Earlier this week I joined my friend Jordan on his Livestream for Project HOPE. Project HOPE is a renowned global health and humanitarian relief organization. Their lifesaving work addresses the world’s greatest public health challenges, transforming lives and uplifting communities. Currently, they are helping support COVID-19 relief efforts as well as relief for those impacted by the Beirut explosions.
About a week before the livestream, Jordan asked me what I was doing the following week and if I wanted to do a cooking livestream. I was like yeah, that sounds fun, sign me up, thinking that I would just be cooking along with Jordan. Little did I know, I would be the one hosting the cooking part. It’s been something my friends have been telling me to do for a while, and after several pep talks to myself, I agreed to do it. I told myself that I would say yes to more things even if I didn’t think it would be successful, and this time I was pleasantly surprised.
I asked the people of instagram what they wanted to see for the livestream. Overwhelmingly so, people voted for Eggs Benedict. There were also some other options, like hash, chilaquiles, shakshuka, and my sister wanted to see chicken fried steak (sorry sissy, maybe next time). So eggs benny was for sure on the menu, I love a good hash so I decided to try to make a hash that was similar to shakshuka and chilaquiles, ending up with almost deconstructed pozole. It’s hatch season so I decided for a verde pozole style hash, making some green chile pork to get me through the weekend before the big day. I also think brunch should incorporate something sweet, so I did a variation of monkey bread by using canned cinnamon rolls instead of biscuits.
With the food decided upon, it was time to focus on the drinks. Bloody Maria was a must – a traditional bloody mary but with tequila instead of vodka because I live in a tequila household. I also like to have a fresh blended drink so I made a peach frose, and to cap it all of we of course needed coffee so I made a maple bourbon creme cold brew coffee.
I placed a curbside grocery order once everything had been decided and that way I was committed to the menu. I did make a few things ahead of time, mainly the green chile pork by cooking the pork shoulder in salsa verde, chicken stock, with ground cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper low and slow during the day on Friday so it would be perfect for Sunday. I also par boiled the yukon gold potatoes and then smash and roasted them in the oven to be crispy ahead of time so everything in the hash was already cooked except the eggs. Prep as much as possible before big food days to save your own sanity.
And now for the big day.
I had strategized all week for how this was going to go – initially telling Jordan that I only wanted to cook for 30 minutes and that was it. Who’s nervous laughing now? The livestream was almost an hour and a half.
I woke up early-ish for me on Sunday and started prepping my sheet trays. For big events, I like to map out in advance what ingredients I need and what materials I need to help keep me organized and on schedule. For this even, I paired each food item with a drink and tried to keep them together. My sheets then were put on a half sheet tray and then everything that I needed for that meal/drink was all together. It doesn’t necessarily mean it will be perfect execution, but I like to be as prepared as possible for everything.
These are the sheets I created a few days in advance that were my guide for the ingredients, materials, and what equipment I needed to use for each meal.
We did a sound check, played with a few camera angles, and then it was go time. I haven’t rewatched the stream because I think that’s some weird narcissism paired with cruel and unusual punishment, but I did have a lot of fun and even though not everything went perfectly, we had a great time. At the end of the livestream weekend Jordan was able to raise $3,305.00 crushing the original goal of $1,000 – which was hit right before I started.
I did have a few friends on the zoom call that could easily talk to me and were my hype crew and I think that was a big help for me mentally that I had a support crew incase everything went wrong. I cooked, fake cleaned, drank, answered questions, and gave out compliments to everyone who donated because that’s the best I could do for people who had to watch me cook food they couldn’t eat right?
For the most part the livestream for me was such a blur while it was going on and after Astrid (AKA world’s best hype woman and videographer) and I crashed in my living room, too exhausted to even put on a movie. We cleaned up the kitchen, and I sent her with some goodie bags of leftovers for Jordan and her husband to eat.
I’ve tried to thank everyone who came, watched, and donated. It was definitely a positive experience and I’m looking forward to new ways to create content in the future.
And now, for the goods.
THE FULL LIVESTREAM BRUNCH SPREAD
Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread
Ingredients
2 cans Pillsbury Grand Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup light brown sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and prep a bundt pan with pam cooking spray and a light coating of flour.
