Valentine's Brunch

It was a rough week for party planning. Nothing was coming together or working out for my Valentine's Brunch. It started with my trial run of mini pies that failed, followed by a crisis with the place settings, and failed homemade caramels. Despite all of that, the party came off without a hitch today. For decorations I used Valentine's paper and some red and white checked ribbon. With the paper I cut out hearts and hung them from twine (the same twine used for the Chili Cookoff).

For party favors we made turtles (unfortunately without homemade caramel) and put them in paper bags decorated with the same ribbon used for the place cards.

The food is what really stole the show. We served a potato spinach torte, cinnamon rolls, potato sausage, and strawberry peach Bellini's.

The potato spinach torte was great and was nice because we were able to make it the night before. The Househusband made the best pie crust anyone at the table had ever had. It was very flaky and perfectly browned when it came out of the oven. When he told my mom and grandma that it was made with butter instead of oil or shortening their jaws dropped. It was just about the craziest thing they had heard of when it came to pie crust. If you too feel like being a rebel, below is the recipe.

Pie Pastry

2 1/2 Cups All purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 T sugar

2 sticks cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2" dices

6 to 8 T cold water

In a food processor combine the flour, salt, and sugar until combined, about 5 pulses. Add the butter and combine until it resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Add 6 tbs cold water and pulse twice. The dough should hold together when you squeeze between your fingers but not be sticky. If it is sticky, add more water 1 tbs at a time pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough onto a work service and divide in half. Shape into disks and wrap tight in saran wrap. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

We were also able to assemble the cinnamon rolls the night before. (And when I mean we I mean the Househusband). Since it was a brunch and we were serving several things, we made them about half the size of regular cinnamon rolls.

We bought the potato sausage from Sappington Farmer's Market. http://www.sappingtonfarmersmkt.com/ Sappington sells meat from local farmers. We buy pork there from Todd Geisert Farms in Washington, MO. http://www.toadspigs.com/

Finally, for the Bellini's I had peaches and strawberries in the freezer we had put up last summer. I took about 4 cups of fruit and pureed it with 1/2 cup of sugar. I combined the fruit with a bottle of champagne in a pitcher.

It was a great morning with my family. Below are a couple of pictures of my family.

Lastly, my brother said he would only come to the party if he got major face time on the blog. So here he is!

I'm off to Vegas in the morning on a 7:15 flight (yikes!) I have lots of parties planning to do in March which I will get to after a week of Viva La Lucy!