Brunch with Friends: Menu Four

So much Brunch with Friends! Technically, Brunch with Friends: Menu Three happened in February but after the big holiday and some serious photo review with guest photographer Dean, the post didn't see the light of the online world until March... which was only days before Brunch with Friends: Menu Four.

I've said before how much I enjoy having brunch with people. Dinners are great but there is something even better about a great brunch - which can lean more to the sweet or to the savoury, depending on your particular inspiration at that moment - where you can spend great time with friends, justify alcohol before the PMs, and say goodbye while still having your entire day ahead of you.

This particular brunch seemed to require a great deal of negotiation. Not with the menu but with disparate and conflicting schedules of the invitees, we booked this brunch in - no lie - January and then had to further tweak the date come March. Finalizing a date and time in the last three days before the proposed date felt like a battle won... then to the quick planning, purchasing, prepping, and prodding... then Brunch.

Truffled Pizza

Ever since the slow rise pizza dough lesson at Eat Alberta, pizza seems to be in weekly rotation. It's just such a fantastic canvas for nearly any ingredient or those fantastic clean-out-the-fridge end of week meals.

If you like earthy, rich flavours (and mushrooms, obviously) then you will enjoy this pizza. If you're not a big fan, then I wouldn't bother. I find that truffles and those intense mushroom-y flavours are not for the faint of heart.

#yyc bbq and #yeg dnr

Though the last few weeks have been filled with food and I haven't found myself in my kitchen as much as I would like, I wouldn't change a moment of it. There have been many great meals with many great people. I think this post is as much a homage to those great people as it is about some wonderful meals.
  

Mushroom Crostini

Sometimes desperation leads you to the most wonderful discoveries. This little snack, which I needed to tide my Mom and I over while our dinner was cooking, was exactly that… perfect, desperation-fueled satisfaction.

You can put just about anything on a little piece of toast, pat yourself on the back and call it a “crostini.” (Some Italian nonna is ready to smack me for that comment, I’m sure.) I guess that the crostini is just a happy little snack for me and I don’t stress too much about what finds its way atop the bread. I don’t think you should either.

Many mushroom risotto

I planned to get together with one of my -we call each other on our birthdays- friends to celebrate her birthday. Our usual catch-up tradition is to have a nice dinner together, drink a bottle (or possibly more) of wine and cackle the night away with the Wii. Though we only manage to coordinate our schedules every few months, we never seem to skip a beat.

Text messages exchanged: So Friday... Do you like mushrooms? Response: I love mushrooms!

And here was born our mushroom risotto...

Risotto is one of my favourite things to make. It is such a fantastic canvas for a spectacular meal... with whatever you have in the fridge or with a long-sought ingredient.