There was a period this summer where Nolan worked something like 13 days in a row. Working from home, this was hard on the both of us--he was exhausted and I was lonely. I'm so accustomed to having him around at his odd work hours that I wanted to make sure he knew how special that time we spend together is for me. So I had the idea to make a combo breakfast in bed and fireside dinner.
We pulled out the couch bed and watched an old movie and fell asleep with beer on our breath. I woke up an hour earlier and made breakfast. Assembled the pastries I had bought the day before, mixed a heavy-handed mimosa, sliced some fruit and cheese and made flipped pancakes. We ended up, stretched out and full, watching the Lion King.
It gets cold here at night, even when it's muggy during the day. So a fire in August still felt right. That night, when chores were done and we napped a couple times, I pulled the lawn chairs down and we burned some old cardboard boxes and broken branches. We killed off the pasties, the champagne. We had fruit and cheese and crackers. A few hard-boiled eggs and nothing else was needed. It's how we like to eat when we're prepared.
How to Make a Breakfast in Bed/Fireside Platter
Do:
- Buy pastries the day before instead of trying to make them
- Make sure the champagne and orange juice are chilled
- Have flowers available for a special touch
- Have a lap desk/tray so you're not balancing everything dangerously in bed
- Make the pancake batter the night before so you're not messing with it when you're tired and rushing
- Boil some eggs
- Save every leftover-even if a pastry just has a bite in it
- Give some condiment options in the evening - we had some mustard lying around that was perfect for this
- Transfer everything to a platter, nix the orange juice in the evening, kill off the champagne and add a few eggs for dinner!
Don't:
- Worry if not everything looks perfect--it's the thought that counts
- Forget to make coffee
- Forget to have back-up drinks once the champagne is done in the evening
- Try to get too fancy with dinner, it's more about snacking than anything
- Leave the platter out too long - take it out when you're hungry to stop flies from swarming
- Use any silverware for dinner; use your hands and even feed each other (I think we ended up having a grape catching contest over the fire haha)
- Litter when you're done! Take everything inside!
