Mise en place

In other words get your shit together!

(sorta I mean it literally means 'putting in place')

But lets not argue semantics, just know that it does sort of relate to all of this...sorta. (click) See?

Either way what I am talking about is and day before prep for an impressive brunch.

so people will be all like:

"you were so wasted last night you fell off your bar stool and then cried and told the bar tender you ain't got no beef, how the fuck did you get up and make all this impressive food before noon even...bitch you like a tequila super hero"
Well maybe they won't...but they might and that makes it worth it!
(not to mention the low effort high payoff brunchy brunch ahh hangover food!)

So let's get started,
I like making things like quiche or frittatas the night before because you can half assemble them or assemble cook and then just reheat in the morning, and they are so good!

Potato, Asparagus, and Bacon Fritatta
 (because that's my fave!)
 I am going to do the more mise en place version rather than the cook ahead.

So the night before:
cook the bacon
slice potatoes thin and boil for three - five minutes, set aside to cool
shred asparagus
Chop fresh herbs  get the Italian spice grinder

Then get a glass pie pan, and grease with olive oil
(if you are a fancy pants a cast iron pan will make this look farm house chic...OHH!)
Place a layer of potato at the bottom, grind some spice on,
then cover that with bacon strips,
then on goes the shredded asparagus and a little more spice.
Wrap the pan tightly in cling wrap and put it in the fridge.

Get a bowl and four - six eggs depending on how big your pan is (mind the fact that eggs rise a lot when baked)
Beat the eggs with a couple table spoons milk black pepper and a little crushed red pepper. Put the eggs in a baggie (maybe two if you buy the cheap kind like we do) put it back in the fridge.


Next up:
Cinnamon Rolls
These are more of a make ahead no morning assembly required thing (mostly).

I am not going to write this one out because I am using a recipe from injennieskitchen.com .
It is as the title says foolproof, I also really enjoy that there is no yeast, because I don't have the time or the patience for that shit! (also in case you missed it, the link to the recipe is the word 'recipe').
 Basically what you will do is:
Fallow the recipe (duh!) except don't preheat the oven because you aren't baking them now (duh!).
Do everything it says through getting them in the pan, then stop, cover in cling wrap and put it in the fridge.
Make the icing and also cover and refrigerate that.


Now go out get drunk and sleep.

When you wake up...hopefully not sick, take out the cinnamon rolls and icing (the cinnamon rolls will need to sit out for thirty minutes before baking), make the coffee. Pre-heat the oven to 425 then take your pan fritatta and bag of eggs out ...add the eggs to the pan, put a little cheese on top and bake twenty minutes. After twenty minutes put the cinnamon rolls in the oven (it has been close to enough time for them to sit out unless you messed up). Cook all that for twenty to twenty-five minutes more, the eggs in the fritatta should be cooked through and the filling of the rolls should be bubbly. Let them rest for a few minutes and stir the now soft again icing, ice the rolls and serve!

Oh my word you did it, just like I am sure you did not embarrass yourself last night, YOU ROCK!

I want to have brunch with this chick

...But I will do the cooking

Just a little brunch related fun!

Guest Post!

Oh goody fun fun!

My awesome sister wrote a guest post! I am so happy about it! 

(because I really had nothing to write about this month...it's been too hot!)

Buuut Holly saves the day! 

She is my hero! She is thrifty, smart and the coolest mom ever (sorry mom)!

So she wrote some super cheap fun recipes that are kid friendly!

This is extra exciting because no part of my life is really "kid friendly" at all, especially some of my favorite brunch foods (this doesn't pose a huge issue for me because I don't know many people with kids and so I don't have to worry about kids being at brunch). I thought though that this would be a good thing to share because its not only kid friendly food it's really good food! 

So enjoy!

Dough.

So I love making life easier and cheap food. Here is a list of fantastic doughy, yummy recipes that I make for only .45 plus some stuff around the house. All recipe’s start as follows:

Start with your base of Hannaford brand dinner rolls in a tube (we buy the small that has 6 rolls for .45)

Cut each roll into 4 pieces and preheat your oven to 350 F.

Cheesy Garlic Drops:

In a glass bowl melt 2 tbs butter and add chopped garlic, fresh garlic or the kind in a jar but DON’T use powdered – gross, and a pinch of Italian seasoning. Add “dough drops” to the mixture and use your hands to get them all coated evenly. In a medium cupcake pan, evenly distribute the dough between the cups and top with shredded mozzarella. Bake for 10(ish) minutes or until the cheese and bread are slightly brown and dough is cooked through. Great with anything.

