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Never Underestimate the Power of a Simple Gift

When Casey Schain of Guilford was growing up, Mother’s Day meant giving his mother the simple gift of doing not a thing. And that meant going out for brunch.

“Perhaps at the Sachem House or maybe Chello’s. I associate many food items with holidays, but Mother’s Day was more about getting dressed up, going out, and making sure your mom didn’t have to do anything all day,” he says.

Tonya Kershner of Madison, who is raising three children, along with several fur children, says she looks forward to breakfast in bed.

“Breakfast in bed served by my little darlings!” she says. “Eggs, toast, tea, and always a flower in a little vase.”

This year, Mom-osas seem to be the big thing. Some recipes for Mom-osas are mocktails, with no alcohol in them, so that you can share them with the whole family. But others have extra alcohol, because sometimes parenting can be hard, as one of my friends says.

Lynne Charles, also of Madison, says Mother’s Day at her house includes her husband’s specialty, fried potatoes.

“It’s one of those simple dishes that, in the right hands, can be brought to rarefied heights,” she says. “I’ve noticed that often a person has a gift for handling a particular food—say dressing a salad, or roasting vegetables.”

She says her husband is “fried potato whisperer.”

“He knows how to fry potatoes so that they’re tender, but with crispy edges. Succulent and not greasy. I’ve watched him many times and I still can’t figure it out. As a twist, he serves them with sriracha sauce.”

She says her kids pick a bouquet of planted flowers, dandelions, and other stray flowers from the yard and make cards.

“That’s about it. Never underestimate the power of a simple gift,”she says.

One way to get extra crispy potatoes that are also all the way cooked through is to cook the potatoes first in water. Drain, allow them to cool a bit, then fry them up in duck fat. To check out a recipe we published recently, visit zip06.com and search for “Crispy Potatoes, Perfect with Raclette.”

Here’s a simple recipe for a Mom-osa you can share with the whole family, from the Weary Chef. And there’s a variation, in case you want to adult it up a little. Read more recipes from the Weary Chef at wearychef.com.

Mom-osas, Two Ways.

by the Weary Chef

Ingredients:

½ gallon orange sherbet

½ gallon orange juice

1 liter sparkling mineral water with orange essence,

not sweetened

Instructions:

To make individual drinks, fill champagne glass about half full with sherbet. Pour in orange juice to cover the sherbet, and then top with sparkling water. Serve with a straw for stirring.

To make as a punch, add sherbet to a large punch bowl, and break it up a bit with a spoon. Pour orange juice in, and then slowly pour in sparkling water. Stir with serving ladle frequently as you serve.

To make this a cocktail, use Brut Champagne instead of sparkling water.