Mother's Day Eats Wrap-Up

Because all mothers deserve (or maybe not all... um, if this does not apply to you then disregard what I'm about to say) a nice breakfast, especially one that's a bit up from a standard breakfast, I decided to make orange buttermilk waffles with strawberries.

What's different about these waffles than the ones I normally make is that the egg whites are beaten separately. It took me exactly eight minutes and forty-five seconds to produce stiff peaks and a very sore shoulder/forearm/wrist. Hehe!

Anyhow, the texture was dense yet light (due to half the flour being fine whole wheat, though it tastes good so density be damned), with a subtle hint of orange and tanginess from the buttermilk. I'm going to have to tweak the amount of shortening because it oozed orange fat around the edges of the waffle maker. Very disgusting. And although I used melted Smart Balance shortening instead of melted butter, it's just a disgusting thing to look at. Orange fat is something you expect to see coming out of an Oompa Loompa, not waffles.

Since we had decided on barbecue chicken sandwiches, I figured I'd make hamburger buns so we didn't have to eat straw in the form of bread.

The recipe I used is from The Martha Stewart Baking Handbook - The Original Classics. The dough was pretty easy to work with and was just on the verge of sweet without tasting like Hawaiian Rolls. Also, it was rich enough to be on a different level from regular white bread without being overly rich, which isn't the role of a hamburger bun, and most importantly, it tasted like a hamburger bun.

My mom cooked the chicken and made the barbecue sauce, and she found the perfect method for making tender, moist chicken breast. (We all hate overcooked chicken.) First, the chicken breast should be at room temperature, then you sear it on both sides and finish it in the oven. It stays in the oven less than if you completely made it in the oven, thus, hopefully, reducing the chance of drying out.

Enjoy these self-'splaining pictures:

For dessert, Mother's Day seems like a bright, airy holiday that shouldn't be weighed down by a heavy dessert, or maybe it was a reaction to the fact that usually the weather is nice and calls for a citrus dessert, or that it was raining and the sun wasn't out, so I needed a "bright" dessert to counter the weather.

I chose Lemon Custard Cakes from an Everyday Food magazine.

I forgot that I had bowls that could be cooked in (I don't have ramekins!), so I made it in a large dish instead.

The egg whites in this dish were whipped by hand, as well.

STAND BY FOR A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Do your part for the environment! Instead of using an electric-powered blender to whip egg whites, do it by hand. Not only will you not be using an energy-wasting appliance, you'll be exercising at the same time! (Don't forget to use both arms so as not to unevenly develop the muscles.)

To accompany the lemon cake, I made shortbread. It seemed to fit. The recipe was from the same cookbook as the hamburger buns is from.

After eating many shortbread slices, I cannot believe I haven't made it more often. It's the perfect cookie because it isn't too sweet and is seemingly more filling than the average cookie, without causing a stomach ache (of course, you really shouldn't be looking to get filled up by a cookie). The taste, slightly butterscotch-y-caramel-y because of brown sugar, melded perfectly with the buttery taste and sandy texture. It was in the middle of sandy and flaky, leaning more toward the sandy side.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there in the blogosphere!