Mini Monkey Bread:

In a glass bowl melt 2 tbs butter and add 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp sugar. Add “dough drops” to the mixture and use your hands to get them all coated evenly. In a medium cupcake pan, evenly distribute the dough between the cups. Bake for 10(ish) minutes or until the bread is slightly brown and dough is cooked through. Great for breakfast.

Apple Cinnamon Yums:

Cut one baking apple into ½ inch chunks and boil for 3 minutes until they begin to soften. In a glass bowl melt 3 tbs butter and add 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp sugar and 3 tbs oats. Add “dough drops” and apple chunks to the mixture and use your hands to get them all coated evenly. In a medium cupcake pan, evenly distribute the dough between the cups. Bake for 10(ish) minutes or until the bread is slightly brown and dough is cooked through. Top with vanilla ice cream if desired. Great for picnic desert.

When you are distributing the bits, make sure your cups are no more than ¾ full as they will rise. If you have some left over just make two batches. Because butter is a big ingredient, you don’t need to use cupcake liners but you can if you are traveling with them or just like an easier cleanup! Enjoy!

PlusPeace

YAY!

If you want to check out other stuff by my cool sister check out her blog Nifty things for thrifty moms!

Also she makes sillybets (if you don't know what that means it's okay just check out the store here!)

Well that all for July I will see you in August for birthday brunch, and some other fun shit!

Tips and trinks from someone who has no clue what they are talking about!

Oh fun fun we are doing this again!!

By this I mean I am giving advice that is probably not that good/ common sense/ unwanted/ unneeded, but ahh thus is the nature of advice in general!

First tip: I was never a pancake maker or even liker, not because I am apposed to a sort of cake that is socally acceptable to eat in the morning, because I mean come on I live for that shit! No the reason I hated pancakes is because I always sucked at making them! Not only was my first pancake a mess (I have to to the bottom of the common problem...wait for it) but the rest would be burnt or under cooked or oddly shaped (...I know thats not a huge issue but...). Any ways one day I was attempting to make pancakes for the boys an informal brunch sort of thing, and so I mixed up my batter and then got distracted...so my batter sat for about five or so minutes before I started cooking them...and by gosh the first one came out amazingly fluffy and perfect! I also keep the heat on med and re-butter between each pancake ('cuz I am a fatty). I really don't know if this is part of pancake recipes or if there is any scientific reason as to why this is effective but it does work for me! I mix up the batter let it sit for three to five minutes and then mix it again then pour into the pan and it works...no more flat saggy pancakes! 

Oh hey also add vanilla extract and a little cinnamon to your pancakes its awesome!

Next tip not just syrup tastes good on pancakes! Like a billion other things are amazing on pancakes! I never liked the real "100% pure Vermont maple syrup" (yeah I am low rent so what I like things fake and sweeeet) but that is all my mom would bye and my sister always liked it so I didn't really have anyway of winning that fight, only the option to not eat syrup. So here is a hort list of things that are so good on pancakes:

Nutella + banana + walnuts

Grilled peaches

Mixed berries + whipped cream

Jelly

Warm apples and cinnamon

Lemon curd

Honey + cream cheese

And to be a little savory and crazy

 (this all works best with pancakes that are a little less sweet, and for the love of all things cake do not add cinnamon and vanilla to them if you are doing this)

Sausage + sharp cheddar cheese

Holendaise + ham + egg

Ham + dill cream cheese

I mean the possibilitys are endless really...so why not have a pancake buffet? 

No really why not? Do it!

  

This is the recipe I normally use to make pancakes:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
• 2 tablespoons sugar (you don't have to use that much)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, or vegetable oil
• 1 large egg

Mix the wet then mix in the dry....like anything else, and remember a few lumps are okay in pancake batter, let it sit for a few minutes before you make them (not more than five probably I mean there's raw eggs in there dumdum), and leave your oven at two-hundred or the warm setting with a tinfoiled pan inside so when the pancakes are done you can put them in there and all eat together when you are done cooking!

"and that's all I have to say about that"

(I love going to the 'memorable quotes' from Forest Gump on imdb and reading them to myself in his voice...is that weird?)

Ah but really that is all I have to say...BYEE!

Oh happy day!

The past weekend was a perfect balance of happy, excited, stress, relaxing, fun, and drunk!

