Brunch Brainstorming

November 14, 2007 9:16 AM

BrunchFilter: I'm having a little brunch get-together at my house this weekend for my birthday. Looking for some creative ideas.

What can we serve for food, other than the usual bagels-and-lox, fruit plate, etc? Either store-bought stuff or easy recipes would be appreciated.

posted by jozxyqk to food & drink (14 comments total)

Previously.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:18 AM on November 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

my current favorite: waffles with gravy. MMMMM.
posted by Sara Anne at 9:22 AM on November 14, 2007

Baked eggs with rosemary:

Grease a baking dish with butter. Preaheat oven to 375.

Scramble however many eggs, add salt and pepper and other seasonings (rosemary is just a suggestion). If you have it, add cheese.

Take two pieces of bread, butter both sides of them, tear them into chunks, and submerge them in the egg mixture.

Bake until golden brown on top, about 20 minutes. It will be puffy and delightful, the eggs will be perfect inside, the bread will have toasted where exposed, and it should slice cleanly out of the dish.
posted by hermitosis at 9:30 AM on November 14, 2007

Hot curried fruit is good, in fact I just made it to bring to work. My recipe is a little bit different than the linked one; it calls for both peaches and apricots instead of one or the other and twice as much curry powder; obviously you can adjust to your tastes. Also, it is better if prepared a couple of days ahead of time and allowed to mellow in the fridge a couple of days; when the time comes just reheat in the microwave and you are done.
posted by TedW at 9:34 AM on November 14, 2007

Monkey Bread recipe... it's sooo good:

2 cans lowfat buttermilk biscuits
1 stick of butter
1 cup regular sugar
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
1 cup of brown sugar
nuts and raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut all biscuits into fourths. Put regular sugar and cinnamon in a ziploc bag and shake well. Spray inside of Bundt pan with Pam (or you can rub the inside of the pan with butter, or however you prefer to grease it). Put the brown sugar and stick of butter in a saucepan and melt until it's syrupy (note: you can also heat it in the microwave in a pyrex dish, it's actually easier).

Shake biscuit quarters a few pieces at a time in the cinnamon mixture so that each piece is coated, like an individual cinnamon bun, then layer on the bottom of the Bundt pan. Once you've finished half the pieces, pour half of the butter syrup on top. If you are going to add nuts and raisins, do so now. Then repeat with the remaining biscuits and butter mixture.

Put the whole thing on a cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes. Check it often; when the very top of the biscuits are brown and slightly hard, it's time to come out (I say this because all ovens are a little different and if it's a gas oven, you may get away with baking it a little bit less).

Flip the whole thing onto a large plate and enjoy! It's probably the best thing I've ever put in my mouth and very easy to do. I promise, it'll be gone quickly.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:39 AM on November 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Waffles with gravy sounds both delicious and disturbing.

Don't know what your budget is or how many guests you're expecting, but I always think brunch should include poached eggs served over some sort of protein (still delicious without a hollandaise, or substitute with another citrus based sauce), a light pasta salad, and mushrooms Veronique (it's the second recipe listed.) That particular recipe is very time-consuming, but the preparation can be done ahead, even the day before, and chilled until about 30 minutes prior to baking.

As an alternative to mimosas, you can try a coffee and ice punch - I'll track down a recipe if you want it.

Also, call a couple local bakeries and see if they would be open to making two or three desserts using seasonal fruits, one with chocolate, one with cream, and one with a liqueur-infused cake. Usually it's better tasting than what you could buy elsewhere for not much extra money. Or splurge and get the awesome, atypical birthday cake of your dreams.

Of course, go with the fruit and cheese plates, croissants, bagels and lox, etc., that you already have in mind, and I hope you have a delicious birthday.

[I'm starving now - the more I think about waffles and gravy, the more I want to go home and make it.]
posted by mitzyjalapeno at 10:01 AM on November 14, 2007

Can you elaborate on the "gravy" part of "waffles with gravy"?
I live in Massachusetts, where "gravy" is something primarily used on thanksgiving turkey or pot roast, but I know that it means something different in other parts of the country/world.

...unless that's what you mean... which actually sounds intriguing.
posted by jozxyqk at 11:07 AM on November 14, 2007

Baked French toast. You can put it together the night before, even. Easy and delicious.
posted by CiaoMela at 1:27 PM on November 14, 2007

I have tried this baked french toast recipe for a similar brunch and met with disaster -- burned on the top and soggy on the bottom -- so that it had to be thrown out. We also had waffles, potatoes, ham, chocolate chip scones, and biscuits (the latter two being surprisingly easy for a big homemade payoff, and also can be made ahead), but the toast was a no show for us.

I have had good success with this dutch baby recipe -- basically a gigantic pancake souffle with apples that you stick in the oven. The only problem with it is that it does deflate, so if you expect to have people up and down serving themselves the presentation effect decreases considerably as time passes. Still absolutely delicious even when deflated, to me (though NortonDC thought it was too eggy for his taste).

FYI, if making waffles for a crowd, keep the first bunch in the oven directly on the rack and not stacked on top of one another to maintain crispiness, with oven somewhere between 170-200F.
posted by onlyconnect at 3:45 PM on November 14, 2007

There's a dish called uppuma (also spelled uppama) that one of my favorite brunch restaurants serves, and I really like it. It's similar to cream of wheat, but savory - a good choice for people who don't like eggs but don't necessarily want to go the pancake/waffle/french toast route. I'm not sure how good the recipe I linked is, but several came up when I googled it, so maybe one will be to your liking.

I hate eggs, personally, so I'm always thrilled to see eggless breakfast options that aren't sweet or overly bread-y. Eggs are a pretty common dislike in my experience, so that might be something general to take into consideration.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:48 PM on November 14, 2007

Smoothies
posted by jasondigitized at 5:45 PM on November 14, 2007

whatever you try from the recipes above be sure to prepare it at least once before this weekend to make sure it comes out right.
posted by any major dude at 7:06 PM on November 14, 2007

A nice savory strata, which can be assembled the night before and put in the oven in the morning.
posted by peachfuzz at 7:19 PM on November 14, 2007

Breakfast tacos
posted by planetkyoto at 8:04 AM on November 15, 2007