Brunching with the "Darlos"

When I was 18 years old I met a girl who would turn out to be my life long friend. We hung out together in Rochester, buzzing around on her Honda 90 super sport motorcycle during our lunch hours from jobs in department stores. We drank alot of beer and danced to our fav band, The Invictas, at a local bar called "Bengal's" down on the lake. It was owned by the infamous "Tiny (300#) Bengal who loved all of us young cuties.
There was a group of us and we had our own language as well, sort of a short talk. We considered ourselves "buds". Our fav things were "darl". Our un-fav things were "wick". It was Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Animals, and Mod was in with Twiggy.  She once painted her apartment walls black and lime green and hung posters of George Harrison on the ceiling.  I called her Nasher and she called me Hen.  As the years passed, I moved to Cal while she got married and had 2 babies. They are still my unofficial niece and nephew. For some reason we always kept in touch. I would visit Rochester as most of my family lived there. We would get together and laugh our guts out and do stupid things after consuming many beers.
Now we are older, Nasher has a great friend, Anita who is like a sister to her. They raised their kids together, went through the heartbreak of some their family members and friends dying. One day they decided to take a year off and travel around the United States.  I thought it would be a distant dream but last June they were on their way.  They bought a 1983 Chevy pickup truck and restored a 14 ft. 1962 Shasta trailer. All turquoise with the original gull wings on each side. So cute and very compact. Their license plate actually says "Darlos" on it. They have a blog of their travels that you can check out too at www.cheapthrillsacrossamerica.com . If this link doesn't work, just google it.
Four months passed and lo and behold they were on my doorstep!  The timing was bittersweet. I really needed a break from my grieving over the loss of my husband,Steve. They would have loved to have been here to see him before he died but that wouldn't have been fun. Somehow it worked out and they stayed 2 1/2 weeks.  We had a blast!
They were up at the crack of dawn each day with coffee brewing and cigs burning as they sat on my deck planning the day. Off to the beach to collect sand dollars, shells, heart stones and whatever flotsam they deemed worthy of their beach bags.

What a haul!

After their beach foraging trips, Anita would make a breakfast of bacon and eggs, every day. I am a cereal/toast/fruit person so didn't partake also I ate a little earlier than they did.  Somehow we missed a few Sundays without me making one of my brunches. Time was running out so after a trip up to Carmel I decided to have brunch on Wednesday.  After all we were all available and sort of on vacation. It seemed so decadent to have a champagne brunch in the middle of the week. We had a blast! The Facebook comments were flying around cyberspace, especially from Mark and Michelle, Nasher's kids.

I decided bacon and eggs were not on the menu.  They squealed when I mentioned French Toast so that was settled.
My May 28 blog www.brunchingwithtwobythesea.blogspot.com gives the recipe for the "Fluffy French Toast" that is my "go to" when making this dish. Trader Joe's Chicken breakfast sausages were sauteed, glazed with maple syrup and popped in a warm oven.   Fruit du jour was end of the summer berries, nectarines, peaches and mangoes tossed with Cointreau. Bubbly was my old standby, Trader Joe's Blason Crement du Bourgogne, blanc de blanc (the orange label).

The table is set for brunching on Wednesday!

The only little glitch was using Trader Joe's Challah bread.  It needed to soak in the batter alot longer as the center was dry. I really like creamy centers in french toast.

No one cared but me. 

Brunch is served

And plated....

Mission accomplished!