Category — Holiday

A very happy Mother’s Day to each of you Moms out there and special wishes to my mom, my mother-in-law, and my sister!

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¸.•*¨ A Mother’s Day Playlist for Mom!¨*•.¸¸ ¸.•*¨`*¸.•*¨`*¸.•*¨`*•¸.•*¨`*•…•*¨*•.¸¸

Mother and Child Reunion
Paul Simon
 
A Mother’s Prayer
Celine Dion
 
To My Mama
Bow Wow featuring Amerie
 
The Wind Beneath My Wings
Bette Midler
 
Teach Your Children
Crosby, Stills and Nash
 
Greatest Love of All
Whitney Houston
 
In My Life
The Beatles
 
Dear Mama
2Pac
 
Hey Mama
Kanye West
 
Oh Mother of Mine
The Temptations
 
The Long and Winding Road
Paul McCartney
 
The Perfect Fan
Backstreet Boys
 
Mama
Spice Girls

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Wishing each and every one of you a joyous weekend!

And for those of you celebrating Mother’s Day, may it be wonderful. Hallmark holiday, or not… You deserve it.

I’ll be spending mine with my son and husband and missing my daughter, but knowing that I am in her heart.

I know this, because she always goes out of her way to make sure I know and feel it.

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These shrimp are not only perfect for Cinco de Mayo but equally so for a quick weeknight meal or a big party.

We’re looking forward to going to the James’ annual Cinco de Mayo party tonight! See you soon, Lisa! Eieieiei Ariba!

Guajillo [gwah-HEE-yoh] chiles are dried peppers with a bright tangy taste and kick of heat. Find them in the grocery store alongside the other Hispanic ingredients.

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I wanted to let you know that there is a new heading in the Complete Recipe Index under the “Holidays” tab – Cinco de Mayo. It was called to my attention yesterday that it was missing. It is there now, with more than 35 dishes listed, the following recipe included.

I found this creative dessert on Pinterest. Over the years, I’ve made fruit pizza for many parties and cooking classes. You know – the recipe where you make a sugar cookie crust, top that with a frosting and then arrange cut fruit and berries on top.

This is a fun take on that. Instead of sugar cookie crust, we have sugar cookie “tortilla” chips. The frosting is colored to look like guacamole. And the fruit is chopped to imitate salsa.

Perfect for Cinco de Mayo!

You’ll notice that the recipe calls for pure lemon oil or lemon bakery emulsion instead of lemon extract. (I didn’t have lemon bakery emulsion, but wanted you to see a bottle of it, hence the almond in its place.)

What is the difference between the three?

An extract is flavoring dissolved in alcohol, while an emulsion is flavoring suspended in water with an emulsifier. Pure essential oils are more pure and clear-tasting and stronger in flavor when placed in a batter than an extract.

Bakery emulsions keep the incorporated flavors more stable while your mixture goes through temperature changes, and they combine more easily with other emulsions (such as butter, sugar, and egg) than extracts do. When extracts hit the heat and the alcohol evaporates, so does a bit of the flavor.

Not that extracts are bad. Extracts are perfect for everyday baking where the flavor is playing a supporting role rather than a starring one. Such as vanilla in a batch of chocolate chip cookies. The oils and emulsions are what you want to use when you want that specific flavor to really shine through and to give intense flavors to things like candies, frosting, and fillings.

That’s it for the flavorings lesson today… on the the recipe…

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Are you hosting or attending a Cinco de Mayo party this weekend?

If so, I have the perfect thing for you to serve or bring.

Serve these flag inspired crudités with your favorite dip or salsa.

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A sneak peek at one of the four Mother’s Day recipes that will be featured in the Food section of the Arizona Republic in two weeks.

Thanks to those of you who ventured a guess yesterday at what the recipes would be.

They are -

Layered Lemon-Berry Angel Cake
Sparkling Berry Morning Cocktail
Mixed Berry Parfait
Sweet and Savory Ricotta & Bacon Stuffed French Toast

Plus a little look at the French Toast filling…

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Later this morning, a photographer from the Arizona Republic is coming out to do a photo and video shoot that will be featured in an upcoming article in the Food section and on AZCentral.com.

I’m prepping four recipes that dad and the kids can make for an indulgent Mother’s Day Breakfast.

The article will run, May 8th, the Wednesday before Mother’s Day.

From the ingredients on the counter, can you guess what four things I’m making?

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Asparagus season and Easter come at the same time and what a perfect pairing that is! They are both happy signs of spring.

Plus this lovely green vegetable pairs wonderfully with both ham and lamb.

We had all three for our Easter brunch; ham in the Herb Crêpes Eggs Benedict Florentine, Pomegranate Molasses Lamb Chops, and this lovely asparagus dish.

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A few weeks before Easter, Connor informed me that he and Patrick didn’t need all the silly things I always put in their big elaborate Easter baskets. Oh really? Fine, go ahead a suck the fun out of my basket shopping!

As a result, instead of the usual big basket of goodies, they each received a little strawberry basket that only had Harkins Theater gift cards and a couple tubes of bubbles. How’s that for no silly things?

It looks like they had fun with the silly bubbles, to me! I’ll check back with him next spring and see if he might like to go to back to the big baskets!

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I admit it, this recipe looks VERY intimidating. It is long. There are many components. It looks complicated. But I PROMISE it is not hard to do. In fact, it is a wonderful special occasion entertaining dish. For a crowd, no less!

How is that possible, you ask?

It is because none of the components are difficult and all but one can be done 1 or 2 days in advance. So in reality, it comes together quickly and seamlessly at the end.

Even the final, last minute component, the Hollandaise sauce, is foolproof. I know, you may be ready to quit reading right now… Hollandaise Sauce – Absolutely Not!

But really it is foolproof! No stove is involved! All you need is a blender. You’re still skeptical? This sauce comes from Chef Tyler Florence. It works perfectly and is easy as can be, I may never make traditional Hollandaise sauce again!

As I was beginning to make the crêpes in my usual crêpe-pan, I decided that they were too small, so I switched to a larger skillet. This was a personal choice, if you don’t have a medium size skillet (about 10-inches across the top) a smaller regular crêpe-pan is fine. Above you can see the two pans I’m talking about, and below the difference in the crêpe sizes.

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