Mom’s (boozy) Birthday Brunch

Hi! How are you?  I’m fine. Yes, it’s been a while and I’m really sorry.  Sometimes I get busy with life and that’s exactly what happened with the month of February.  I wasn’t able to blog as much as I wanted to.  I cooked! I have a back log of posts, but I just couldn’t find the time to sit down and tell you all the things I’ve been doing.  And for that, I am terribly sorry! But here’s hoping my unplanned ‘break’ ( I wouldn’t really call it a break, I still facebooked…) got me out of the blogging rut.  Enough apologizing, on to the post. And what a post this is!

Jes and I have started a birthday tradition for Mom.  Last year for her birthday we made delicious steaks and sides. This year we went with brunch.  And you know, after two years it’s tradition. So now it’s tradition.  Let’s not wait any longer for the festivities.

I am in love with the cookbook Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  I made it a new years resolution to do more with the group French Fridays with Dorie (FFwD).  I think I participated in two recipe postings before I fell off the wagon.  I have browsed this cookbook numerous times, flagging different recipes I wanted to make, what’s coming up in FFwD, and just staring at the mouth watering photos in the book.  The quiches really caught my eye.  When Jes and I started to plan out Mom’s birthday brunch, I thought OMG. I can make Dorie’s quiches.  And Boozy Birthday Brunch was decided upon. Before I get into the quiches, Jes made Baked French Toast (Jes: Modifications:  I only had walnuts on hand to put between the bread layers, and only had vanilla on hand so it wasn’t really boozy.  Maybe next time.), Potato Salad (Jes: No modifications.  Only that the cucumbers didn’t sit over night, they sat marinating for like a 1/2 hour lol.), and Caramel Banana Sauce (Jes: No modifications, borgborgborg!)  We have at thing with the Sweedish Chef.  ON TO THE QUICHES!

The quiche dough was SIMPLE.  Flour, some sugar, some salt, cold butter, an egg.  Whirled all in my food processor.  My food processor is on the smaller side so I can only make one dough recipe (ie. enough for one quiche) at a time. But it all came together and BOOM. So easy.

After the dough chilled for a few hours, I rolled it out and smushed it in my tart pan. Don’t get me started on the tart pan.  Lets just say I was able to find one after vising THREE STORES.  You’d think Macy’s would have a tart pan.  Nope.  And using a pie plate was not as pretty.

This is the Quiche Lorraine (quiche 1 of 2).  Bacon, gruyere, onion, eggs, heavy cream.

The other quiche, Gorgonzola-Apple Quiche (not pictured!) had apples, gorgonzola, onions, eggs, and heavy cream.  Delightful.

Our lovely table scape courtesy of Jes.

Birthday brunch at it’s finest.

And what’s a brunch without booze?  Not a brunch, duh.  Jes supplied mimoas and I brought the best bloody mary mix EVER.  In my opinion.  So, ever. Zing Zang is the BEST.  If only we had pickled green beans up here to top it off.  Celery will just have to do.  If you are a bloody mary fan, I suggest ditching your mix and get this.  You can thank me later.

All of us pigged out and enjoyed ourselves.  It was a relaxing afternoon for everyone who attended and quite pleasing to the palate.  We don’t indulge all the time, but when we do, we do it right.

There were leftovers (I know… blasphemy).  But, we packed them up and sent them home with Mom.  Gram and Pap lucked out since they got to eat the leftovers :).

Since I know Mom follows my blog … I HOPE YOU HAD THE BEST BIRTHDAY BRUNCH! 🙂  Can’t wait to plan for next year! Love you!

PS – No recipes for the quiches? I know.  I’m keeping with the FFwD rule of not posting Dorie’s recipes.  Her book is amazing and I really do urge you to buy it. Yes, it’s THAT amazing I’m not posting the recipes.  But, if you ask me nicely, I may give it to you.