Make Ahead

Don’t let the lengthy ingredient list scare you away. It’s really not as bad as it looks. Even my brother, Bubba, can make it. On a cold winter’s day it will make your tongue want to slap your brains out! This recipe serves two or three dozen people, but can easily be cut in half. It keeps for up to five days in the refrigerator or two months in the freezer.

The Boursin cheese sold in the grocery store is kind of on the pricey side, so just make your own and enjoy the savings.

The marinade in this recipe also makes a wonderful salad dressing.

Make this in late June or early July when strawberries are abundant at your local farmers’ market, and you’ll enjoy it for months to come. Pectin, a water-soluble substance used as a thickener in jams and jellies, is available in many supermarkets. Serve this jam with any of Bubby’s fruit breads or muffins. You can also substitute blackberries, raspberries, or blueberries for the strawberries. You can mix the berries, too. Though you don’t need to sterilize the three 1-quart storage jars, you should wash the berries well. We are not canning here, or sealing, so it’s not the same process. This jam will keep for three to four weeks in the refrigerator.

A beautiful pink, intensely flavored butter, this can be made with either fresh or frozen, thawed berries. The butter should be a little cooler than room temperature when you whip it. Take the butter out of the refrigerator a half hour to an hour before you plan to use it, so it can soften.

Wonderful but very rich, eggnog is best served in small portions. Though good hot or cold, I always serve it hot in the winter. This can be made a day ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator.

This rich dish is wonderful at a fall brunch. The tawny color of the squash, when it is baked in a casserole, adds a nice touch to a buffet table. This may be prepared ahead of time and rewarmed with good results by heating it for 20 to 30 minutes in a preheated 350°F oven.

A springtime-only treat, wild ramps, also known as wild leeks, resemble broad-leaved scallions and have a flavor that’s both oniony and garlicky. Ramps are a great match for asparagus, and the lemon brings out the best of both vegetables. You can prepare this dish ahead of time and chill it, tightly covered, for two to three days in the refrigerator. Serve it chilled or at room temperature.

With its nutty flavor and beautiful dark green color, this is a good make-ahead brunch dish that tastes best chilled, but it’s also good at room temperature. If you prepare it in advance, taste for seasonings before serving; you may need to add a little extra salt or lemon juice.

Steel-cut oats go through a machine that cuts the whole kernels into tiny bits. Sometimes called Scotch or Irish oatmeal, steel-cut oats are chewier and have more texture and flavor than regular rolled oatmeal. They take more time to cook, but steel-cut oatmeal is well worth the wait. McCann’s makes the best steel-cut oats that I know. They’re available in specialty shops and some supermarkets, as well as at www.mccanns.com. To sweeten the steel-cut oats, add brown sugar, sautéed bananas, raisins, applesauce, berries, or whatever other fruit you like.

These robust, aromatic sausages pair well with many egg dishes. For best results, most of these ingredients should be chilled before you start. The fat needs to stay separate during the mixing process or the sausages will be mealy. Properly handled ingredients, especially the fat and meat, are the key to good sausages. Both the meat and the fatback should be brought down to 32°F, so place them into the freezer for about an hour. Fatback, which is the fresh unsmoked layer of fat that runs along the pig’s back, is sold at butcher shops. Don’t confuse it with salt pork: They’re not the same thing. The easiest way to get ground juniper berries is to grind them in a spice grinder. If you don’t cook all the sausages in one meal, the patties freeze well for several weeks as long as they are well wrapped. The best thing is to wrap the patties individually in plastic wrap, wrap six to eight of the plastic-wrapped sausages in aluminum foil, then put the foil packages in a resealable plastic freezer bag and mark the bag with the date they were frozen.

The yeast, in addition to letting the batter sit for at least six hours, gives these waffles a chewy consistency and a slightly pungent flavor. One note on preparation: Since this batter needs to stand overnight, be sure to prepare it a day in advance. You can freeze these waffles, well wrapped, for up to a month. Simply heat them until nice and crispy in a preheated 350°F oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

A meal in itself, this is a great dish for a crowd. It can be made ahead, baked, and reheated, or it can be held unbaked until a couple of hours before you plan to serve it.

This layered, all-in-one brunch casserole is great for when you’re serving four or more people because it can be prepped before your guests arrive. It’s an old-time casserole with the added flavor of leeks and some delicious homemade fried onion straws on top.

The beloved picnic classic is updated here with generous dashes of Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. Be sure to give yourself time to boil the eggs in advance, so they can chill for at least an hour.

When our neighbors made this recipe on Saturday mornings when we were growing up, the entire neighborhood smelled like cinnamon heaven. These frosted cinnamon rolls are a little more complicated to make than scones or muffins, but they are definitely worth the effort. The cream cheese makes the dough flakier than that of many cinnamon rolls, and the filling is rich and delicious. You can prepare these the night before and let them rise for an hour before baking them in the morning. The uncooked cinnamon rolls also freeze very well for a couple of weeks.