Happy Mother’s Day! Treat Yourself

I hope you had a nice, quiet day with some treats, as I did. Actually, I had a big treat, because last week my son flew out from NYC to visit me for five days, the best Mother’s Day present you could have, and yesterday fresh-cut flowers arrived, which grace my table as I write.  My wonderful niece, also from NYC, took her mother (the one holding up the cone) to the boardwalk in NJ for some Kohr’s custard—and those of you from New Jersey know how special that is. Clearly, we have brought up our children well. But really, we mothers secretly know we can’t take the credit. I look at these two amazing kids, now in their mid-20s, and know (because I’ve known them since they took their first breaths), that they just came out that way.  To borrow a phrase I learned in Nashville, we’re so blessed.

OK, maybe a little credit. Enough to treat ourselves to a day of indulgence. Notice that I do not have a recipe here, just pictures. How easy is that? Actually, as you will see next time, I intended to have a recipe, and a much more traditional definition of a treat, but failed to plan.  It’s Mother’s Day! I wasn’t thinking about being organized. But I have to say my dinner turned out to be more of a treat than I expected.

The asparagus are local. And they are—I do hesitate to say this—the best I have ever had. In my life. That is saying a lot. Must be the desert; asparagus do like their sandy soil, so apparently all sand is even better. My entire Mother’s Day dinner took ten minutes to make, and I must say it was excellent.  Little lamb patty (leftover meat from making little lamb meatballs in cognac sauce to bring to someone’s house as an appetizer); my apricot chutney mixed with country mustard, and the asparagus—the meat and asparagus thrown on the grill, lightly brushed with olive oil, salt, and pepper. The drink? A gin cocktail, shaken with egg white. More on that next week, too.  Hope you had a wonderful day.