In for Brunch with Mildred Pierce

To make the wait for Donna Dooher's new restaurant more bearable, my friends and I got together and had a Mildred Pierce potluck brunch where we made recipes from the Mildred Pierce Out to Brunch cookbook and watched the Mildred Pierce movie from 1945 that inspired the name of the restaurant as well as many of the dishes on the menu. It was a decadent feast that included:

• Champagne and orange juice


• Mrs. Biederhof's Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes


• Sunday Best Mac and Cheese


• Asian Pear and Fennel Toss Up


• Orange, Grapefruit, and Mango salad with Grand Marnier


• Side Bacon


• Back Bacon


• Assorted sausages


• New York Pecan Squares

My contribution was the Sunday Best Mac and Cheese, which (if I do say so myself) was delicious, but very labour intensive. Make sure you have a few hours set aside or make it over two days. And if you're looking for a smoked chicken, the Cheese Boutique has fabulous ones.

I think everything in the book was pretty time-consuming to make, which makes me appreciate the restaurant that much more. These recipes definitely require a lot of love and care. After peeling and shredding the meat from one smoked chicken for the Mac and Cheese, I gained an enormous amount of sympathy for prep cooks who might feasbily have to do this for a dozen chickens. Yikes.

Our brunch today made our last brunch at Mildred Pierce look like a light meal. I'm still full. And the movie was fantastic.