(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
Mother's Day brunch at many a restaurant begins with toasting Mom with a refreshing mimosa. On this, the busiest restaurant day of the year according to the National Restaurant Association, the orange juice-champagne flavored cocktail is the most popular beverage and often included on prix fixe menus.
That, unfortunately, leaves out the kidlets of the tribe wanting to toast Mommy, too. If, however, you instead choose to cherish Mom at home, you can call the shots and the kids can become sous chefs. Mimosa cocktails (named for tropical flowering trees, shrubs and herbs and first dreamed up at the Ritz Hotel in Paris in 1925) can inspire flavorings for all kinds of family-friendly treats.
Rick Rodgers, author of The Big Book of Sides, created a fun, wobbling gelatin salad filled with orange, orange zest, berries and lemon-lime soda (as an alternative for family gatherings; for adult-only soirees, he uses Prosecco). The tasty treat has not only the flavors, but the "bubbles of a mimosa cocktail."
Katherine Kallinis and Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne, owners of Georgetown Cupcakes and stars of a TLC cable network cupcake series, created mini cupcake parfaits served in champagne flutes. You can even make a copy with store-bought mini cupcakes. Place one in bottom of a champagne flute, top with ginger ale-soaked mandarin orange segments, dark chocolate chips and repeat, ending with a third mini cupcake. Eat with long iced tea teaspoons.
Here are a few other ideas to celebrate with your mom mimosa style:
Fancy French Toast: Add a small amount of fresh orange juice to French toast batter. Serve with flutes of white grape juice with a few seedless tangerine segments on the bottom.
One Merry Marinade: Create a seafood or poultry marinade with lemon-lime soda and freshly squeezed tangelo or orange juice.
Serve Mom Coffeecake in Bed: "Frost" store-bought or homemade coffeecake with orange marmalade and drizzle with ginger ale.
Fun fare like this also proves food preparation can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun - and fast. They take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for creating homemade specialties and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it!
Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you - or your kidlet helpers - choose to use can't help but draw "wows" from family members and guests.
MIMOSA-STYLE SALAD
3 envelopes unflavored powdered gelatin (about 6&3 / 4 teaspoons)
3/4 cup sugar
3 & 1/4 cups lemon-lime soda or ginger ale
1 large navel orange, zest finely grated, rind cut off with a serrated knife and flesh cut out from membrane
1 (6-ounce) half pint container fresh raspberries, blueberries or blackberries (about 1 & 1/3 cups)
Vegetable oil, for the mold
Yields 12 servings.
Pour 2 cups cold water in a medium saucepan and sprinkle in the gelatin. Let it stand to soften the gelatin, about 5 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, stir the mixture constantly over medium-low heat until the gelatin is completely dissolved, about 3 minutes. Do not simmer. Add the sugar and stir just until it is dissolved, about 1 minute more. Pour the gelatin mixture into a large bowl set in a larger bowl of ice water. Let it stand, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is partially set and the semi-firm consistency of raw egg whites, about 10 minutes.
Gradually stir the lemon-lime soda into the partially set gelatin. The mixture will bubble up, but that's what you want. Let it stand, stirring occasionally, until the mixture sets again to the egg-white consistency, about 10 minutes more. Stir in the orange zest and segments with the raspberries, which will be suspended in the soda mixture.
Lightly oil a 6-cup gelatin salad mold, ring mold or fluted cake pan. Pour in the soda mixture. (Pour leftover gelatin into a ramekin as the cook's treat.) Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until the salad is chilled and set, at least 8 hours and up to 1 day.
To unmold the salad, fill a large bowl with hot tap water. Run a dull dinner knife around the inside of the mold, reaching down to the bottom of the salad to help break the air seal. Dip the mold, up to its lip, in the hot water for 5 seconds. Dry the outside of the pan with a kitchen towel. Put a serving platter over the mold. Holding the mold and platter together, invert them to unmold the salad onto the platter. Serve chilled.
-The Big Book of SidesQUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: "Let your kids use a shaker!" That's the advice of Catherine McCord, author of
Weelicious Lunches: Think Outside the Lunch Box with More than 160 Happier Meals. She continues, "I keep shakers of sesame seeds and Gamasio and various salt-free seasonings, such as Spike, in my spice drawer to transform ho-hum steamed broccoli into something really special. I find the easy action of allowing kids to 'personalize' their food and become an active participant in the preparation of their meal gets them to buy in and eat it....Let your kids decide. Take them to the grocery store of farmers' market, let them choose any three vegetables they want, and put them into the mealtime rotation. Sometimes their choice may surprise you."
