The Make-Ahead Brunch

blueberry coffeecake -- yum!

Sunday after church, instead of traditional dinner food, I made a brunch, almost entirely ahead of time.

Here was the menu:

Sausage, Egg, Peppers, and Cheese Casserole

Grilled Tomatoes

Watermelon Cubes

Blueberry Coffeecake

And here's how I made it in advance: 

Saturday afternoon I browned the sausage, onions, and peppers and layered them with cheese and beaten eggs with seasonings in a buttered 8 X 8, then covered and refrigerated overnight.

I also baked the coffeecake on Saturday and mixed up a small dish of glaze to drizzle over it the next day. The baked coffeecake sat on the counter covered until Sunday.

While the coffeecake baked, I cubed some watermelon and stored it in the fridge in the serving bowl. And, I washed tomatoes.

It sounds like a lot of Saturday work, but it really wasn't. It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

Sunday morning, about an hour before we left for church, I baked the casserole. After taking it out of the oven (just before walking out the door), I covered it with foil. I also cut the tomatoes into halves, oiled the skillet, and drizzled the glaze over the coffeecake.

When we returned from church, the casserole was still warm. I turned on the burner on the stove with the skillet and grilled the tomato halves while I changed out of church clothes.

The casserole and coffeecake were cut into squares, and the watermelon chunks were put on the counter. That was it. The grand total of cooking on Sunday was baking a casserole that was fully assembled, cutting foods into portions, and grilling tomatoes. That was easy enough and gave us a lovely meal.

As it turned out, the sun was shining and it was warm enough for sitting on the patio while we ate brunch. The skies were so blue and some of the leaves are beginning to change color. What a perfect early fall Sunday afternoon. We all lingered for about an hour after finishing. Clean-up was also a breeze.

My two daughters had some place they needed to be in the late afternoon and early evening. So it was just my husband and I for evening dinner. I pulled out the leftovers and we were good to go. Super easy cooking day for me.

So far for these large Sunday midday meals, I've made a pasta in tomato-sausage sauce in the crockpot, a roasted chicken baked the day before and reheated in the crockpot, and now an easy brunch.

One of the huge side benefits that I've discovered as a result of cooking a meal mostly in advance is that I've now come up with menus that I can use for holiday meals or other gatherings when we have family over. We already do a brunch on Christmas Day. I could easily make the brunch I made this weekend, swapping out tomatoes for more seasonal veggies, and watermelon for a pineapple, citrus, and kiwi fruit platter. As I did for this weekend's brunch, I could assemble the casserole, bake a sweet bread, and slice fruit the day before. Then on the holiday I would pop the casserole into the oven, grill or roast some veggies, then serve it all.

That was our brunch menu. What foods would you prepare for a Sunday brunch? Do you have any tried and true brunch dishes?