Ladies Brunch

This last weekend the hubs was gone so I had some of my girls over for brunch.
Why don't we do this more often girls?  It was fun and great to catch up!
The girls asked if I would be blogging brunch.....I didn't take photos of my own, but I thought I'd share our brunch menu anyway.

Brunch was scheduled at 10:30 and my first question was is that too early for soup?
Nobody said no, so I made Shutterbean's Carrot Coconut Soup.

Via

In the first two lines of her post Tracy (Shutterbean) says, "I made this soup twice in one week. That’s how good it is".  She is SO right.  This is my third time making this recipe in about a month or so.  The Sambal Olek is SPICY.  On attempt 2 of making the soup I added a tad less than a tablespoon.  This time, I was heavy handed (oops) and the soup was really spicy.  I added an extra can of coconut milk to take it down a notch and that worked great.  (I should note that I doubled the recipe, so I used 3 cans of coconut milk instead of two).  I made the soup the night before the brunch and it held up perfectly and re-heated well.

I also made a green salad.  I don't know what my deal is honestly.  I make salad ALL the time and its always different and good, if I don't say so myself.  It is the #1 thing people ask me to bring to parties, you make good salad, they say (thanks people!).  After all that I don't have a single green salad recipe on my own blog.  So, here is how my salad went (you pick the measurements for how big you want your salad to be):

Green leaf lettuce, washed & torn
Swiss Chard, washed and torn
Celery, sliced
Orange Bell Pepper, chopped
Avocado, chopped
Craisins
Golden Raisins
Sliced Almonds
Sunflower Seeds

I made this Champagne Vinaigrette and used my Trader Joe's Orange Muscat vinegar.

Via

Last but not least, I made Gluten Free Cranberry Corn Muffins.  I used this cornbread muffin recipe and made the following changes:

Replace 1 cup all purpose flour with 1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour.
Use 2/3 cup of sugar (instead of 1/3).
Add 1 cup of fresh cranberries.
Cook as directed.

All in all this was a tasty lunch.  The sweet cornbread muffins with tart cranberry was a nice compliment to the creamy, spicy soup.  The salad made a good side for all the other good stuff we ate.  Most importantly, it was a fun day with the ladies.  Thanks ladies!

♥TCW