Happy Mother's Day!

My family has worked to make the entire weekend a special Mother's Day event, that has allowed me to feel special and loved!  On Friday, we went to my favorite bakery, situated by the river, and flanked by lovely Sycamores, where we dined on delicious sandwiches and salads.  Yesterday JP made quite a feast of grilled shrimp, fresh asparagus soup, freshly baked bread, and finished it off with a homemade chocolate mousse.  Today, we drove through the country to a nearby nursery, where I chose plants for my outdoor pots, and some for the garden.

This afternoon, the girls and I invited my mom over for a Mother's Day Tea, complete with crust less cucumber sandwiches, homemade shortbread, and tea.  Afterwards, my mom and I strolled around the property, checking in on the peeps, the flower beds, and the garden, where we cut asparagus for my parents' dinner.

In between eating, there was plenty of gardening to do.  We also uncovered the pool, and I have reviewed the guidelines on "Spring Opening of Your Pool", which I can do once we get it filled again.

There are new flowers in my beds:

This is the bank behind the pool - the ground
covers are doing exactly what I'd hoped!

Primroses & Solomon's Seal

I got these irises from my Grandma's flower beds.

Columbine

More irises!

And I even noticed tiny, pea sized, fuzzy peaches on the peach tree in the orchard!!

 

The peeps are growing by leaps and bounds.  They have tiny wing feathers and a few are getting itty bitty tail feathers as well.  I think that L injured one of them, who on Friday was unable to put her left leg on the ground.  Now she is mostly hopping around, and occasionally limping, but I think she will actually survive (which I was uncertain about on Friday evening!)

Our final hurrah to this Mother's Day Weekend, was homemade Bahn Mi, on JP's freshly baked baguettes.  We like this recipe, which uses a rotisserie chicken.  Not only is it simple and absolutely delicious, it is cost effective, as we can pick up a rotisserie chicken for $4.98 at Wal-Mart!

Rotisserie Chicken & Cracklings Bahn Mi

1.  Debone the entire chicken, and tear meat into small-ish pieces, mix with any juices and set aside.
2.  Cut the pieces of chicken skin into strips the length & width of your index finger, and cook in a skillet over med. heat, stirring occasionally, for about 6 min.  (Think "bacon."  This will become brown, crispy, and absolutely fantastic - I can't wait until Thanksgiving when I can have an entire turkey's worth of this stuff!)
3.  Season the reserved chicken meat with salt and LOTS of pepper, and reheat in skillet with rendered fat from skin.
4.  Mix up some Spicy Hoisin Sauce, using 6 T Thai sweet chile sauce, 1/4 c hoisin sauce, 2 T rice vinegar, and 2 T soy sauce.
5.  Create sandwiches using crusty French bread, the chicken & cracklings, along with lots of thinly sliced veggies, and drizzle with sauce.  We like cucumbers, radishes, onions and sweet peppers.  JP also adds jalapenos.