The Cool Thing My Mom Does Every Time We Visit

Y’all: Last Friday my husband and I wanted to have a last minute party with minimal fuss so we invited over a bunch of the neighbors and gathered out back with the fire table and just ordered pizzas. For a no-fuss dessert, I served summer old-school classics – root beer floats and s’mores! And one neighbor brought a watermelon and it was just perfect. Easy peasy summer nostalgia. I find one effect of the pandemic is I just don’t want to have labor-intensive dinner parties anymore. Just order-out meals or cocktail parties with super simple snacks. I hope my friends don’t mind!

oh my gosh, the photo of Toby with the thumbs up . . .when did he turn into a little man?! He looks so mature and so so much like his mama! (beautiful family!)

My daughter became obsessed with creme brulee after seeing the movie Amelie..and after having it as dessert at a wedding…no cake…several different mini desserts! Fun! She researched recipes, and used the broiler, so we gave her a culinary torch for her birthday, and brulee has become one of her specialties! If you have not tried brie brulee do…OMG…so decadent and delicious, and easy to make!

My dad does this! Every meal at my parents’ home is a gorgeous experience with amazing food and a beautiful dessert. Food is my love language and my kids will try dishes and foods they wouldn’t normally try at home. I’ll have to tell my parents how much this means to me.

my grandparents had the “best” home cooking device – a toaster oven.
a loaf of white bread and cheddar cheese was the ultimate vacation culinary delights as I made endless open-faced cheese toast under the broiler function of that toaster oven. getting the golden brown bubbling of the cheese without burning the bread was the grandparent’s apartment version of attempting to toast the perfect marshmallow!

I have been contemplating getting a torch for years. At the mean time we use the oven’s grill for creme brulle and crema catalana. Both delicious!

My mom’s favorite dessert is Creme Brulee and not only is it delicious, it has cemented itself as a family inside joke: we were out for a birthday dinner ~20 years ago. The waiter brought the creme brulee to the table and my literal genius mother (named one of the best diagnostic pediatricians in the western US), asked aloud “why is it bubbling” and stuck her finger in the boiling sugar – resulting in a semi-serious burn! Now whenever we order creme brulee, we give her total guff “why is it bubbling, mom??!”

My grandpa was always eating healthy food like dried fruit – dates, figs, and prunes, acedopholis, whole wheat porridge or “mush” as he liked to call it and many strange healthy concoctions that he tried to share with us. My grandma, on the other hand, bought us all the junk food treats we never got at home – chips, cookies, sugary cereal, candy, pop, frozen pizza. So it was just this funny mishmash of food whenever we visited. One tradition we’ve passed on to my nieces and nephews from my grandpa is brown cows…root beer mixed with milk. Admittedly gross sounding but so nostalgically delicious.

Trying to read this article on my phone but the lovely picture is blocking the first few lines of text.

I laughed thinking of this because my beloved grandma’s “special” things were so unspecial and yet they were everything. She had this old pie cupboard that was always filled with her favorite snacks. We’d run there as soon as we got in and peek in the tins to see what kind of store bought cookie was in there. She’d always serve butter club crackers with Pinconning spreadable cheese before dinner. She had a sugar dish AND a lazy Susan on her table and we’d always scoop so much onto Cheerios in the morning that there’d be a grainy pile in the milk at the bottom. She always had this little milk jug tin filled with bargain spice drops and I’d always get in there first to eat all the white and purple ones. I love how whatever is there in a loved ones house becomes the fabric of memories, doesn’t even have to be special. That pie cabinet is in my kitchen now and every time I open it I think of my summers with her. Someday I might even fill up the milk jug tin with spice drops.

Wow, the boys are looking pre-teenish!

This is the most luxurious dessert! I have some feedback on the layout of this post. I have an android phone (Samsung Galaxy). When I click on the post, the top line text is cut off by the photo and cannot be read “My parents…” The Leave a Comment is on top of the photo. It loads fine on my laptop.

I am going to make all of her favorites with my kids in August. Your mom is the best!

For over 30 years, my husband has made Christmas cookies with our children, and now, the grandkids. He rarely bakes any other time of the year, so this tradition is quite special.
I have perfected the Dutch Baby pancake – the breakfast request when the grandkids spend the night. Watching it rise in the oven and sprinkling lemon and powdered sugar over is such a treat. It doesn’t take much to create traditions and lasting memories.

I used to work on a sweet shoppe back in college, and we had a delicious crème brulee cheesecake! I always recommended it to customers.

The way Toby is gazing at Anton is killing me! To me, it looks like he wants to ensure that Anton is thoroughly enjoying that first taste!

My dad bought a waffle maker several years ago, and waffles for breakfast soon became the tradition with my kids. Whenever the kids spend the night there (or the whole family goes for a visit), my dad makes waffles. The kids love being the ones to announce with the light turns green (meaning it’s time to flip them). A few years ago we moved further away, so now my dad packs his waffle maker whenever my parents come to visit. I have thought about getting one of our own, but I think it’s more special that they have this breakfast tradition that only happens when we get together.

I’ll be a first time grandma next February, and I am saving this post! I love so many of the comments here. I already have “my” cookies – chocolate chip peppermint meringues that continue down from my mom. Can’t wait to meet this little person and make some fun memories!

your mom could be your sister! she is just beautiful! Hope you have a wonderful visit together.

My husband’s mother is currently in her second battle with cancer. She’s winning but some days she just doesn’t feel great. The other day, she was feeling particularly good and decided to whip up a batch of blueberry buttermilk muffins to pair with dinner. With dinner! I thought it strange at first, but my husband was instantly reminded of his childhood when his mom would do this regularly and our son thought it was the coolest thing.

My two grandsons live an 8 hour drive away but we manage to see each other quite often. When they come to our house there is always the “welcome committee” waiting to greet them. I line up old beanie babies (I have four kids who loved them so I have waaaay too many) along the window sills on the front of the house (facing toward the road). One is chosen to sit in a small window near the door to act as a lookout. We keep them there the length of the visit and sometimes one or two are taken down to play with but always put back in the line-up. And speaking of toys from your kid’s childhood…I have many still-in-the-wrapper happy meal toys that live in a treasure box and the grandkids get to choose one per visit.

We’d get to do sleepovers at my grandma’s and she was a sugar fiend (lived past 90, however!). She’d spoon sugar on her cereal. AND she’d get us those little cereal boxes, so we could put a spoon of sugar onto our already sweet Honey Smacks. That was the life.
We’re still figuring out family vacations but I absolutely love the idea of special grandparent traditions – so many fab ideas here!

Just so you know, I’m viewing this on desktop (Chrome), and the top picture is blocking some of the text — not clear if it’s one line or more.

I always ask to give my nephews “a surprise” when we visit! The surprise is always a kiss on the cheek or top of the head, if they want it. Post vaccines, when we reunited for the first time, I gave my nephews their “surprise.” My ten-year-old nephew said, “Wow! I can’t believe it’s been a whole year without any kisses!” I died. :’)

Why are your children HUGE?! Where has the time gone?! My little one just turned one, and I’m visiting my sister & her newborn, and it’s making me feel so emotional as to how much children change in such a short period of time. I never want to wish the days away again,