{best brunch ever} mimosa bar.

Add it to the bucket list: Host brunch with mimosa bar.

Unless you’re not into hosting, in which case you might change it to: Get invited to brunch with mimosa bar. It shouldn’t be that hard. I mean – you do know me, right?

The first ladies-only {more affectionately known as bitches} brunch I hosted became infamous because of the mimosa bar. It’s a brilliant concept, really. Everyone brings a bottle of champagne, and you provide the mixers. You can keep it as simple as buying a variety of juices at the grocery store, or you can be mental like me and make it all from scratch, like I did this second time around. The choice is yours, and I promise – no matter which way you go, everyone will be impressed. And happy.

I’m going to call this the holy-trifecta of champagne mixers: Orange-Pineapple Juice, Fresh Peach Nectar, and Strawberry Lemonade. I used three 1-quart capacity glass carafes that I was *so* excited to snag from work. Let me tell you – it’s a beautiful thing to now have access to every kitchen utensil or serving piece you can imagine!

You know I had to include a version of OJ, because that’s the classic mimosa contender; the pineapple only brightens it up and adds sweetness. The peach nectar makes for a classic bellini, and you may want to make it the day you plan to serve it – I did it the day before, and you can see that it turned a brownish shade which we joked looked like baby food but still tasted amazing, like fresh peaches in a glass. I did the strawberry lemonade because my at my first brunch, I’d served it in non-homemade form (read: the “Simply Pink Lemonade” you get at the grocery store) and it was probably the biggest hit – I still highly recommend serving this stuff with champagne because it’s really a delicious combo, and you can’t beat the pretty pink color, especially for showers and things like that.

{I briefly considered adding vodka and peach schnapps to the juices, but then I remembered how out of control we got the first time – and I decided to leave it at the champagne}

So, pop open the bubbly – and get ready for the most fun a group of girls should ever be allowed to have on a Sunday.

Orange-Pineapple Juice

• Navel oranges
• Freshly-cut pineapple, cut into chunks

Juice enough oranges to fill your blender about 3/4 of the way full. Add pineapple to fill, and blend. For the 1-quart serving carafe I used, I needed 8 oranges and 1 small container of pre-cut pineapple from the grocery store. The proportions are totally flexible.

Strawberry Lemonade

Adapted from Gourmet

• 1/2 lb strawberries (1 1/2 cups), trimmed and halved
• 1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (from about 5 lemons at room temperature)
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 cups cold water

Purée strawberries with 2 tablespoons lemon juice in a blender until smooth, then force through a fine sieve into a bowl to remove seeds. Stir together strawberry purée, remaining lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, and water in a large pitcher until sugar is dissolved. Taste, then add more sugar if desired. Serve over ice.

Makes about 1-1/2 quarts.

Fresh Peach Nectar

• 8 ripe peaches
• 2 cups water
• Sugar or agave nectar to taste

To remove the skin from the peaches, drop them into a pot of boiling water until you can feel their skin begin to loosen. Remove and place in a bowl of ice water. Peel the peaches, remove the pits, and cut into chunks. Purée peaches and 2 cups cold water in blender. Add sugar or agave nectar to sweeten, if necessary.

Makes about 1 quart.