I've been up alone for a couple of hours now, listening to the silence of a sleeping house, catching up on deviations, starting the chicken for lunch. Once the chicken's boiled and shredded, it's easy. I'm fixing lunch for my mom today. It's actually my kids and my sister that love chicken and dumplings so much, but Mother doesn't mind. She just loves being cooked for.

The best gift I ever gave her was a personalized cook book. I gathered recipes from everyone in the family, preferably written in their own hands. I sorted them carefully, wrote up favorites that were missing, then bought a journal to put them in. Each person had a section with his or her own title page on which was a laminated photo and a poem about that person followed by the recipes for which that person was famous in the family, all pasted into a hardback book. It's a lot of work, but if you have a lot of cooks in your family, you might try it sometime. My mother not only still cooks with it, but just takes it out to read and look out when she's missing her grandmothers (they're both in there). I don't know why I have it on my mind this morning. Maybe I'm missing them myself. Nanny and Grandma Sally - you'd have loved them (I did). Of course, you'd love my mother, too. She's easily the loveliest person I've ever known.

On another note - don't forget your hummingbirds. Nectar's easy to make and homemade doesn't fill them full of dyes:

Four cups water
One cup sugar

Bring just to a boil so that the sugar will dissolve completely. Then let it cool thoroughly. Boiling keeps the sugar from collecting in the bottom like kool-aid.

I'm just rambling this morning, not sure why. I had a bad day Friday, and I think it's still bothering me...

Hope you all have a lovely day, both mothers and children.


Love,
C.