Do you love brunch? Who doesn’t? The lazy, dual-purpose meal provides the perfect medium for catching up with friends and family and indulging in delicious food and drink.
One problem: The best brunch places can be crowded, especially on busy Sundays like Mother’s Day. Depending on how many mimosas or Bloody Marys you enjoy throughout the course of the meal, brunch can also be expensive. Eliminating that wait and cutting costs are two advantages of hosting your own brunch in your apartment. Here are some tips for pulling off this fun, feasible feat.
Know Your Guests’ Tastes
Do you want to be the host with the most? Find out what your guests’ like and create a tailored brunch menu accordingly. Keep things simple and relatively inexpensive by preparing only one or two hot dishes. Complement the pancakes, omelettes, or breakfast scramble you cook up with fresh fruit and ready-to-eat sides like yogurt and granola. If hosting a guest of honor, such as mom on Mother’s Day, try your hand at making her favorite foods. You can also make a special pastry or cake in honor of the occasion.
Mix Iced Tea and Breakfast Cocktails
Especially appropriate for late spring and summer brunches, iced tea can be served with or following brunch. Plenty of creative, easy-to-make iced tea recipes are available online. Fruity, herbal variants of black and green tea such as peach-basil, strawberry-mint, hibiscus-lemon, and rhubarb-honey are an especially refreshing accompaniment.
If you’re serving adults, you can also make your own mimosas or Bloody Mary. Less run-of-the-mill boozy brunch cocktail ideas include white tea spritzers and green tea mojitos.
Think Bright and Floral
Where decor is concerned, you know your preferences and limits better than we do. Identify and stick to a decorative theme appropriate for the brunch you’re planning. For a Mother’s Day brunch, you might consider a floral patterned tablecloth with spring-colored napkins and decor. Later on in the season, a predominantly white tablescape would be perfect.
Try not to spend too much time, energy, or money worrying about decor. As long as the atmosphere in your dining room is clean and neat, the food and drink are more important than the room’s decor.
Don’t Wait ‘Til the Last Minute
Make as many preparations in advance as possible so you have time to enjoy your company and the spread you’ve prepared. Double check you have all ingredients you’ll need the day before; organize cookware, tableware, and napkins the night before; and if necessary start cooking in advance. The fewer details you have to worry about at the last minute, the smoother the event should go.
Planning a brunch in your apartment is the ultimate way to personalize a fun dining ritual. With just a few parameters to follow, you have the autonomy to make your event exactly what you want it to be. Now that you know the keys to planning a successful brunch in your apartment, why not give this adventure in party planning a shot?
Do you have experience hosting a weekend or holiday brunch in your apartment?
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View All Posts by Jason Ernst