My Mom's Personal Chef

My mom and I like to cook together, especially around the holidays. Break out a bottle of wine, pull out some recipes, and *voila!* you have instant chefs (at least, in our minds).

And my mom likes to plan the menus down to every last little side dish and gravy topping, which is fine with me as I like to just step in and start the “making”. But these menus have taken on a whole new boldness over the past few holidays, becoming really kind of complicated. And they include a LOT of food. As in, no family of 4-6 people should be eating this much food. We typically make a small dent. This, of course, doesn’t mean we scale down the choices.

Here’s the rub. The more my mom adds to the menus, the less she cooks. For all intents and purposes, I’ve become something of a live-in (during the holidays) personal chef. An example.

Christmas Brunch Menu

Apple-Cinnamon Stuffed Pancakes With Maple Whipped Cream
Cheese Grits with Spicy Black Beans and Peppers
Jalapeno-Chicken Corn Pudding
Bloody Mary’s

Same menu, slightly modified with who made what that morning.

Apple-Cinnamon (filling – Meg) Stuffed Pancakes (Mom) With Maple Whipped Cream (Meg)
Cheese Grits with Spicy Black Beans and Peppers (Meg)
Jalapeno-Chicken Corn Pudding (Meg)
Bloody Mary’s (Ryan)

The workload does seem slightly askew, but hey, it could be the bloody mary's talking.