Open both cans of cinnamon rolls, setting aside the icing, and quarter each roll so you have a total of 40 cinnamon roll nuggets. In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk together the sugar and cinnamon. Roll each cinnamon roll nugget in the cinnamon sugar, keeping the cinnamon roll pieces intact during the rolling process. Place each nugget into the prepared bundt pan until all piece are in. Gently press down on the nuggets to make sure there’s not a lot of air pocket. In another medium bowl, whisk together the butter and brown sugar. Once combined, evenly pour over the cinnamon roll pieces in the bundt pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Take out of oven and let sit for 5 minutes before inverting onto a plate. Heat up the cream cheese icing that was included in the cinnamon roll tubes and pour over the top or use for dunking.
Peach Frosé
Ingredients
1 750 ml bottle rosé wine
2 cups frozen peach slices
1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
1 cup frozen whole strawberries
Instructions
Combine all ingredients into a blender and blend until combined. Makes 1+ servings.
To make kid friendly, sub lemonade for the wine 🙂
Green Chile Pork Breakfast Hash
Ingredients for 4 servings
3 cups green chile pork pieces
2 cups roasted and smashed potatoes
1/2 cup salsa verde
1/2 cup roasted hatch chiles, deseeded and chopped if fresh
1/2 cup hatch queso
3/4 cup tortilla chips
4 large eggs
4 radishes, thinly sliced
1 avocado, cubed
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
1/4 cup cotija cheese
salt & pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit with a rack in the second highest shelf.
Heat a 12 inch cast iron, or another oven safe, skillet over medium heat. Add the pork and potatoes to the pan, heating them through. Once warm, add in the salsa verde, chiles, tortilla chips, and queso, mixing until incorporated. Make four wells in the mixture that are just big enough to hold one egg each. Crack the eggs into a bowl and transfer one egg to one well, four times. Place into the oven and bake for 10-13 minutes or until the eggs are set to your liking. Remove from oven and top with the remaining ingredients. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Spicy Bloody Maria Wisconsin Style
Ingredients
4 parts spicy bloody mary mix
1 part reposado tequila
3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
3 dashes celery salt
3 dashes hot sauce
tip of the spoon of horseradish
Extras: Bloody Maria Toppings
celery stalk
beef stick
string cheese
jalapeño stuffed olives
spicy pickle spear
cherry tomatoes
In a pint glass, mix together all of the bloody maria ingredients until well combined. Add ice, and stir until cold – about 30 stirs. Top the bloody maria with your favorite bloody toppings on a skewer, do not skimp on this part.
Eggs Benedict
Ingredients
2 English muffins
2 slices Canadian bacon
2 eggs
hollandaise sauce, recipe from Tyler Florence
chives, thinly sliced
Instructions
Open the english muffin and toast them until golden brown and crispy. Set on serving plate and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, simmer at least four inches of water until the bubble just starts to break the surface. Meanwhile, crack eggs into a fine-mesh sieve letting the loose whites fall into a bowl – if you don’t have a mesh sieve no worries, this just allows for a cleaner-looking poached egg. Using a slotted spoon, swirl the water to create a vortex in the water and gently add the eggs to the water. The whites should swirl around each other and let cook for 3-4 minutes or until the whites are just set and the water will stop spinning. While the eggs are cooking, heat the Canadian bacon in a dry skillet over medium high heat until warmed through and just starting to brown, placing one slice on the bottom of each english muffin. Remove the eggs from the water with the slotted spoon and place on a plate prepared with a paper towel to absorb the extra water. Place on the Canadian bacon and gently pour the hollandaise sauce over the top of the poached egg. Top with the sliced chives.
Maple Bourbon Creme Cold Brew Coffee
Ingredients
4 parts heavy whipping cream
1 part real maple syrup
1 part bourbon
cold brew coffee, I used chameleon’s vanilla cold brew
ice
Instructions
In a blender or blender bottle, add the heavy whipping cream, syrup, and bourbon, and shake until slightly thickened and well combined. If you blend it too much, it will turn to a delicious butter but not great for cold brew. In a glass, add your ice and pour cold brew filling about 3/4 of the glass. Top with your maple bourbon cold brew creme and enjoy. Extra cream will keep in the fridge for about a week, might need to shake it before use to bring it back to life.
It’s a lot, but it was so fun to make this and think these ideas through into real life. Have fun – if you don’t want to make hollandaise just use queso or salsa. I don’t love Canadian bacon, so I used some green chile pork instead and topped mine with extra queso I had and it was amazing. Brunch shouldn’t be stressful, have fun and worse case just keep making cocktails until you’re pleased with your food.
Happy Eating!
Kelly
