Dear Friends,
I made a promise with myself when I started my blog that I would post every Sunday…this Sunday I will be breaking this promise, but for good reason. Yesterday, my dear father-in-law unexpectedly passed away. This Sunday all of the family will gather and remember our wonderful Jack and hold each other very close.
I hope to be back in touch with you soon, till then, please hold your family close as well.
Sandy!
Congrats, Sandy! I can’t tell you enough how much I adore this book…hope you love it as much as I do!
Thank you all for sharing your favorite Sunday supper memories. You guys obviously feel as strongly about Sunday supper as I do… it was really such a pleasure reading your stories.
Sandy, if you could please contact me through the contact form on the blog with your address, I’ll send the book your way!
Thanks again to everyone who participated! And exciting news for all…there will be 2 more giveaways for the book over the next few months so please check back frequently for more chances to win!!
My mother never went out of the house without lipstick, yet she was not a “girly girl” either. This always presented a special challenge on Mother’s Day. She really didn’t like flowers…or candy…or perfume. So every year I faced a dilemma, but somehow I always found something she was thrilled with (or at least she pretended to be thrilled, like all good mamas do).
Every since I was allowed to turn on the gas burner, I could charm my mom with dinner, so that’s what my Mother’s Day gift became…a simple card and a lovingly prepared meal. I’m sure that my eager, first attempts weren’t noteworthy, but that was OK by her. I remember sitting at home reading cookbooks as if they were a required reading assignment to find just the right recipe that would make her smile. Then rummaging around in the pantry to see if we had most/some of the ingredients. We lived on a tight budget, so nothing too extravagant was going to work. Sitting on the top shelf would be flour, sugar and modest group of spices…there was always a something to be made out of that. Below the shelves was a vegetable bin and I would find potatoes and onions peeking out…add a bit of meat and a carrot or two and you had a roast or a stew. Since my mother worked every day, a slow cooked meal was one of the best gifts in the world. I have to say…it still is, isn’t it?
Oh, I know that it’s easier to ask mom to brunch and have her join the legions of other moms being scooted around to various restaurants. After all, there’s no work involved…just a reservation to be made and a car ride. I know that many of you have crazy, hectic schedules and it’s probably your Mother’s Day as well. But for those of you that might have time, think about inviting your mom over for a heartfelt, “spent all day on it” Sunday supper, which is just what my family is going to be doing for me today. I so wish that my mother was still with us because she dearly loved this tradition.
Have I mentioned how much I like champagne…especially for special occasions? Well, my family knows this, and one of my favorite things to start a celebration with is a champagne cocktail. So that’s how we are going to start my special Mother’s Day Sunday supper. Thought I’d pass along this classic recipe.
Classic Champagne Cocktail
Yield: 1 serving
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
A festive drink, perfect for holidays!
Ingredients:
1 glass of champagne (I like to use a Brut champagne)
1 sugar cube
10 dashs (approximate) Angostura aromatic bitters (can be found in most grocery stores)
1 Lemon curlDirections:
Peel as many curls off of an organic lemon as you are going to need. Saturate the sugar cubes with Angostura bitters. Place one saturated cube in bottom each champagne flute. Add champagne and lemon curl. Cheers!
Cheers!
Happy Mother’s Day!
I remember my Aunt Mary’s kitchen on warm summer days. No air conditioning, just a slight breeze that pushed and pulled the curtains at her window back and forth like waves coming onto the shore and receding back into the ocean. Her kitchen always smelled like heaven, sometimes sweet, sometimes savory, but in summer, always like cantaloupe.
Her garden lay beyond, the acre that always held the promise of goodness, planted lovingly in the spring…tended in the early summer and harvested when ready. First, the tender peas and early lettuces, then the carrots and green onions, finally her brood that took a bit longer to mature…the beans, zucchini and the ever present cantaloupe. I inherited a few things from her that I hold dear, this is her original garden layout, scribbled on the back of an old campaign poster.
On the days that Aunt Mary was canning, her steamy kitchen was a whirlwind of activity…prepping, scalding, sealing and soon her kitchen was filled with jars full of the bounty from her garden that we would enjoy for the rest of the year…especially on Thanksgiving (her special holiday).
What was always a constant was her infectious laughter and her willingness to administer Brewer’s Yeast for anything that might ail you. Aunt Mary was an original. She was organic before it was cool. Stacks of Prevention magazine grew in the corner. When everyone else was adding chemical fertilizer to their garden, Aunt Mary was finding manure that could be delivered…she eventually had enough livestock to keep her in plentiful supply!
Sunday suppers from her kitchen were simple, straightforward and delicious, reflecting her rural Indiana roots. Her garden was the same way, no pretense, just an honest acre freshly tilled each spring and lovingly planted and nurtured.
When Aunt Mary died many years ago, the most palpable thing that I had to keep her memory alive to me was the two jars of green beans she gave me from that summer’s harvest. I’ve kept them all these years…they are the ones pictured here.
Maybe (probably) Aunt Mary was the mental force behind my labor of love last year…doing the prop styling for the wonderful new cookbook, The Preservation Kitchen from Chef Paul Virant and Kate Leahy.
Chef Paul Virant is an original as well. He brings big city flavor paired with down home canning for a very individual approach. New flavors are created when you pair canned, pickled and preserved ingredients with those fresh from the garden. He couldn’t have a better writer to express his vision than Kate Leahy. Working with both of them was a pleasure and an honor.
I love the recipes in their book, and Aunt Mary would have too.
I thought that it might be fun to have a giveaway so that you can start your own canning/preserving adventure along with me. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me your favorite Sunday supper memory…it doesn’t have to be long, just a few words will do. Please comment before midnight EST, May 12, 2012. I will print out all of your comments and draw one name and announce the winner next Sunday, May 13th.
Got to mention, I bought this book that I’m giving away and I’m not being given any compensation…I’m doing this because I believe in integrity of the recipes…working with Paul and Kate was a joy, they are the “real deal”…no pretense, just great recipes and great writing. Also, got to say that I was given permission from Paul, Kate and the folks at Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House.
Good luck!
It took me a long time to get to Paris…I was supposed to arrive as a student, breathless and excited at 17. Instead, I arrived breathless and excited at 28 because we almost missed getting off of the train since we lost track of time and had only 4 rushed minutes to gather our things and hop off. We were having so much fun we didn’t noticed that we’d arrived…talk about breathless!
By now, I have been to Paris many times…but every time is special and different. I am so blessed that we have come so many times as a family and enjoyed many Sunday suppers. This time we were welcomed as friends at the hotel where we always stay, Relais St. Germaine. We joked with the concierge and the waiters at the bistro located in the hotel, Le Comptoir which is our favorite for the food, service, people watching and (best of all) the proximity to our room.
By now, they know that Dana speaks French, I speak a tiny bit, and Jeff prefers to let us speak for him. In France, they like things to be predictable, and we are.
By now, we know where our favorite places are and how to get there…the Museums, the Seine, the Tuileries, Luxembourg Gardens, shops, galleries, bistros, the streets, narrow and crooked or vast and tree lined.
But now, I know that this will probably be our last visit for a long time. We start to think about saying a mental goodbye… and then we stop, we know that we HAVE to come back…maybe not as frequently as in the last few years, but we WILL return, because this city has become part of the best of our lives.
So, this is my tribute to a city that I’ve grown to love….and that I will always return to breathless and excited.
In our hectic world, most of us can't commit to having dinner with our family/friends every night, but maybe we can start to put aside Sunday to be together and share our lives and good food. Let's join together to inspire others to celebrate our old traditions and create new ones. ...more
