I was extremely excited to see a brunch challenge — brunch is my favorite meal because it includes mimosas! I created a menu that could serve six guests for under $25, and it was a challenge, but a lot of fun to come up with easy-to-make recipes with shared ingredients.

My husband and I have a lake home in Wisconsin, and our summer house guests are always treated to Sunday morning brunch. I often prepare a strata or breakfast casserole because it can be done the day ahead. I decided to take my favorite ham and asparagus strata and turn it into minis by baking them in a muffin pan. I also love to pick up fresh berries at the local farmers market and make a sweet custard; and while the name ‘clafoutis’ sounds fancy, this is actually the easiest dish to prepare. Of course, you can’t have brunch without bacon, but I decided to throw in a twist and candy it with a pinch of cayenne and fresh thyme from my herb garden. When I prepare brunch, I always try to include sweet, savory and salty and serve it all buffet style so guests can graze as they please.

When making my ham and asparagus strata I usually use Gruyere cheese, however, it is quite pricey, so I spent a lot of time shopping around the cheese section in Valli trying to come up with alternatives. I finally decided on a combination of Gouda and Swiss cheeses, and they were a perfect substitute.

Price became an issue again with berries because I originally wanted to do a triple berry clafoutis (raspberry, blackberry and blueberry) but decided to omit the blackberries because of the price. My total grocery bill? $25.08 to prepared Mini Ham & Asparagus Strata; Berry & Lemon Clafoutis; and Candied Bacon with Thyme.

On a sunny Sunday morning, I invited six of my friends over to test out my brunch recipes over mimosas. My taste testers all gave me thumbs-up! The bacon was the crowd favorite, of course. I baked the bacon with brown sugar and zested orange peel on one piece to try it, and it was not what I was expecting, so added a pinch of cayenne and some fresh thyme from my garden and it was a winner! I was really surprised how easy the mini strata were and how cute and rustic they looked with the bread popping out of the top. They also cooked so much faster than a typical pan strata.

I loved having the challenge of cooking brunch for under $25! I tend to buy extravagantly sometimes, so this challenge may have changed how I cook brunch from now on!

— Jacky Runice