Burning Question Buns & Brunch

Happy SpringTime! 

This weekend we had a very sweet little brunch-in-the-backyard with my parents - "just us chickens," as we say in our family. We aren't Easter people, per se, but we are definitely "any chance to get together" people! And so a brunch was convened! 

I made a nice little spread, and my mom brought over some of her cute spring-y decor items. I know it seems like a ton of food - ha ha - but my nephew was also supposed to come and couldn't at the last minute.

I made five glasses of freshly-squeezed orange juice with oranges from our very own tree! It was so good. Our orange trees have lots of oranges on them, but you have to be patient! I usually just wait until they fall off the tree, and save those until there are enough for some OJ!

Roasted Asparagus!! Asparagus is a must-have, of course! I got two big bunches at the farmers market, and Googled "how to roast asparagus." I think maaaaybe I've roasted asparagus before but, geez, I'm in love!! It was super easy, took about 12 minutes, and they were delicious!!! Definitely my new go-to method.

I also made two kinds of breakfast sausage links: Field Roast and Beyond Meat. None of us had ever tried the Beyond Meat links before. We all agreed that we preferred the look and texture of the Beyond Meat links, but the Field Roast links had better flavor. So, I'll probably stick with Field Roast, because, in the end, flavor wins.

And fruit salad, cuz ya gotta have it! 

Burning Question Buns! 

I am a true fan of Hot Cross Buns, but the cross never really reflects my belief system. Delicious fruity buns certainly do though! So, Mr. VE&T had the excellent idea to put big question marks on the buns!! YES. At first, we called them Hot Question Buns, and Agnosti-Buns, but then Mr VE&T came up with BURNING QUESTION BUNS. Excellent. Finally, I feel seen by my holiday baked goods.

  

My plate of deliciousness. Don't be fooled, I totes went back for more. 

I have these cute little Peter Rabbit napkins left over from a baby shower - which was co-incidentally the very last gathering we held before covid changed everything! Perfectly appropriate for Easter-y celebrations! 

My mom even brought over a little Smurfette dressed up as the Easter Bunny, back from my days as a smurf-collecting kiddo. I used to be SERIOUSLY into Smurfs. Ha ha. See my cute plate with a bunny on it? I have four of them, and in each one, the bunny is holding something different - a strawberry, a carrot... they're so cute. I literally use them once a year. ha ha. 

We had a really long and lovely visit together with my parents. My parents are both vaccinated now, and I even got to sit next to my mom on our little patio sofa. Ahh. Such a sweet and tender joy. We talked and talked about a million things, laughed, ate, and relaxed. It was all quite sweet. You know how it is... we just don't take anything for granted these days. 

The jasmine in our backyard is going gangbusters. At night, it smells especially amazing. 

Shaggy Chunko is such a good boy and we have been walking them at a place where the grass is tall and green right now. Shaggy loves to run through the tall grass and stop for a nibble or two. Also, see the little white flowers - they're everywhere right now, and they're so sweet and delicate.

I hope you are able to enjoy springtime, and that you are finding some joy and support in all the greenery and blossoms and blue skies. 

-- Also! I have a funny question: I have at least 7-8 blog posts that I pretty much entirely wrote last year and never published... mostly because our scanner was busted and so I couldn't add doodles to my posts and that was enough to never finish them. Should I still publish them? I also have some overdue book reviews to write, so I will pledge to do that!