A vaguely Eastern European-inspired brunch. At the shopping level:
Brunch is served (everyone sits in the living room):
- Mashed potato pancakes (just regular mashed potatoes made the night before with plenty of butter and milk, warmed in the oven morning-of, with fresh minced green onions mixed in before frying the patties)
- Smoked fish (trout, mackerel) on dark rye and black sesame crackers
- Pickled beets
- Bloody Mary bar a.k.a. “Adult Salad” (tomato, vodka, fresh grated horseradish root (key!), cholula, pickled beans, olives, worcestershire, and oven-baked crispy bacon sticks for dunking)
And from friends, many things, including:
- Deviled eggs (with mustard, yogurt instead of mayo, pickles, smoked paprika)
- Fresh raisin scones
Good food and better company!
(I gave my usual food-prep obsession a break– I bought all the pickles instead of making them, made mashed potato pancakes instead of latkes to cut down on the morning-of labor so I could socialize more, and didn’t track down real farm-fresh eggs… I’ll have to assuage my guilt next time with some homemade bagels and trout I grab out of a fresh mountain stream with my bare hands, Gollum-style… or something)