A Nice Little Blogger Brunch

We had a false start for this event earlier in the year, but on April 30, a few local bloggers gathered at Almost Heaven South for a light brunch. In attendance, besides Bev and I, were Katherine Aucoin of Smoky Mountain Cafe and husband AJ and daughter Kaitlin, David and Laurie Myers of Big Daddy Dave’s and SIL, Pat.

I spent a lot of mental energy trying to come up with a menu and ultimately decided to go with items that would be normal around here. So the menu was:

Homemade tomato juice
Orange juice
Mimosa’s (orange juice and champagne)
Coffee
Iced tea
Smoked stuffed fatty
Fried potatoes with fried peppers and onions on the side
Benton’s country ham and bacon
Kennedy Quiche – Bev wanted one dish to be unique
Sawmill gravy made from homemade breakfast sausage
Biscuits (frozen) – had to draw the line somewhere
Fried eggs
One pickled egg for AJ
Fruit - fresh strawberries from the local berry patch, blueberries, kiwi, mango, grapes

Had to include the recipe for my sausage gravy:

Brown one pound of your favorite breakfast sausage.  Move the meat to one side and tilt skillet to drain the fat to the other side.  Estimate the fat amount and sprinkle that amount of flour over the meat plus a little more for the fat that didn't drain.  Stir and cook for a few minutes to cook the flour then slowly stir in the milk - about a half cup per tablespoon of flour, making sure to get all of the brown bits from the pan bottom.  Bring to a simmer, cook about 10 minutes or until gravy thickens, and serve hot over almost anything.

After considering the serving options, such as family style, restaurant style (take your order from the table and fill it), or just filling everyone’s plate with food, we decided on a buffet for everything but the eggs, which were cooked to order. We got most things ready by 10:30am and put them in the warming drawer until time to serve.

Everyone showed up between 10:30 and 11:00, we had a beverage and took egg orders so that I could add an egg atop the taters as you finished the buffet line. This is the buffet less the biscuits which were a little slow to cook.  Notice the gravy is last, except for the fruit - even I wouldn't put it on fruit - it would mess up the gravy flavor :-).

Here we are ready to dig in.

Here's my end of the table (note AJ's egg next door) and my plate and while it wasn't perfect, it was at least as good as Cracker Barrel :-).

Of course the best part of the meal was the socializing and I really enjoyed the after dinner conversation and especially the participation of Kaitlin - I may invite her and her sister to our parties whether or not her parents can come.  Great job Katherine and AJ.

Unfortunately, two other bloggers were unable to attend.
We had lots of leftovers so guess what I'm eating for the next few days.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Philly Cheese Steak Pizza

Larry