109. Eggs Bechemel

I love that there are brunch cards in the DiS! set. Why? Because when else is it socially acceptable–nay expected!–to start drinking at noon? Only at brunch! Well, and also maybe at football tailgating, but that’s not in my wheelhouse.

I have spent many a Sunday over at Manny’s house, sipping sangria on his porch during one of our marathon-brunches (it was at one of these brunches that I unveiled the gelatin masterpiece that is Olive Wreath Mold). These are brunches that span multiple courses and go from 2pm to 9pm. There’s a reason why we call them Sunday Fundays.

I thought it was finally time for me to return the favor, so I served up #109 Eggs Bechamel for Manny and Claire.

On Saturday night I made the compote, hard-boiled the eggs, and defrosted the bacon.

The compote was really easy. I soaked the dried fruit (a lovely assortment of pineapple, apricots, papaya, prunes, dates, apple) in hot water for an hour and then put it in a saucepan with orange juice, lemon juice, sugar, water, cinnamon, and clove and let it cook down and down and down and down and down until it was all kinds of sticky and syrupy. I then put it in the fridge to chill.

I liked the compote. I actually ate the leftovers for breakfast that week. It was great on oatmeal.

Early on Sunday morning, I put together the eggs. I made the dish ahead of time so when Claire and Manny arrived, I would just have to pop it in the oven.

I have finally gotten good with cream sauces. Amiright? Look at that Bechamel! I am a sauce boss (more like a saucy bitch).

According to #109, the accompanying brunch cocktail was a Silver Fizz or apple juice. I have made a Silver Fizz before. It was interesting, but it didn’t knock my socks off. Check it out HERE. The ingredients are as such: gin, powdered sugar, lemon juice, egg white, and seltzer. And it’s a bit labor intensive. So I did my own half-assed version of the Silver Fizz.

I call it a Seven Fizz.

It is gin with lemon juice on ice. Topped with 7-Up. You got all of the Gin Fizz flavors (without the egg) with none of the fuss. I liked it a lot. Manny doesn’t do gin so he and Claire brought OJ and many, many bottles of sparkling wine. Mimosas for everyone!!!

So, once everyone had a drink, I made brunch. Which was basically me just heating up some stuff since I did everything ahead of time (I am a brilliant, brilliant hostess…..sometimes).

I went with just bacon because it’s what I had in the freezer–and I baked it on a rack. So much better than pan-frying–less grease, the bacon is more evenly cooked, it’s hands-off (which is great because I was making other stuff) and the bacon looks so much prettier!

It wasn’t a big deal that the bacon cooks at 400 and that the eggs were supposed to bake at 350—I had the eggs sitting in the fridge pre-assembled so that worked out JUST FINE!

In the final moments, I threw some tomato slices in the broiler (eggs and bacon kept warm in the oven) and toasted the bread–I had regular ol’ white and some rye.

Here it is in all its deliciousness:

109. A complete success! I didn’t do too bad with the recreation, right? And it was tasty, too. And! Nowhere near as heavy as I thought it would be, with all that butter and cheese and milk. It was perfect. And, well, I can’t say a single bad thing about bacon.

Actually, I mixed together my eggs and bread and bacon and tomato and it was a lot like a Turkey Devonshire or a Hot Brown. Speaking of the Hot Brown–last month I had my first at the actual Brown Hotel in Louisville where the famous sandwich was invented. And what a sandwich it was! Dee-lish! I was so happy to have one ever since I saw it on Rick Sebak’s Sandwiches You Will Like.

This sandwich was amazing. And the Brown Hotel was a lovely historical hotel. And when I say historical, I mean historical. When my mum and I were there, the hotel was in the midst of hosting a some sort of Revolutionary War society convention. So there were guys everywhere dressed like they fell out of Colonial Williamsburg and the lobby pianist was playing nothing but patriotic tunes.

So after our delicious brunch, what did Manny, Claire and I do? We took the party over to Manny’s for wine and dinner! Why? Why not? SUNDAY FUNDAY, bitches!

And just a heads-up–me and some of my other retro bloggy friends are gearing up for the Vincent Price Halloween Cookalong! Steel yourself for some culinary delights by one of the scariest men in the history of Hollywood.

SOON.