My mother is the kind of mom who always says, "Oh no, you don't need to get me anything." And even though she probably does mean it, neither my sister nor I can ever completely comply with that statement. However this year, as we're both currently unemployed, we couldn't exactly get her much. So my sister sent some beautiful flowers and I made a delicious dinner and dessert. For the entree, Eggplant Parmesan, which is her favorite. I've never made it before but I knew how much she loved it so I went for it. I'm pleased to announce that it got rave reviews :). And for dessert I made a Breton Buckwheat Cake with Fleur de Sel and Quick Poached Pears. She had been holding on to this cake recipe for at least two months now, and every couple weeks or so she'd come across it again and say, "I want to make this this weekend. It sounds sooo good." But she never got around to it. So when I was racking my brain today trying to come up with a meal plan she would really enjoy I thought "Ah HA! She's gonna love that!" And so she did. And I did. And my dad did. It was awesome, if I do say so myself. The only thing I changed was that I used Frangelico instead of rum because my folks didn't have any in the house. Luckily, it was a safe move. I improvised on the pears too because it called for vanilla bean and I had none. Instead, to give them a little more flavor, I steeped some thyme in the honey-water until it came to a boil, then tossed the sprigs out and tossed the pears in. Luckily, that worked well too. I would have taken a picture but at the moment I only have my phone's camera and, while my food may have tasted good, I was too hungry by the end of it all to have julienned some basil and such simply for the sake of photographing it. You're just gonna have visualize...
Much to my relief, the birthday girl thoroughly enjoyed it all and had herself a nice little evening, despite it being very low key. She was content to just have a fire roaring while we dined on the sofa and watched the Hope for Haiti telethon. She even called and donated. And no, she didn't get to talk to any of the stars (is it wrong that I'm kind of bummed about that?), but she was happy to help in any way she could. And I was happy that she had a good night. It was the least I could do for such a great woman.
Happy Birthday, Mom!
And a big shout out to my aunt Barbara, too. She's my mom's twin sis and, thus, is also one day older today. Happy Birthday, Barb!
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