Mother's Day Brunch

My mom's one request for Mother's Day was that she not have to decide what to eat, nor cook. So my sister Addie and I shouldered the culinary duties for the day, which we decided to pare down to 2 meals: brunch and dinner. Dinner would just be my family, but we had my grandparents and some cousins over for brunch. The larger quantity of food required wasn't so intimidating as the fact that I would be cooking for both my mother and my grandmother – the best cooks I know and the source of most of my kitchen wisdom. All my best recipes are theirs, and they make them better. I took a two-pronged approach to compensate for my third-generation handicap: frittatas and scones.

Frittatas (my dad's idea) are something my mother never makes, but they're pretty easy, and my roomies and I pulled off a pretty good one for brunch earlier this semester. And it turns out I had a secret weapon in the kitchen: apparently Addie is a frittata master. What I didn't have was time to go to the grocery store, so these were whatever-is-in-the-fridge frittatas. Because my mom's fridge is like a grocery store, that meant one kid-friendly swiss-bacon-potato frittata and one feta-zucchini-asparagus-tomato frittata (we used goat feta, which I wholly recommend trying.) Luckily my aunt and uncle raise chickens down the road, so acquiring another dozen eggs at the last minute wasn't a problem. As a bonus, truly farm fresh eggs have enormous, bright orange yolks that gave the frittatas a beautiful golden color. Lacking frittata pans (something that's both stovetop and oven safe, like a cast-iron frying pan) we took the rubber handles off my mom's enormous aluminum frying pans to make some. They worked great and both frittatas were delicious (although the veggie one was first to disappear.)
To make a Frittata: Simply sauté the fillings you're using in the frittata/frying pan with a little olive oil until softened and/or browned. (Cook things like bacon or asparagus beforehand.) Beat the eggs with salt and pepper. (We used a dozen per frittata, but most peoples' frying pans aren't that large.) Pour the eggs over, and let set, lifting the edges occasionally to let uncooked egg flow underneath. Sprinkle with cheese and cook until bubbling and somewhat set around the edges. Then throw it under the preheated broiler until set in the middle. Voilà!

My second prong of attack was scones, which my mom used to make all the time. I'd gotten her recipe and made them for Nick and the roomies a couple weeks ago, with frozen blueberries I'd stolen from the freezer at home. (More on our perennial stash of frozen blueberries later.) They were pretty good, but I thought they could be improved upon. Specifically, I wanted to flavor the batter somehow. So for mother's day I decided to make orange scones, and bought an enormous bag of organic Valencia oranges to zest (this part I did plan ahead.) Then Nick, in a rare moment of culinary genius (no offense; he makes good sandwiches) suggested I make cranberry orange scones, which I thought sounded like a brilliant idea. Luckily, my grocery store of a freezer had some cranberries in it. Finally, I decided to finish the scones with an orange glaze. It made them a lot sweeter, so it might not be the best thing for an early breakfast, but at 11:30 it was a nice touch that eliminated the original scones' need for jam (in my opinion.)

We rounded out the meal with a mixed greens salad and had strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert. To drink, mimosas (which are fantastic with fresh-squeezed Valencia orange juice) and coffee (which is always fantastic.)

Cranberry-Orange Scones

I wish I could put my mother's original recipe for "British Scones" here; it's illustrated with the most adorable little scones and a pot of tea. But I don't have a scanner, and it's a bit lacking in instructions anyway. (She writes recipes only decipherable by people with a great deal of "kitchen intuition," fairly common in my family but something I'm still working on.) So here's my version:

For Scones:
4 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter, very softened (if it's not warm out, microwave it)
2 Tbsp. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 cups Flour
2 Tbsp. Baking Powder
2 Eggs, beaten
1/2 cup Milk
1 Tbsp. Orange Zest (or more)
1 cup fresh whole Cranberries, roughly chopped (use a food processor)

For Glaze:
2 Tbsp. fresh-squeezed Orange Juice
Confectioners' Sugar
1 tsp. Orange Zest

To make the Scones

Preheat oven to 400º and lightly coat a large baking sheet with nonstick spray.

Cream the butter and sugar briefly until combined. In a separate bowl mix salt, flour and baking powder. Mix into butter/sugar until combined. Add eggs, milk and orange zest and mix just until almost combined, then fold in cranberries until combined. (Use your hands.)

The dough will be very thick and sticky. Form it into a ball, more or less, and let it sit in the bowl for 2 minutes.

Lightly flour a wooden cutting board. (If you don't have one, lightly flour something else flat.)

Place the dough on the board (it should be less sticky now) and pat it out until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough into 6 or 8 wedges (like a pizza) and gently place them on the baking sheet.

If not using the glaze, it's nice to sprinkle the scones with some sparkling sugar at this point.

Bake the scones 10-12 minutes, until puffed and slightly golden on the edges.

Let cool.

To make the Glaze

Pour the orange juice into a small bowl, and add confectioners' sugar, whisking constantly, until it's the consistency of... a glaze. Um, it should be slightly thick but still drip slowly off the whisk when lifted. "Use your judgment," as my mother would say. Whisk in the orange zest at the end.

Glaze the scones by pouring or drizzling the glaze on with a spoon. Let sit a few minutes, until the glaze has hardened enough to put them in an attractive basket. Use your judgment.