Spring is... still springing!

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Spring is being a bit coy around these here parts.  One day it's sunny and gorgeous, and the geese are parading their fluffy babies all over the canal:

And the next day, we're having friends over for brunch, doors flung wide open to let in the... oops, and now it's pouring.  But at least the food was a hit!

This was my first time hosting brunch, other than a pitcher full of Bloody Mary and scrambled eggs on my parents' deck in SF, and I kind of went all out.  I really didn't want to be rushed, so nearly everything we served had an element of make-ahead.  The main dish was SK's baked french toast, with Deb's to-die-for spinach quiche to balance out the sweet, and then, to add a bit more sweetness back in, my first-ever olive oil cake.  Sides were streaky bacon, salad, and sliced melon.  Oh, and of course we had a big pitcher of extra-spicy Bloody Mary and orange/grapefruit mimosas.  It was quite a spread, so big it didn't quite fit in one photo:

As for the cooking/baking, it went surprisingly smoothly.  Of course, there were those moments, like when I realized that it wouldn't actually be all that easy to just chop up our frozen (unchopped) spinach:

Or when my premade pie crust slid down inside the dish when I tried to pre-bake it, or when I realized I'd put the ingredients for the olive oil cake in in the wrong order, or when we ran out of space in the cake pan... But in the end, we did all right, and having that overflow cake batter meant we got to test the final product before the brunch, since we were saving the big cake for the day of!

And it was seriously delish.  Moist, fluffy, and not too sweet, which made it just perfect for breakfast!  Oh, and it dressed up real pretty too!

In all, I'd say it was pretty successful.  And of course, the company was stellar, which is the most important thing anyway!  Well, that and the french toast, which I personally thought could have been baked a bit longer, but I didn't hear any complaints:

* I'm feeling a bit lazy today, so for the recipes, click the links above!  Sorry...