I work on Sundays, so my brunching has really been curtailed (wah wahh! My life is haaard!). Luckily, I have wonderful friends who can pull together the best brunches ever. I’m not a huge fan of going to restaurants with large parties (though of course there are some notable exceptions – hello, family-style!), and staying in means you can really linger over food. Which is exactly what we did last Saturday.
We had an amazing fruit spread with strained yogurt, two very amazing sweet treats, and a lot of meat. A lot of meat. Really, this brunch was inspired by the deservedly-popular newish meat and drinks restaurant in the city. I would like to keep up my not-waiting-for-a-table streak, but I’m pretty sure this place is only going to get more popular this summer. Anyway, I tried to recreate the Hot Date, a lavender, date, and gin drink. This is hard because I didn’t have any date syrup. But, an amazing, brunch-appropriate concoction worked itself out anyway!
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 3 tablespoons lavender
- berry juice (I used Black Currant Cassis)
- soda water
- gin (use a shot glass to measure it, it’s brunch!)
Boil the water, sugar and lavender until the sugar has dissolved. Let the syrup cool, then mix a shot of gin with a splash of juice, a tablespoon or so of the syrup, and a bit of soda water. Refreshing!
We had tonnes of delicious food, baked french toast and upside-down plum cake, and it really goes without saying that we had two types of bacon. I definitely regret not taking a picture of Paige’s meat treat, which I can really only call “foot cheese” though I’m sure it has a real name.
The food is all pretty, but I am kind of wishing I took some pictures of my even-prettier friends. Oops!
descent into dessert 