Bar Mitzvah Brunch Ideas

November 8th, 2009 by Hannah

Fancy Vegetable Platter

Reader Terry is making a Friday dairy buffet brunch for about 25 people in her friend’s home, for bar mitzvah guests coming in from out of town. She doesn’t want to duplicate the bagel and lox brunch planned for Sunday, and asked for ideas for items that can be cooked ahead of time.

First of all, this is a really thoughtful thing for Terry to have offered her friend.

Here is my suggested menu plan. It involves a limited amount of items that Terry will have to prepare herself. She may want to enlist paid or volunteer help with preparing the vegetables.

A double recipe of Marcy Goldman’s Quiche-In-A-Loaf. Rich with a lot of ingredients but festive and no need to roll out a crust. Make it on Thursday or even Wednesday and keep in the fridge. Then you can freeze any leftovers.
Fresh crusty rolls or bread, crackers.
Two vegetable platters.
Two fruit platters.
Pasta or quinoa salad, lasagna, or another starchy dish.
Two to three spreads, like chumus, eggplant, egg or avocado salad.
Cold and hot drinks.
One or two cakes. They can be cut, frozen and defrosted the morning of the event.

If Terry isn’t on a tight budget, she could serve a cold whole salmon like I enjoyed at a bar mitzvah kiddush yesterday. No one will object even though lox will be served on Sunday. Another option is a platter of cheese or salted fish. Vegetable platters will be served Sunday too, presumably, but as they will be catered they will look different. I wouldn’t worry much about this, especially since you are first.