My first restaurant review was published on line yesterday at AthensPatch.

It was another beautiful day, a little too warm, and the garden needs rain again.

Ray and I went to UUFA for the Mother's Day service. I wore an apron, as requested, a black one of Molli's. Several women talked about their mothers and their aprons. As is usual at UUFA for these holidays, Alison mentioned that not everyone has fond memories of their mothers and she spoke about a mean grandmother she had, and that she hopes to do better when and if she is a grandmother. It is supposed to be an opportunity to think of anyone who nurtured you, male or female, biologically related or not. I have found myself thinking a lot of my auntie Re, since writing down some of my memories. She seemed to be happy a lot, cooking and gardening and running a big lively household, with lots of laughing and games. Not all of her children's lives turned out to be that happy, and she and her husband both died relatively young. Food for thought. I think in some ways my life is a little bit like hers now, with my house in the country. She never had chickens and, as far as I know, never wrote things down.

We stopped at Peking for lunch. It was pretty crowded for Mother's Day, but with the buffet, we managed to get in and out in pretty good time. I have managed, the last few times, not to overeat too much by only going through the line once. That meant I spent most of my time waiting for Ray to eat. Then we went to Kroger and bought a few things we needed. It was pretty crowded, too.

Ray started feeling sick and went to bed for the rest of the afternoon. I rested and looked at my Mother's Day present: The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, something I've wanted since watching Julie and Julia. The publishers must be very grateful to Julie for writing her book! Amelia called and we had a nice long chat.

Then I got busy. I vacuumed the downstairs, peeled the shrimp, made the ground beef taco filling, chopped the lettuce, grated the cheese, chopped tomatoes, made the guacamole, and was out in the garden picking cilantro and mint when my parents arrived for dinner. I had invited my mother and asked her what she would like to eat, that she wouldn't make herself. I would never have guessed tacos! She said the tacos that Ray makes. Well, he hasn't made them in a long time and I didn't know she particularly liked them, but if that's what she wanted...

I made margaritas for my parents and set out chips and guacamole. My father picked peas and we shelled them and sat out on the front porch. It was still over 80, but there was a pleasant breeze and it was shady. I froze the peas and made the chocolate mint sauce for dessert. My Dad brushed the shrimp with garlic oil for me. I set out everything in bowls and then I had to wake Ray up. He still didn't feel very good, but got up and cooked the tortillas for me. Corn for the meat and canned refried beans, flour for the shrimp. My Dad cooked the shrimp on the grill and we ate. Everything was delicious and we had fun putting what we wanted on. Ray especially liked the ground beef filling. The Captain was big on the shrimp, which were pretty darn tasty. And vanilla ice cream with chocolate mint sauce was a hit with Ray and my Mom. The whole thing was pretty easy, although it left a lot of bowls to wash.

They left about 9 and we watched a couple shows and went to bed.