Posts Tagged ‘brunch’
Easter Feast
Cyndie performed her magic once again and produced a feast of epic proportions for members of her family and our kids, too. Like all good gatherings in a home, the kitchen was the primary hub of conversation at the start.
After they were kicked out in the direction of the seating around the fireplace, Cyndie set out the wide array of brunch choices she had prepared.
After the feast had a little time to settle in our stomachs and stories had been shared, a visit to the barn to see the horses was offered to anyone who hadn’t closed their eyes for a nap.
We brought a bag of carrots for the mares and found them to be wonderfully social and welcoming of our visit. The expected precipitation held off until everyone had departed for the afternoon with plenty of lovingly packaged leftovers.
As evening approached, I was able to spend a little extra time in the barn after feeding the horses to make some adjustments on the shade sail. In addition to tightening the tension to continue stretching out the creases from the folds of the shipped package, I changed the anchor points to better represent the way it will ultimately be hung.
I’m hoping we will be able to figure precise positioning of the four new posts based on measurements of the corner brackets of the sail in the way I have it suspended in the barn. The challenge I discovered while trying to remove ripples via the less-than-ideal anchor points tells me that exact post locations are something we don’t want to take lightly.
It will mean a lot to me to get it right on our first try.
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Easter Brunch
Yesterday’s Easter brunch deserves additional press. Did I mention Cyndie made EVERYTHING with one exception of purchased meats? That is why I was smelling tempting aromas for several days. Read the list below, presented in no specific order, and try to imagine fitting a little taste of each offering on your plate or in your stomach during one brief brunch event:
- Caramel Rolls
- Cinnamon Buns
- Puppy Tails (baked cinnamon twists)
- Pear Almond Crescents w/ apricot glaze and almond drizzle
- 4-Cheese Scalloped Potatoes
- Tulip Deviled Eggs
- Caramelized Pecan Spring Mix Salad
- Three Pea Salad
- Roasted Heirloom Rainbow Carrots w/ orange marmalade and maple syrup
- Fruit Salad w/ [Patty’s] honey-lime dressing
- Egg Bake w/ roasted red peppers, spinach, asparagus, caramelized onions, mushrooms, orange & yellow peppers, and lots of cheese
- Holy Kolachy sandwich buns (Gramma Betty Buns)
- HoneyBaked Ham and Turkey* (purchased)
- Raisin Sauce
- Coconut Bunny Butt Cupcakes
- Dark Chocolate Cherry Almond Bark
- 4 kinds of Truffles: Grand Marnier, Cognac, Vanilla, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Mint Meringue Cookies
- Lemon Curd Meringue nests
- Butter Cream Cookies
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Honorable mention goes to Elysa for her contribution of an “Imposter Dessert” that looked like Deviled Eggs but was in fact a sweet treat of sweet milk gelatin filled with cream cheese frosting.
Like mother, like daughter, Cyndie had taken a crack at her own twist on deviled eggs. Neither of them knew what the other was up to. Cyndie decided to prepare her eggs like some she saw in an image online.
It was the last thing she did before heading to bed Saturday night. I asked her how they turned out and she hesitatingly offered “a solid medium.”
They tasted great! Although, I understand her opinion. It’s similar to the way fast food burgers look in commercials compared to what you actually receive in the wrapper. Cyndie is healthy enough to laugh along with me when her outcomes might not meet what she intended after seeing images in recipes. Her tulips look like they may have been dropped during shipment from the florist.
I ate leftovers for dinner last night while watching March Madness basketball.
I got up from my spot on the couch and went downstairs to make the sandwich. When I returned, a certain canine had taken my place.
I didn’t have the heart to kick him out so I sat on the side.
Do you think I can get Cyndie to take a day off from cooking or baking something new today?
Me either.
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Big Drama
You just never know what adventure lies around the next corner. Yesterday, our plan was relatively straight forward, but it was a full day and included a couple of events that required we adhere to a precise start time. Cyndie began the morning in the kitchen, whipping up her now-famous caramel rolls and a variety of quiche dishes, plus a mountain of fresh-cut fruit for a brunch.
We weren’t sure how many guests would show since Cyndie offered open invitations to a wide range of friends, families and acquaintances, and it gets a bit unnerving when the appointed time arrives and nobody has shown. It so happened that there was a fair amount of snow falling in the Twin Cities at the time people were trying to drive, which slowed them down a bit. Our guests from Guatemala had spent the night with another family they know in town, after having gone skiing and snowboarding at Afton Alps ski resort the day before, so we were also hoping they would make it back in time.
In a blink, after our son and his girlfriend arrived, the house was filled and buzzing with the energy of twenty-some people who came to share in the brunch and then head to a nearby farm for a sleigh ride. 
Everything seemed to be moving along perfectly when we arrived to see the horses all decked out in their special colors for our festive event. Our group was larger than could fit on the sleigh all at once, so we put most of the kids on bales of hay and off they went, the bells on the horses jingling.
The rest of us were milling about the farm, checking out the ducks, chickens, goats, sheep, and horses. As we wandered back toward the direction we expected the sleigh to be returning from, I spotted the horses moving at a pretty good clip as they came around the house. I was excited to see that they were running and thought the kids must be having a thrill, …but there were no kids.
There was no driver either. Then we spotted the sled was not sitting properly on top of the runners and was dragging behind in the snow. The horses came to a calm stop as they arrived in front of the house, belying the drama that we assume must have just unfolded. We were all alarmed, and fighting the urge to fear the worst, but we knew there was every possibility that our kids might have suffered a serious calamity.
Luckily, just bumps and bruises and one little scraped nose, but I fear that the real harm was psychological. Some of the group seemed to shake it off, others may have been stuffing their true feelings, as they seemed to have no reaction. There were a couple who are old enough to know how serious the situation was, and I think they are suffering the most, as a result. For that reason, I think I am glad that I didn’t witness it. Seeing the empty sleigh return was bad enough.
We were able to bring the gang back to our home for some hot chocolate and debriefing of the excitement. There was general agreement that now the drama was over and the stories to be told for years to come would make this sleigh ride one that will never be forgotten. It was certainly not the adventure anyone expected when they showed up yesterday.
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Relative Something 