About a year ago, I asked around for a good, foolproof scone recipe.  I was directed to a packaged mix-  one from Trader Joe’s and one from a brand called Sticky Fingers that I found at Costplus World Market. They were good but not amazing. The packaged ones had too much of a baking powder flavor for my taste. I even added some of my own fruits and savory ideas, but could still taste it.

Kate was brave enough to make these scones for her brunch from scratch. How impressive. I can’t wait to try this recipe myself. 

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Brunch is one of the best meals to serve to a partially vegetarian crowd with minimal modification on your part. Nothing ruins my perfect, silky pureed soup more than having to substitute chicken broth with veggie broth. And yes, this may surprise you, as my love for bacon and meat is so strong, but I do not discriminate against friends that choose not to embrace meat.  I just segregate them into brunch parties. Just kidding. I plan to come up with some more veggie friendly dinner party ideas like souffles and casseroles.

This recipe is part of Kate’s summer brunch menu. She is a vegetarian so this was served with her vegetarian brunch meal (except for the bacon). If you want more protein, try adding ham or Canadian bacon to the frittata in the sauté stage.

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Kate Whittle-Utter is home from college for the summer and had contacted me about wanting to help me out on Wallflour. Though she claims to want to learn more and everything about food and entertaining, from the sounds of things in her brunch article and menu she planned, she already knows plenty!  I was very impressed that she even cooked for 20 people (with the help of some enthusiastic friends) which is no small task and had fresh waffles and scones made from scratch. Turns out we have a lot in common-  she’s a natural planner and spearheads social activities among her friends, oh and she’s a perfectionist.  

These days, I tend to only serve a meal for 8-10 people, but she gives some great tips on how to make it doable for larger crowds. The overflowing crowd brings to mind my attempts of entertaining in my 20’s. One major problem I still have in my 30’s is keeping the guest list and invitees manageable both for financial and spatial reasons.  If there is one thing I have learned from a career in the commercial arts, you can’t please everyone all the time.  Besides, it kinda blows my cover when I post about a fun party I just hosted.  

Stay tuned for more ideas from Kate for “Entertaining in your 20’s” and vegetarian food ideas.

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I am a perfectionist. I come up with these overly extravagant fantasies of cooking and entertaining for my friends and family, and am constantly and inevitably disappointed. I am my own downfall. But, I am learning from it. Trying to make everything look perfect and planned is overwhelming and stressful. This summer I have taught myself to stay away from the Martha Stewart ornamentation that would keep any host hot glue gunning trinkets for hours, and to move back into a form of entertaining that is homey, easy and perfect for big groups of people.

A couple of weeks ago I hosted a summer brunch, along with my two friends Max and Lucas, for twenty of our friends. 

Summer Brunch Menu:

Portobello and sun dried tomato frittata

Spiced waffles with vanilla whipped cream

Fruit Salad

Blueberry scones

Banana nut chocolate chip muffins

Bacon

Orange and Grapefruit mimosas

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If you are anything like me, you cringe at the sounds of those two words together that conjure up visions of places like Chili’s or TGIFridays with their large onion batter dipped, fried monstrosity of an appetizer, manipulated into looking like a flower. The only time one should be eating food like this is when their judgment is severely impaired (from alcohol). That kind of eating deserves a blog of it’s own.

Summer is the perfect time to get your hands on some zucchini blossoms aka fiori de zucca. These beautiful orange flowers actually grow off the top of the zucchini and have been popping up  a lot on restaurants menus, especially Italian places, in the past couple years.  Personally, I love, love, love them. Stuffed, battered and fried, one usually can’t go wrong. It’s like someone on Top Chef using bacon as an ingredient. Nothing shocking here.

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This watermelon salad is a twist on a classic Greek Salad. The added burst of sweetness from the watermelon is so refreshing on a hot day.  Coincidentally, this month’s issue of Saveur Magazine is dedicated to watermelon. There’s a bunch of recipe ideas like curry watermelon and pickled watermelon. I can’t wait to try those, but for now, I thought I would take baby steps and make a somewhat familiar salad with an exotic twist. 

Admittedly, I thought I had gotten a small, seedless watermelon at the farmer’s market last weekend. In my haste to leave the crowded market, I was just happy to get my heaviest item towards the end of my visit. As I cut it open, I was pleasantly surprised by the bright yellow fruit and the black seeds. This was a beautiful sight despite having to de-seed the sucker. I looked it up in the issue of Saveur, and found out it was a “baby yellow”.  I think I can remember that name.  Oh and it tastes the same.  

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If you are a sucker for design-y hotels like I am, Hotel Healdsburg will satisfy your needs. Whenever I’m at a loss of places to stay, I look on Tablet Hotels and see what’s in the area of where I am headed.  We were torn between staying at Farmhouse Inn, Indian Springs Resort (Calistoga), and this place. The tricky part here was we needed a room that could accommodate 4 people and we went with the convenience of being in a small town and not as isolated, like our other options. 

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My dining experience at Cyrus Restaurant in Healdsburg, CA was a unique and tantalizing awakening of what dining out should be. Whomever is the mastermind behind the “build your own” prix fixe menu is an absolute genius. I suppose that would be the chef / owner Douglas Keane. Not only is this restaurant pushing the normal conventions of flavor combinations, somewhat Asian infused, they continued in their stalwart efforts by perfecting the complete dining experience.

I have only tried a very small handful of fine restaurants in my life. I tend to save going to those for special occasions or while on vacation. Since this was a special occasion for my friend Bethany’s pre-wedding girl getaway weekend, we did “Sonoma’s Greatest Hits”, Farmhouse Inn and Cyrus. We did good. The last thing one needs on a special occasion is a snooty, pretentious server. We experienced neither. It was welcoming, informative, professional and friendly service at every place we visited, from the sommelier to the server.  I was very impressed.

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