A Mother’s Day to remember

If you read my Mother’s Day post, you’ll know that plans for this weekend centered around the home. No McDonald’s this year. Just lots and lots…and lots of cooking and baking. If you don’t like to eat butter, sugar, bacon, or stinging nettles, avert your eyes. I’m sure that most of you would say that you don’t like to eat stinging nettles, but if I can convince you to read on, I’ll try to make it worth your while.

On Saturday morning, before we headed up to the lake, the kids put in a pancake request. “Actually, I already made a big pancake with cherries” I was thrilled to announce. “It’s called clafoutis. It’s French.”

Lauren stared at it and then said “um, mom, you made pie”.

Which nobody wanted to eat. Kids. So I made regular pancakes. Lauren had the brilliant idea to make a DIY pancake bar where each kid could top their pancakes with fruit, chocolate and sprinkles. Not the healthiest breakfast, but not an everyday treat either. And I’d already made dessert for breakfast so it was probably my fault for setting the high water mark for a morning sugar binge.

We got up to the lake around lunchtime, and no surprise, the kids were hungry again. I figured that I’d serve something a little healthier this time around…

I’m not sure that our mutant blackberries were actually healthier. But that’s what they snacked on while I made something that I haven’t eaten in over 10 years: stinging nettles. I learned to cook them once in a farmers’ market cooking class that I took in 2003 and hadn’t tried my hand with them since.

The cooking process softens them and you can treat them like any other green. Here, I stirred them into a nettle & pecorino frittata. My husband was confused as to why I’d buy a vegetable that can’t be handled with bare hands. The joy of cooking my friend. Some people get it, some people don’t.

Later that afternoon I got to test out my Mother’s Day gift to myself: my very own wake skate.

I’m a newbie when it comes to watersports having picked them since we bought the lake a few years ago, but I’m now obsessed. I even put on my wetsuit last weekend to go for a spin…

I’m sure that I’m supposed to do all kinds of 360s and jumping tricks with my new board but for now I’ll settle for the middle-aged mom thing which is to arc some big fat turns behind the boat and attempt to minimize the wipeouts.

I have no pictures of dinner from Saturday night because it involved 2 bottles of white wine, our usual bag of salt & vinegar chips, and leftover nettle frittata barehanded straight from the plate. Maybe I was saving room for Mother’s Day brunch the next morning….

We had quite the feast, pretty much my dream meal, including the neglected clafoutis.

We spent our day in the sun enjoying the warm weather and injuring our backs trying to teach Lauren to ride a bike sans training wheels.

And we took the boat out for the first cruise of the season…

Hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day and was likewise able to avoid McDonald’s this year. Unless you really like McDonald’s, in which case I hope that you thoroughly enjoyed your Big Mac. And get your hands on some stinging nettles which have a short window at the farmers’ markets each spring. You won’t be disappointed…