Those weekends don't happen often and when they do it's hard to come to terms with them ending (I actually shut off my alarm thins morning and went back to sleep thinking it was Sunday...witch it was not and I was late(ish) for work).

Anyways as traumatic as that was that's not really what I am here to talk about.

Part of all the flurry of mostly good things that happened this weekend was finding out my roommate that I don't get along with is moving out (we actually found this out a week before I think...but I was in shock for the week). So with someone leaving and someone new coming in we get a chance to sort of restart, to make house rules that are actually followed and do a little redecorating and fingers crossed the person we want to move in can! I am very excited in case you couldn't tell!

Seeing as I was in a really good mood, I obviously wanted brunch and since all of my friends/ people I force to eat food I cook were busy I thought maybe it would be nice to just have a Kelsey and Joe brunch.

What ended up happening was a totally unplanned celebratory roommate brunch, with my roomie that's staying! To make this all more crazy, because it wasn't planned I had to go to Shaws in the morning, witch means I woke up before Joe got dressed (even put on lipstick because I was feeling fancy) took the train to Shaws and walked home! That's impressive for a Saturday morning!

So I decided that I wanted to make a somewhat healthy brunch (weather or not I actually did or not is up to debate) but we had over-easy eggs on potato sausage hash, with sourdough toast and a strawberry arugula salad with grapes and lemon pepper dressing!

How I did it: I got tiny red potatoes because they were cute and on sale so I washed and cut them into little chuncks then boiled them for just a little bit, while those were boiling I thawed the sausage I had and chopped strawberries for the salad and made the dressing (juice from 1 lemon and about 1tsp. olive oil and some fresh ground pepper). I then strained the potato and set aside while I chopped up the sausage then on the flattop grill I mixed the potato and sausage with a little Italian grinder spice, ground black pepper and a tiny bit of crushed red pepper, I then covered it and put the salad together. Once the sausage and potato start getting crispy start to toast the toast and fry the eggs, when that's done you are done! YAY!

I actually got some rectangle white plates/platters (like on fancy food network shows) and had this all plated really nice but we forgot to take a picture, we suck!

I totally didn't think the boys would like the salad or the whole concept of morning salad but it was well after noon when we sat down so they tried it and well at least said they liked it...small victories.

We had no mimosas (or any other booze) because Doug was sick and we needed the champagne I had for a toast earlier in the week anyways.

If it looks like a bubbling pan of sick and smells just about the same...

...Than it must be Cheesy Sleezy

Ah sounds appetizing right?

Brunch when you are broke is a little hard to pull off, or at least for me it is because I want to go all out. I want it to be fancy and pretty and elegant (it never turns out that way anyways but...).

So seeing as I am more broke now than I have been in the past few months and well June is going to be an insane month (and baby Bears brunch didn't happen surprise surprise...) I am going to dust off one of Joe and I's favorite cheap brunches.

We really can't get anyone else we know to eat this so normally is is just me and Joe super hungover eating this till we explode, while watching a Steven Segul movie at 1pm in our pajamas.

We found this recipe (along with our favorite sangria recipe) in this book, it's an awesome cook book and you should buy it!

All you will need is:

2- 4 eggs

1/4lb cheddar cheese sliced

1/2 tube breakfast sausage

1 green pepper diced

2- 4 slices of toast

1 can refried beans

black pepper

crushed red pepper

(It says to add onion and salt I think but we don't like onion so we leave it out, also optional hot sauce)

Okay I know it sounds gross, but just try it...

The book says this is all two servings but that is insane! Even if you half this or split it in fourths you will feel like a fat piece of shit after eating it...just a warning!

I promise it is good!

  

So basically what you do is, fry the sausage in a large fry pan when it's almost done all green pepper, black pepper and red pepper (not too much pepper, unless you like things spicy then do whatever you want). Once that's all cooked add the beans, mix it and then cover the top with cheese. Put a cover on it, let it get all melty! While it is getting gooey gross, fry the eggs (however you like, we do sunny side up), and toast the toast. When the cheese is melty get a plate put down the toast then a heaping pile of the beans/sausage/cheese and the egg goes on top cover in hot sauce and serve with a Korbel mimosa and a lot of black coffee and TA-DA! The only thing left to do is find someone brave enough to eat this with you!

That's pretty much our go to cheap brunch meal!

I would like to someday try this on biscuits instead of toast I think that would be yummy!

Short post for today but, like I said June is going to be crazy and I am too broke to host...and all my friends suck too much to do a potluck type thing...

