Yesterday I had my first brunch guest -- or any guest for a meal, for that matter -- since moving to the Bay Area. When thinking about the menu, I had a few things to consider. First, my guest is vegetarian. Second, I am not a morning person, and want to do the minimum amount of preparation the morning of the brunch.
I remembered a friend of mine had once made a breakfast strata for brunch, and she said it was incredibly easy. You put it together the night before, leave it assembled in the fridge overnight, then bake it the next morning. Sounded perfect. Her strata had sausage in it, but I found a recipe for a spinach and gruyere one in The New Best Recipe, my current favorite cookbook.
It was actually about as easy as I thought it would be. Basically it's like a lasagna, but instead of layering noodles, filling, cheese, and tomato sauce, it's bread, filling, cheese, and an egg-half and half mixture. It took less than an hour to prepare on Saturday, and then I was all set for the next day.
I decided to try Margaret's scones again to go with the strata, and cut the recipe quantity by a third so that it would fit in my food processor. I seem to be cursed, because it looked like it was working beautifully -- I had the wedges cut and brushed with egg-milk mixture and everything -- then realized the cranberries were still sitting in a cup on the other side of the counter. D'oh! I had to mash everything together again to incorporate the cranberries, so I think the dough may have been a bit overworked. Still not too bad when they came out. Just not as tender and crumbly as I would have liked. One day I'll make this recipe without a mishap!
Of course, making scones required getting up early-ish, somewhat defeating the purpose of the make-ahead breakfast strata. They dovetailed pretty well, though. First I made the scones and put them in the oven. I pulled the strata out of the fridge to let it come closer to room temperature as the scones were baking. When the scones came out the strata went in. I then had almost an hour to get dressed and tidy up before the strata was done.
Then when my guest arrived, all I had to do was make a pot of tea, set the scones on the table, serve up the strata, and eat.
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