Classy Holiday Brunch ideas?!
Classy Holiday Brunch ideas?
Im having a brunch party on Christmas eve. I plan to do a buffet style. Im looking for cute creative ideas for decorations and set up ideas. But mainly I mostly need easy recipes that will keep well while being out. (Better yet foods i can prepare the day before) The crowd will be 23-35 years young classy business proffesionals. (all good friends/family)
Answers:
Chocolate covered spam is one of my favorite holiday recipes.
Coach
Brunch in the evening or do you mean christmas eve day?
Anyway..I'm having a brunch party too this year and one part of the buffett will be a bagel bar with various bagels and toppings like Sliced onions, flavored cream cheeses, capers, cucumbers, egg salad.
Here is the Buffet menu Ideas and then you can decide which ones are good for you and them.
Happy Holiday!
If there is somewhere you can get good lox, have mini bagels, different kinds of cream cheese spreads garnish with onion, cucumber, tomato. Great Crowd pleaser.
Fruit Tray, smoked fish platter... Shrimp, mini quiches,
Definitely a fruit platter, some mimosas (1 part champagne to 2 parts fresh pulp-free OJ), a frittata - there are lots of good recipes on epicurious.com and in the Joy of Cooking, shrimp cocktail, assorted breads/bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon
Yogurt parfaits (with granola and fruit/berries) in various wine, water, or margarita glasses are fun, can be made the day before, and can withstand sitting out for awhile. Rolls or sticky buns can often be prepped the night before and just heated up the day of the event. If the weather is cool where you live, hot chocolate or mulled cider in a crockpot is nice because it stays warm from the first guest to the last.
It's a small thing, but remember to put silverware and condiments at the end (not beginning of the buffet). That way guests don't have to fumble with silverware while loading up their plates, and they won't have to go back to the beginning of the line to get butter, jelly, etc.
check out Martha Stewart.com or Rachael Ray .com they have had some in genius ideas and quite fashionable and for what to serve there are many different types of Fondues
Spanish tortilla
(4 serves):
4 medium sized potatoes of a good variety for frying.
4 eggs, preferably if they are from free grain-fed hens
Half an onion (medium size), finely chopped
ExtraVirgin Olive Oil (EVOO) of a soft variety such as Hojiblanca
Salt (about a teaspoon, but it would depend on your taste and the amount of onion you use)
1. Preparing your ingredients
Peel the potatoes, wash and dry with a cloth. Cut them in halves through the long axis Cut them in slices, about 2mm thick Put in a bowl, add the chopped onion and salt, stir.
2. The first Frying
Fry them in EVOO in a pan, with not much oil. If you put a lot of oil you'd get crusty french fries and you want them to be soft and tender, so you have to be very careful with the oil temperature and the amount of oil. I usually set my vitro ceramic at about 6/12. It is quite possible that they get stuck amongst them. After all, they don't have so much space in the pan. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, depending on the variety of the potato.
3. The Mixing
Put the eggs on a bowl and give them a few strokes with a fork. A key for success is not to get them perfectly beaten.
Take the potatoes out of the pan, trying to avoid an EVOO excess. I usually put them directly in the bowl with the eggs.
Let the potatoes rest with the eggs for a while, perhaps 5 minutes will do. This way, fried potatoes will absorb part of the lightly beaten eggs, making it even more yummy.
4. The Shaping (or Second Frying)
Now put a small pan (smaller than the one you used for frying the potatoes) and a very small amount of EVOO. Let it gain temperature, drop the mix from the bowl and stir a bit.
Now let it sit for a while, because you want the external part to fry while the internal remains tender and wet.
As soon as you feel you can put it upside down... do it.
I usually turn it with a plastic apparel I bought specially for that matter, sort of a plate with a handle in the center, but you could do it with a plate and a bit of training.
Also, I usually turn it about 4 times.
I would serve ham slices in biscuits - served with a bowl of strawberry preserves or a brown sugar/mustard glaze in a pretty bowl. Next - I would serve a breakfast casserole that includes eggs, hash browns, cheese, and bacon or sausage.
I would serve a sweet roll/donut platter - and a basket of mini-bagels in different flavors with some really nice cream of cheese and preserves (if you are in the north - you may want to include lox).
Since I'm in Texas - I would also serve breakfast taquitos - flour tortillas wrapped around scrambled eggs, cheese, bacon or sausage with some salsa on the side. YUM
I would put my silverware & napkin rolled up in mini-stockings (they sell these 2 for a dollar at Dollar General).
Lastly - I would serve a big pitcher of orange juice and provide some champagne and strawberries if someone wanted to make a mixed drink.
These are always winner recipes at my table
Oven-baked French toast:
Eggs
Milk/ cream
Maple syrup
Vanilla
Cinnamon
Bread
4-5 cups of crushed corn flakes
Mix all ingr. except bread & corn flakes. Dip bread in liquid, then coat with corn flakes. Put on cookie sheet lined with parchment to avoid sticking. Bake at 375 for approx. 20 min. Crispy, delicious, easy, and you can make many slices at once.
Breakfast pizza
Pilsbury crescent rolls
Eggs
Sausage, cooked and crumbled and/or Bacon, cooked and crumbles
Diced onions (optional)
Frozen hashbrowns, thawed and broken into small pieces
Diced green peppers (optional)
Grated cheese
Roll out crescent roll dough on cookie sheet with parchment/ sprayed with Pam. Beat eggs in large bowl. Add sausage/ bacon, onions, hashbrowns, peppers. Pouron to dough. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 425 until top golden and dough is crisp. Approx. 20-30 min., depending on your oven
Raisin bread strata (make night before)
Cubed raisin bread
Cubed cream cheese
Eggs
Vanilla
Maple syrup
Sugar
Diced apples
Layer half of bread in bottom of greased casserole dish. Add cream cheese and apples, adding raisins if you wish. Add rest of bread on top. In large bowl, beat eggs, vanilla, maple syrup, sugar. Pour over bread. Press down and cover. Leave in fridge overnight, stick in oven at 375 for about 45-60 min. Serve with real maple syrup.
Hope this helps. Bon appétit!