Epic Mother’s Day dinner

I am still basking in the glow – of being treated like a queen! My boys made me the most amazing dinner on Sunday night. My mouth is still open in awe. Recipes were made that I wouldn’t even attempt. The whole meal, including cocktails, wine and dessert, planned to perfection, made and served with love.

I am so, so lucky.

When I arrived home, I was greeted with hugs and flowers and told to shower. Zach said I definitely smelled like a bike ride. (nice!) I’m sure I did.

After the bath, perfectly chilled martini glasses appeared, with all the proper frost, and Vespers were poured. A drink made with vodka, Gordon’s gin, Lillet and lemon. Divine.

Here is our first course – a drop dead gorgeous presentation!! (They even pulled out the sterling!) This is a recipe from Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry cookbook. I have looked at that book and decided the recipes were too much work and too precious for my style, yet my oldest son uses it a lot! He made a homemade poaching liquid and poached the shrimp, leaving them in the liquid overnight. (so this was a two day affair) Then split them, serving them on the edge of the fork with a small mound of avocado, red onion and cucumber deliciousness. A small bite, perfect with the Vesper. The shrimp were so yummy, infused with flavor from the poaching liquid and sublime in texture. Really, this amount of time spent, I have to admit, is worth it. They tasted similar to the amazing poached salmon at Aquavit, a 4 star Swedish restaurant here in NYC.

Next course was a homemade spicy gazpacho, again, the recipe from the French Laundry, pureed moments before and served in a small glass, with a glass of Vouvray, one of my favorite wines and perfect with the soup. The soup sparkled with freshness, a riot of flavor in your mouth, with the perfect amount of kick from the jalapenos.

Now for the main course, it was potato crusted halibut served with a skillet ratatouille. It was amazing!!! Zach said he watched a video on Food Network on how to coat the fish with the potatoes and that it really took the two of them to do it, needing 3 or 4 hands, and boy did they do it properly. They were beautiful, as you can see! The fish was then sautéed in olive oil that he had infused with garlic, fennel seeds, bay leaves, fresh thyme and lemon zest from a whole lemon. It was so delicious! Crispy and moist all at the same time.

The skillet ratatouille was spectacular – the fresh flavors all melding together – it was really, really yummy. This recipe was from Food and Wine. We had the leftovers for lunch yesterday and it was still spectacular!

And now for dessert. They even did dessert!! Well, sort of. My oldest son’s girlfriend was so sweet, she made a really beautiful and delicious pear upside down cake on Saturday night, the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Yes, you know it had a lot of butter in it and it was darn good!!! Just look at this beautiful cake!

This whole meal was so impressive, beautiful, fun and scrumptious. Really, as good as the finest restaurant, I’m sure because it was also made with so much love on all sides. And I love seeing them work together in the kitchen, they’re so darn cute! (One of them even said it was nice to have quality time with his brother.)

We ended our evening together watching MadMen, a very perfect day with my boys and husband.

I hope all you moms out there had a fabulous Mother’s Day, I’m sure filled with LOVE as well!!