Host the best meal of the week–and still get your zzz’s

Brunch may just be the best meal of the week. But I know what you’re thinking: “I have to get up early to cook, and I can’t go out the night before. Right?”

Wrong! You can prep brunch the day or days before and you can still sleep in.

I love brunch for a million reasons: First, I love that the meal is leisurely. You can put the meal out in courses starting with cold items and work your way up to hot foods. This type of menu allows the host to enjoy time with guests and to attend the affair.

I also love that it’s two meals in one! I love eating off a well-rounded brunch menu. If you get in your carbs, protein, and veggies all at brunchtime, you don’t really need to eat much the rest of the day. How efficient is that?

Next, I’m a fan of getting the entertaining “thing” over with early in the day. Late night entertaining frequently has the host staying up into the wee hours cleaning up from the party. With brunch, you have time to clean up and still get out and enjoy the balance of the day.

And, then there’s the mimosa! Typically, I would never drink during breakfast and rarely during lunch, but somehow with brunch, all rules are off and the more elaborate the drinks, the merrier. Bring on the bottomless mimosa bar!

Caprese Skewers with Balsamic

The flavors of a Caprese Salad are a summer favorite.

Gorgeous, sliced tomatoes or cherry tomatoes paired with bouncy, mozzarella balls and surrounded with fresh basil leaves skewered together and drizzled with good quality balsamic and extra virgin olive oil and you have summer pleasure in a bite.

Assemble the caprese skewers the night before. Cover and store in the refrigerator. Before guests arrive, drizzle skewers with balsamic vinegar, good quality extra virgin olive oil, and a pinch of sea salt. Yum!

Breakfast Fruit Salad

This doesn’t require a real recipe. Purchase whatever seasonal fruits look best to you. I love sticking a color theme. Mixing red berries, pitted red cherries, red plums and chunks of watermelon make a gorgeous multi-textural salad. Have fun with this! Drizzle the fruit with fresh lime juice and a couple of tablespoons of simple syrup to make the flavors really pop. Assemble the salad the night before and store in the fridge.

Shakshuka

Shakshuka is a dish with North African origins, popular in Israel, consisting of eggs poached in a spicy sauce of tomatoes and other vegetables. Make-ahead shakshuka sauce makes an easy morning. Make the sauce a day(s) before your brunch and store, covered, in the fridge. The morning of your brunch, preheat the oven to 350F, heat the sauce in your skillet, and–before serving–crack the eggs in the sauce.

Extra virgin olive oil

1 red onion, sliced thinly

Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

1 red peppers, sliced thinly

1 poblano pepper, sliced thinly

1 jalapeno pepper, sliced thinly (optional)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 28-ounce container crushed tomatoes

8-10 eggs (depending upon the size of your skillet)

Pita for serving

Toppings: crumbled feta cheese, chopped kalamata olives, chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, cilantro leaves, za’atar

1. Heat a large skillet, lightly coated with olive oil, over medium-high heat. Sauté onion and peppers until peppers are softened, lightly charred, and have shrunken down a bit ( about 7-10 minutes). Add garlic, cumin, and coriander, and stir to coat peppers and onion with spices.
2. Add tomato paste and stir paste for a minute or two to char the paste and bring out flavor. Add crushed tomatoes, reduce heat to simmer, and cook for 15 minutes.
3. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. If you are serving shakshuka immediately, preheat oven to 350F and continue with step 4. If you are serving shakshuka the next day or in the days ahead, cool sauce to room temperature before covering and store in the fridge. Reheat sauce in a large skillet or casserole before cracking eggs into it.
4. Create an indentation in the sauce with the back of a spoon. Crack an egg into a small cup and slide the egg into sauce. (This method will keep bits of shell from getting into the sauce). Continue with remaining eggs.
5. Cook shakshuka in preheated oven until whites are set but yolks are still runny (about 10-15 minutes). You have some leeway here as the eggs will continue to cook in the bubbly sauce, so if you pull the pan out of the oven a bit early, you can allow the dish to sit, lightly tented with foil before serving.
6. Sprinkle with toppings and return shakshuka to oven for just a minute to char the cheese and warm the olives. Drizzle with great olive oil and serve with pita.

Boozy Challah French Toast

1 loaf challah, sliced into 1-inch-thick slices

5 eggs, whisked

2 cups milk

1 cup heavy cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Pinch of sea salt

2 tablespoons favorite liqueur such as Raspberry or Blackberry

Serve with whipped cream, maple syrup, and/or powdered sugar.

The night before

1. Grease a 9×13 casserole with butter. Fit sliced challah into grease pan. Whisk together eggs, milk, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and liqueur. Pour over challah. Cover with foil and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 425F. Bake covered in preheated oven for 20 minutes, uncover, and continue baking until browned and puffed, about 15-20 minutes.

Bottomless Mimosa Bar

The key to a fun Mimosa Bar is to have lots of options.

Brightly colored, labeled juices are a must. In the summer I like to have at least 4 juices in carafes, labeled, chilled, and lined up. I love serving–watermelon juice, strawberry, orange, and one wild card, like blackberry or blueberry juice. Whether store bought or homemade, the juices are brightly flavored, colorful, and tempting.

Add bowls of fresh fruit like berries, chunks of watermelon, pineapple, and other fruits.

Finally add the chilled sparkling wine. No need to spend big bucks here. Since you are mixing the wine with juices and fruit, the flavor is not super important. I like to use Cava (Spanish sparkling wine) or Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine).

For planning purposes, if you use champagne flutes, you can usually get 6 mimosas from a bottle of sparkling wine and each guest will drink 2-3 mimosas.

Laura Frankel is a noted kosher chef, a cookbook author, and Culinary Director for a media company. Currently, she serves as Director of Catering at Circle of Life catering at North Suburban Synagogue Beth El.