"mothersday" news and stories

I like to make up salads. It's one of things I happen to be good at, especially fruit salads. One that I haven't gotten around to trying yet is the strawberry mint salad that's been bouncing around my head lately. But my slowness is your gain. This would be a great fruit dish to serve with all of the egg and bread and breakfast meat options that are sure to be on the table.

Simply cut the stems off the strawberries and cut them in half or quarters, after washing them thoroughly of course. Chop up a bunch of fresh mint leaves and toss together with the strawberries. Drizzle the mixture with some balsamic vinegar, and voila. Quantities are hard to say. I'd do a tablespoon or so of chopped mint per pint of berries. Balsamic vinegar is completely to taste.

I know this sounds difficult, but a lemon napolean really would be a simple and elegant dessert to make for mom this weekend. All you need is store bought puff pastry sheets. I'd cut the sheets into whatever size you want while the dough is raw. You should use three layers of puff pastry for each napolean. Bake the puff pastry according to the package instructions. Once the puff pastry is cooled down, spread each of the first two layers with lemon curd and stack the three layers together, with the plain one on top. You can spread vanilla icing on top and use chocolate frosting or chocolate sauce to create the design or just sprinkle them with chocolate jimmies. Here's a recipe for lemon curd, or a high quality store bought curd would be great.

Mom will think you spent all day in the kitchen making these beautiful things, and she'll think you're the best (which you are).

Does this strawberry tart look amazing or what? Mom would flip if you presented this beauty on Mother's Day. They're really easy to make, from scratch or "semi-homemade".

From scratch, line a tart shell with pate sucre and bake it completely. Put a little strawberry jam on the bottom of the baked tart. Fill that with pastry cream and top with sliced strawberries. The ground pistachios are a suggestion, but sliced almonds are also very nice, or just let the strawberries shine. You can do individual tarts or one large one.

For the semi homemade crowd, get a frozen pie shell and bake that completely. It's the same deal with the jam, then fill it with a high quality vanilla pudding, and top with sliced strawberries. The pudding won't be exactly the same as the pastry cream, but it'll still taste good. You're mom will forget all about what a trouble maker you were when she sees this beauty on the table.

They say that the greatest form of flattery is imitation, but what do you call an outright swipe? I guess that would be stealing. I have to admit right off the bat that I swiped this right off of Smitten Kitchen. I came across it one day, and it was so beautiful that I knew I had to include it on this menu idea list. Instructions are on the blog.

Wouldn't mom absolutely love this salad? It would be a colorful, flavorful, and seasonal addition to any brunch menu. I generally think of brunch as more breakfast-y, but (a) lot of people include lunch or dinner items in brunch and (b) who wouldn't want something as beautiful as this salad at breakfast? Anyway, it's just a suggestion, but one I know I wouldn't want to pass up!

It's almost a given that you need an egg dish for brunch, but you don't need to limit yourself to scrambled eggs or an omelet. Nothing wrong with either choice, of course, but there are other options. Why not try a quiche? All you need is a pie crust, a good quiche base recipe, and whatever fillings you want to throw in there.

You can get great pie shells in your supermarket freezer. Just bake the pie shell about half to three quarters of the way, put in your chosen fillings, and pour the quiche liquid over the top. Then bake that at 325F for about half an hour or til it's done. You can find lots of quiche ideas here, as well as a recipe for the actual quiche liquid.