There are some things to look forward to though, like maybe some Tips & Tricks guest posts and a brunch that incorporates my two new obsessions: Bellini and food that is served on skewers (Pinterest told me anything can be made into a kebab)!

Also I found this today and it is funny and this not quite so funny but interesting...so read them because I have nothing else to say! 

Byeeee!

You'll see that life is a frolic and laughter is calling for you..

Ah yes three is company too.

So lady day brunch was a flop...due to the high demand for fancy cakes and wicked cheap Cd's.

But dry those tears it all turned out okay!
I got to spend the day with my two (not related to me) best friends!!
It was nothing like Threes Company! I wish sometime it was...or wait no I don't. The dynamic is more or less Chrissie and I being nut jobs and Joe quietly rolling his eyes, pretending he doesn't mind listening to the same Lana Del Rey song over and over while hiding in our room.
So nothing is perfect, but we all had a good time. (No I do not know that as a fact but I chooses to believe Joe when he says he doesn't mind us...)

So the only thing I super regret is I had to bail on making all the food I had wanted because, honestly as much as I eat I couldn't eat that much!
So the menu was going to be:
Champagne waffles with whip cream and berries
Mini chocolate/ strawberry frosted doughnuts
Mini sausage egg tomato and cheese quiche
Mimosas
And a rainbow citrus salad.
Granted that was probably way way too much food for four "ladies", but we would have shared with the boys, I mean they could had the leftovers...
I also ditched all the decorating I was going to do, it was going to be over the top pink and gold, but none of that happened!

So what we did make:
Champagne waffles with strawberries and black berries
Sausage
And Joe had a Sausage, egg and cheese sandwich on sourdough toast
(He isn't big on sweet...boy aint right!)
And mimosas obviously, with pretty frozen orange and tangelo slices!


The only recipe you need for this is for the waffles! < click the word "waffles"
I know that is all in ounces and if you are like me you don't have a scale...I will try and find the recipe that is in cups... if you are good. Or you could always ask your roommate to borrow his digital scale (witch you only know he had because you walked in on things happening in the kitchen that made you feel like you were living with a way less funny version of this guy! (not that I am judging...except I totally am!)
Moving on, I think that recipe also has a recipe for chocolate butter, I don't think at this point in my life my brain could handle knowing a such thing as chocolate butter is attainable and not constantly eating it until my arteries clog like like the toilet of a Taco Bell. I have no self control, just ask my liquor cabinet.

On to the next thing you have to make whipped cream, you should know how to make whipped cream but:
Heavy whipping cream
a handful of sugar
vanilla extract (because it tastes better that way)
I sort of wish I had put a little orange zest in because I think that would have been awesome so I recommend doing that!

So basically how this should all work is: Slice oranges and put in freezer (I have a feeling I did this the night before but a 12pack or beer and a pound of bacon was consumed so the night is a little fuzzy) anyways do it now, put sausage on a baking sheet and put it in the oven, then cut strawberries, plug in waffle maker, make waffle batter (the champagne is now open so make a drink dumdum) grease waffle make and get them on fast this batter drys out super quick (if you are making more than two waffles make separate batches of batter) when the waffles are done wrap them in foil and put them in the oven, then put all the whip cream stuff in the blender and turn it on while that's whipping fry the egg for the egg sandwich and put the sourdough with cheese on it in the oven (I actually don't assume anyone will be doing this...)
BAM you are done!

So brunch extends from ten am all the way to two pm specifically so that you don't have to be up and cooking early. Chrissie is an insane person who somehow missed this so she was up at like eight, this is particularly insane because we had been up till two am the night before drinking. Anyways she left and then came back at ten or so I was sleeping still so she went to Dunkin Donuts and got a box of Joe and munchkins, I still don't understand this because I have good coffee at my house and we were cooking so the munchkins were overkill (not that it matters my roommate ate them all and drank the coffee for like two days...ewwe?) I finally woke up showered and we cooked. Our brunch was super low key, we had bought four bottles of champagne though because we thought we might need them, so we all spent the rest of the day on my back porch avoiding bees, drinking champagne and debating what we should do with the day. Finally we decided it was time to eat again so we went to Uno's and then walked for a bit. I still have one bottle of champagne...I am sure not for long though.
All in all it was pretty fantastic, we all ate too much and I can't say the next morning was good but we had fun!

I am not sure what I want to do for June brunch, maybe something at my mom's, seeing as we will be there for baby Bears birthday...oh wow Baby Bears Birthday Brunch, I love the alliteration in that, that might HAVE to happen.