Brunch

It's the weekend tomorrow. I can't wait. I have a date with the Sister for brunch at Oriole Cafe (tentative, IF we manage to snag a table) on Saturday morning, (where they have the best coffee in town apparently) and to do some shopping after.

The Sis's girlfriends was over for brunch one weekend. We nibbled on some brie on crackers while prepping for the brunch. One of my Swiss girlfriend can make a really mean summer-ish vegetables salsa, which  I fell in love with straight after my first mouth. I got the recipe from her and has made it a couple of times since then. It's a really easy peasy salad/salsa to make and the colourful vegetables make the dish an extremely visual treat. I've included the recipe below as I find myself always losing it and having trouble looking for it again on my facebook wall where she posted it. It'll be good to place it on the blog so I can find it easily in future. ;)

Brunch plate - Poached eggs, toasted tomato bread, salsa, bacon and mushrooms.

What's brunch without some crispy bacon?

Gardenia's herbed tomato bread was surprisingly good. It was soft and pillowy, and after toasting, it tasted even better. Topped with gooey yolk from the poached eggs, or the crunchy veggie salsa, it was simply marvelous. We don't like fatty bacon, so we got lean bacon without all that fatty bits (which I always end up picking out and dumping anyway) and I must say mushrooms and bacon are a good match. We also brewed a pot of jasmine tea to go along with brunch. Just becos a cuppa tea is always good yeah? 

We were supposed to end off brunch with some waffles and ice cream. I've never operated the waffle machine before, and silly me didn't grease the waffle machine before spooning the batter on top of it. Let's just say it wasn't a pretty scene and leave it at that... Instead, Sis used the waffle batter to make pancake-lets instead and we managed to salvage the situation. ;)

A bite of tomato bread topped with salsa? Mmmmmmmm.

Simple salsa recipe

2 medium tomatoes

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

1 Japanese cucumber

1/2 onion

bunch of parsley

1/8 cup olive oil

1/8 cup vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1. Remove all the seeds and squashy innards from tomatoes and cucumbers. Chop into small cubes. 

2. Remove seeds from bell peppers. Chop into small cubes. 

3. Dice the onion.

4. Place the above chopped vegetables into a big bowl. Pour vinegar and olive oil over and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I sprinkled some dried herbs too because I felt like it, feel free to add fresh basil or oregano or rosemary.)

5. Finely dice the parsley, add into the mixture and give it another few stirs. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes for the flavours to mingle. Serve.