2nd Annual Mother's Day Brunch

Well once again I've fallen behind on my blog. I just can't believe how quickly time flies by. I feel like since "going back to work" the past 7 1/2 months have been a blur and forget about the hours of 9-5 (ok more like 8-6), but in any case I never even look at the clock during the work day. But I couldn't let time totally pass me by without coming back to my blog and writing about one of the best Holiday's of the year, Mother's Day. I'm so grateful to have the most amazing Mother, and Mother-in-Law as well!

Last year I hosted my first Mother's Day brunch and it was a huge success so much so that I plan to make this our annual tradition! I love hosting, and I have to say brunch is probably the easiest meal to host, much easier than hosting my first Christmas dinner. A lot of the food can be prepped or prepared the day before which is great. I actually found myself with free time on Sunday morning, I didn't know what to do with myself while I waited for everyone to come over.

One thing is for sure, we have no shortage of food for this brunch, I think I made even more than last year, which I didn't think was possible. First though we started our brunch off right with a homemade bellini bar, which was awesome and such a huge hit. I think we went through 4 bottles of champagne (I have to remember that for next year to make sure we're fully stocked up). With help in part from a Giada recipe I made strawberry, raspberry and pineapple bellini's. Just add a tablespoon to the bottle of your class, pour some champagne, and voila! Everyone loved these!

Once we had our cocktails it was on to the main event, a full spread. Thankfully most of it was done in advance and I have to say Mike helped tremendously as well. He manned the griddle, cooking all the bacon, sausage, pancakes and hash browns, which was a huge help. For this year's meal we had a lot of the same foods as last year but added on slightly. Our meal consisted of: 

• Broccoli and Cheese Mini Egg Omelets
• Make-Over Breakfast Sausage and Mushroom Strata
• Bananas Fosters Topped Overnight French Toast
• Ricotta Cheese Chocolate Chip Muffins
• WW Blueberry Streusel Muffins
• WW Mini Zucchini Quiche
• Vanilla Blueberry Pound Cake (although it wasn't as good this year) 
• Carrot Cake Pancakes (a new addition) 
• Hashbrowns 
• Turkey Sausage Links & Center Cut Bacon 
• My mom brought the fruit salad and Long Island bagels again, along with a homemade quiche!
• And Mike's brought everyone's favorite trifle again for dessert. 

I think that's everything, although I almost feel like I'm forgetting something there was so much food. I don't even know what my favorite part was, we loved all of it. I just realized though I don't have any pictures of us, the only pictures I have are of the food. I'm sure Mom has some pictures though, although I don't think she's figured out how to upload pictures from her new camera yet. In any case here's a few pictures I snapped quick before we ate of our delicious meal. 

After that we spent the afternoon grazing and picking on all the delicious foods with plenty of leftovers to go around for everyone. I already can't wait for next year's brunch, I know it will be equally delicious and terrific company!