This and That Blog: My fall brunch

Thursday, October 25, 2018

My fall brunch

Last Sunday I invited all of my friends over for my 3rd annual fall brunch. I just love having this event every year! It’s a great way for me to catch up with all my friends and for us to spend some time together. I made a few breakfast casseroles and some apple crisp and my friends each made a dish to pass. My best friend Rachael made 6 lbs. of bacon for me. We have a deal that when I have a brunch she makes the bacon and when she has a brunch I make the bacon. That way you get the delicious bacon everyone loves without stinking up your house. I also had a Bloody Mary and Mimosa bar which was fun.

I made a double batch Trisha Yearwood’s breakfast sausage casserole. This was a big hit! You can find the recipe here. I also made this veggie casserole. Both of these were easy and SO good. I will definitely make both again!!

The Apple Crisp is a recipe I’ve had for years. I posted it on my blog many, many years ago. You can find the recipe here .

For the Bloody Mary bar I made a pitcher of Bloody Marys ahead of time. One of my friends kept remaking them during the party. Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of my bar area during the party but I used Zing Zang Bloody Mary mix and Tito’s vodka. I used 8 cups of Zing Zang with 2 cups of vodka. I also had olives, hot sauce, pepper horseradish, and celery for people to add to their Bloody Marys. For the Mimosa bar we mixed pineapple and/or orange juice with champagne. I had strawberries and raspberries for garnish.

I set up the bar area in our office. Here is what it looks like on a normal day :-) Unfortunately, I did not get a good picture of it during the party.

I put an extra table on my deck and one in the yard for people to sit at. For centerpieces I used a mix of arrangements I made in the week leading up to my brunch.

Everyone brought a dish to pass so we had a TON of food. We ate and chatted and had the best morning/afternoon. I love my friends so much!!!

For the past two years I have had a scarf exchange. You can read about my 216 brunch here and my 2017 brunch here. This year I mixed it up and had a fall decor swap. Here is how we did it:

1. Everyone drew a number and picked a present based on their number.

2. When it’s your turn you can open a new gift or take a gift from someone else. If you take someone else’s gift they get to choose a new gift. Once a gift has been stolen twice it’s done and the person who has that gift keeps it.

3. At the end the first person can choose a gift from anyone (just not those gifts they have already been stolen twice)

Ava wrote out the numbers for me and handed them out. We all had a good time playing and everyone was happy because they left a fun fall item.