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So I was having a conversation with a South African lady I met the other day at a cooking class and we were talking about what type of food we prepare most in our homes.  I told her we like lots of Tex-Mex flavors.  I don't think this could be more true!  Hopefully, my faithful readers, you are not tired of reading about cilantro because here goes...

While menu planing a little while ago, I came across this great looking recipe for rosemary chicken thighs.  They have a fresh rosemary, Dijon mustard, garlic, and honey marinade and are grilled to perfection.  Sounds great, right?  Well, then they had a note about being able to substitute cilantro (or some other herbs) for the rosemary.  Say no more!  I was determined to switch it up to the cilantro because of my love affair with said herb (1. Drew knows all about it and is usually ok with it; 2. yes - I am aware that others are in love with another herb, not me!)

Paired with the chicken recipe was a procedure for sauteeing spinach for a side dish.  We had some Chinese spinach from our CSA box, as well as garlic and leeks.  So I heated up the pan, threw some garlic and the leeks in, and waited a minute or so, then added the spinach.  After the spinach wilted down, I turned off the heat and added salt and pepper.  Great results. 

We had an avocado that was ready, so that got thrown on the plate with the chicken and the spinach.  Easy, simple supper!

Mother's Day Brunch and Dessert

I am one of the few people in this world to be blessed with two mothers and a mother-in-law.  One of the nice things about mother's day is that I get to celebrate these wonderful women in my life by treating them with things they love.
Sadly, one of my moms is not close by, so we just get to talk on the phone.  But someday I hope we can do a special mother's day brunch together!

This year we changed things up for Mother's Day.  We did not go to church and, instead invited Mom and Dad over for breakfast.  It ended up being brunch due to 3 disasters in the kitchen before 9 AM!  Fun way to start the day.

So the menu for our feast was Scones, Fruit Salad, and Bacon and Cheese Quiche.  I had been looking all week for a particular item to try a new recipe but cannot locate it in the store (anyone know where I can find some malt powder?), so I decided to go with an old favorite: Classic Cream Scones from Southern Living Magazine.  The Fruit Salad was inspired by a recipe in Cuisine at Home, but is completely different.  And the Bacon and Cheese Quiche was a recipe found on a delightful cooking blog I found a couple weeks ago. 

The adventures of this morning began shortly before 6AM.  I got started on the scones and was very happy at the success of this recipe.  It could not be easier to make these (15 minutes to oven, tops) and they are wonderful plain, but can be accented nicely with the addition of lemon curd or clotted cream.  They were so easy in fact that I am thinking of getting into the kitchen later this week and playing around with this recipe.  I am thinking cinnamon pecan scones (maybe with maple)?! 

For the fruit salad I was unable to get some of the necessary fruit for the recipe from Cuisine at Home (sad lack of good peaches thus far this year) so I went with what I could get.  Aren't all the best fruit salads made from whatever you have on hand?  I was concerned with the sweetness of the strawberries I had picked because they were HUGE(!)  so I worked up a little concoction of agave nectar lime and lemon juice and poured it over the fruit.  The results were wonderful. 

Now for the woes of the day.  The first: the pie crust fell in the oven while pre-baking it.  The second: the second pie crust fell in the oven while pre-baking it.  At this I almost cried.  What to do? Run to Target for another pie crust (the frozen kind that won't fall in the pre-baking stage).  Success!  The third: Upon filling the pie-crust after getting it pre-baked, it overflowed...and overflowed....and overflowed.  Verge of tears again.  I slipped it into a pie pan and threw it in the oven and prayed for success.  Thirty minutes later...success...yay!  I don't know what was wrong with the pie crusts, but I did buy the store brand and I am considering taking them back and asking for my money back.  Have you ever had this happen to you?  The quiche tasted great - I will definitely modify this recipe in the future and use it again.  I forgot to take a picture, but after all that, can you blame me?

So, with breakfast finished, I got started on a dessert we were taking to the fish-fry at my sister-in-law's house for Drew's Mom.  Morgan requested the dessert based on the picture when she was here on Thursday, so I could not disappoint.   Besides I had been thinking of making it all along.  The recipe for Strawberry Pizza is from Cuisine at Home mag.  It is basically a pecan, shortbread-like cookie with a mascapone filling, topped with strawberries (it should have also had chocolate shavings on top, but I had a hard time locating a dark chocolate bar).  This was surprisingly light after a heavy meal.  It was perfectly sweet (but not too) and the pecans were a nice treat with the strawberries.  I don't think it needs the chocolate, but if you love chocolate, it might be a must.  Mmm...too bad I didn't get any to bring home, man was it good!

So, there you have it.  A mother's day meant to honer the mothers in my life.  I am thankful everyday for the women God has placed in my life to teach me the path of womanhood.  Someday, I hope to be a mom to some little one, so I can tell him/her all about his/her grandmothers.  Thanks, Moms!