 450°. Toss carrots with 1 Tbsp. oil on another rimmed baking sheet; season with salt and black pepper.
3. Roast, tossing occasionally, until softened and browned, 15–20 minutes; let cool slightly.
4. Pulse pine nuts, garlic, and remaining oil in a food processor to a coarse paste. Add Aleppo pepper, one-fourth of carrots, 1 Tbsp. vinegar, and 1 Tbsp. water. Process, adding more water as needed, to a coarse purée; season with salt, black pepper, and more vinegar, if desired.

Recipe adopted from Bon Appetit: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/roast-pork-tenderloin-with-carrot-romesco)

Cauliflower- Sausage Frittata

8 large eggs

½ cup milk

A good pinch of salt and a couple grinds of pepper

½ tsp garlic powder

½ cup grated parm cheese

½ onion, (I used white, would always recommend yellow) diced

8 oz Sausage (I would go with one that is a little spicy, so Italian)

2 cups (or so) of cooked cauliflower ( can easily replace with vegetable of choice)

Olive oil

1.   Preheat oven to 350
2.     Whisk together eggs, milk, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Do not over mix, over mixing will result in a frittata that is flat. Add in cheese
3.     In a 10 inch oven proof skillet, grease with olive oil (or butter if you would like!) and cook onions on medium until they are translucent (about 5-7 minutes)
4.     Add sausage and cook until browned
5.     Add cooked cauliflower
6.     Pour in egg mixture and cook on stove top until edges are firm (5 minutes)
7.     Once edges are firm, bake in oven for 14-20 minutes

**note: can be substituted for any vegetable

*** to save time, precook the sausage so you can just add it in for an easy morning dish, meat can also be replaced with cooked ham or bacon

Martha Stewart Berry Scones

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cold heavy cream

1 large egg

2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for work surface

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2/3 cup of your berry or fruit of choice

Sanding sugar (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk together 3/4 cup cream and egg. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. With a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining. Stir in berries. With a fork, stir in cream mixture until just combined. (The dough should be crumbly; do not overwork.)
3. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat into a 6-inch circle. Cut into 6 wedges and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush tops with 1 tablespoon cream and sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired. Bake until golden, 16 to 18 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through.

**I did not cook with white chocolate chips this time and slightly regret it. The scones were delicious, not too sweet, but think if there was chocolate or a nut of some sort the texture would have been better

***Also just a side note to laugh about. When preparing the batter for the scones, I decided to double the recipe. I had gathered all of the ingredients, and had just about finished when I realized I major uh-oh, I had used bread flour instead of the normal all purpose flour, oops! I didn’t want to waste the batch so I proceeded and made the second batch with normal, all-purpose flour and decided I could compare the different afterward. The result? The scones with all purpose flours had a better texture and improved flavor. The guest did not notice the difference between the two scones but I noticed the scones with the bread flour rose higher, and were much more dense (and basically more bread like).

Source: http://www.marthastewart.com/899516/cream-scones-currants

Whiskey Glazed Honey Ham (cooked in the crock pot)

1 ½ cups of any cheap whisky (you can use the good stuff, but I wouldn’t waste it!)

¾ cup Honey

¼ cup Molasses

1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

A good grind of pepper
4-5 pound ham

1.     Whisk all ingredients together until smooth

2.     Place ham into crockpot

3.     Pour glaze over ham

4.     Cook on low for 3-4 hours until internal temp of the ham has reached 145 degrees.

This was one of my MAJOR time savors I utilized. I’m telling you, its genius. Plop that ham right in the crock up, glaze it, and let it cook baby! Just make sure you turn it from time to time ( I turned once an hour). The result was a juicy, perfectly cooked ham that toke no space in the oven. Basically, its fool proof and was the perfect way to cook my first full ham.

Hope you can enjoy these recipes on any spring holiday, not just Easter. Think, graduation brunch…. Showers, birthdays….Also, will be working on the photo game to get it tip top shape! 

Enjoy!