Birthday Brunch Bash

Sweet Athena Linz turned an adorable 26 this month and of course we took that as an excuse to boogie on down with friends.

Our inspiration was Linz's love of eggs and a recent article in the Huffington Post from the ladies of Big Girls, Small Kitchen  on just how to host a brunch get-together. 

We decided to make this a potluck occasion and encouraged friends to bring drinks, (we had so much champagne and juice!), already cooked baked goods, and fruit. This was in an attempt to keep everyone from spending their time in the kitchen and have more time for hanging out.

I did most of the cooking the night before, that way the morning of the party we could just turn on the oven and bake. I first made a basic Spinach Quiche. My favorite dish of the party that I tried was a Breakfast Tortilla Casserole, I just loved this dish because it had both gouda and goat cheese in it!

The birthday "cake" was a classic recipe from my college days, Apple Puff Pancake.

Ingredients

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup flour

3 Tbsp Sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp butter

2 apples (I like Granny Smith) peeled and thinly sliced

3 Tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400. Mix eggs, milk, flour, sugar, vanilla, salt and cinnamon until blended. Melt butter in 9 x13 baking dish in oven. Return dish from oven add apple slices and pour batter over apples. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake 20 minutes or until puffed and brown. Serve immediately. 

The one dish we did make the day of the party was Parmesan-Roasted Potatoes and Squash, which really I should give credit to Dale, Linz's husband who for did all the work on this one.

 Helping to host a brunch party has made me realize just how easy these kinds of parties are. I cannot wait for the next one!

~Jess