And today is Mother's Day, although the official celebrating is over with. I happily entertained Mom and both my grandmothers, who live in the area. In fact, one grandma lives with Mom (and Dad) and the other is a stone's throw away. It's nice to have my family so close!

So anyway, brunch instead of lunch or dinner today.

The menu:
spinach & ricotta crepes
sausage
strawberry yogurt scones
creamy lemon parfait

I was determined to serve crepes for a couple reasons: 1) I have 2 unused crepe pans that have been hanging on the pot rack for a year, never used, dying to be used, and 2) it was an excuse to buy another cook book. As if I need an excuse... And while Borders didn't have a crepe book, I was confident William Sonoma would. I was right. And they have the "off set spatula" it said I needed.

The crepes were yummy - fresh spinach, slightly wilted, chopped and mixed in with ricotta, freshly grated parmesan cheese and an egg. J.T. manned the crepe making (2 pans!) and I made the filling. You fill and roll the crepes and top with more cheese, then bake for a bit. Quite savory. A great. J.T. downgraded the actual crepe - he preferred the wheat crepes we made the night before.

The book is cool - it has recipes for regular, wheat, chocolate, cinnamon, lemon, buckwheat, spinach, and whole wheat honey - and that's just the crepe - not the filling! I see crepes as being the next coolest thing for consuming leftovers.

The strawberry yogurt scones were from the Cooking Light annual recipes of 2003. I admire this book (or rather collection of magazines) for its admirable attempts at making boring-good-for-you-food taste good. They take the exotic & savory route and rely on strong spices and ingredients like mushrooms, garlic, curry, onions, lemon, pancetta - wait, pancetta is like bacon...how can that be good for you? Well, that's the nice thing about this book. It uses bacon, and chocolate, and butter, and beef, and other bad things, but it's all about balance.

Anyhow, the scones were great, getting a boost from strawberries purchased at a road-side stand. I don't think I will be able to eat store strawberries anymore. Why, when I have 4-5 stands within a mile of my house???

And last but not least, the creamy lemon parfait. A bit misleading because it was not served parfait style. Instead, I served the road-side strawberries in one bowl, and the "creamy lemon stuff" in another bowl, letting everyone put the two together in whatever ration they wanted. It was *soooo* good and would make for an awesome rock-on-the-porch late night dessert on a warm evening. *sigh* A great.