Mother's Day

It seems like the traditional thing to do for Mother's Day is to take mom out to brunch, as evidenced by the long lines of families spilling out of restaurant doors today. I guess that taking mom out to brunch gives her a break from all the cooking and clean up, and instead she enjoys a nice brunch prepared for her. This was not the case for me today. Rather, I actually spent more time cooking today, but this was my choice. I've really enjoyed my time in the kitchen these past couple of months experimenting with new foods and recipes. The thing that I've had trouble with is managing the kids while they wake up from their naps, make snacks and entertain the kids while I make dinner. So today, Noah took the kids out to a playground while I got to stay home by myself, sip a glass of wine (because I needed an open bottle for my recipe), and make the wild mushroom and duck confit risotto that I've been wanting to make for several weeks. I also made a loaf of bread to go with the risotto. It was a nice evening.

My bread. The loaf was a little smaller and denser than I would have liked, so instead of calling it a ciabatta,  we called it a batard.

The risotto was very good, possibly the best I've made, but I've never put this much butter in a risotto before. I did not make the duck confit, but it came frozen from the University Fish and Poultry shop. I didn't have very high hopes for it, but it turned out to be fabulous. Better than the confit served at our local French bistro in Baltimore! The only thing I would do differently is use less truffle oil. There was a nice and sublet mushroom flavor from the wild mushrooms, but the truffle oil seemed to overpower my wild mushrooms.

Genna and her plate of risotto, duck and bread

Noah eating his dinner

Jonah devouring his dinner. The best part of dinner was that the kids ate every bite of theirs. I know they were extremely hungry since they had just been at the playground for an hour, but it does make a mother feel good when her kids eat all of their dinner (without too many complaints).