My First Mother’s Day

Posted on May 10, 2009 by chatty

Mother’s Day started with me being cranky.

Until the husband said, “Happy Mother’s Day” and I said, “Oh yeah!!” Goody. Suddenly I was in a much better mood. The babe gave me a wonderful card with lots of wonderful things written inside, as translated by the husband (she likes to call him the “waiter”).

Flashback to a few weeks ago. We were standing in line at the grocery store and I saw the display of Mother’s Day cards. I started thinking about all the things I had to do to get ready … get cards for my mom and my sis. Figure out what to get for my mom. Make sure the husband got something for his mom, etc etc. “Oh drat,” I say to the husband, “Mother’s Day is coming up.”

“Yeah,” he says back to me. “You’re a mother now”. I am! Suddenly I got very excited.

“I want pancakes!”

In the past, Mother’s Day has been brunch at some restaurant on the Eastside. This year, the mother-in-law offered to make brunch at the in-laws’ house, which was a splendid idea. I didn’t want to go to a restaurant, especially since the babe has been cranky lately. This also gave the grandparents as much time as they wanted to fawn over the babe.

Mother-in-law made a delicious brunch that included French toast (even better than pancakes), fresh fruit, bacon, sausage and blood sausage. I didn’t actually know what the blood sausage was. The husband had to tell me on the way home. I wished I had remembered to take a photo. Boo.

And … dessert! Cute little mini-pastries, including cupcakes from SweetCakes in Kirkland. Mini eclairs, tiny lemon meringues, cream puffs and more. My favorite, as I get the opportunity to try a variety. Yum.

mamma mia!

These are some of the desserts we were allowed to take home with us. The in-laws know me way too well.

I look forward to many more Mother’s Days, and to making amazing new traditions with my growing family. Hooray!

B.E.S.T.

Posted on September 17, 2008 by chatty

We found out at the last minute that my cousin, Paul, would be in town for a couple of days, so quickly planned an outing. We met at Julias @ Wallingford, a great brunch place that we haven’t been to in ages. I ordered the B.E.S.T. Sandwich, that is Bacon, Egg, Spinach and Tomato. Quite good, I basically cleaned the plate.

B.E.S.T. Sandwich from Julia's

Paul took a few pics of us so he could share them with my mom (Paul is married to my cousin, Prudence, and they live about 20 minutes away from my parents down in SoCal). My mom called me last night to tell me she saw the pics. “You’re so heavy!” were more or less the first words out of her mouth. Thanks, Mom. Thanks.

Breakfast, I mean Brunch

Posted on June 8, 2008 by chatty

BTW, that last quiche post was so long, I didn’t actually get a chance to show you what else we had at Saturday’s brunch. Remember, we get up at 5 a.m., so by 8:30 it really does seem like brunch. I guess that’s why we call it brunch …

oh yeah, let’s end with the classic Entenmann’s chocolate-frosted donut. Gooo donuts!

Mother’s Day Brunch

Posted on May 11, 2008 by chatty

Happy Mother’s Day! My mother is in CO visiting her grandkids (it’s Mother’s Day so she gets to do what she wants.) Not sure if the mother of her grandkids was expecting it, but oh well. We went to brunch with the in-laws. Kirkland’s Yarrow Bay Grill, with its wonderful view of Lake Washington, offered a nice brunch today. We started with warm scones and croissants. The husband is a croissant connoisseur, and when he raves about a croissant, you know it’s going to be good. These, split in halves, were warm, moist, buttery and flaky. With some berry jam it was truly one of the best croissants I have tasted in a long time. I ended up picking up a second half. These were so good that the husband grabbed one more half before the main course was served for fear the waiter would take away the bread bowl too soon. That’s when I snapped this pic.

Up next was a fruit dish … berries, melons and pineapple with a smidgen of yogurt on top. The husband also got a mint leaf. Following the fruit we had a salmon and lox appetizer served with crackers. All very nice.

For the main course I ordered the Seafood Frittata. Lobster, crab, scallops and various other seafoods combined with eggs and served with roasted potatoes and asparagus. A tomato salsa was drizzled on top. It was a bit heavy on the cilantro. Not a problem for me, but meant that the husband wouldn’t give it a taste. The husband ordered the Scrambled Eggs Carbonara. That looked quite good but I didn’t give it a taste. I first said no when he offered me a bit and the plate was cleaned when I thought maybe I should have given it a try. He gave it a thumbs up (how can you not say no to anything with bacon?

The Seafood Frittata (a bit blurry, but I was was hurried as I attempted to be inconspicuous about taking a photo:

A nice, enjoyable brunch with the in-laws. It was lengthy, too. Our reservation was for 11:45 and we finally left around 1:30. Quite nice to not be rushed. A long line of mothers and their families were waiting for their tables as we were leaving. Was quite glad that we got an earlier reservation time.

Brunch at 8:30?

Posted on April 12, 2008 by chatty

When you are a rower, brunch at 8:30 doesn’t seem too unreasonable. Considering how many people are still sleeping at this time, I guess technically this was still breakfast. The rowing club held a get together this morning after practice. I made Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Muffins. I wish the pics had turned out better. There was no natural light (this is what happens when you are baking muffins at 9:00 at night):

I used my new silicone muffin “tins” and they worked fabulously. I spritzed the tins with Pam and a few minutes after coming out of the oven the muffins nearly popped themselves out of the tin. Little to no manual labor was needed to get them cleaned (and I had done an impressive job getting batter all over those tins.). Highly recommended. I just wish I knew what to call them. They really aren’t tins anymore, now are they.

Man, I’ve made pumpkin stuff before, but adding chocolate chips brings it up a notch like you wouldn’t believe. It makes it all the more special, I tell you!

Most of the rowers also brought muffins and other carb-heavy, sweet treats:

Robyn’s Banana Muffins: