A Very Happy Mother's Day!
Yesterday was Mother's Day and I believe Sheila had the nicest Mother's Day she has had since I have been in her life. I'm very happy for her since there is no doubt that she certainly deserves it!
What is very odd, and highly unusual, is that I did not shoot a single photo all day long to capture this great day in photos. Rarely does an event occur without me shooting a few hundred photos! Before everyone arrived I managed to find some time between preparing food and removing clutter in the house to prepare my photography gear for some photos. I even had two cameras ready with different lenses for different purposes and a flash gun all set to go with freshly charged batteries and a diffuser. The day went by so quickly and I stayed so busy all day with food prep that I never had time to pick up a camera.
Adam (Sheila's son) did most of the house cleaning. He vacuumed the entire house... dusted everything... and he even cleaned the bathroom. His years as a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol has taught him a thing or two about "GI parties" (cleaning for inspection) and being on the "bowling team" (cleaning toilet bowls). That was a huge help to Sheila and me! I wish we had that kind of help before every gathering we have at the house! This was Adam's Mother's Day gift to Sheila and it was much appreciated... by both of us!
I spent Saturday cleaning the yard, mowing the lawn, and then straightening out all the boats in the yard. Adam helped me in placing the sailboat upright on it's little dolly as well as cleaning it of all the little critter footprints all over its hull.
The yard looked the best it has looked thus far this year but it will be another month or so before we have any flowers blooming in the yard. Our wildflower flowerbeds have germinated, but we are still another few weeks out before any blooms. Mother's Day would have been nice with blooming flowers in the yard too but the yard is looking pretty good nevertheless!
Our plan was to grill some tasty homemade burgers, hot dogs and sausage links with sauteed onions and peppers as a topping. Around noon I finally remembered to check the barbeque gas tank to ensure we had enough fuel for the day. Clearly, that is something I should have done on Friday or Saturday since the tank was almost completely empty! We quickly put an empty tank in the car and ran out to find a full tank on a Sunday, and not only any Sunday, but Mother's Day. Fortunately we had no problems replacing the tank with a full one.
I have been struggling to come up with a good recipe for burgers for years now. I've been experimenting with different ideas each time we make burgers. That being said, I am my own worst critic and perhaps strive for perfection far too often. Quite accidentally, yesterday's burgers were perhaps the best I have ever made! Another plus for this year's Mother's Day!
For anyone interested in my recipe for burgers yesterday, I started with two mixes of ground beef... one mix was an 85%/15% although I really wanted a ground chuck at 80%/20% (we were too late to find any 80%/20%)... the other beef was ground Black Angus. After I laid out both mixes of beef on a large cutting board, I sprinkled the beef with some Worcestershire Sauce... just enough Worcestershire to add this distinct taste to the burgers ever so mildly. In a small bowl, I combined freshly ground pepper, freshly ground sea salt, onion powder, garlic powder (all visibly equal amounts) and then a pinch or two of ground ginger. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the ground beef and then mix it all together evenly... make into palm-sized balls, firmly, but not too tightly... press your fingers down on the meatballs to form burgers with depressed centers (this keeps the burgers from puffing back up to the shape of a meatball during cooking). Grill carefully without squeezing the juices out of the burgers. Add cheese to the burgers after turning them and grill until they are still juicy and pink in the middle. I plan to use this recipe over and over this summer. These burgers were really good!
Also on yesterday's Mother's Day menu was a chunk potato salad with dill (dill is delicious in potato salad), a fresh chunk Tomato Caprese Salad, Hebrew National hot dogs, and spicy beef sausage links with sauteed red onion, green bell pepper, red bell pepper and sweet Italian pepper. Just writing about this is making my mouth water... again!
All in all this was a really great Mother's Day and I am confident that all three generations of mothers present enjoyed themselves. All three of Sheila's children visited this Mother's Day. Sheila's parents were with us all day as well. And, of course, Sheila's grandchildren were the center of attention all day long! I just wish I had some photos of the day to share here...
What is very odd, and highly unusual, is that I did not shoot a single photo all day long to capture this great day in photos. Rarely does an event occur without me shooting a few hundred photos! Before everyone arrived I managed to find some time between preparing food and removing clutter in the house to prepare my photography gear for some photos. I even had two cameras ready with different lenses for different purposes and a flash gun all set to go with freshly charged batteries and a diffuser. The day went by so quickly and I stayed so busy all day with food prep that I never had time to pick up a camera.
Adam (Sheila's son) did most of the house cleaning. He vacuumed the entire house... dusted everything... and he even cleaned the bathroom. His years as a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol has taught him a thing or two about "GI parties" (cleaning for inspection) and being on the "bowling team" (cleaning toilet bowls). That was a huge help to Sheila and me! I wish we had that kind of help before every gathering we have at the house! This was Adam's Mother's Day gift to Sheila and it was much appreciated... by both of us!
I spent Saturday cleaning the yard, mowing the lawn, and then straightening out all the boats in the yard. Adam helped me in placing the sailboat upright on it's little dolly as well as cleaning it of all the little critter footprints all over its hull.
The yard looked the best it has looked thus far this year but it will be another month or so before we have any flowers blooming in the yard. Our wildflower flowerbeds have germinated, but we are still another few weeks out before any blooms. Mother's Day would have been nice with blooming flowers in the yard too but the yard is looking pretty good nevertheless!
Our plan was to grill some tasty homemade burgers, hot dogs and sausage links with sauteed onions and peppers as a topping. Around noon I finally remembered to check the barbeque gas tank to ensure we had enough fuel for the day. Clearly, that is something I should have done on Friday or Saturday since the tank was almost completely empty! We quickly put an empty tank in the car and ran out to find a full tank on a Sunday, and not only any Sunday, but Mother's Day. Fortunately we had no problems replacing the tank with a full one.
I have been struggling to come up with a good recipe for burgers for years now. I've been experimenting with different ideas each time we make burgers. That being said, I am my own worst critic and perhaps strive for perfection far too often. Quite accidentally, yesterday's burgers were perhaps the best I have ever made! Another plus for this year's Mother's Day!
For anyone interested in my recipe for burgers yesterday, I started with two mixes of ground beef... one mix was an 85%/15% although I really wanted a ground chuck at 80%/20% (we were too late to find any 80%/20%)... the other beef was ground Black Angus. After I laid out both mixes of beef on a large cutting board, I sprinkled the beef with some Worcestershire Sauce... just enough Worcestershire to add this distinct taste to the burgers ever so mildly. In a small bowl, I combined freshly ground pepper, freshly ground sea salt, onion powder, garlic powder (all visibly equal amounts) and then a pinch or two of ground ginger. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the ground beef and then mix it all together evenly... make into palm-sized balls, firmly, but not too tightly... press your fingers down on the meatballs to form burgers with depressed centers (this keeps the burgers from puffing back up to the shape of a meatball during cooking). Grill carefully without squeezing the juices out of the burgers. Add cheese to the burgers after turning them and grill until they are still juicy and pink in the middle. I plan to use this recipe over and over this summer. These burgers were really good!
Also on yesterday's Mother's Day menu was a chunk potato salad with dill (dill is delicious in potato salad), a fresh chunk Tomato Caprese Salad, Hebrew National hot dogs, and spicy beef sausage links with sauteed red onion, green bell pepper, red bell pepper and sweet Italian pepper. Just writing about this is making my mouth water... again!
All in all this was a really great Mother's Day and I am confident that all three generations of mothers present enjoyed themselves. All three of Sheila's children visited this Mother's Day. Sheila's parents were with us all day as well. And, of course, Sheila's grandchildren were the center of attention all day long! I just wish I had some photos of the day to share here...
This was the best Mother's Day I have had in a very long time and I appreciate everything that you (Patrick) did to make this a stellar event! I also would have loved to have some photos to remember the event by but don't think that I will be forgetting it any time in the near future! You were quite busy throughout the afternoon and I can see how the day could have gone by without you shooting any photos. :-)
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