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| Finally used up the blueberry pancakes from the freezer and the 3 week old Crement du Bourgogne not so sparkling wine |
When I have the chance to entertain I can pull out all of the stops. It happened that my neighbor and friend Bonnie had her sister in law and sister in law's mother visiting. My other friend, Sharon, is usually left alone on Mother's Day as her daughter lives in England so I called her up to join us.
Bonnie teaches Sunday school so brunch would be a little later today which turned out great except I forgot to tell Sharon so she showed up at 10:15. We popped a bottle of bubbly and had a great time talking. I was almost done with the prep and I put her to work sauteing veges for the potatoes.
The menu consisted of Herb and Mixed Greens Frittata w. Brunch Salsa
Bobby Flay's Smoky Paprika Home Fries
Chipotle chile and brown sugar glazed bacon
Maple glazed Chicken Apple breakfast sausages
Bonnie's "Peel n Eat Shrimp"
Seasonal Fruit Hash w. Greek Yogurt
"Mr. Lou's Kicked up Coffee Cake"
and more bottles of Sparkling Wine than we should have all consumed, but we did!
My dining room table sits in front of a large picture window that overlooks my neighbors' homes, a large expanse of blacktopped roadway and best of all the Estero Bay ie Pacific Ocean. The cool ocean breezes can be downright blustery so it is rare that I have a brunch outside on the deck. Dinner time is usually calmer and that is ideal for outdoor dining.
The "mothers" among us which was all except me, shared stories about everything except their kids!
I loved it. Bonnie is a Cat advocate who volunteers for a local Cat shelter and has three darlings herself. Val works as an Event Planner in San Jose and does Interior Decorating for family and friends. Her mom, Melva is just a sweetheart who sipped cold coffee that she brought with. Sharon has done many Volunteer projects connected with the Cambria Rotary, the latest being the Rotaplast Mission in India. We all followed the blog they posted about the children that were given their lives back by the surgery to fix cleft lips and or palates. Sharon comforted the babies and children after their surgeries among other tasks that made for long days.
I offered stories about my past kitties and some memories of Steve's antics.That opened a little Pandora's box about ex husbands as well. It was pretty funny.
The food was plentiful and loved by all. The most common comment was that the Coffee Cake would be considered dessert. Okay let it be dessert. We did not drink any coffee by the way except for Melva. I offered to make it but no one was interested. Why ruin the perfect buzz we had going!
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| Cheers! Bonnie took the picture so is not in it. |
I have made this frittata before. It is in a really cool cookbook from 1991, "Verdura" (Vegetables Italian Style) by Viana La Place. The greens can be whatever you have on hand.
" Lettuce, Sorrel, Arugula and Herb Frittata"
1 onion, chopped
1 gal. Ziploc bag of lettuce (this is what I usually have on hand from the Farmer's market). This time it was green curly lettuce but butter lettuce or even romaine would be fine- do not use iceberg!
1 small bunch of Sorrel (I grow this so always have it on hand) Viana says to add a little grated lemon rind in place of the sorrel
1 handful of arugula
8 eggs
1 Tbsp. milk
3 Tbsp. chopped Italian Parsley
2 Tbsp. chopped Basil
1 Tbsp. bread crumbs
2 Tbsp. grated Asiago cheese plus more for the top.
salt & pepper
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
Olive oil
Melt butter in a medium saute pan. Add onion and cook over low heat 5 min. until tender.
Rinse cored lettuce and cut into strips while still wet. Wash sorrel and cut into strips. Add lettuce to the onions in saute pan and cook until wilted adding sorrel and arugula in the last few minutes. Cook until all liquid has evaporated. Transfer to a bowl to cool.
Break eggs into another bowl add milk and beat well. Fold in the greens, chopped herbs, cheese and bread crumbs. Season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.
There are a couple of ways to cook this. Today I decided to bake it in a quiche pan.
Brush the pan with olive oil and pour the frittata mixture in. Bake at 375 for 20-25 min until set. Sprinkle with Asiago cheese before serving.
Bobby Flay is one of my fav Chefs. His recipes always work and are loaded with flavor. The Smoky Paprika Home Fries were splendid! You can find them here I used yukon gold potatoes because that is what I had, he uses russets.
Emeril Lagasse provided me with the coffee cake recipe found here . I had a load of blueberries in the freezer which is why I searched for this recipe. Having said that you can use frozen in place of fresh plus I sneaked in 1 tsp. vanilla into the cake batter....don't tell.
Most of the other items have been posted on one of my brunch blogs so until I can figure out how to set up a recipe index you can contact me via the comments in this blog or email and I'll reply.
There was nary a scrap left but I sent the rest of the coffee cake home with them to get it out of my house!
