A Taste of Spring

MOTHER'S DAY . . .

When I first became a mother, I had this twisted version of what Mother's Day should feel like.

It looked something like a Hallmark card commercial.

And imagine my surprise when reality set in and that was not what it was really like.

The kids still needed their diapers changed, they still threw temper tantrums, dinner still needed to be made, the dishes still needed to be done . . .

Life still went on.

My expectations have changed alot.

And as a result - my idea of the perfect Mother's Day has changed alot as well.

For the better!

It has nothing to do with gifts or cards or breakfast in bed.

Not that I don't love those things.  I do!

But instead - it's about cherishing these people that I gave birth to.

It's about cherishing the time I have with them.

It's about cherishing my mother and the precious time that I get to spend with her.

I had the perfect day this year.

I didn't escape for a nap or run away to a spa.

I spent it in the kitchen

Preparing a wonderful meal for my parents and my family.

I spent it in a very peaceful zen state sharing the experience of cooking with my daughter.

I made bread.

I got into the "kneading zone".

Yes I have a mixer that would do the job for me - but the reality is, I love feeling the change that the dough goes through.

From lumpy and sticky and stiff to smooth and soft and elastic.

It's really very magical.

My daughter worked with me on dessert - a little creation we made on the fly.

Strawberry cream parfaits.

Oh my they were good!

My original intent was a strawberry cream pie.

One of the problems with my cooking is sometimes I just make things up - and sometimes they work.

And sometimes they don't.

And then we adjust - that is what happened here.

We started with pudding.

I found a recipe for homemade vanilla pudding - very simple -

milk, sugar, corn starch, vanilla and a touch of butter.



This is Chrissy stirring the pudding - but in reality, this picture is really about the pants!

Bringing the pudding to a soft boil.

Once the pudding was cooked and cooled, we whipped up some fresh cream and folded it in. We also mashed about 1/3 of the fresh strawberries that we had and let them drain through a strainer so they weren't too "soupy". Those were folded into the pudding/cream mixture.

This was the point when I realized that this was not going to get firm enough for a pie, so we adjusted.

I got out my crystal goblets and we drizzled a little chocolate sauce in each one. 

 A scoop of fresh strawberries went into the bottom of each glass. We took the prebaked pie shells that we had for the "pie that was not to be" and sprinkled the warm crusts with cinnamon and sugar. Just a bit.

We took the crusts out of the pie pans and crumbled them into small pieces and dropped some on the top of the strawberries.

Next came the pudding mixture, more pie crust, more pudding . . .

and finally fresh strawberries and a little pie crust on the top.

Not only did they look beautiful, they tasted fabulous.

Light, creamy, not too sweet . . .

Notice, I didn't say low-cal . . .

But afterall - dessert is a splurge.

And nothing says spring like strawberries.