Mother's Day Brunch

It was a busy weekend preparing for Mother's Day and having my mom in town visiting at the same time, but with a little pre-planning I think I (I mean we) pulled it off without a hitch. We ended up having a brunch at our place with my mom, mother and father-in-law and my brother and his fiance. A modest crowd, but enough people that you have to make the food simple and easy so you are not up at the crack of dawn preparing breakfast.

I made a mushroom, spinach and fontina egg strata as one of my old standbys and always a crowd pleaser. They are the best since they feed a crowd and all of the preparation is done the night before and then you put it in the oven in the morning to bake. I say anything you can make ahead of time is a life saver! The strata paired with a simple salad, a classic sourcream coffee cake (made the day before) and broiled grapefruit rounded out the menu. Yum, yum! The broiled grapefruit was a last minute adjustment from the original menu, but it was super easy and a pretty addition to the table.

Grilled Grapefruit:
Preheat oven to broil. Halve however many grapefruits you will need (one half/person), place them on a cookie sheet, sprinkle tops with sugar and broil for about 10 minutes! You can serve warm or at room temperature. I recommend trying this for a different take on the usual brunch fruit suspect.

With a simple palette to the table setting and some beautiful lilacs to make it special for our mother's, I think the morning went really well. I hope our special mom's felt spoiled!!