Family of Foodies

I've always felt bad for friends whose parents never turned on their stove or oven and instead turned to the drawer full of take-out menus for dinner every night. My mom's home-cooked meals is one of the things I look forward to most when I go home.

Appreciation for food has been passed down to us all; this suspicion was recently confirmed as we had not one but two email threads going with in-depth food surveys for us all to answer (more on those soon), generated by my two oldest brothers, Chris and Jimmy. Chris loves trivia; Jimmy, well, he just loves food.

This love for food and love for his mama brought him to her kitchen to make Mother's Day brunch--a nice treat for our big gang complete with lots of kiddos. 

It was a delicious feast of h'ors deourves starting with a pimento cheese spread and the softest, most delicious buffalo mozzarella I've ever had. 

There were two varieties of crustinis. The first was a variation of the tradition bagels and lox if you will; it had Norwegian salmon belly, mascarpone cheese, and house pickled pepper and veggie mix topped with crushed red pepper and parsley. It disappeared within minutes. 

 

The next was more of a meat lovers style with balsalmic braised pancetta with carmelized onions and pepper topped with basil

and the same Italian truffle mozzarella from before.

Lastly, he stuffed avocados with lump claw crab on a bed of arugula with toasted pine nuts tossed in a homemade jalapeño ginger and horseradish orange champagne mustard vinaigrette.


We popped the Prosecco and feasted as a family to celebrate the mom who stylishly raised seven kids! 

During brunch, Andy and Kirby were discussing their Sunday pad thai tradition which inspired my mom to serve it at home a few nights later. Here's the recipe she used. It was delicious but spice-lovers like myself could have used an extra kick, so be generous on side sauces when serving. 

I'm hoping that my love for shoes and natural knack for math isn't the only thing I got from my mom and one day I, too, can serve up restaurant quality dishes in the comfort of my home. For this reason and so many more, we love you Meems! Happy late Mother's Day & happy summer!