Category: Bread, Pasta and Pizza

 I’d like to say a word in defense of pre-Thanksgiving mall Santa’s and all that pesky, premature holiday cheer that seems to be making everyone very grumpy this year. There is less than a month between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2013. Only four weekends. A measly twenty-seven days!!! If you’re a retailer, that is not enough time to make a holiday buck. I know you all want to boost the economy, so, I would humbly suggest you stop your complaining and get busy because you are likely the same people who, the week after Thanksgiving, will be complaining that you have no time to prepare. Take a breath, try not to take it so personally, and start humming along. And please try to remember, places like Costco have Christmas decorations up in October (or way earlier). Every. Single. Year. For like, the last twenty years. So maybe we should all just try to accept that and stop being so amazed and indignant every time we notice it. I’m not talking to you true Grinches out there. You can keep your bah humbug as long as you keep it away from me. I’m talking to those of you who actually enjoy the holidays (I know you’re out there). Enjoy them already! It will be the new year before we know it.

 Mother’s Day brunch always reminds me of my mom but for reasons you probably wouldn’t expect. You see, we served brunch at the restaurant and Mother’s Day was always the busiest Sunday of the year. My mom, who was often doing host duty (she worked 50 – 60 hours a week on her feet until the restaurant closed when she was 68) would see families, in her words, “parade” their elderly mothers out of the nursing homes and in to the restaurant. Now, I’m sure most of these ladies were actually having a wonderful time, happy to be out to a nice meal with their loved ones but my mom thought it was horrifying. She would tell us every year, in no uncertain terms, that if she ever became to old to care for herself we were to put her in a “home” and leave her there! We would just sort of laugh and say yeah right, okay mom, whatever. We knew she meant it though and, although I would rather had many more years with my mom, she did not want to be an old person who was unable to care for herself, and she wasn’t. Dignity was of utmost importance to her. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 69 and passed less than a year later. I miss her every day and I could go on and on about how great she was but I’m starting to get a little teary so I’ll move on…