Sunday Mimosa Brunch

Every so often my friends and I come up with a bright idea for a themed party. Most of them revolve around food and wine. There have been so many of these bright ideas that I now have a list in the back of my planner. Perhaps it's a bucket list of sorts before I turn 30.

This weekend we crossed one of the items off the list, the Sunday Mimosa Brunch. The idea came out of a wine tasting about a month ago as we tasted some delicious sparkling wines and heralded the virtues of a good bubbly.

If there's one thing better than a good mimosa and some hearty egg dish on a Sunday morning, it's sharing it with good company.

The best thing about a brunch party is that most of the dishes you can make the night before. I whipped up the Paula Deen hashbrown casserole and the Tyler Florence blueberry scones (both things I mastered before). So Sunday morning I merely rolled out of bed, made a few last minute preparations and then hit the mimosas. My friends brought an assortment of quiche, pound cake and little toasts with salmon and cucumbers. It was all delicious.

And what better entertainment for a ladies Sunday brunch then dreaming up the next party. We probably added a half dozen items to the pre-30 bucket list of food and wine fun during the party alone. Next up, a paella party at the beach. Stay tuned ...

I've never been that fond of Paula Deen ...

... but this recipe for her hashbrown casserole got the better of me.

I found it earlier this week when I was thinking about having some people over for a holiday brunch. For some reason when I started contemplating hearty egg and sausage dishes, I gravitated to the Paula Deen cookbook.

I consulted with my copy of Paula Deen Celebrates, the first addition to my now growing collection of autographed cookbooks. The holiday brunch didn't pan out, but the hashbrown casserole sounded good, so I figured I'd make it for myself. (And various co-workers who I shared it with at work today. Feeding the bosses can never hurt ...)

But my Paual Deen story actually starts about eight years ago before I moved to Florida. Before Paula made it big.

My father and I were driving to Jacksonville, where I was spending my summer doing an internship at the newspaper. Along the way, we stopped in some southern state where my dad found a copy of her original Lady and Sons cookbook, all authentic and spiral bound like she had it done at Kinkos.

Later that summer my dad and some other family members stopped at the Lady and Sons restaurant on the way down to see me. My dad raved about the food. Pure southern cooking. As the story goes, he asked the waitress to give the chef his compliment.

"Well why don't you tell her yourself," the waitress told him. "She's sitting over there having dinner with her family."

Maybe this is where I got the foodie stalking from. My dad went over, shook Paula Deen's hand, got his picture taken with her and my brother and told her the food was delicious. She was sweet as pecan pie to him, and thus began my dad's Paula Deen fandom.

Not long after my dad's visit, as another story goes, the people from the Food Network stopped at the restaurant and they, too, were wowed by her cooking. The rest, as they say, is history.

Fast forward a few years to when I'm living in Sarasota. I saw ads that Paula Deen was coming to town to do a book signing right around the holidays. I thought that would make a great gift for my father.

The whole operation was quite strict. You needed to call and order your cookbook from the now defunct Sarasota News and Books, pick it up that evening (probably to ensure you bought it from them) and then wait in the line to see her.

There were probably about 400 people waiting in the line when we got there. Another 200 or so waited in a separate line for those who didn't get their cookbook far enough in advance, but could wait and see if she still had time to sign them.

The rules were rigid as we made our way into the store. No one was allowed in who wasn't getting a cookbook signed. Show your receipt. Open you book to the appropriate page. No pictures. No personal message. Don't bother asking. I felt a little bit like cattle being herded.

The line moved swiftly, basically giving you a quick walk past the table where she sat with her husband signing "Paula" assembly line style.

Despite the warning, I couldn't help but ask her to personalize it for my father.

"Hi Paula. My dad loves you. He met you at your restaurant a few years ago. Could you please personalize it for him?"

She didn't even answer. She just signed her name and slid it down the table and grabbed the next one. We snuck a friend of mine in the store to take a picture of me getting the book signed. The picture revealed Paula Deen giving me a nasty look as I plead with her.

I was a little disappointed, but thus began my dislike of Paula Deen. (Even though I do find some of her shows on the Food Network entertaining.)

Some of my friends have since been to her restaurant and say it's morphed into a totally different place then it as when my father met her. Apparently it's a multi-story, multi-hour wait to get in kind of place. And the food wasn't as good as they expected.

As far as the casserole goes, not so awful : )

Mimosa of the week

At some point (probably during a sale) I decided to step out of my juice smoothie comfort zone and try the Bolthouse Farms Berry Boost variety.

It's been in the back of my fridge going undrunk, usually passed up for my usual fav Amazing Mango. No more. I decided to spike it with some Spanish cava to make a mimosa for this weekend's clean out the fridge project. I have to say, I think I'm on to something.

Baked eggs with mushroom and rosemary

Today's cooking is being inspired by the need to clean out my fridge and freezer. I've really taken to brunch, and ate all of the quiche I made and froze the other weekend. So I decided to see what happens making an egg frittata of sorts with a container of creme fraiche I had in there.

Along with the ingredients in my fridge, the recipe was somewhat inspired by the Next Food Network Star Melissa d'Arabian, who did a baked egg dish during one of the challenges. The result is fluffy yumminess. She told the judges that she baked it because she likes to cook with her little girls and they aren't old enough to use the stove yet. I just thought it looked delicious.

In mine, the creme fraiche takes the place of the cream or milk you might use in any other egg dish.

Ingredients:

2 tbsps. olive oil

2 tbsps. minced garlic

1 package mini portobello mushrooms, chopped

3 tbsps. fresh rosemary, chopped

salt

pepper

6 eggs

1 container creme fraiche (about 7 oz.)

1 tbsp. dijon mustard

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 375.

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the minced garlic and let cook for a few minutes. Add the mushrooms and rosemary and cook until mushrooms are soft. Season with salt and pepper.

In a mixing bowl combine the eggs, creme fraiche and mustard and beat until well combined. Stir in the mushroom mix. Pour into a baking dish and bake for about 40 minutes. Serve with little toasts of choice and mimosa for ultimate deliciousness.

Basic brunch

At some point in my morning coffee ritual I started to think "You know this seems like a good day for brunch." But I'm not one to leave the house on weekend mornings until after I've had a sufficient fill of coffee and a good workout. Besides, isn't brunch just so much more delightful when consumed at home in your pajamas?

The solution for me is to get creative, evaluate what I have in the fridge and what I can whip into some sort of yummy, eggy concoction (having eggs on hand usually helps in this process). One time my spontaneous brunch involved scrambling some eggs with ricotta cheese and rosemary and then baking them with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top (I highly recommend it). I also find the brunching an effective way to get rid of stuff in the refrigerator.

Today, I had some of the leek and mushroom quiche I had left over from the party. I always like some sort of bread or starch with my eggs, and today I had a baguette that was a few days old I figured I could revive and make into a delicious accompaniment.

Somewhere along the line I picked up the trick that you can revitalize stale bread by sprinkling it with water and popping it in the oven. So that's what I did. Before cooking for just a few minutes at 350, I also sprinkled the tops with some salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and shredded Gruyere.

But the key to any successful brunch is, of course, the mimosa. I usually have a bottle of cava, the Spanish equivalent of champagne, on hand in the fridge. The beauty of cava is that it packs the same crisp, bubbly punch as champagne, but you can get a good bottle for about $10. I like a rose. I also often have the amazing mango smoothie that Botlthouse Farms makes on hand. Mixing the two together makes for an even more flavorful and impressive mimosa than your standard OJ. (Serve it at a brunch party, and all your friends will think you are awesome).

With that few minutes of cleaning out the fridge and creativity, brunch is on the table!