Sylvia's Scenario

Our Mother's Day was low key this year since Nick and family have moved away.  Our numbers have dwindled down to three of us now.  Lauren came over for dinner and Bruce barbecued everyone's favorite Teriyaki Flank Steak  and I made some festive chocolate covered strawberries.  I am feeling a little bit of my lonely-grandma-self but I suppose it's human nature after the past three years of being spoiled with my whole family here.  I keep thinking of my own mom who I would normally turn to for comfort at a time like this.  This is when I miss her the most, especially on Mother's Day.  Her motherhood wasn't all that easy, always saying goodbye to her children and grandkids, too.  She must have felt lonely much of the time just like I do now.  We do what we have to do when you don't live near your loved ones.  She rarely lived near her seven children once we all finished high school.  We all couldn't wait to move out and get on our own....

Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I get to have a restful day while, at the same time, I get to eat good food.  What could be better than that?  Bruce got a salmon that we plan to barbecue and since Nick has been requesting teriyaki salmon, we'll marinate this salmon with my family favorite  teriyaki sauce .  I plan to make my last posted recipe  Persian Chopped Salad  because I didn't get enough of it last time.  Mother's Day is a lot like Easter when it comes to the menu.   So, Bruce suggested we have another popular dish,  Orzo with Mushrooms and Walnuts , that we haven't had in a long time.  The final item we're going to make is this Crispy Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus that we had on Easter.  We got a free bunch of asparagus at our local grocery store since this is asparagus season and the prosciutto turns it into a special occasion dish like Mother's Day.  I think for dessert, we'll do strawberry short cake which is something s...

For Father's Day this year, we barbecued a pot roast in honor of my dad.  This was one of his summer specialties and one that was always my favorite.  He didn't have the recipe written down so I've been trying to figure out how to make the pot roast taste the way he made it.   He made his own barbecue sauce and then just let the pot roast slowly cook on the rotisserie barbecue all day.  It was a great way to spend a summer day in the backyard with a wonderful meal at the end of it all.  Here's a photo of one of those barbecues in 1989 with my dad holding Nick.  You can see the rotisserie turkey on the table which was another one of his specialities.   My dad passed away in 1993 but we would often have barbecues in his memory like we did in 2014 on his birthday during  Memorial Day  when we lived in Idaho.  I've been trying to duplicate his barbecued pot roast recipe and I finally came up with a sauce recipe that tast...

I'm wishing everyone a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday and hope it was as pampering as mine was.  I got an unexpected surprise by Lauren when she told me she had a two hour break from her work on Sunday to get together for brunch.  When she told me that, I was afraid it might be too late to find any place available but we ended up finding a time open at one of our favorite places,  Portage Bay Cafe .  I wrote about this place on Lauren's birthday a couple years ago when it was her wish to experience this popular spot. We happily granted her request and the food continues to be truly amazing. They feature a breakfast bar where you can help yourself to an assortment of items such as fruit, cream, etc. Go ahead and pile it on, as you can see that Bruce did with his French toast in the photo below. Lauren and I got egg dishes with lots of healthy veggies and I got a citrus and cherry mimosa. It was Mother's Day, after all. Portage Bay Cafe h...