It’s time for my Easter Brunch Breakdown.
These posts help me plan and adjust our brunch each year. I find it tremendously helpful to have records of what worked and what didn’t. Hopefully, if you find yourself hosting a brunch, these posts might help you as well.
I stumbled across this favorite quote: Chance favors the prepared mind (Louis Pasteur) a few times over the weekend. Should have applied the wisdom of it a bit more.
However, in fairness to myself, the health of my husband’s grandpa left lots of questions about whether we’d be hosting as the holiday approached. It meant I held off doing things. Thankfully, his health improved and we carried on with Easter.
Dare I say that I might be slowing down a bit? I found it harder than previous years to stay up late getting things ready. And then, were it not for my husband, I’d have overslept more than I already did. Must start earlier next year!
Excuse the blurry photos, lack of sleep surely gets the blame for these poor photos (and lack of photos in general).
The Menu:
A mismatched throw together of trying to capture all the favorites plus adding in a few new dishes. Not everything worked or turned out well.
Muffin choices: blueberry, chocolate chip, triple berry white chocolate, pumpkin, pumpkin chocolate chip, cappuccino muffins*
Cinnamon rolls (from a local restaurant)
Fruit: cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, pineapple, strawberries
Fruit dip (my quick recipe: 1 package cream cheese plus one jar marshmallow fluff)
Caramelized bacon twists, regular bacon
Sausage pinwheels, regular sausage
Sausage puff
Regular hash browns
Brisket
Rolls
Dessert choices: chocolate covered strawberries, banana bread, carrot cakes, lemon curd in pastry shells, strawberry mousse in pastry shells, peeps swimming in jello, various candies, cherry/apple/blueberry pie bars*
*the cappuccino muffins and the cherry/apple/blueberry pie bars did not turn out so weren’t on our table
Menu Items I Wanted To Make But Ran Out Of Time:
peanut butter and jelly cookies
a veggie Quiche of some sort
vegetable side dish (thinking maybe a big salad for next year?)
truffle type dessert or other table decoration dessert
Menu Hits:
Caramelized bacon twists, fresh fruit, Guatemalan banana bread (my g. nieces loved this!), the brisket, and the sausage puff.
Menu Misses:
lots of muffins left (may need to shake up the offerings for next year), fruit dip (don’t think people knew it was fruit dip), and the ham/cheese Quiche (another one to scale back perhaps)
Menu Maybes:
Cinnamon rolls (I bought these from a local restaurant and bought too many, they freeze well at least), sausage pinwheels (tradition but I always have so many leftover and they don’t keep!), oven roasted potatoes (I liked the ones I didn’t burn but rosemary is a hate it or love it thing)
Items To Remove From Menu:
cappuccino muffins, cherry pie bars (I love the idea of these but they did not turn out “pretty” enough to serve on a brunch table…maybe adapt them into a muffin?), hash browns (unless I return to my basic hash brown bake recipe)
Thoughts about Easter Brunch 2018:
We had a smaller crowd and the weather was cold. I’ve noticed people don’t go back for seconds as often when they can’t mill about as much (our house is well-suited to indoor/outdoor events, not so much for indoor only events). Everyone who was there did seem to enjoy the food and themselves. And of course, like my mother, I have to cook enough “to feed an army”
Oversleeping made for a bit of a rough start, usually I have things set up as our guests are arriving and they don’t have to wait.
Also, my timing seemed off this year with getting things prepared early enough/kept hot. Burnt more than I should have (ugh!). Sleep is important, next year I need to do more in advance and have better plans.
Should also perhaps put a bit more effort into the setup/decorations next year (and hope for better weather!). Do you host any big family events like Easter brunch? What are your helpful hints?
