For the past five years, my friend Krishna has hosted an epic New Year’s Day brunch. For four out of those five years I didn’t make it, as I typically observe NYD in my PJs and refuse to leave my couch. I finally attended last year and had so much fun that I didn’t resurface until about January 3rd (stealing my own joke from last year’s January recap!).

I have actually not stopped thinking about the food Krishna prepared for her party for the entire year. She served a Mushroom & Goat Cheese Strata, Crispy Roasted Bacon, Spinach & Artichoke Cups and Buttermilk Blueberry Cake. I think there was also an epic charcuterie board in the mix as well.

This year, having no plans for New Year’s Eve didn’t disappoint me at all (NYE is the most overrated holiday, I do not accept any other opinions on this), but I was super sad to not have Krishna’s brunch to go to. Instead, we scheduled a New Year’s Day FaceTime with Jen (and mimosas) and I decided I needed to recreate last year’s menu for my own personal NYD feast.

Krishna sent me the link to the Strata recipe which is from Epicurious. Strata is basically a savoury bread pudding or stuffing; you dry out some bread cubes, pour over a custard made of milk/cream/eggs, and in this case, add sauteed mushrooms, goat cheese and parm. It bakes up into a delicious puff, and gets nice crispy edges (I live for a crispy edge). The best part is that you have to make it in advance so it can sit in the fridge overnight; in the morning you just slide it into the oven. Perfect.

I also made myself some bacon, as well as the Buttermilk Blueberry Cake, but passed on the Spinach & Artichoke Cups (even though they were so good; picture Spinach & Artichoke dip in crispy little puff pastry cups). Everything was delicious and I ate the leftovers for about three days afterwards.

I just love a good brunch menu, and planning this out had me revisiting this post from Smitten Kitchen on how to host brunch and still sleep in. I cannot WAIT to host many, many boozy brunches in our post-vaccine world.

Mushroom & Goat Cheese Strata

Source: Krishna via Epicurious

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter + extra for buttering the pan
• 8 oz cremini mushrooms, washed and sliced
• 5 cups Italian or French bread, cut into 1″ cubes, dried out (set out at room temperature, uncovered, for around 24 hours)
• 1 1/4 cups milk (I used 2%)
• 3/4 cups half & half cream
• 3 eggs
• 2 garlic cloves, grated with a microplane
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
• 3/4 grated parmesan

Directions

1. Butter an 8×8 glass baking dish or casserole dish and set aside.
2. Melt the 2 tbsp butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat, then add the mushrooms and sauté until softened and starting to brown, about 8 minutes. Set aside to cool (or to speed this up, spread out in a single layer on a plate and stick in the fridge).
3. Add the bread to a large bowl, pour over the milk, stir and let stand for about 15 minutes.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream, eggs, garlic, salt and pepper.
5. To assemble, add half the bread in a single layer across the bottom of the baking dish. Top with half the mushrooms, half the goat cheese, half the parmesan and half the egg mixture. Repeat.
6. To bake right away, preheat the oven to 350° and bake for 60 minutes until puffed and golden. To make ahead, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 24 hours before baking.