Happy December Fry Friends,
I’ve got to admit, this year, I’m really feelin’ the holiday spirit.
When I think about the holiday season, it isn’t long before I think about Christmas mornings growing up. I mean, when you’re a kid, that’s where the magic is, right? The tree all lit up. All that anticipation. Presents!
When I was a kid, brunch was a big Christmas morning tradition for my family. After my brothers and I woke up my parents, we’d smell the coffee brewing right away. We had to wait (not so patiently) while my mom made hot cocoa for my brothers and I to drink as we opened gifts. After the gifts were open, and my brothers & I were marveling at our new goodies, Mom would retreat to the kitchen to get started on brunch.
She cracked eggs and whisked them, getting ready to scramble as many as we could eat. She’d heat the oven, baking both cinnamon rolls and bacon while she went back to the stovetop (usually to cook up a stack of french toast). She’d prep some of the food for dinner while tending to a pan of what she always called her “damn good potatoes.” That’s how she always referred to them, “my damn good potatoes;” small, thin sliced spuds, sautéed with bite-sized peppers and onions, that were (as far as I can remember) seasoned generously with salt, pepper and garlic. And they were damn good.
By around 10 o’clock, she was calling for us to “clean up the living room before Vin and Mary get here!” Vinny and Mary were our elderly neighbors who came over for brunch every Christmas, before they went to spend the day with their family and grandkids and before we reset our house, getting ready to welcome our extended family for Chrstmas afternoon and a big dinner.
And that was our holiday tradition. Over the years, brunch became the “friends and neighbors” part of the day, and grew slowly, and my mom invited non-family (and sometimes we had some kid-friends come over) to have a little holiday time together. Every Christmas, my favorite part of the day was in those first few hours. And it’s still the part that stands out the most to me when I think about the holidays.
Brunch holds a special place for a lot of people, including my work wives Lizzie and Alex.
There is so much available to the palette at brunch that just isn’t always welcome on our plates at other times of the day! But why?!
The three of us had been dreaming all summer about ways to brunch-ify our poutinerie menu. The result of this dreaming is our Holiday Brunch this Sunday.
It might sound corny, but one of the reasons I’m excited about this Sunday’s brunch is because I really like watching Liz and Alex create a dish together. The two of them together are borderline magical. The whole process goes so quickly! They start with one little “we should” and before you know it, there’s scribbles everywhere and a whole outline/game-plan/shopping list (and even some test items on-the-fly).
And sometimes, they let me chime in with my hungry-girl-commentary
“Oooo. Hey guys- can we put cream cheese frosting on that?
“But what if it came with bacon and syrup too?”
What I’m saying is, this is a really fun job. I get to hang out with my friends. We get to dream up dope food to eat. And then, we get to share it with you. I am really loving this as a part of my holiday this year. And I’m hoping that maybe (just maybe) this brunch could become my new holiday tradition.
And you’re definitely invited.