Mother's Day and Quiche

What a wonderful day on Sunday (as if I deserved anything extra - on top of the regular, run-of-the-mill happiness that I am so fortunate to enjoy). Sergio and the girls delivered me some lovely cards and a gift certificate for a massage (Solaris is the best!) and let me pick our dinner spot (Spin! because it's next to Glacé).

a happy mother on Mother's Day

We went to the lawn at the Nelson-Atkins to see a puppet show by the Stone Lion Puppet Theater troupe. Great stuff, truly. You must make an effort to see them if you haven't already. Puppets of incredible proportion and messages of great import! I loved the crane; Julia loved the turtle; Sergio loved the snake; according to Julia, Clara loved the snail. (We'll take Julia's word for it.)

Later that night while she was playing outside, Julia brought me one of the plastic flowers from her wheelbarrow set and said, "Happy Mother's Day!" It melted my heart. Then she brought the other plastic flower inside, gave it to her daddy and said, "Happy Mother's Day, Daddy!" And since bucking gender normativity is a favorite past time of mine, well, that melted my heart again.

Oh, and I forgot the most important meal of the day - Sergio made quiche for breakfast! Two years ago on my first Mother's Day, Sergio insisted on serving me breakfast in bed. I carelessly told him that I did not like eating in bed and he was crestfallen. He replied, "if I don't bring you your breakfast in bed then today won't be any different than all the other days when I make you breakfast." He was so right. He is always in charge of the morning meal. I had forgotten to be grateful for that. It was a good reminder.

Anyway, this year he wanted to do breakfast in bed again but let's be honest - breakfast in bed when there's a bouncy toddler and a grabby infant nearby is just a big load of dirty laundry waiting to happen. So we ate in our kitchen at our breakfast nook, watched for birds in our new bird bath, and enjoyed our quiche. Or as we call it ... "gheesh." Sergio's been getting into ghee lately - it is lovely and makes a stellar quiche. Here's his crust recipe.

Ghee Whole Wheat Pie Crust 
(for a 2 crust 8” pie)

  

½ tsp salt

2 2/3 c. flour (1 1/3 c. white flour & 1 1/3 c. whole wheat pastry flour works nicely)

2/3 c. melted ghee (clarified butter)

4 TBSP cold water

Mix dry ingredients. Blend in ghee with a fork or pastry blender. Slowly add water, blending. Roll out.

Julia wanted to take her "umbeya" on our walk.
(Note the outline of the shadow of her hair.)

The bush to the side of the garage began to bloom.
Turns out it's spirea! Clara approves.