Leah and I don’t entertain that often, so when we do it’s still quite a process. We’d been talking for months about having a couple of the neighbors over for brunch, and the date finally rolled around this past weekend. The menu included pear ginger muffins and feta tomato quiche. I’d never made either, but they turned out OK, I thought. There were no negative comments from our guests, but then I wouldn’t expect any.
I did wimp out and use a store-bought Pilsbury pie crust rather than make my own for the quiche. I’ve never ventured much into dough past pizza crust, and I wasn’t about to try a new recipe for a group of hungry friends…just in case. The Pilsbury product was fine, though I probably could’ve wrapped a little foil around the edge of the crusts to keep them from browning too much. Live and learn. Next time I’ll try making my own crust, which I hear isn’t nearly the daunting process I’ve built it up to be.
The shindig was at 10:30 on Sunday, and rather than run around that morning trying to get the muffins and quiche together, Leah and I decided to bake the muffins on Saturday night after we got home from a show we attended. I’m not saying that was a mistake, but we didn’t make it to bed until just after 1 a.m. Ava then decided to get up at 3 a.m. and nurse, so it wasn’t exactly a night of uninterrupted rest.
I thought the muffins, in particular, turned out well. They were nice and moist in the middle and had a little crunch to them on top. They also contained enough fat to keep us all warm against the bitter wind outside. One of our guests brought a nice fruit salad, and the other brought a bowl of pomegranate seeds and OJ for the mimosas (we supplied the El Cheapo sparkling wine from Hy Vee, an extra bottle of which still resides in the fridge). The pomegranate seeds were a wonderfully tart topping for the salad of grapes, banana, and pineapple.
It was a nice time. It was especially good to feel like we’d finally made good on our promise to have folks over to the house for a visit. Alas, our tree wasn’t decorated for the event, but it is up and decked out now. Look for fancy time-lapse shots of it in an upcoming post…