{"id":28893,"date":"2015-09-22T18:00:55","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T23:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=28893"},"modified":"2015-09-22T18:06:43","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T23:06:43","slug":"five-reasons-to-entertain-with-brunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=28893","title":{"rendered":"Five Reasons to Entertain with Brunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everybody is busy.\u00a0 I’m busy.\u00a0 You’re busy.\u00a0 Jordan is busy, but yet it’s always nice to do some entertaining in the midst of all that busy-ness.\u00a0 This past week-end was jam-packed with a concert, tailgating, church, a play, dog-sitting, company, and life.\u00a0 However, we still were able to entertain three friends by serving a nice brunch at 11:00 Sunday morning.\u00a0 If your Sunday mornings are filled with church (we’re Catholic and have the choice of several mass times), then you might want to consider serving a Saturday brunch.\u00a0 Whichever day you choose, there are many reasons to entertain with brunch.<\/h3>\n

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\"Entertain<\/h3>\n

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1.\u00a0 Brunch can be as simple or as fancy as you want<\/strong><\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 It’s true.\u00a0 The day after Jordan’s wedding we served a big brunch to family and out-of-town guests, and there were a lot of people.\u00a0 So, I served brunch as a buffet rather than a sit-down meal.\u00a0 I set up small food stations around the kitchen, and everyone just helped themselves.\u00a0 There was an area for homemade granola and its toppings, another area with fruits, another for the main dishes (sausage casserole and sausage gravy), and an area for pastries.\u00a0 Since there were just five of us this past Sunday, we sat in the dining area of the great room, and I set a lovely fall-inspired table.\u00a0 It was casual, and we had a really good conversation while chomping down on some really great food.<\/h3>\n

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\"Entertain<\/p>\n

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2. Many foods can be made in advance.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 Lots of brunch foods can be prepared the night or afternoon before and popped into the oven an hour or so before everyone arrives.\u00a0 For instance, there’s a popular sausage casserole out there that is supposed to be made the night before.\u00a0 You can make granola<\/a> and prepare its fixings early, and you can bake biscuits<\/a> early and then warm them before serving time.\u00a0 There’s a French toast casserole that can also be made early and then baked the morning of the brunch.\u00a0 I have a standard list of brunch foods that I like to serve, but it can be mixed up easily.\u00a0 I always like to welcome our guests with either a bloody Mary or a mimosa.\u00a0 For the meal we always have a nice salad like a fall spinach salad with nuts, dried cranberries, and feta cheese made with a homemade balsamic dressing.\u00a0 For the main course, I’ll serve either a vegetable frittata<\/a>, sausage gravy, a sausage casserole, or French toast casserole.\u00a0 Along with that there will always be a cheese grits side and a fruit salad.\u00a0 I often add seasonal muffins<\/a> or homemade cinnamon rolls<\/a>.
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\"Horsey<\/h3>\n

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3.\u00a0 After brunch is over, you still have most of your day to do other things.<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\u00a0 We usually serve brunch at either 10 or 11 in the morning, and it lasts about two hours.\u00a0 After cleaning up there is still plenty of time in the day to go shopping, go to a movie or play, go for a hike or a bike ride, watch a game, read a new book, or take a nap.\u00a0 You get to choose how to spend that bonus time.<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0\"Entertain<\/p>\n

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4.\u00a0 People like brunch foods.<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\u00a0 Most of us don’t make a big deal out of breakfast.\u00a0 We grab a bagel, a breakfast cookie<\/a>, or wolf down a bowl of cereal before rushing out of the door.\u00a0 But I do think people really like breakfast foods – real breakfast foods.\u00a0 Brunch gives you the perfect excuse to eat and savor a stack of pancakes or an omelette along with a salad plus a gooey cinnamon roll.\u00a0 It’s the best of two worlds nicely put together.\u00a0 And remember that you don’t have to cook everything yourself.\u00a0 It’s easy to buy muffins and a prepared ham, some fruit that has already been cut up, and spinach that’s prepped, washed, and ready.\u00a0 You can even buy a bloody Mary mix.\u00a0 (I’ll be sharing my recipe this Friday.)<\/h3>\n

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\"Entertain<\/p>\n

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5.\u00a0 Entertaining with brunch is easy<\/strong><\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 If you are a newbie to entertaining or just lack confidence, then make brunch your thing.\u00a0 Invite just two people at first, and serve easy to prepare or store-bought foods.\u00a0 It can be as simple as scrambled eggs, bacon, a salad, and toast.\u00a0 Then once you get comfortable with that routine, invite a few more friends and try a few new dishes.\u00a0 Remember to enjoy your own party.\u00a0 If you’re not having fun, then your guests won’t have fun either.<\/h3>\n

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I hope you feel inspired to invite some friends over this week-end.\u00a0 Just remember that there’s no better time to enjoy your home with friends than now.<\/h3>\n

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Take care.<\/h3>\n

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Everybody is busy.\u00a0 I’m busy.\u00a0 You’re busy.\u00a0 Jordan is busy, but yet it’s always nice to do some entertaining in the midst of all that busy-ness.\u00a0 This past week-end was jam-packed with a concert, tailgating, church, a play, dog-sitting, company, and life.\u00a0 However, we still were able to entertain three friends by serving a nice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28893"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28893"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28936,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28893\/revisions\/28936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}