Happy Mother's Day!

What are you making today?  I am fixing dinner to bring to my mother and father.  Momma asked for a baked hen. I plan to stuff it with sliced lemon and fresh herbs, give it a rub down with butter, then pop it in a searing hot 450F oven for ten minutes to crispen the skin, lowering the temp to 365 for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until the legs move easily.

The starch is our old standby that's everyone's favorite, peeled and mashed yukon potatoes with homemade gravy.

The vegetable will be mandolin sliced French concoction called ratatouille.  Here's a recipe with lots of pictures that is similar to mine. On the stove top, cook chopped onion and garlic in some butter/olive oil until caramelized, then add a small can of tomato paste, stir that around, sprinkle a little pepper and fresh thyme. Slice tomatoes, green and yellow squash, an eggplant, and a red bell pepper, alternating and spiraling the colorful vegetables into the pan. Add some more thyme (just a tiny bit - it will overwhelm!), salt and pepper, then drizzle on olive oil.  This bakes about 45 minutes, covered, then another 30 minutes uncovered.  Finally, a little vinaigrette sprinkle and under the broiler for a quick edge browning.
For the vinaigrette: 1T olive oil, 1t. balsamic vinegar, a whisp of thyme, kosher salt & black pepper.

My sweet husband Mark will make his famous (well, famous to us!) homemade biscuits, using Pioneer Brand Biscuit Mix from the grocery store.

I baked TWO lemon supreme cakes this morning.  The first one STUCK LIKE GLUE to the prepared bundt pan. Failure! We enjoyed a piece with coffee while the other one baked. The second one slid from the pan like it was the law. The failure cake pan was prepared with my regular Crisco and flour, and in the second one I used Bakers Joy (an oil/flour spray) and had success. Go figure!

Identical cakes, same recipe, same preparation.
Flops sometimes just happen.