Today, I hosted a brunch for all the mothers in my family who live around Philadelphia. Three generations of mamas were represented, including my great-aunt Belle, who at nearly 92 has been a mom since 1942. Of course, the one mother I most would have liked to have seen was my own, but until someone invents an east coast/west coast teleportation system (or until one of us caves and moves closer to the other) I will be forced to continue to celebrate her from afar.
At the brunch, we ate freshly baked jam-dolloped scones, vegetable-stuffed quiche, roasted potatoes, spring greens dressed with a rosemary balsamic vinaigrette, lox, bagels and oven-cooked bacon*.
Later in the afternoon, Scott and I walked a couple neighborhoods over, to visit our friends who had twin daughters a month ago. We brought the still-new mom a bunch of tulips and a few sweet treats (as well as an assortment of brunch remains – they were delighted to have half a quiche and some bagels). I pretended to be a mama for a little while, snuggling a recently fed, sleeping baby for nearly an hour.
I do hope that all of you mothers out there had a lovely day, full of family, friends and a jam-smeared scone or two.
*Do you know this method of bacon cookery? Place a metal cooling rack inside a rimmed cookie sheet. Lay the bacon on the rack in a single layer. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until bacon is browned to your liking (very thin-cut rashers will take less time than the thicker cut stuff). The bacon will be perfectly flat, making it ideal for sandwiches (although there’s nothing saying you can’t nibble it straight from the plate).
What a lovely day! I’ve used that method of bacon cooking before for guests – and with my oven hood on high, my guests smelled the brunch as they parked a block away! Not a bad thing, you know, but a clear memory.
Will you be posting any of the recipes you used!?
Mmmm, what a lovely idea.
My dad cooks bacon this way. Then you can freeze the individual bacon strips on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Pop into a Ziplock and you can have a BLT almost instantaneously (and for a lot less that grocery stores want to charge you for precooked bacon!).