My Favorite Mother's Day Brunch

My family doesn't usually have brunch on Mother's Day -there are too many other things going on for us to sit down and have a mid-morning meal. But, we do celebrate the day with a nice brunch either a day or two early, or the next weekend. When we do, it is a great gathering with good food and great fellowship. Here are our favorite things to serve at brunch -whether it is Mother's Day brunch or any other brunch throughout the year.

Here is our traditional brunch menu:

Ham and Biscuits

Sausage Casserole

Hash browns

Cinnamon Rolls

Mini Danishes

Mini Muffins

Fruit

Juice

Tea

Coffee

Now that you know what foods we serve, let's look at some of the recipes/instructions/ordering that we use to get this menu to the table.

For the Ham and Biscuits, my whole family prefers buttermilk biscuits. I don't make biscuits, but my sister does. She uses flour, shortening, and buttermilk to work her magic and pull perfect, flake biscuits from the oven. O.k. -really, she takes a bowl that is filled with self-rising flour...it is called the "biscuit bowl" in our family because we have a bowl filled with flour that stays in the cabinet. She scoops out a hole in the center of the flour and takes a handful of shortening in the "hole." Then she adds probably a cup or so of buttermilk and just works the mixture with her hands until she has soft dough. NOTE: She doesn't mix all the flour in; she just slowly incorporates some of the flour in the bowl until she has the right consistency. There is always flour left around the sides of the bowl. When she has the consistency that she likes, she places the dough on some floured wax paper and continues to knead and the rolls the dough out (about ¼ to ½ inch thick). Then she cuts the dough into small circles, places them on a greased baking sheet and bakes until they are golden. We split the biscuits and place fried country ham on each one.

Next, we have sausage casserole. This one is easy. You will need 2 cans of crescent rolls (the ones near the canned biscuits at the grocery store), a pound of sausage and an 8 ounce block of cream cheese. "Scramble" the sausage as you cook it by chopping it into small pieces. Once the sausage is done, I like to drain off most of the grease and then return the sausage to the pan. At this point, add the cream cheese and mix it with the sausage. You should have a mixture that is fairly easy to spread. Roll one can of the rolls into a 9 by 13 pan. Top with the sausage mixture and then top with a second can of the rolls. Bake until the rolls are golden. Cool, slice and serve.

I use the hash brown patties that you can buy in your local grocery store. I follow the package instructions for cooking them.

For the Cinnamon Rolls, Mini Danish, and Mini Muffins, I call the bakery at my local grocery store and order a dozen cinnamon rolls, a mini-danish tray, and a mini-muffin tray. I always ask for banana nut, chocolate chip, and double chocolate muffins. I also order a fruit tray while I am at it. I request strawberries, grapes, pineapple chunks, orange wedges and sliced bananas. These are the easiest part of the brunch and also my favorites.

We then serve juice -orange, apple and grape -from pitchers so they look nice. Coffee is brewed to perfection -we have regular and decaf. Plus, the usually assortment of creamers, sweeteners and syrups. Last, we have my drink of choice-sweet iced tea.

Since most of the food comes from the local grocery store bakery, the brunch is easy to prepare. This way, we all get to sit down and enjoy each other's company without the stress of keeping the food coming.