Wednesday 15 October 2008

O frabjous day!

BEST. PRESENT. EVER.

My gorgeous brother Buster, who has been living in Italy since January and has been painfully missed by everybody, almost gave me, my sister Birdie and my Dad all heart attacks on Saturday night when he walked into Mum and Dad's living room. In a top secret (and I mean REALLY top secret - none of the rest of us had the faintest inkling!) mission, Mum had arranged for him to fly back home for ten days to help celebrate Birdie's 18th and Dad's 60th. We are all over the moon that he's here!!

On Sunday morning we had a brunch with the Italian side of the family to celebrate the birthdays - I made Mum promise to drop hints in advance to Nonna and Nonno about our Special Guest Star from overseas, as I was worried that they could have ACTUAL heart attacks upon seeing him...

Nonna and Buster

Mum excelled herself and served up an epic three course brunch. First course was smashed lemony avocado on toast, accompanied by marinated Persian fetta and mushrooms (including a few porcini mushrooms) sauteed with thyme.

Smashed avocado, mushies and fetta

Second course was scrambled eggs on toast with a choice of either smoked salmon and dill, or fancy Otway bacon. I had the former, Bird had the latter. Mum gets her eggs from a woman she knows who gets them directly from her chickens - I'm always impressed by the vivid colour of her scrambles.

Scrambles and salmon
Scrambles and Otway bacon

Third course was the fruit platter, accompanied by a tray of Nonna's freshly made crostoli, which always go down a treat. The three courses were washed down with champagne, freshly squeezed blood OJ and strong espressi.

Fruit platter
Crostoli

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
I chortled in my joy. :)

4 comments:

Josephine said...

what a great post! the brunch menu had me drooling. your family sure knows how to throw a party.

Johanna GGG said...

what a great surprise - your mum's brunch looks as good as any of your posts from the fine cafes you frequent - but no doubt imbued with more love!

Anonymous said...

What they said, but also - sheesh your brother's a good sort ;)

claire said...

thanks for the kind words, ladies! alas he went back overseas today :_(