Weekend Foodie Warriors- Take 10!
Hello hello, again, Foodie Friends 🙂 Hope you had a fantastic Mother’s Day weekend! In this edition of Foodie Adventures, I’ll be keeping it short and sweet, just like my mom, and focus on all the brunch dishes we made for her and my grandma 🤗
Mother’s Day Brunch
Lake Norman, NC
It was a whirlwind weekend, so much so that the only things I got to make over my two days of freedom was brunch! Which is nothing to complain about, ya’ll know how much I love brunch 😋
After a crazy day of shopping with the little sis on Saturday and my uncle coming to spend the weekend with us, five to seven stores and visiting with family tuckered us out. It was gloomy weather too, with dusty gray clouds promising rain and the smell of storms in the air.
My mom and grandma (we call her Mémère [pronounced mem-ay, with a space in between the two sets of sounds], as my mom’s family has French Canadian roots) were with whom we were celebrating on Sunday, and we went all out! We made two awesome brunch dishes, Eggs Benedict (my mom’s fave), and Upside-down Overnight Bananas Foster French Toast (what a mouthful).
Upside-Down Overnight Bananas Foster French Toast
This one was super messy but good! We decided to use this overnight recipe to impart the caramel sauce and egg mixture into the brioche- it was absolutely delicious.
The recipe ingredients were fairly simple, and the caramel sauce contained stuff you’d have around the house already *Double recipe*:
- 1 cup butter, cubed (we like the plant-based butter from Country Crock)
- 1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream (we’ve since switched to using a plant-based alternative from Country Crock)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional
To make the sauce, start by placing the butter in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave, covered until melted, 30-45 seconds.
Firmly pack 1 & 1/3 cups of brown sugar (we used light brown sugar) and add butter with cream, allspice, cinnamon, and pecans (optional). Add bananas (we used 6); stirring gently to coat.
Transfer sauce and bananas to a greased 13×9″ baking dish (we used butter, you could use Pam too). Arrange bread over the top, trimming to fit as necessary.* We used about a loaf and a half of cinnamon raisin brioche.
*In this picture, we have the bread lying on each other. However, we found (to keep the liquid layers apart) that it would work better to lay the bread down like playing cards beside each other with the edges touching and fill in the holes with other pieces of bread as needed.
Create the egg/custard mixture for the top of the French toast by whisking:
- 2 cups soy milk
- 6 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Put the remaining ingredients in a blender or whisk in a large bowl; process just until blended or combined. Pour over the bread. Refrigerate, covered, for 8 hours or overnight.
In the morning, preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove the French toast from the refrigerator while the oven heats. Bake, uncovered, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and hot, about 35-40 minutes. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before gently (but quickly) flipping over onto a tray larger than the pan you baked it in. You should end up with something that looks like this!
Ooey, gooey, warm and delicious 😍❤ This was probably my favorite of the two dishes!
Eggs Benedict
I wish I could recreate the luscious pour of hollandaise over these pillow-soft eggs, so check out below for that playback! Waylon made a cameo in the background, Dad was a great hand model too 😁🐶
This was a semi-homemade type dish, with the English muffins, thick-sliced ham, and eggs in our pantry or fridge already. The hollandaise was a package mixed (Knorr brand I believe), but the biggest add to our sauce that gave it that special something- lemon juice.
When my parents were on their honeymoon, they had the best Eggs Benedict ever, and the lemon juice in the sauce gave it the zip it needed to cut through the richness of the eggs, ham, and hollandaise. We added the juice of about two lemons to the sauce, grilled the ham on the stove, poached a couple of eggs (*pro-tip, add a little white vinegar to the water to keep the eggs from separating), and combined them together!
How was your weekend Foodie Friends? Hope you enjoyed quality time with your family and mommas! Sound out in the comments below or let me know suggestions of your favorite Mother’s Day brunch foods. As always, feel free to like, comment, and share 🤗
6 Comments
Thank you for a wonderful Mother’s Day! ❤️
Love you 💜
My mother made a mean Hollandaise sauce. She used reconstituted lemon juice about 1 teaspoon. Like the addition of vinegar to water for egg poaching.
Bananas Foster is one of my Favs. The girls and I traveled to New Orleans to New Iberia a couple of years ago. First night there, we dined well. I purchased flambeau Bananas Foster right at the table just like they used to make at the Jefferson Club in Roanoke back in the 80’s. The girls loved it! For 10 days I ate at least one bowl of gumbo per day and we toured the Tabasco Company plant. I highly recommend a foodie trip
We took a class at the New Orleans Cooking school, too.
We did not just eat. Saw lots of friends and made some new ones, including a Lab retriever named Shugga. She is a champ duck retriever. Love Shugga!
Cathy
That’s awesome 😁 I’ve been to New Orleans two years in a row and I absolutely loved it, it’s a great foodie city! I have yet to tour the cooking school, but that will definitely be on my to visit list next time I go.
She actually cooked five recipes and we ate and brought the recipes home. Lasted about 3 hours
That sounds awesome!