Mother's Day

On Mother’s Day this year, my family not only celebrated our appreciation of our mothers (yes, plural), but we also celebrated spring. With gifts of flowers and other things that will sprout, a quick trip to the cemetery to bring flowers to past-mothers, and a bout with crazy Chicago traffic, followed by a meal of everything delicious that is currently in season– it was spring at its finest.

Just days before Mother’s Day, my local grocer sent me an e-mail to let me know that not only were they selling pies for Mother’s Day (three cheers for strawberry rhubarb pie with an oatmeal streusel!), but they had gotten in fresh morels. Now I KNOW that much of the enticement in morel season is the foraging for them – but here in Chicago, the little grass I DO encounter outside of my yard is frequented by pet owners and I wouldn’t eat anything I found there, even if I were so lucky as to spot a morel. Plus, some morels are poisonous. I don’t recommend serving THOSE on Mother’s Day.

Alas – I don’t have pictures of any of the people who I celebrated with on Mother’s Day, but of course I DO have a picture of the food. Below is my first serving of Angel Hair Pasta with Morels and Asparagus. I recommend it with good bread, a little parmesan cheese, a couple of bottles of wine and a strawberry-rhubarb pie. Quick – it is all still in season!

Botanic Gardens

Ahhhhhhhh - Spring. Ahhhhhhhh – environments carefully manicured to make Chicagoans feel as if they are a part of nature. Ahhhhhh – too much sun!

This past Friday, Otilia and I went up to the Botanic Gardens in Glencoe for most of the day. We walked the whole thing – more than once, sat and had a snack in an orchard, wrote postcards in an English garden and a Japanese pagoda, and ambled along enjoying the colors, the warmth and the peace.

Fringe tulips – aren’t they fabulous?! They look like CLOTH!

This would be okay in my front yard.

I came home with a mini-rose plant of my own and a mini-sunburn to mark the first bit of Vitamin D I have gotten in a while!


In other news: Many people are unaware that alcohol contains calories, pandas show a preference for artificial sweeteners, Paris Hilton takes Amanda Bynes' ex to Japan, and Happy Mother's Day to all three of my mothers!