Foodie Traditions: Hosting a Girls’ Brunch
Happy New Year, RWDs!
The Foodie Challenges will get started again very soon… but til then, I’ve got another topic t cover.
I’ve talked at length before about starting “foodie traditions” and how much fun it can be to share good food with even better friends. Well, my girlfriends and I recently started what I hope will be a frequent tradition in my home: having a girls’ brunch in.
That’s right – two weekends before Christmas and there were no buffet-style lukewarm scrambles in sight. This was a home-cooked, piping hot, potluck-style smorgasbord of brunch nom-itude. We took crazy pictures, drank more mimosa punch than I think any of us would care to admit, tried some homemade eggnog, and sat around chatting for hours. Aside from family time, I can say without reservation that that Sunday afternoon was the highlight of my entire season.
Want to try something similar? Check out the details and some do’s and don’t’s after the jump!
Girls’ Glam Brunch details:
- Occasion: just because I missed my ladies.
- Attendance 4 [best friend from high school (with me at right!), one of my bests from college, my best friend from work, and myself]
- Meal: midday brunch
- Drink of choice: mimosa punch
- Responsible for food: everyone!
- Days to plan and organize: 14ish
- Level of glamorous awesomeness attained: off the charts!!
Do’s and don’t’s:
Make it a celebration – or make something to celebrate. The brunch I hosted took place about two weeks before Christmas, just as everyone was prepping to 
leave town but before people were fleeing the area by plane, train, and automobile. And since I had Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and I-don’t-really-care-ian folks in attendance, it really became more a celebration of a group of girls being brought together than a holiday thing. (All this despite the fact that my place was about five feet deep in Christmas decorations.) Long and short of it is, you don’t need a reason to get your best friends together other than that they’re your bests and that there will be mimosas :)
To thy ownself be true. Know what kind of brunch you want this to be (informal, retro, quick, formal, super-healthy, etc.) and stick to that. Pick a theme or style that will appeal to your friends but also to you. Me, for instance, I decided I wanted to throw a brunch in the retro way — that is, classy and glamorous. Hence the 1950s vintage punch set, above, that I found for $15 in the newspaper!
Know who’s not invited? Procrastination. I’m a planner by nature, but I found that, as a novice hostess, keeping myself organized was key. Now, I made a Christmas binder complete with printables from Organized Christmas, so I was already on a spreadsheet-completing kick, but the party planner was what really helped me bring things together. There I detailed who would be attending, the dishes everyone was bringing, and even laid out how I wanted the table to look. To that, I attached printed copies of the recipes I’d be making, just in case I found myself unable to track down a specific bookmark or pin right when I needed it.
Communicate. Make sure your guests know the dress code, what to bring, when to arrive, and where the heck this thing is taking place. The planner in me must reiterate that confusion only brings things down instead of elevating your party to its utmost potential.
Don’t think you have to go it alone. I’m sorry, I love my friends and I love to cook, but I wasn’t about to spend my entire morning making a three-course brunch. To that end, I enlisted all guests to bring a certain type of dish – one of my girls volunteered to bring a quiche, so I asked another of my friends to bring something else that was salty and complimentary (she ended up bringing INCREDIBLE latkes). Finally, my best friend from high school ended up bringing dessert (mini-cinnamon rolls and muffins). I filled in the gaps on my end with mimosa punch, crockpot applesauce, and a breakfast wreath. Everyone worked, and it ended up being so, so, so very worth it.
Chronicle the good times. Not to put too fine a point on this, but if you’ve spent two weeks prepping for this event, you better damn well get it on film. Even if you don’t want to break out the camera at the table, chronicle the food, the folks, and anything special and event-related. As a hostess, I find things can get a little blurry as you try to make sure everyone has what they need, so it’s nice to have all the little details you worked so hard on there for you to look over later.
Most importantly, ENJOY!!! Your primary aim in having any party is of course to celebrate your guests and the occasion, but it’s also to enjoy it, yourself. After all, these are your friends and your home, and you deserve nothing but a fantastic time :)
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