Happy Monday! I do hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day here in the US! I know I did! Of course I didn't rest, I threw a party instead! LOL! Yup..couldn't resist making alot of those Mother's Day Brunch Ideas I've been posting on our Facebook Page for the past two weeks. (www.facebook.com/thecherryontopevents) So here is a look at how ours turned out....

 We actually used a fabric remnant for our top tablecloth. Underneath was a plain white one that fell all the way to the floor with this beautiful yellow and white silky cloth over the top of it. It draped a few inches over each side. I simply adore the blue and yellow color palette so, since we already had the blue plates and glasses, I just added the yellow and white!

 We used different shades of cream to yellow roses from our own gardens. For mini centerpieces we used little mason jars with the center lid left out to make cute little vases for more flowers at each place setting.

 For our main centerpiece we used a pitcher for our vase! Very "French Country" feeling. When coming up with centerpiece ideas you want to look outside the ordinary vases and glassware and use items you wouldn't normally use for flowers. You can even use boxes or cans if you put a plastic container inside to actually hold the flowers and water.

 Brunch started out with these delicious fruit kabobs! Of course you can use any fruit you wish but we are berry people so I used raspberries, blackberries and strawberries and then filled with fresh pineapple (you can used canned chunks) and used grapes as a stopper on the pointy end.

 I'm just nuts for Caprese Salad! There is just something about the combination of basil, tomato, mozzarella, olive oil and balsamic vinegar that tastes SO good. I think I could have it every day! I made mini Caprese bites by skewering basil leaves with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella chunks onto toothpics and then drizzling them with the oil and vinegar...YUM!

 We have a few carnivores in our family so I had to get some meat on the table as well! I made these taco cups by rolling out canned biscuts and putting them into muffin cups. I baked those till they started to get golden brown and then added the already cooked taco meat that was mixed with grated cheese. I did have to push down the centers of the cups because they had puffed up a bit before I put in the taco meat. Finally I topped them with a bit more cheese and put them back in the oven to finish browning up. They were SO good my guys are asking for them to be served more often! LOL!

 The other hit was these Sausages in a Blanket. Same idea as pigs in a blanket only I used flattened biscuts and Brown & Serve sausages. One thing I did learn is that they want to roll apart while baking so either place them close together or secure with a toothpic so they don't open up too far. But they sure were GOOD!

 As I mentioned...we do have carnivores in this family so we also served a pound of Platter Bacon. Now my "secret" on cooking them is to place them on a broiler pan or onto a rack over a cookie sheet that has been covered in foil with a few slits knifed into it. Then I bake them for about 20 mins at 375, turning the bacon over about mid way. Your bacon turns out gorgeous and flat and evenly cooked without you having to stand over it and get splattered with hot grease! 

 I also made these little Quiche Cups. I used phyllo dough cups, you can get them at the grocery store already made up, instead of pie crust dough. I whipped together eggs, cream, chopped spinach, salt and pepper and grated cheese and used a scoop to fill up the phyllo cups. I then baked them at 375 till they puffed up and were golden brown.

 Finally I made up these little pancake stacks. Just make several quarter sized pancakes, stack and use a toothpic to hold them together and cover the toothpic with a berry...yup, that easy! We ate ours with syrup or berry jam. YUMMY!

 To drink we had these Strawberry-Banana smoothies along with Bellini's and Coffee. The smoothies are just 1 cup milk, 1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt, 1 banana, 1 cup frozen strawberries and 1 tsp sugar. Whip those up in a blender and serve with more berries! Of course you can make all of the dairy ingredients fat free if you wish...we always do.

We topped off our day with these mini cakes! One for each of the Mom's in our family. From the back left we have Tory's, then Krista's, then Mom's with the yellow rose, of course, and finally mine with little sweet peas on it. Just vanilla cake on the inside but they were SO good! When I say we topped off our day with these I mean we went to the movies after Brunch and had these after dinner that night! We were WAY too full from Brunch to even consider eating anything else for hours! LOL! You can find out more on how to make those over at the Cake Blog: http://catscakesblog.blogspot.com


By making our Brunch all "mini" foods we were all able to have a lot of different tastes all on one plate. This made it easier to feed a lot of different people who all have varying tastes.  We hope you consider this for your next Brunch!


See you next week!


Cat