Brunch & Two Recipes

Last weekend my boyfriend's sister and her boyfriend were in town. We all wanted to get brunch together but couldn't decide on a place. Then it occurred to me that we should cook for them! We bought our new souffle dish while visiting them  and hadn't yet tried it out. Since souffle needs a reason, this seemed like a good one! Last time we made souffle, the dish we had wasn't big enough so we had to also use two smaller ramekins which was a hassle.

But this time we had the perfect vessel for souffle cooking! Look how perfectly it fluffed up and fit in the container! Yess!  We followed Julia Child's cheese souffle recipe.


In addition to the cheese souffle, brunch consisted of fresh fruit, lemon poppy seed French toast (made with the challah bread I baked last week), and Brussels sprout hash! It was incredible.


Today I'm going to share two of my favorite brunchy recipes, lemon poppy seed French toast and Brussels sprout hash. First up:

Lemon Poppy Seed French Toast.

Ingredients for about 4 servings:

• 3-4 eggs (depending on size)
• 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp milk
• Anywhere from 2 tsp-1 Tbsp poppy seeds (depending on what you prefer)
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 Tbsp lemon curd (this is totally optional but I love the taste it adds. If you commit to a jar of it though, you are going to have to make this recipe at least 4 times before it expires. How sad! If you don't want to buy lemon curd, add extra juice and maybe some lemon zest and/or marmalade)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice (or juice from one lemon)
• 6-8 slices thick cut bread (I use challah but anything would work)
• about 2 Tbsp butter

Mix eggs, milk, poppy seeds, almond extract, and lemon curd in a bowl. Slice up your bread. Mix in lemon juice (I save this for last because once I added it after only the milk was in the bowl and the milk started to curdle). Pour the liquid mixture into some kind of pan or flat baking sheet. Put the bread in the mixture and flip is so that each side is covered. Melt about 1/2 Tbsp in pan over medium heat. Cook french toast until golden brown and flip. Once the second side is golden brown, you're done! If your pan is small, add another 1/2 Tbsp of butter for each batch. 

Brussels Sprout Hash

• 1/2 package of grated frozen hash brown potatoes
• 1 package Brussels sprouts, washed, trimmed, and cut in half
• 1 yellow onion, minced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. canola oil or vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. lemon pepper
• 2 tsp. dried parsley
• salt and pepper, to taste (you might not need more pepper if the lemon pepper is enough)

Heat oil in a pan and add onions, garlic, and potatoes. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the potatoes start to turn golden brown, this might take up to about 10 minutes. I use a non-stick ceramic pan so that I can easily scrape up the delicious crunchy bits. Once the potatoes are looking extra delicious, add in the seasonings and Brussels sprouts. Cook for about 5 more minutes so that the Brussels sprouts can get tender, then enjoy! I always serve this with eggs of some sort.