Eating Our Way Through Another Mother's Day

Because we had plans to dine out with friends last night, I postponed our weekly ethnic meal to today, making it a Scandinavian Sunday instead.  It was Susan's turn to be my helper, but I opted to cook alone and prepare a nice Mother's Day breakfast for her and the girls.  Here's what I made:

Click the photo to see the tasty food in greater detail.

To find out what it all is--and what else we did today--read on:

In lieu of following recipes this week, I looked up (via the InterWebs) what food items are typical breakfast foods in Norway and incorporated some of them in the meal.  I sliced hothouse cucumbers, tomatoes, and hard-boiled eggs and seasoned them with kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper.  I toasted blueberry bread and spread blueberry preserves on each toast corner.  I made sandwiches on a savory ciabatta (in lieu of the more Scandinavian rye bread that I looked for but couldn't find) with dill-Dijon spread, smoked salmon, chopped scallions, and sliced Jarlsberg cheese.  And I served apple juice and, for the adults, caramel lattés.  It may not be a combination that any actual Norwegian would recognize, but it was Norwegian-ish . . . and all the ladies approved, so it turned out to be a tasty start to the day.

After flowers and gift opening and then Sunday school and church, we took Susan out for dinner at El Sombrero for a tasty Mexican meal.  Then we drove to Bismarck so that we could visit my stepmom, who was hospitalized there two days ago.  I'm happy to report that the doctors are figuring out things to do to help her, and she was feeling much better when we got there than she has felt for a long time.  When the hospital brought Beverly her supper, we took Dad with us for a special Mother's Day supper for Susan at Carino's, where we had fantastic food.  (Dad paid, making it a Mother's Day treat for me, too!)

Hillary got help from Grandpa with her placement/activity sheet while waiting for the food to arrive.

We took Dad to get a motel room before returning with him to the hospital.  When visiting hours ended, we bade them farewell.  We stopped at a nearby Dairy Queen to take advantage of a Mother's Day special on our way out of town for a late-night return home . . . and then school tomorrow.  Sigh.  But we're very grateful for Susan: a fantastic mother to our daughters and the best partner a man could ask for.  We love you!