Sunday Suppers :: a Springtime Brunch

Our Lavish Brunch with superstar Chefs Marcey Brownstein and One Girl Cookies was a huge success! The menu was super fun and creative, and not to mention filling :) . Marcey started off by serving guests an amuse bouche (so snazzy!) : an egg custard baked in a hollowed egg shell topped with pancetta crisp. This was followed by a first course: a brioche french toast stuffed with mascarpone and marmalade. The second course: a winter salad of apple and fennel, topped with tea-poached salmon and a potato cake with a fennel seed vinaigrette. And for dessert, One Girl Cookies baked up a gorgeous butternut squash hazelnut clafouti with frangelico whipped cream and hazelnut praline crunch. And for anyone who still had any room, one girl served up some delicious chocolate, orange and pistachio cookies.




For our decor: we wanted to create an effortlessly chic tabletop, abundant with precious wildflowers and soft colors. We collected medicine bottles, on ebay, etsy and such and called upon our fave florist, Jessie from Rountree to create these gorgeous arrangements. Jessie also created a beautiful oval wreath to hang over the table, adding just the right amount of warmth and comfort. Our table linens were a basic white, topped with a runner made from french grainsack material. And the menus and papers were designed by the uber talented Viola from Chewing the Cud (stay tuned for more on Viola's paper goodies soon). Let us know what you think and come back and visit for recipes and photos all week.





Credits/Contributors:
Photography + Styling :: Karen Mordechai
Guest Chefs :: Marcey Brownstein Caterers and One Girl Cookies
Flowers :: Rountree
Custom Stationary :: Chewing the Cud

Recipe :: Jam Butters and Buttermilk Biscuits

These are the easiest, fluffiest, yummiest biscuits. Make them once and you’ll never forget them.
And the butters...Oh baby- the butters! These will be the simplest things you ever make and they will knock the socks off of your guests. Make sure the butter is at room temp so they’ll incorporate properly. Also, use any brand or flavor of jam you like. Take it one step further by using French or Danish butter. Trust me- you’ll notice the difference.

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see recipes below
All Photography by Karen Mordechai








Biscuits
1c unbleached all-purpose flour
1c cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbl turbinado sugar
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp kosher salt
8 tbl cold butter
¾ c cold buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In a food processor, combine all dry ingredients. Pulse to aerate. Cut cold butter into ½ inch cubes and scatter over the flour mixture. Pulse 12 times. The mixture should look like cornmeal. You should still be able to see pea sized pieces of butter. Dump the mixture into a medium sized bowl and add buttermilk. Mix swiftly until just combined. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop biscuits onto a baking sheet. Do this quickly so as to keep the mixture as cold as possible. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve warm with jam butters.

Copyright © 2009 by Casey Solomon

Butters
3 sticks of room temperature unsalted butter (8oz each)
4-5 tbl each: strawberry, apricot, blueberry jams

Mix one stick of butter with one type of jam. You can do this by hand or with an electric mixer. Put in a ramekin or place in wax paper and roll to a log. These will keep for a week.

Copyright © 2009 by Casey Solomon