Brunch is one of my favorite meals/parties to host because it’s over with enough time for you to clean up and still enjoy your day. This morning we had my parents and my in-laws over for a Mother’s Day brunch and everything was cleaned up by 1:30!

Tips for the Menu:

Make some stuff, buy the rest. I made the main hot dish, Pioneer Woman’s Sleepin’ In Omelette, and my parents brought the bagels. My sister-in-law brought a fruit salad and we finished the meal with some peanut butter brownies. I had an extra block of cream cheese and some leftover fresh chives so I made … chive cream cheese! Ina Garten’s Herbal Iced Tea is refreshing and decaffeinated and apparently took the place of orange juice (which no one drank).

The Sleepin’ In Omelette was a big success and couldn’t be easier to make. You assemble it the night before, bake it for an hour before you serve it, and you’re done. Follow Pioneer Woman’s directions exactly EXCEPT for the butter. She originally wrote that the recipe called for two sticks of butter to be sliced and spread on the top.  Then she came to her senses and amended it to one and a half sticks. Well I’m here to tell you that you don’t need more than about five tablespoons. I don’t skimp on butter (ask anyone) so you need to trust me on this one.

To jazz up a plain block of cream cheese, let it soften on the counter for a few hours and then add about two tablespoons of  chopped chives and a pinch of kosher salt. Mix well (use a hand or stand mixer) and refrigerate.

Herbal Iced Tea is seriously addicting and is sweet from apple juice, not added sugar. Four bags of Lemon Zinger tea, four bags of Red Zinger tea, four cups of boiling water. Steep them for ten minutes, remove the bags, add four cups of apple juice and refrigerate. Amazing.

Peanut Butter Brownies – prepare a box of Ghirardelli brownies and drop around 12 teaspoonfuls of peanut butter over the batter (make a little grid). Wiggle it in there a bit with a knife and bake as directed.

Tips for Hosting:

Set your table the night before!

Brunch is lovely as a buffet but we don’t have the layout for that. Please don’t use paper/plastic products. (Especially if you have a dishwasher because then you really have no excuse.) If we had used paper and plastic instead of our regular plates, flatware, glasses and napkins, we easily would have filled a large garbage bag of trash (maybe 2) – what a waste!

Another benefit of setting the table the night before is that if you’re using a tablecloth, it has some time to release the wrinkles. Or at least that’s what I told myself last night. It was still really wrinkled but I got over it.

Go out and make brunch! I’m looking forward to your invitation.