Cold Brunch

The menu for this brunch was a response to a particular challenge.  One guest had a a doctor's warning against eating hot foods.  So instead of postponing brunch, we set out to make an equally scrumptious brunch with only cold components.  For the salad, the blackberry-walnut salad was a reprise.  We had two soups, a gazpacho and a cantaloupe chilled fruit soup for the fruit component.  Deviled eggs, homemade wheat bread, and a selection of cold cuts (smoked turkey, prosciutto, a taste of the boccalone orange fennel sausage, and smoked gouda).  The blueberry muffins did not even make the picture.  Needless to say, we were stuffed.

Brunch Season Continues

Indeed brunch season continues year round.  We seem to be entering a difficult time of year - the asparagus is starting to sprout, but the rest of the produce section continues to lack inspiration.  Winter vegetables are done with, but the spring is not quite here yet.  This brunch's four elements:

• Tomatillo-Poblano-Cheddar Scrambled eggs on Home Made English Muffins
• Tomato, Hearts of Palm, and Mixed Green Salad with Orange Vinagrette
• Fresh Pineapple
• Banana Chocolate Upside Down Cake

 And sparkling limeade from Trader Joe's to drink.  You must come try Emily's english muffins.

100th Post Brunch!

Today I am celebrating my 100th post!  That has got to be some kind of milestone when my previous attempts at blogging usually amounted to about three posts before I got tired and gave up. 

This picture is another four-element brunch happily shared with friends.  If you remember the formula, I have got one egg thing, one salad, one fruit thing, and one baked good.  These are omelets (with roasted red pepper and cheese, I think, and made the Julia Child way where you shake the pan like crazy), salad with herbed baked goat cheese rounds, fresh grapefruit, and banana bread.  Winter is citrus season... eat all the grapefruit you can while it's red and sweet.

Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake

Try this cake if you are a lemon lover.  It's winter time now and that means it is time for citrus.  The Meyer lemons for this cake did not come from our tree - we had three flowers on it, but no fruit yet - they came from a surprisingly cheap bag of them at Whole Foods.  They get sliced up thinly and put into the cake rind and all.  The recipe is a good one - the cake is moist and the topping crunchy, crumbly and sweet.

Spinach Mushroom Swiss Eggs

Since the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I have been taking a little break from serious planning and cooking, preferring instead to eat the stockpiles of prepared food in the freezer, or whip something simple up for a quick meal.  I am posting this picture mostly because it is green, and there is too much brown food showing itself recently here, when the truth is that fruits and greens intersperse themselves throughout every meal in this house.  Eggs are my mainstay for times such as these.  The other night I did egg-chorizo-cubanelle tacos.  In Chicago I made tomato-fontina-chicken andouille-spinach for a brunch with friends (the opportunity for which I am most appreciative).  A late brunch this Sunday morning was in sandwich form.  For the mushrooms, saute them in butter and thyme until well browned.  Then cook the eggs, and mix in the mushrooms, swiss cheese, and spinach at the end so the leaves just wilt.

Spanish Tortilla

The Spanish tortilla is kind of hash browns and eggs combined into one, with onions cooked in.   It has lots of oniony flavor that doesn't really have the texture of eggs or potatoes, but something in between that I really like.  This recipe is from Cook's, and is the first one I have tried, despite wanting to make these for a long time.  The basic technique is to cook the onions and potatoes together, letting them steam and mingle, before finally pouring in the egg mixture at the last minute.  Great for a brunch or a Spanish breakfast.

Sausage-Chive-Ricotta-Mozz-Eggs Brunch

We had company for brunch! My list of requisite brunch elements are are eggs, baked good, salad greens, and fruit. Pick something from each category. The eggs here turned out to be a good combo. I've never used ricotta in eggs before but it turned out creamy and good mixed with the mozz. The pain d'epices (or spice bread) was Emily's idea and was very fragrant and wintry and excellent with cream cheese or honey on top. Thank David Lebovitz for that recipe. The salad was a mix of Bibb lettuce and some leftover arugula with a citrus vinagrette. I had some special citrus vinegar from Trader Joe's that makes good dressing when shaken with some olive oil and salt. I like citrus vinaigrettes on Bibb lettuce. Finally, the fruit was apple fritters with the orchard apples we picked the weekend prior. Batter and fry the apples and drizzle with honey. A feast! We were out walking it off all around the city the rest of the day.