Christmas comes a close second.
It’s all about the food.
Mother’s Day begins a few weeks before the actual day when my Mom and I start emailing each other recipes and tentative menus for the big day. Each year, Mom hosts Mother’s Day brunch for both sides of the family. This year, that meant we cooked for 14. After the menu has been finalized, we start the cooking. On Saturday night, Mom and I get together and divvy out the recipes. Sometimes Aunt B joins in and helps, but the last few years have found her absent for various reasons…vacations to Florida are just so tiring. :) Anyways, I do the cheese blintz and this year I got to make scones as well. Between Saturday night and Sunday morning, Mom makes French Toast Casserole, Egg Strata, Monkey Bread, Baked Spiced Fruit and this year added Zippy Cheese Artichoke Oven-Omelet. Aunt Sue and Uncle Frank provide the fresh fruit and this year brought chocolate covered strawberries as well.
That is why Mother’s Day is my favorite.
The scones were both fantastic and a mess. I made blueberry scones and raspberry white chocolate scones. The first were the fantastic ones. There were some issues with oven temperatures or something and the bottoms of the raspberry white chocolate scones burned. They were not salvageable. We pried them off the bottom of the pan, cut the burned parts off and then put them in a bowl to nibble on while we finished the cooking.
All of this cooking culminates in the family coming over and eating and eating and eating some more. Such deliciousness hasn’t been seen in a year and I love it. I manage to stop myself from gorging by thinking about all the delicious leftovers I’m going to have for a few days.
This year I decided that I should make dinner as well. Mom spends all her time cleaning and cooking and hostessing brunch, why should she cook dinner as well?
Whitnie gave me the idea of chicken alfredo a few weeks before the big event. I have some ethical problems eating beef (read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and Meat: A Love Story for the reasons) so I wanted to go with chicken. I did a homemade alfredo sauce that was really easy and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Then, dessert.
The best part of any meal really is the dessert part. In my food blog wanderings I found a recipe for lime yogurt cake with blackberry sauce. I’m not sure how I feel about blackberries yet so I decided to modify the recipe a little bit and made it with raspberry sauce. It was quite delicious and gone in just a few minutes.
Also, I want a springform pan.
Yogurt Lime Cake with Raspberry Sauce
from SmittenKitchen.com
Cake
1 cup whole milk plain unsweetened yogurt (I used delicious Trader's Point Yogurt...yummmy)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
zest of one lime
1/4 cup lime juice
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
Sauce
12 ounces fresh blackberries (frozen should work as well, but you should start with half the water)
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the sides of a 9-inch round cake pan or springform pan with oil and line the bottom with parchment paper if the pan is not springform.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, oil, sugar, lime zest and juice. Add the eggs one by one, whisking well after each addition. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, right over your yogurt batter. Stir with a spoon until just combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let stand for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the pan to loosen. If you’re using the springform pan, unclasp the sides. Otherwise, flip the cake onto a plate and flip it back on the rack. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
Make sauce: Combine blackberries, water, sugar and lime juice in blender or food processor. Purée until very smooth, then press through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Cover and refrigerate until cold.
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