Costco Connection

The Mother’s ^DayMenu This is a mix-and-match menu of bought and baked or home-assembled dishes. If someone is in a hurry or not comfortable preparing a dish, assign them some of the items on the to-bring list. To-bring list Baguettes and bagels Assorted cheeses or quiche Coffee Juice and spring water spritzers Fruit tisanes/teas Fresh strawberries and/or fruit salad Recipes Cranberry, Apple & Orange Buttermilk Muffins Hungarian Scalloped Potatoes Scrambled Eggs with Brie

PHOTODISC

By Marcy Goldman

Acouple of Mother’s Days ago, I went on strike. I vetoed the restaurant route. No more salad-’n’-sneeze-guard, commercial-style brunches for me! And for many, especially us “sandwich generation” madonnas, plans can get wacky trying to ensure that you, your mother, mother-in-law, stepmother, grandmother, et al., all have a place to be and be (roasted and) toasted.

one’s varying commitments that day, and the intergenerational spin works too. We all get to meet or reacquaint ourselves with one another’s moms, toast each other and feel we have done something for ourselves, as well as our mothers, in one pre-emptive effort.

Cranberry Apple & Orange Buttermilk Muffins

Admittedly, like many modern muffins, these are really mini-coffeecakes masquerading in a muffin tin. They are humongous and moist and studded with so many flavourful things they reinvent the word muffin.

Topping

125 mL (¹/2 cup) unsalted butter, in chunks

So I came up with my own solution. I now host an All The Mothers In My Circle Mother’s Day Brunch. Today it includes, in addition to my own mother, a surrogate mother or grandmother or two, as well as all my closest women friends and their mothers. It even encompasses friends who are motherless or who could use some female bonding.

Ambience: Very girlie-girl—best china, best tablecloth, scented candles, simmering potpourri, fragrant simmering oils, flowers and the trickling backdrop of a couple of those indoor serenity fountains.

Mission: Tending to all the mothers (even me) in my life.

50 mL (¹/4 cup) all-purpose flour l mL (¹/4 tsp) cinnamon

All in all, it is a great solution to every-

Timing: A brunch allows the younger mothers to be served the requisite burnt toast and weak coffee and gift early in the morning. This special brunch includes moms (kids are optional) only, so male kin get a respite at home. Later on, if need be, there is still plenty of time in the day to do another round of Happy Mother’s Day in a restaurant or stage a barbecue for other mothers in your circle.

2 mL (¹/2 tsp) pure vanilla
175 mL (³/4 cup)
crumbled graham crackers
125 mL (¹/2 cup)
dark brown sugar

300 mL (1¹/4 cups) rolled or old-fashioned oats

15 mL (1 Tbsp) finely minced orange zest

Muffin Batter

Menu: Easy, elegant and adaptable. Food is plentiful—the menu is colourful and a nice range between sweet and savoury, breakfast and lunch, and prepared as well as assembled. Everyone brings one thing. Everyone makes one item. The trick is to eat well, but not sweat it on “your day.”