The Brunch Club, August Edition

I am a huge fan of combined words. I know most people are not, but I cannot help it; they make me laugh. Brunch is a word that combines the words “breakfast” and “lunch”, and this posting is first of hopefully many “Special Brunch Edition” posts. Some of our friends have decided to get together for monthly Sunday potluck-style brunches. Everyone will bring a dish or beverage, and a different person will host each week. I will feature the recipe for whatever dish I make each month, and I welcome any of my fellow brunchers to post your recipes here as well. Here is the breakdown of characters and what they brought for this event…in combined word fashion, of course:

NATALUE: Natalie and Sue are the sisters. It was their idea to start this whole thing, so you can thank them for all following “Special Brunch Editions” whether you like’em or not. Natalie brought turkey bacon and tomatoes. She grows her own tomatoes as well as eggplant, peppers, and probably some other things. Sue tried growing basil once, but unfortunately it died.





ANDICE: Andy and Candice are Canadians. Of course, they are laid-back-super-nice-always-pleasant-to-have-around kind of people. This time they brought fruits salad with yogurt and honey (picture not available), but sometimes they like to stick secret ingredients like avocado in their vegan chocolate cupcakes so we always have to watch out for these two.

BREANNA: Brian and LeAnna’s combined names make an actual name, and I think that is really special. BreAnna brought brownies to brunch. That is a tongue twister, and something makes me think they did this on purpose.



SUBE: Sue (of Natalue) and Brian just got married in July. This makes Natalie and Brian family and sometimes arch enemies. Bratalue (Three names. Too much? I apologize) gets together once a week for “family dinner” which I think is very sweet. Sue is a vegetarian. Brian likes raw meat.



ROBILY: Emily has deep red hair. It used to be super curly like mine, but now it is straight…probably because there is never room for two curly headed girls in one brunch group. Rob works for NASA and occasionally leaves just a little too early from games of Loaded Questions. Robily did not bring anything to brunch, probably because they were not there.

LINDZACHARY: That’s us. We hosted this week. “We” made baked brie and little quiches. I left my not-that-great camera somewhere else this weekend and had to take all the pictures on Zach’s camera phone. I think they turned out pretty well considering. Unfortunately, it took him “a long time, like 20 minutes” to email me all the pictures individually. I think my baked brie made up for it.



Featured Brunch Recipe: Mini Crustless Quiche

(recipe adapted from Bread and Honey)

4 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 grated carrot
1 grated zucchini
3 small mushrooms, finely chopped
1 small shallot, minced
1 clove of garlic, minced
handful of chopped fresh parsley
1 C ground chorizo sausage, cooked (you can just leave this out completely for a vegetarian recipe. I made 6 quiches with the chorizo and 6 without. Bacon or breakfast sausage might also taste nice.)
large handful of grated cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon flour
salt & pepper
*You can use any vegetables or cheese you like (broccoli, sun dried tomato, goat cheese, spinach, etc)



Preheat oven to 350ºf.
Quickly saute grated carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, shallot, and garlic until tender.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, fresh parsley, grated cheddar, flour, and pinches of salt and pepper.
Generously grease a 12-muffin tin with butter. In the bottom of each cup, spoon in a small amount of sautéed vegetables. On top of that, spoon some of the cooked chorizo (or whatever meat you are using. Fill in by pouring the egg mixture to almost the top in each cup.
Bake for 20 minutes or until firm and puffy. Allow to cool a little before attempting to remove.