It's Mother's Day this weekend.  To be honest it's not something that factors heavily on my radar.  Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate my own Mom like crazy.  I'm sure that she wanted to (and probably should have) pound us through a wall on more than one occasion.  I'm positive that she got pretty tired of trekking me off to skating and piano lessons.  Let's not even go into how many hockey practices and games that my brother was involved in.   She was probably pretty tired of the 'get yourself downstairs to that piano and practice' routine as well.
She was pretty patient with us though.  We thought we were getting away with things when we probably weren't.  While she was teaching piano after school we were NOT doing our homework but watching tv instead for example.  When I told her that my brother J and I had to go out and run an errand it was really to try and find the 'thing' (don't even know what it was called) that I knocked off Dad's car while going around a corner.  J came with me to help me and we found it because he had his head stuck out the window and saw it lying on the grass at the side of the road.  Thank Jeebus.  She probably knew.
When we went to a friends place and left late but still made it home for curfew because we drove at speeds on the highway that would make any mother's heart stop... she probably knew.


My Mom should be comforted by the fact though that in spite of all the stupid things that we did we always loved and never wanted to worry or hurt her.  We knew when we were being stupid (also something that she would be comforted by I think) and we always appreciated that we didn't get the 'you're being so dumb right now' card shoved down our throats.


I'm sending my Mom and My Mom-in-Law flowers today.  They deserve it for bringing up D and I.  My own expectations around Mother's Day are pretty much zero.  I don't need anything except a quiet day.  Kid #2 already gave me his card because he made it at school and couldn't wait until Sunday and quite frankly didn't understand why he would need to.  That's cool.  Kid #1 says that she would like to make me breakfast in bed but I'm dubious about that even coming to pass.  D won't be doing anything and since he's not my kid I'm cool with that.
Thanks Mom for somehow knowing.  Enjoy the flowers and have a great day.


Pear Upside Down Cake adapted from Ezra Pound Cake
makes 1 8x8 inch square cake

Topping/Bottom:

1/2 cup butter (salted or unsalted.  either is fine)
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 med/large pears cored and sliced about 1/4 inch thick (I used ones that I had canned)

Cake

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 lg eggs
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg and cardamom
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the butter and brown sugar in the bottom of a 9x9 inch square cake pan.  Place the pan in the oven until the butter and sugar have melted together.
Remove from the oven and stir just to mix.  Line the bottom of the pan with the pear slices overlapping if and when needed.  In my opinion you can't have enough pears.  Set aside.
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cardamom together in a bowl and set aside.
Combine the milk and vanilla together and set aside.
With a mixer (or by hand ;-) mix the butter and sugar together until it's light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs and continue to mix until it's well combined and fluffy.  Add the flour mixture and milk mixture alternately beginning and ending with flour.  Should take about 3 additions for the flour.  Mix well after each addition.
Pour the cake mixture over the pear/butter mixture.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Remove from oven and immediately invert onto a serving plate.
Feel free to serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.