Mother's Day Brunch

One of my best friend's scheduled her bridal shower and bachelorette party for this weekend, which was wonderful timing because it meant I not only got to see my close friends but I also got to spend mother's day with my Mama! Now, unfortunately the bachelorette party was the night before, but staying busy is a pretty effective hangover cure. I should have made a bigger brunch.

I love, love cooking in my parent's kitchen  these days since it's an open layout and it is most certainly not a tiny corner kitchen like mine! My mom also has an affinity for collecting fun dishes and so it's easier to make a nice presentation here than it is at my apartment with my boring white plates. I also really loved grocery shopping here, I had no idea it could be so cheap to eat so well! All of the groceries for this feast just cost $20, plus a $10 bottle of Riondo prosecco, my go-to cheap bubbly.

From-Scratch Bellinis

• 1 Bag frozen peaches (no sugar added, just peaches)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• Champagne, Prosecco or Cava

Heat the sugar and water on the stove top, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add in the frozen peaches. If you let them thaw first then you can take it right off the heat, but if you forgot to leave the peaches out you can just heat them for a couple minutes in the simple syrup so that they're not rock solid. Use an immersion blender to blend this concoction into a peach puree and keep it cold in the fridge. Just add 2-3 heaping spoonfuls into a glass of something sparkling and delicious and you've got a hand crafted bellini! They will be kind of pulpy but I like them that way.

Oh theses bellinis looked so good but I couldn't bring myself to drink one, not today. But Ma and Pa said they were very refreshing! As you can see this makes a ton of peach puree and unless you're hosting a big party you probably won't get through all of it in one brunch, so I would definitely recommend freezing the leftover peach puree in ice cube trays. Then you can add them to champagne for a great way to keep your drink super cold and super delicious- it's fun to have different shaped ice cube trays for a neat presentation! You can also use the peach ice cubes in sparkling water, or in white wine if you add some club soda to make a spritzer. They'll also be great to add to a smoothie (if you're hungry use my Greek yogurt healthy smoothie recipe as a guideline, or if you want something lighter you can skip the yogurt and stick with ice and fruit!).

Kitchen Sink Roasted Potatoes

• 6-8 Red skinned potatoes
• 2-3 Sprigs of rosemary
• 3 Cloves of garlic
• 1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Lots of salt & fresh cracked pepper
• Olive oil

The name sounds unpleasant the more I think about it, but I like it because you can add anything to these potatoes and they just keep getting better! I've made roasted potatoes with just garlic, salt and pepper and they're great, and if I have more fresh herbs I'll sometimes add those in, too! Rosemary and thyme are wonderful together if you have them both. If you just have your pantry you're working with you can just use salt, pepper, garlic powder and red pepper flakes and this will still be great.


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rinse the potatoes and quarter them. Mince the rosemary and chop the garlic. Line a pan with tin foil (makes cleanup a cinch!) and pile the potatoes in the middle and cover with the herbs, garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and cover with olive oil so that each potato is coated once you toss them. Spread them out on the pan and roast for at least 45-50 minutes, turning once. If they're sticking you can add olive oil when you turn them. They should get nice and crisp and golden beautiful, leave them in until they're nice and brown. These will make the house smell absolutely heavenly while you cook the rest of the meal!

Grapefruit Salad

•  2 Ruby red grapefruits
• 1 Teaspoon fresh mint
• 1/2 Teaspoon sugar

This is easy to put together, is really refreshing and gives a nice pop of color on the plate. Use a sharp knife to cut the skin off of the grapefruit so that you can see the flesh (sorry for the graphic-sounding references). You want to try to cut off as much white pith as possible. You'll see the dividing veins in the grapefruit separating the sections; use a small paring knife to cut the grapefruit segments out and place them in a bowl. Top with a little sugar and chopped mint and toss so that it's evenly coated. If you have oranges it would be really nice to add those, prepared the same way. Keep cold in the fridge until just before you serve it.

ART Benedict - Avocado, Rocket & Tomato Benedict

• English muffin (or toast- you could cut it in a heart shape for a special occasion)
• Tomato
• Arugula - also known as Rocket to my lovely Australian family :)
• Avocado
• 2 Eggs
• Vegemite (optional)

TJ and I are big brunch fans. I don't know that we've spent a weekend together without either going out to brunch or making it at home, and quite honestly it would be hard for me to pick which I like better! Brunch is the one meal where I can find TJ in the kitchen and he makes a mean avocado egg stack by mashing avocado with a squeeze of lemon, piling it on a piece of toast with either spinach or arugula and adding a poached egg on top. For some reason I hadn't thought about using Arugula on eggs benedict before but it's perfect because the hot egg wilts it just slightly. One weekend we were visiting my sister and her husband in Nashville and I got the Bel Air Benedict which had avocado and tomato which I loved. So between TJ and that restaurant, the ART Benedict was born! I think this would be really great if you added some crisp bacon too, a play on a BLT sandwich. The nice thing about this benedict is that it has so much flavor you won't miss the butter sauce, I mean, hollandaise sauce.

Toast the english muffin or bread and butter it. I love adding a little smear of vegemite. Even if people think they hate vegemite, they can't hate it like this. It just adds a nice salty bite and I love it. Put a small handful of arugula on the bread (or spinach if you have it instead) and top with one slice of tomato and two slices of avocado (and bacon if you want). Add the poached egg on top (see instructions below) and finish with fresh ground pepper and salt.

To poach your eggs, fill a large sauce pan with water and bring to a simmer (if you just have a pot just be sure to not add more than 2 inches of water, you want it to be shallow). Add a splash of vinegar and a pinch of salt, I used apple cider vinegar since that's what I found most readily in my mom's expansive pantry. Crack the eggs and gently drop them straight into the water, be gentle so you don't break the yolk. Once you've added the eggs be sure to turn off the heat completely, put a lid over the pan and let the eggs sit for 4 minutes. This is the "Lindsay's Perfect Poached Eggs" technique and it works every time! I had 6 eggs in the pan at once and thought they'd need a few extra minutes to cook because of how many there were, but don't make the same mistake I did. I ended up over cooking them so the yolks weren't nice and runny like I like them. So, moral of the story is stick to the rules, 4 minutes that's it and you'll have perfectly poached eggs!