all images from marthastewart.comMy mother-in-law will be in town this weekend, she is soon turning 60. I would like to host a elegant breakfast in her honor for a small gathering of family. Do you have any menu suggestions?
Hoping to Impress
Dear Hopeful,
I know what you want: the perfect menu printed up for you with photos. While I find your cause noble, I'm just not a breakfast person. I am afraid I will only be minimally helpful to you. Every time I try to answer this question I feel like gagging. Please don't make me think of eggs or pancakes.
What I care about is how the table looks. Graceful flowers, soft linens, personal touches on the table. How you serve the food will make a big difference. I'm already voting for plating individually or maybe serving family style, but not buffet style. Nothing tastes as good from a buffet.
What 60 year old woman wouldn't like to see photos of herself when younger?Also, I always try and find out if the guest of honor has a favorite dish or ingredient that I could include in the meal.
A few real ideas:
Classic:
quiche with ham
roasted vegetables
croissants
fresh seasonal fruit cup
strawberry cake for dessert
All Crepes:
Make sure you include filling options such as ham spinach and goat cheese, as well the sweeter options like chocolate and lemon. Warning: it takes a long time to make crepes for a crowd so you would need to have a handy helper who could be making crepes continually for the hour leading up to the party.
French Toast-
dare I say bar? French toast cooks faster than crepes. Provide a variety of toppings like maple syrup and nuts, raspberries and whipped cream. Throw in sides of crisp bacon and roasted vegetables for those who don't want to leave with diabetes.
Here are a few real recipe ideas:
Martha Stewart's brunch menu
Make sure you check out her other links at the bottom of the page.
I bet there are plenty of Breakfast-Lover Readers out there. Maybe they could help you out with a favorite recipe or an inspiring idea.
Good luck!
9 comments:
Crepes are wonderful! And you have so many options with what to serve them with. You can please everyone that way. Good luck.
If the hostess is local, New Seasons carries the BEST orange juice. I know, silly to get excited about orange juice but I'm telling you it's fantastic. I hosted a breakfast for a couple and their college-age daughter. The parents each had two glasses and the daughter had three. Forget the effort I put into anything else - they walked way raving about the juice. I'm trying to think of the name of the juice but I'm drawing a blank. It's by the produce, not the rest of the OJs. The down side is that it's about $6 per bottle.
(So yeah, an entire comment on juice. Sorry about that.) I
Alisha, I can see that you haven't looked at the recipe book from a B&B that I gave you a few months ago. Their claim to fame is their daily 7 course breakfast, and it was without a doubt the most elegant breakfast I've ever had. No ketchup in sight. There'd be lots of great ideas in the book.
Alisha, you are crazy for not liking breakfast! They don't call it the most important meal of the day for nothing, it's because it's the best! Just a few ideas; overnight french toast (there are so many varieties, you could do a couple), breakfast burritos (this could also be done as a bar) and my personal fave, German Pancakes (aka Dutch Babies) with Apples. Darn it, now I'm hungry for breakfast, mmmm.
Becky! You're right! Why didn't I? I'm a fool. That book is gorgeous too. It's going to make me want to throw a breakfast party.
Who throws a party that early? That sounds like very little sleep the night before and you can't just zonk into bed after clean up like you can after a dinner party!
But my favorite (and very elegant) breakfast food is from crackers & co cafe. California eggs Benedict:
Toasted English muffins topped with fresh baby spinach, sliced avocado, sliced tomato, poached egg, a really yummy hollandaise sauce (so good but so not healthly) and a bit of paprika for color.
The only thing that's kept me from attempting to recreate this at home is the hollandaise sauce. Very intimidating but wonderful if it's done right!
I'm with Rachel about breakfast parties, but if your a real morning person....well, I think you're weird anyway.
We had breakfast for supper tonight, using the new waffle iron your dad gave me for Christmas. I actually "gently folded in the soft-peaked egg whites" for the first time in my life. And they tasted really good with the hand whipped cream, big fat blueberries, and real 100% amber maple syrup.
But that's because it wasn't morning.
Vivian was there and liked them, too. She set the table using my new red and white frenchy-looking coasters under the glasses. It looked cute!
This is after I just lost 5 lbs, of course.
Oh, honey, I have some awesome brunch recipes for you...too late for your friend's party of course, but if you want awesome recipes for gingerbread waffles with buttermilk syrup, or my famous egg and cheese Christmas casserole, or others on my list, just let me know when you get ready to throw your own breakfast party...and any time you want to throw some breakfast recipes from the B&B book on the blog, I wouldn't object!
If you have a crepe maker, crepes are really easy and fast to make. Vanilla yogurt with fresh fruit is my favorite filling for crepes.
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