Mother's Day Brunch

In the last three years Mother's Day has become one of my favorite holidays.  

No, it does NOT have anything to do with my son turning 3 last month!

Just kidding. It totally does.

It has always held a special place in my heart, though.  I absolutely adore my Mom (Hi, Mom!!!) and Mother's Day - and holidays in general - were always day-long affairs.  We'd go to church and come home to a awesome dinner, and watch my mom open her presents.  (I may or may not have taken a break from writing this to order her present.  Amazon Prime, how I love thee...) Because of that, I always tend to get super excited about any holiday that comes around, and my boyfriend's family has learned not to complain because that means good food is coming their way! 

I love a brunch because the food is always a little fancier than everyday breakfast food and I feel like I'm able to appreciate it more because it's not 8 in the morning.  You can bet one or two of these dishes will be on our table this Sunday!

I saw this drink on Pinterest just a few days ago and knew immediately I had to feature it.  I went to follow the link and - horrors of horrors! It was a dead end.  That didn't phase me though, I stalked this drink and I am super excited to share it with you.  Melissa from Santa Barbara Chic puts together this Blackberry Basil Crush with just a few simple ingredients.  This would  be super easy to prepare in a big batch or you could do each drink to order - you know you want to show off your sweet moves with that cocktail shaker!

Photo credit: halbergphotographers.com

I think I found this drink on Pinterest too...I know it's been pinned on my board for a long time and this is the perfect occasion to show it off! Jes from The Pampered Jes come up with this fabulous Sarasota Lemonade that practically screams summer. I bet you could substitute pretty much any berry and it would be just as great!

One of my favorite blogs to read is Stephanie's A Year of Slow Cooking.  One of her friends, Jen, was inspired by her year long challange and took it to the next level: One Year of Cocktails.  She has an astounding collection of cocktails but this one caught my eye - Georgia Peach Cocktail.  Just a few simple ingredients and you've got the perfect cocktail for Mother's Day.

Brunch isn't brunch without something sweet and these Mini German Pancakes hit the nail on the head.  They are super cute and the best part? You bake these in the oven! Laura over at Real Mom Kitchen came up with these little darlings and offers several different ideas for fillings. That triple berry filling looks to die for, though!

True story about me - I love chocolate but given the choice between chocolate or caramel, I'll choose caramel.  Really, if I can have it MY way, I would just take a one pound box of the Chocolate Covered Caramel Marshmallows from See's but that's neither here nor there.  

Nicole over at The Jones Way has the simplest Sticky Bun Ring. Her trick? She uses those Pillsbury biscuits in a tube - you know the ones that almost give you a heart attack any time you try to open them? Yeah, those! She pops them into a bundt pan with some brown sugar, cinnamon, syrup, pecans, and almonds and tosses it into the oven.  Not much simpler than that! This would be super easy to do a few pans at once, which you probably will want to do!

True story time again: For the longest time I thought I had the most genius idea of savory french toast.  I just couldn't figure out how the heck to make a savory sort of syrup and goodness knows you can't have french toast without something to put on top! So when I decided to do this post, I thought I would take a look around online and see if anyone else had this idea as well, and apparently I am the last person to have thought of this.  Guys, I have never been so excited to be the last person on the bandwagon! These two recipes look amazing!

First up is Margy's Savory Gruyere French Toast.  She tops it off with an amazing garlicky mushroom butter sauce that sounds like the perfect accompaniment to the melty gruyere inside.  

Kristen the Food Renegade ups the the ante a bit by stuffing her french toast with Swiss cheese AND sausage.  I like the way this girl thinks!  Drizzled with some syrup, this Sausage & Swiss Stuffed French Toast hits on my favorite combination of sweet-savory-salty.  

Hopefully I've provided you all with some inspiration to treat the mom in your life - whether it be your mom, sister, a friend who's a mom, or the mother of your own kiddos! 

I personally want to say Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful Mother's that I know in my life - Let's celebrate, Mamas!