Day 55: Saturday Brunch and other recipes

So today we had a wonderful family over for brunch!  Randy and I are finding that we like to host Saturday brunches more and more for our friends with children like us.  It's the best time of the day for kids because they are usually at their happiest, naps and bedtimes don't interfere, and food preparation is simpler.  So often, when planning a dinner (especially dinner for company) I'm faced with figuring out what sides "go" with the main course, whether or not there should be an appetizer, dessert, and what drinks are a good pairing.  With brunch, it all "goes."  Breakfast food is just so good!  There's no need for an appetizer OR dessert, and people can just pick at the muffins or fruit salad that's left on the table while we chat.  When we have brunch, we like to just have 4 dishes: an egg dish (savory), a crumble or danish (sweet), a muffin (bread), and a fruit salad.  For drinks: coffee, tea, orange juice, and then having champagne on hand to make a quick mimosa adds a nice touch.  Randy tried out making a spicy Bloody Mary today for the first time, too!

Here are some recipes we enjoyed:

Kale & Sausage Strata
1 lb breakfast sausage (casings removed)
1 bunch kale, chopped
1/2 loaf multigrain bread
12 eggs, beaten
2 cups whole milk
8 oz fontina cheese, grated
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Crumble the sausage into a large skillet and brown over medium heat.  Add the chopped kale and let it cook and wilt for about 1-2 minutes.  Meanwhile, cut the bread into cubes and place it in a buttered casserole dish.  When the sausage and kale are done, add them to the dish with the bread.  In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk, cheese, salt, and pepper.  Pour into the casserole dish.  Refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.  (If you refrigerate it overnight, pull it out for 45 minutes to sit at room temperature before you bake it.)  Bake at 350* for 40-45 minutes.  Let set for 15 minutes before serving.

Blueberry Crumb Cake

For the streusel:
1/4 sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 cups flour
For the cake:
6 TB unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup sour cream (I use plain Greek yogurt)
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350*.  For the streusel: mix the sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter.  Add the flour.  Mix well and set aside.
For the cake, cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the eggs, vanilla, and sour cream.  Mix well.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet.  Fold in the blueberries.
Pour the batter in a buttered and floured 9" round baking pan.  Sprinkle the streusel on top.  Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Tri-Berry Muffins

3 cups flour
1 TB baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 TB cinnamon
1 1/4 cups milk
2 eggs
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
1/2 cup diced fresh strawberries
1 1/2 cups sugar

Preheat oven to 375*.  Line muffin tins with liners.
Sift the dry ingredients together.  In another bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and butter.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry.  Add the berries and sugar.  Mix, but don't overmix!  Pour into prepared muffin tins.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

The cake and muffin recipes are both Ina Garten's.  I have 3 of her cookbooks, and I love them all!  These 2 recipes, along with the recipe for Spicy Bloody Marys that Randy made today came from her Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook.  They can all be found here: http://barefootcontessa.com/cookbooks.aspx

Fruit Salad
Fruit salads are pretty basic, but in my opinion, the best fruit salads are the simplest.  Combining too many fruits into one salad really takes away from the flavor of the individual fruit.  I like to keep my fruit salads to 4-5 different fruit varieties, no more.  That way, you can change it up every now and then: citrus salads, berry salads, primary colors, melon salads, the options are endless!  Today, I opted for a simple 4 fruit salad that has a lot of color: strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, and green grapes.  I also like to keep things similarly shaped.  Fruit cut into nice chunks give the salad a rustic, more natural look.

For dinner tonight, we had some basic cheeseburgers, sweet potato fries, and salad.  My mother-in-law lives in Connecticut and is visiting this weekend.  I adore her and love when she comes to visit.  It helps that she is probably one of the biggest fans of my cooking (and everything else I do, it seems!).  She has a list of jobs she seems to think I would excel at and I love that when I make my most basic cheeseburger (ground beef, mayo, parsley flakes, oregano flakes, salt, pepper) she raves about it and thinks it must be a different kind of meat! :)  She tells me that her friends ask about what she had to eat when she visits.  Of course, I've started sending her home with a "doggy" bag after each visit!