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brunch time how to host a brunch  by Yee-Fan Sun | 1 2 3 4

Brunch foods are some of my favorite eats in the world, and just about every weekend, I'll make up some sort of a special breakfast-lunch treat for me and the boy. As I'm lying in bed late on a Saturday or Sunday morning, lazily contemplating my day, I'll start dreaming about pancakes and crepes and muffins, scrambled eggs and eggs-in-a-basket, sausage and bacon and breakfast burritos. But with just two of us living in this apartment of ours, the decision soon has to be made: I can make one, maybe two, of these tasty edibles, while the rest will simply have to wait for some other time.

This, of course, is a perfect example of why when it comes to eating, it's almost always better when you're sharing it with more people. Brunch for two is maybe a fifteen-minute indulgence in a stack of fluffy pancakes, a way to appease the munchies and get on with the rest of your day. Brunch for eight, however, gives you the perfect excuse to make muffins and quiche, sausage and bacon, as many of the fab breakfast goodies as you'd like, since you're cooking for more people and planning to linger over your food for a longer period of time. It's such a pleasant way to spend a weekend morning or afternoon that it's a shame we don't brunch with friends more often.

Sure, every once in awhile, you'll make plans to meet up with your pals at some trendy eatery that serves brunch on weekends. But inevitably the place doesn't take reservations, and you get there just as the brunch rush sets in, and by the time they find you a table, which is probably too small to comfortable accommodate your group anyway, your stomach is so hungry it's starting to auto-digest. So instead of meeting up at some restaurant for Eggs Benedict or waffles, skip the long lines and the high prices, and enjoy a brunch feast and great conversation chez vous instead.

decisions, decisions
People tend to associate brunch entertaining with big holidays and hordes of people, and certainly, brunch offers a great excuse to gather a crowd. But a small brunch can be just as fun. If you're thinking swanky and elegant, for instance, but don't want to spend forever fussing over your fete, then keeping the brunch guest list small will make your life a whole lot easier. Small brunches can also be a nice, relaxed way to catch up with busy friends -- while social butterflies might have their evenings booked solid from now until eternity, weekend mornings and early afternoons tend to be an underutilized time in twentysomething socializing, which means even the most time-strapped of folks will generally be free for brunch.

So think about how much space you have in your pad, how much noise and hubbub you actually like to have around you first thing on a Saturday or Sunday morning, what kind of food you're in the mood to cook, and how much energy you have to put into organizing the affair. Basically, a brunch can go big or small, hoity-toity or totally low-key; figure out what kind of affair you're in the mood for, and plan your guest list accordingly.

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