One of the best things of having a chef as a good friend is that they don't mind cooking for you, even if that's their day job.  And they make delicious meals seem really fast, easy and simple.  My friend Ryan whipped up this brunch for us the other day of porridge pancakes with nectarine and sausage with herbs and smoked paprika (recipe below).

By the way this is Gibson, our friendly neighborhood kitchen stalker, peacefully waiting for anything that might fall on the floor.

For the sausage patties:

We used about 3/4 pounds of ground pork, 1 clove of garlic minced, salt and pepper, about 2 tsp of smoke paprika, fresh herbs (or you can use dried herbs but use a bit less) of sage, thyme, and rosemary of about 1 tsp total, and 1 tsp of brown sugar.

Mix all together and roll into small patties.  Heat oil in pan at about medium heat and cook until browned.

For the Porridge Pancake (This is adapted from a recipe found here)

Take yesterday's leftover hot cereal/oatmeal that's been refrigerated (probably works best with multigrain and thicker hot cereal mixtures as opposed to instant Quakers oatmeal).  Much like the sausage, flatten chunks into patties.  Lightly flour on both sides, heat some butter in the pan and cook for a few minutes on each side.  If you want it to be more like your usual pancake (i.e. a soupier batter), add the porridge to a bit of batter of flour and milk/yogurt.  Cook until golden brown on each side.

For the nectarine compote:

3-4 ripe nectarines pitted and sliced, about 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup of water.   Mix the sugar and water together and heat until it starts to thicken.  Add the nectarine slices and cook for 3-4 minutes.  You don't want to cook it for too long since it's nice to for the nectarines to have a bit of a crunch (it goes well with the softer porridge pancake).

Now just add a bowl of fruit and/or some mimosas and you got yourself a good brunch!