The Brunch Bunch

I love it when a plan comes together. Such was the case with a rather impromptu St. Patrick's Day brunch that granddaughters Sooby, Bootsie, and I pulled off several weeks ago.

I use the word "plan" loosely--I have to. The truth is, when our whole family gathers for a meal together, anything resembling a plan has to stretch or contract, like a rubber band, to fit the moment. This makes the whole thing crazy and fun--but, on a positive note, people rarely go away hungry.

When all of us are present, including Mom (our family matriarch), we are thirteen strong. When we are all hungry--and six of us are growing children ranging from five to eleven years old--you can see how we may be talking major amounts of food and considerable effort to get everything ready at once within the confines of our basic household kitchen.

So as a record to refer to for next year's now-annual spring family brunch, I list below our menu items and the amounts of each needed to replicate this year's success. Doing this will help us know from the outset how much food we can expect to consume, and, should you find yourself in charge of preparing a brunch for 12-15 hungry people, it will give you a place to start as well.

Just as important as the brunch ingredients is some attempt at attention to the time schedule and, at the risk of sounding like a math person, "the order of operations." Planning to serve our meal at 10 a.m. again next year, the girls and I will begin cooking the meat about 9.

Here, Sooby tends to a griddle full of bacon and sausage, while Bootsie prepares a skillet full of sausage.

Along with supervising them a bit, I put together a bowl of fruit. With the meat cooked and in the warmer, we could then clear space and recycle utensils for the next phase.

If you are brave enough to try this, assuming you have access to help as great as mine was, here is our menu list and the amounts we are projecting for next year:

• 2 lbs. bacon
• 2 nine-packs sausage patties (or about 1 1/2 pounds if you make the patties yourself)
• fruit salad (2 cans mandarin oranges, 2 cans pineapple chunks, 2 sliced bananas, 1 pt. sliced strawberries)
• 2 cans (8 each) large buttermilk biscuits (dairy case)
• enough 2% milk, flour, and sausage grease for a skilletful of gravy (you are on your own here--I have never measured these precise amounts)
• 2 dozen scrambled eggs (requires two skillets or two rounds of cooking)
• 2 cans of dairy case cinnamon rolls (bake and ice these before you bake the other biscuits)
• 2 1/2 gallons of orange juice
• 1 jar of apple butter (or use your favorite jelly or jam)

There. I am proud to report that our serving line opened at 10:10, only ten minutes late, but everything was delicious. 

With our own kids and now our grandkids, we have come to treasure family traditions marked by the seasons and holidays of our year. We love our Easter egg hunt (coming up this next weekend), our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, our birthday parties, and our fall afternoons roasting hot dogs around the fire pit.

And now we have a spring brunch to add to our list. My mouth waters with the menu I just typed, and I am already looking forward to the next one.