Well, today was a lovely Mothers Day — one of the first I’ve spent with my mother in many years! What a treat! We were only able to have breakfast with them, but since we’d spent the last several days together that didn’t seem like too little. It was just a pleasant way to wrap up a wonderful visit, particularly since she had the joy of having grandchildren there, too.
Something happened by way of the food, though … a funny little deja vu, but in this case history really did repeat itself, like a gift from one generation to the next. I had told my kids a funny story about the time that my Mom, in her sleepiness, had inadvertantly substituted baking soda for baking powder when making us pancakes one morning. I remember gingerly asking if she had switched her pancake recipe or something — neither my sister nor I wanted to hurt her feelings. But when she realized what she’d done, we all had quite a laugh. Well, this morning, I did the same thing while making scones for everyone! They were positively awful! We had a great laugh, and then, since we were on a time schedule, quickly made toast to go with our fruit salad!
Late in the morning, we drove to the nearest big town, stopping at the greenhouse on the way to pick up some plants for the garden. Even (or especially) on a day that feels like autumn, it is uplifting to think about growing food in the garden!
For lunch, we enjoyed a delicious pizza at a local pizzeria. They made a great crust, but the best part of all was that the pizza was our reward for having won a dance contest a few weeks ago! It was a cold, rainy day, so the pizza was important to keeping us warm and content on our Mothers Day hike up to the top of a nearby overlook. The rain made the colors of the rocks and mosses and lichens “pop,” and the trees take on a new look of lushness. From the overlook we saw a beach down below, so I suggested that we find that beach! Once back to our car, we drove a bit further up the road and enjoyed another short hike to the beach of lovely white sand.
After our hike, we stopped at the Food Coop to pick up a few essentials, like fresh ginger and dried fruit. The weather seemed to have inspired lots of folks to visit this community store, and the people in the aisles were as colorful and the food-lined shelves!
For Mothers Day supper, I used up leftovers of brown rice and made a stirfry of onion, ginger, carrots, peas, and broccoli, served with a tomato curry sauce. While I cooked, my son broke in his new glove playing catch with a friend. Our meal was lovely and light.
To me, this was a great day of family time. And it was also a great day of dining, even with the errors and odd combination of Italian and Indian foods; the juxtaposition of homebaked mistakes, restaurant food and leftovers! The perfect reflection of the busy life of a working mother who loves good food, good fun and the out-of-doors!
