Food Friday: Brunches With Friends

Before Braydon and I had kids we were entertaining constantly. And I do mean constantly. It was rare for a week to go by that we didn’t have friends over for at least one dinner. And many weeks we’d have company over several nights of the week. We (especially I) loved doing that. I loved having a home where people were always coming and going, drinks always being poured, food always being feasted upon. It all came to a screeching halt, however, when we brought Kyle and Owen home.

We knew that the first six months as a family we would hunker down and close up shop where all-things-entertaining ware concerned. But we presumed that once we got settled in we’d fling the doors back open again. I imagined us entertaining in the same way that we had pre-kids, only now it would be more fun with two baby boys bouncing around. Well, no. No, no, no, no, no. It did not go like that. We quickly realized that it was basically impossible for us to have anyone over for dinner. #1) I could no longer set aside the chunks of time necessary to plan, prep, shop, and cook for dinner parties, #2) we, literally, could not sit down for more than 10 minutes –to eat or otherwise– with Kyle and Owen in the mix, and #3) we could never really count on when our lovely little babies would actually go to sleep [bedtime has always been… shall we say… challenging]. Dinner parties were completely out of the picture. Period. We dabbled with inviting people over for lunch. But the same issues were there, plus… the napping… we could never be sure how long they would (or would not) nap. Pretty quickly we came to discover that entertaining was no longer going to fit into our newfound lifestyle.

We grieved that for a long time. Still do, at times. Seriously– it was hard for us to give that up. Feeding people in our home had always been our way of connecting. Taking it out of the equation had huge ramifications for our social lives. Over the years we would sometimes try to host meals with friends in our home. It was usually a disaster, and always more stress than it was worth. It was sad.

We went like that for a long, long time. And then, about a year ago, we discovered a new form of entertaining that — as it turns out — really works for us! Brunch!

Over the past year we’ve been inviting many of our friends over for brunch. Always a Saturday or Sunday, always around 10am-1pm, and I always pre-warn them: “this is going to be a simple, casual, family-friendly brunch of bagels and fruit!” This sets their expectations so that they are not imagining fresh-off-the-skillet-pancakes, omelettes-cooked-to-order, roast-carving-stations, or anything resembling a traditional “brunch” that you’d get if you were to go out to a nice place. The goal here, for us, has been to keep it simple and easy (this, my friends, is always my challenge as I tend to go overboard with just about everything and have a serious problem with limiting my scope).

Here is why our Brunches With Friends work for us:

• Everything can be prepared in advance (so that we can focus on our friends, and trouble-shoot our kids, not worry about food/drink during the actual brunch-time).
• Most everything can be store-bought so that putting it together is super easy.
• The whole thing takes only 2 hours (absolute max!) the morning-of to prepare and set up, and then 1 hour (absolute max!) to clean up.
• Most kids (ours and our friends) have already eaten some sort of breakfast, so brunch is just sort of “extra” (which is nice, since it is often hard to get kids to eat, at all, when there are friends to be played with).
• Most parents (us and our friends) appreciate a mimosa on a weekend morning. Note: that is an understatement… most parents LOVE a mimosa on a weekend morning.

We always have mimosa-makings, bubbly water, ice, and champagne glasses out for everyone. I am a true believer in not letting the fancy glassware sit on the shelf, and have no problem (truly) when these things are broken by raucous kids. The kids love having a fancy glass, and they like making their own “mimosa” mixing Pelligrino and OJ. But since people are making their own, they can make it as strong or as weak as they like, they can have straight up OJ, or straight up Pelligrino… whatever they want. And it works. I sometimes also put out organic chocolate milk boxes (the ones like juice boxes) for the kids in addition to the mimosa-makings.

And the “Brunch Menu” is always basically the same– just variations on a theme:

• Bagels with fixings (various cream cheeses and lox for a “breakfast bagel” & various sandwich makings for a “lunch bagel”), all sitting by the toaster so that people can make their own however they like.
• Fruit (either simply out for the taking, in a bowl as fruit salad, or on a platter as fruit kabobs…depending on how industrious I’m feeling).
• Veggies, potato chips, and dip (the chips and dip are always the huge hit. for kids and grown-ups alike. always. always. always. everyone loves chips and dip and it makes it feel like a real party).

  

The best part about brunch is that even after everyone has left, and the house is entirely cleaned up, and the dishwasher is running, we still have a nice big portion of our day still before us. There is time for Meera to take a nap, or for the boys to watch a movie, or for us all to chillax and enjoy the rest of our “S-Day” (Saturday and Sunday have always been called “S-Days” by Kyle and Owen).

Brunch with Friends! The J-Ms give it ten thumbs up!