The Modern Femme entertains...Saturday morning breakfast

I started this post originally with a couple of long, and frankly, boring paragraphs about entertaining.  Instead, because I want to get to the good stuff - the breakfast party I had this morning for some friends, let's just use a bulleted format for my introduction:

1.  I like throwing parties.
2.  Used to be dinner parties, now includes lunches, brunches, breakfasts and seasonal parties.
3.  I like feeding people.
4.  I like feeding people food made from scratch.
5.  This used to make me hell to live with because I'd get wicked stressed before the party and take it out on my husband, the poor thing.
6. I'm better now.
7.  I have some thoughts on how to go about reducing stress related to entertaining, but I'm not going to go into great detail, because it's pretty simple:

Relax.  No one is going to notice that little thing that you're freaking out over, whatever it is. Promise. Have a good time.  Remember that your friends want to see you, not just be fed.
Don't commit hari-kari if what you make isn't as good as you hoped for/was too small of a portion/somehow fell apart at the last minute.  That's why God invented wine and Chinese takeout.

ANYWAY, let's move on.  I had a breakfast get together this morning for some friends and their two little boys! It was fun.

I used a very casual place setting, piling everything on a table runner to encourage a family style atmosphere.  Since my friends have little ones, I wanted to keep everything as laid back and kid-friendly as possible.

Love white as a base color for any party, because it makes everything else pop.



Being a new mother myself, I still have a lot to learn about making a home kid-friendly, but I did learn one new thing today: melamine plates (love this one) and cups are the way to go for kiddie guests.  Less stress for everyone when the little mister or misses decides she wants to smack her plate on the table!

Another thing I do now before any party is lay out the serving dishes I will be using.  This is the big take-away tip dear readers. By laying out the bowls and serving ware you need in advance you don't need to root around for them while trying to be a good host, and it helps remind the more forgetful among us of all the dishes we intended on serving.

From left to right: serving ware for the maple bacon, maple syrup and butter (for the French toast pudding), fresh berries, and granola. (Not pictured, a serving bowl for the yogurt.)

It's worth giving this old trick a try for your next party.  There's something calming about seeing these trays and bowls, all lined up and ready to go.  Makes even the most stressed host feel a little better prepared.

I have a stable of old reliable recipes for brunch and lunches, but breakfast was a first. After giving it some thought, I settled on the following menu:

• French Toast Bread Pudding, from Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa)
• Maple Roasted Bacon, again from Ina
• Fresh raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries
• Vanilla yogurt
• Granola
• Fresh squeezed orange juice

I chose the first two dishes because they were easily assembled in under five minutes and then baked in the oven.  No muss, no fuss.  I could be calm and collected as my guests arrived, happy in the knowledge the breakfast was cooking away in the oven.  Beats slaving over a hot stove to make individual french toasts and sputtering bacon!! 

Everything came out nicely.  Of course, I forgot to take pictures of most of it, but I was meticulous about photographing the production of the juice.




The juice ingredients.  I like to use a little bit of pineapple when making fresh OJ.  I think it brightens the taste.

Juice, baby, juice!! 

 Almost there...

Et voila.  Fresh juice, just waiting to be devoured.  Do you like my attempt at an arty shot?  It's hard to tart up juice, folks.  Gotta try where I can.

I think fresh juice really can help take the whole breakfast experience to the next level.  While there was french toast, bacon, and some berries left over, this juice was all gone.  Lip smacking good.

Verdict: a breakfasty success.  It was nice to catch up with our friends, and the french toast pudding was good - though more pudding than french toast.  I totally meant to get a picture of the food on the table, but I done forgot.  I'm new to this whole photo-taking/blog thing.  I'll get better, I promise.  The best I can do is show you what a heaping portion of the french toast looked like:



 Mmm.  Pour some maple syrup on that, in the name of love.  (Oh yes, I did just go there.)

And finally, because I like to keep it real here at Modern Femme, I'm going to leave you with a closing shot of how I roll during post-guest-departure cleanup:

Awww yeah.  Ain't no bacon grease I can't scrub when Sam's at my side.

Till next time, dear readers, may your parties be fun, your guests charming, your food divine, and your dishes few.

xoxo,

MF