When you’re the single gal in the midst of mothers, it
becomes your responsibility to host Mothers’ Day brunch. There are six women in my family and I am the
younger of two non-mothers with the other being a fabulous aunt who should be
celebrated as a mother regardless. And
since I was pent up in grad school the last few mothers’ days, I thought that I
should offer to host a little party to celebrate my aunts, stepmom, sister and
of course my charming, adorable, weird, pious, giving, hardworking mother: Big Mama.
As the family baker, I’m pretty sure the gals were expecting something
lovely. Add into the mix that half are
on a diet, or off carbs, or don’t want something heavy …like cake. Oy. I
made a mix of brunchy things: Crustless
Quiche Muffins – yum!, a spectacular Kale Salad with red cabbage, peas,
shallots, beets, and a little goat cheese in a fresh lemon “vinaigrette” – a big
sautéed batch of Potatoes O’Brien, Grilled chicken – optional topping for the
salad, Grilled Turkey Bacon (because I’m a veg and didn’t want my house to
smell like dead pig), and a French Toast Casserole for the kiddies that were
joining us. Since I’ve really been on a
no processed food/only natural foods kick in my own personal dietary psychosis,
I decided that the bread for this should be home made. Since I decided that last minute, I made my
emergency bread or “beer bread” using 7up instead of beer. Add a little
more sugar and you have a sweet citrusy bread that take 5 minutes to mix
and less than an hour to bake. BooYaH!
Mmmmm.....
For dessert, I made Pavolova
in individual servings with a lemon curd filling, fresh whipped cream and a
blueberry balsamic drizzle. And because
I like cake, I made an orange pound cake which was a total fail because I used
my angel food cake pan instead of my bundt pan which I couldn’t find. GRRR.
Since no cake gets wasted, I froze the chunks to make future cake
pops. Meh. So in a pinch, and now handy angel food cake
pan, I whipped up a quick lemon angel food cake.
Here's a destroyed orange pound:
Let me talk about the pavlova a minute. Or as long as I want, since it’s my blog! Meringue is a beautiful thing. Ever since my great Aunt Sis who lived next
door made peppermint meringue cookies for Christmas when I was a wee
snarkybaker, I have been hooked on the crunchy melt in your mouth magic of
meringue. So when a good friend was
grinding up sugar in a food processer for pavlova, which she described as a
soft on the inside but crusty on the outside meringue, I was intrigued. I poked around on the internet and found this recipe which showed single serving pavlova cups that looked easy, and
delicious. They turned out perfect! So pretty and quick to make. Look how yummy they look!
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