Celebrating my Mom

  Today is September 29th, a day that for the past 13 years has been a difficult day for me. Today is the day that my Mom passed away. Usually this is a day filled with sadness, tears and grieving for me. As the years have gone by I don't think that it's gotten any easier. My life has just changed and I wish that my Mom was here to experience it with me. I also think that as more time goes by it's easier to forget certain things. Lately I've been experiencing a lot of sadness because I don't remember what my Mom's physical touch felt like....things like a hug or a simple, encouraging rub on the arm. I think that it changes, but there's always a level of sadness there for me....sometimes it's just more intense.

  Because I know that this is usually a difficult day for me I told T that I wanted to try to do something to "celebrate" my Mom's life today, rather than spend the day moping. I figured that in order to celebrate her life I could do something that she enjoyed doing, and I know that something she probably enjoyed the most was COOKING! My Mom was a nurse by trade, but a cook by heart. She was always catering events, cooking meals for people who were sick, had new babies or just needed a good meal and she had a life dream to own her own restaurant. She fulfilled that dream by opening and owning her cafe for a year before losing her battle to cancer. In that time she also started writing, compiling and publishing her own cookbook. Unfortunately, she never saw the finished product, but I know that her hand was in ever step.

My Mom's Cookbook

  So, I told T that I wanted to celebrate my Mom by cooking an entire meal for us, all out of my Mom's cookbook. He thought that was a great idea, so I got busy planning a meal for us.

  You should have seen the cookbook when I first started going through it....there were tons of bookmarked meal ideas! We definitely had to narrow it down, but the finished product turned out great!

  We started our meal with a baked artichoke spread with lentil crackers and crispy bread circles.

  We had some nice, sweet red wine with our appetizer. A good margarita would have been more my Mom's style, but I figured that a nice red went better with our meal.

  Our main course was Chicken Supreme with Lemon-Garlic Zucchini and Italian Garlic Bread. It was wonderful, and it tasted just like my childhood.

  For dessert I made Chocolate French Silk Pie. This pie was the most popular pie at my Mom's cafe and sold out every single day. I haven't had it in over 13 years. It was fabulous.

  I feel like celebrating my Mom in this way was a great idea....much better than being sad all day. I know that she wouldn't want me to be sad.

  I know that many of you would probably like the recipes that I made, so I will be posting them tomorrow under the Recipes tab. Have a great evening!