September 2

I cooked brunch for 12 people this weekend. It was my first time ever cooking for such a large number and I was pretty excited about the whole thing. My goal was to prepare dishes that weren’t too difficult to make in the first place and would just require heating up when it was time to eat. I definitely didn’t want to be cooking eggs to order (who would?). I went with this rosti for the potato element, and these corn tortillas for something approximating lunch and a salad in one, for the sweet element I went with a yogurt parfait. Most of the people I was serving don’t really like eating sweets so I thought that yogurt, fruit and granola was a healthy, sweet alternative.

I had a few requirements for this parfait: 1) That the granola would be crunchy and crispy. I make a lot of granola and granola bars (that I really love) but they are on the crumbly side. While they could be easily sprinkled over the parfait, I wanted something with some texture and bite to it. Coating nuts with granola seemed like the answer to my texture requirement. 2) That there was a few textures of fruit. The berries on the top of the parfait are fresh and delicious, but spooning soft peaches that are swimming in their own, sweet liquid over yogurt is a whole other story.

Overall, it was a great dish. People could pick and choose the parts that they wanted to eat and how much. The granola was the first thing people were snacking on when they arrived, before the rest of the food was ready. Even if you are not entertaining, it is worthwhile to make a big batch of granola and nectarines and use it for breakfast or a snack throughout the week.