One of my favorite traditions that my friends and I started post college was Sunday night “family dinners.” I started to realize after graduation how hard it was to get everyone together in one place on a regular basis. Between all of our work and travel schedules, it is hard to have a regular Friday night dinner or weekly happy hour, so we started doing Sunday night dinners since it always seems to be a quieter night for people.
Unfortunately, during the summer months, Sunday night dinners have slowed as many of us have been gone for summer vacations and such, so I decided to host a Sunday brunch to get everyone back together. Here’s the delectable menu and spread we had for a party of about 15 people:
Menu and Recipes:
Food: Cheesy Bacon Quiche || Pancake Kabobs || Creme Brulee French Toast || Apple Cinnamon French Toast || Breakfast Potatoes
Drinks: Mimosa Bar || Bloody Mary Bar
The thing about brunch parties is that you either have to wake up super early or do some major prep the night before. I am not the biggest morning person, so I definitely prefer the night before prep. This menu was easy to make beforehand, and, if you do it right, it looks like you have been awake for hours by the time your guests arrive.
Both types of french toast can be made the night before then all you have to do is put them both in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes in the morning.
The potatoes require a bit more day of prep because you don’t want to cut your potatoes up and let them sit for hours during the night (they will turn brown — yuck!) . However, you can cut your peppers and onions in advance and store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator overnight. I also measured out all of my spices and combined into a plastic bag so when I was ready to bake in the morning, all I had to do was chop my potatoes, add my peppers and onions and add the premixed spices. Cover in olive oil, and voilà! You just have to bake for 40 minutes in the oven.
The pancake kabobs take the most preparation and assemblage time on the morning of your party, so I recommend having everything else pretty much ready to go so you can spend a majority of your time on the pancake kabobs. (They’re worth the effort, I promise!) I made three different types of pancakes (lemon, blueberry, and strawberry) and assembled on a kabob stick with whipped cream and assorted fruits in between (I used blueberries, strawberries, and bananas). The main prep I did for these the night before was washing and cutting the fruit in advance. I also mixed the dry ingredients for the pancake mix, so in the morning, all i had to do was add the wet ingredients and then separate with my different types of fruit. Once you have made all of your pancakes, allow about 20 minutes or so to assemble depending on how many you want to make!
In order to help reduce time spent on the quiche in the morning, shred all of your cheese the night before and store in ziplock bag in your refrigerator overnight. If using frozen spinach, also be sure to put this in fridge overnight so it can defrost and is ready to use in the morning. The majority of the quiche needs to be made in the morning, and requires about an hour of bake time, so I would recommend making this first in the morning, so you can put it in the oven first. You can get super creative with quiche and add any ingredients that you want! I always like to make a little more quiche than I anticipate will be needed because they are super easy to refrigerate and eat as leftovers over the next few days!
As far as beverages go for a brunch party, who doesn’t want a good ol’ mimosa or bloody mary? Mimosa bars are definitely easier to put together, but I love the look and detail of having a bloody mary bar. Plus bloody mary’s are my brunch beverage of choice, so I like to include these as well. I am sure many of you have been to restaurants with hugely elaborate bloody mary bars. These are always fun to try something a little different in your bloody mary, but we can’t have all of those ingredients in our homes, so it is important to make sure you get the basics. Click here for my tips on setting up your own bloody mary and mimosa bar!
Along with the food prep, the bloody mary bar and mimosa bar can pretty much be set up the night before! Just make sure all of your ingredients are sliced and prepared and stored in your fridge, then all you have to do is lay them out before your brunchers arrive !
Finally, the best thing you can do to reduce stress the day of is set your dining room table and buffet tables or serving platters so you do not need to lay anything out in the morning. Then you can focus on the food the day of, which is the most important part.
Little tips: When you are setting up the night before, write down all of your menu items and bar items on sticky notes and place them where you want the items to go the next morning. This is super helpful when you are running around last minute to make sure that you have set everything out and didn’t leave anything in the fridge. I did not do this, this time around, but you can bet I sure will in the future!! Even though I had everything cut and ready to go, I completely forgot to put out the celery. I didn’t even notice until I was cleaning everything up and saw that the celery was still in the fridge! Just leaving those little sticky notes would have helped a ton! I am crossing my fingers that nobody noticed, probably until they are reading this post, but still! Who doesn’t have celery with a bloody mary?! Help yourself and don’t follow my lead hoping that you will remember because when it comes to the last few minutes and people are running around something is bound to be forgotten! So use your notes!
As far as decorations go, I did not incorporate a ton. I love cute serving pieces and like to use platters of different heights to make the table more visually appealing. I also love to use anything chalkboard and chalkboard paint oriented. I think the food labels look super cute and love to have the menu posted for the guests.
This menu is perfect for a fun brunch with friends, bridal shower, Easter brunch, or Mother’s Day! It is super versatile and you can determine the formality based on your table layouts and decor. I hope you enjoy!
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