~ homemade: bagel bar ~

Good morning my dears!  Hope your morning is off to a great start.  Mine is not to bad so far.  So this Thursday's homemade post was inspired by who I called the "Bagel Man".

Let me tell you a quick little story.  When I was in college (in a small Southern Illinois town), we used to head down to the strip (the street with all the bars on it) on Friday and Saturday nights.  Well, sometimes Thursday too.  Anyway, each night on the main corner of the strip was the Bagel Man.  Man, did we love this guy!  Even more so after a night of drinking and dancing.  He was always there with his charcoal Weber grill and an little stand that attached to the side of it with bagels for sale.  And not just any bagels - oh no - these were bagels that were thrown on the grill and topped with just about anything you could imagine.  One of my faves was a bagel with cream cheese, fresh chives, cucumber slices and sunflower seeds.  Makes me sound so healthy...not so much anymore.  To this day, I want to open a bagel cart!  What a money maker it would be - in the mornings head into the corporate area, and in the evenings to the bars.  I have even tried to talk Mr. Big into it...who knows, maybe one day I'll be on the corner selling bagels (hehe).

So this is where my inspiration came from!  While my little set up is inside, with no Weber grill in site, it still is a bagel bar.  How perfect would this be at the end of a wedding?  Or on the morning of the big day for the bridal party.  Or for an after the wedding brunch the next day...you get the picture. 

Here is a little example that I literally through together very quickly late last night.  I spent too much time on twitter yesterday and other things, that by the time I got home from dinner at Aunt Millie's last night I still had to put it together and take pictures...poor scheduling on my part.  It isn't the best, but it does get the idea across. 

I included some butter, cream cheese, lettuce, fresh veggies, basil, chives and sunflower seeds.

Of course I had to make my fave...

Looks yummy, no?

There are just so many options to top bagels with...another fave of mine is cream cheese, tomato slices and some fresh basil.

Simple and delicious!

I always like to make sure I have at least one more option when serving food, just in case someone really doesn't like bagels.   These croissants stuffed with swiss cheese and ham and spinach and bacon looked so yummy that I couldn't resist.  

And a little fresh fruit is always good.

So there you have it...

...a bagel bar!  Even though mine was quite simple, I would go bigger for a real event, and include bacon, pancetta, fresh mozarella, scramble eggs, ham, and more...and of course the bagels would be grilled!

Hope you enjoyed this Thursday's homemade post!  I wanted to let you know that since next Thursday is Thanksgiving and I will be out of town - there will not be a homemade post.  But there will one again on December 2. 

~ Ciao

...concept, design, styling & photography all by me