early mother's day meal

Yesterday should have been a lazy Sunday. But it wasn’t. We generated loads of errands in the morning, I worked on a financial management take-home exam in the afternoon and my mother-in-law came over for an early Mother’s Day dinner. Thank g-d that she’s not difficult to please.

In an attempt to multi-task, I roasted a lone red pepper on the barbecue while working on the exam. Roasting is always a good idea when you have peppers on their last legs. Once it was charred, I let it cool, peeled it and threw it in the food processor with canned organic chickpeas, chopped garlic, cumin, lemon juice, kosher salt and pepper. Yummy roasted red pepper hummus!

Our dinner menu was a simple old-school steak dinner. It took less than an hour in total to prepare and was easy to enjoy.

Menu:

• Roasted red pepper hummus with homemade pita chips
• Caesar salad
• Grilled rib-eye steaks
• Roasted baby potatoes
• Steamed asparagus (from Washington…Farmer Hric will have local asparagus this weekend at the Ottawa St. Market in Windsor)
• Sautéed onions and baby Portobello mushrooms

Of course, our meal started with a bottle of something bubbly. In this case, it was Henry of Pelham’s Cuvee Catharine Brut. “Catharine,” as it’s affectionately known, is one of our favourite sparkling wines from the Niagara region. If you’re interested in trying it, you can often find it in Vintages at the LCBO or visit the winery.

All in all, it was a simple Sunday night celebration in honour of Cathy.