Not words with friends but brunch with buddies.  Yeah, I like it.  Well today our brunch was hosted by our good friends Sheila and Teresa at their new home at Casita de Cardinal.  They graciously accepted having brunch at their house after Donna had volunteered them to do so.

For our brunch I decided to make three different things.  The first is a staple if I am going to my friend Sheila’s house. Iced lemon blueberry bread.  Fresh blueberries, fresh lemon juice and lemon zest.  So freakin’ delicious!  This was a recipe that someone had posted on their Facebook wall and I shared it to mine.  I’ve been making it ever since.  It doesn’t make the bread any worse to serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I’m just saying.

Then I decided to make an artichoke quiche.  Now I usually use a recipe that Donna’s mom had given me but I couldn’t find it so I asked Google for help to find me a new one.  Google did good.  I used a frozen deep dish pie crust and filled it with quartered artichoke hearts, mozzarella, pieces of bacon and eggs.  This recipe was far superior to the last, as per Donna’s critique.

Now I am saving the best for last.  I do believe my first attempt at tomato pie was a definite success being Teresa went back for seconds.  This I take as a big compliment and leads me to believe that I have passed the test.  I do make a good tomato pie.  Now for my New York friends, this is not to be confused with a pizza.  No, no, no.  They are two totally different animals all together.  The tomato pie is made with, once again, a deep dish pie crush, rough cut tomatoes (you need to extract all of the water from those tomatoes as to not make the crust too soggy), fresh basil, cheese (your choice), mayonnaise and onion.

Now I chose a cheddar/monterrey jack mix although my step mom makes it with gruyere which is also delicious.

Thanks to Dawn and Karen for providing the dessert.  Cupcakes from Tiffany’s.