The true confessions of a mother-in-law

Last weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a bridal shower for the daughter of a very close friend of mine.  Bridals showers are great fun for me, I love entertaining, I love games, and is there a better reason to have punch than at a shower?

Over the last two years my two oldest sons were married.  I have wonderful daughter-in-laws.  I often say that people would line up around the block to get someone like Christina (Greg’s wife) or Meghan (Nick’s wife) as a daughter-in-law.

But that doesn’t mean its easy being a mother-in-law.  I think it’s especially difficult when your son gets married.  I might feel differently when my daughter marries, but I can’t speak into that at this point!  All of a sudden there is this whole new family that wants to be with your son and his wife as much as you want it.  But, it seems that the “default” family is the wife’s family.  I get that, it wasn’t any different when I got married.  Still, when you are on the receiving end of “Oh, we won’t be here for Christmas this year, but I think we’re free on Flag Day” it hurts!!

But there is one aspect of being a mother-in-law is very easy for me:  my response to my sons and their wives is usually a variation of “I love that!”  “You’re going to move to Africa with dig wells for the children of the Sudan – I love that!” “You’re not sure you can eat BBQ dinner because you’ve embraced being a vegan – I love that!”  “You’re not having children until you’re at least 35 – I love that!”

Oh course I’m exaggerating, but my sons are now bonding with their wives and they are forming a family – the last thing they need is my opinion about the choices they need to make for themselves.  In my brief time I’ve been a mother-in-law I have yet to say “I love that!” while clenching my teeth, but I’m ready all the same.

But, back to the shower.  The theme of the shower was Disney Princesses.  I love almost everything Disney so this was right up my alley.   The decorations were purchased mainly in the children birthday party section, the cake was a children’s birthday party cake.

I made two punches, one with champagne, one without alcohol and iced tea for the shower. 

I would really recommend the champagne punch.  I made extra of the fruit juice mixture to fill ice cube trays so that the punch wouldn’t be water downed by the ice.  I also made the punch (except the champagne) the day before the shower, covered the punch bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. I also sliced the strawberries, put them on a paper plate, covered the plate and froze them as well. I took the punch mixture and frozen strawberries out about 3 hours before the shower.  Right before the shower began I poured in the champagne.  The result was a flavorful, slightly slushy drink.  It wasn’t easy to find tangerine juice, and the pear nectar was located in the health-food section of my grocery store.  This was by far my favorite punch of the summer of punches.  The sweetness of the tangerine juice was softened by the crispness of the pear nectar.  The Cointreau added warmth and the Champagne added to the crispness of the pear nectar. 

Mimosa Punch

Yield:  Serves 8

Ingredients

2 cups mandarin orange or tangerine juice

2 cups pear nectar or juice

1/2 cup Cointreau

One bottle (750 ml) chilled dry Champagne

2 cups ice cubes

Strawberries, sliced for garnish

Instructions

Combine the orange juice, pear nectar and Cointreau in the punch bowl and mix well. Just before serving, slowly pour in the Champagne. Add the ice cubes, garnish with the strawberry slices and serve immediately

Notes

Optional - make extra juice mixture (1 cup of each juice, 1/4 cup Cointreau, pour juice into ice cube trays.  Use these in place of regular ice cubes.

Pour the juice mixture into the punch bowl, freeze overnight.  Remove from freezer 3-4 hours before serving.  Right before serving slowly pour in Champagne; gently stir to mix slushy juice mixture with Champagne.

Freeze strawberry slices, place on top of punch immediately before serving.

The rest of the menu was a light lunch: chicken salad sandwiches, roast beef, sundried tomato and goat cheese sandwiches, quiche Lorraine and Florentine, scones with clotted cream and blackberry jam.

The shower was great fun, complimented by the food, cake and drinks.  It is a joy for me to bless my friends with a celebration blessing the lovely bride.

So here’s to the mother-in-laws who lunch, aren’t they the best!

Alright, alright, alright!

If you are thinking that Matthew McConaughey has little to do with punch, guess what, you’re right.  But I am going to expand the boundaries of my blog to not just punch but also recipes that I really like, and Matthew McConaughey has two things to do with that.

First, Matthew McConaughey is a lot like cooking chicken.  If you asked me if Matthew was one of my favorite actors, I would say “well, he’s okay, but not in my top five or even top ten for that matter.”  Yet, when I took a tally of his 35 movies or so I had seen over 2/3 of them (Magic Mike will not be included in that number.)  So obviously I like his movies more than I realize. 

I feel the same way about chicken – do I cook chicken a lot? No, not really, only 3-4 times a week! 

Second, the reason I made the recipe that follows is directly because of Matthew McConaughey.  In the late 90’s I was watching Matthew McConaughey on Jay Leno.  Matthew was regaling Jay with a tale about the best grilled chicken he had ever had, a Texas specialty, Beer Can Chicken.  Simple recipe, rub a whole chicken with spices, place the chicken over an opened half-filled can of beer, set it on the BBQ grill using the two legs and the beer can like a tripod, cover, cook for an hour and so.  The results, according to Matthew, the best chicken you will ever eat.

Well, I love trying new recipes and Andy agreed to try it (I’m not allowed to BBQ – long story for another time).  So we invite two couples over for dinner and away we go.  First, it was harder than it seemed to set the chicken on the grill “like a tripod”.  Second, if you leave too much beer in the can, it boils up and over onto the charcoals, terrible mess.  Third, if you aren’t careful when you lift the BBQ lid you can knock the very, very hot chicken over on its side.  The remaining beer spills out, and the very, very hot chicken isn’t that easy to lift onto a platter.

The chicken was good.  Our good friends very understanding, but cooking was not at all worth the hassle.  Sorry, Matthew no moist chicken is worth that much work.

So imagine my delight last week when I found a recipe for Beer Brined Chicken.  It was so easy to do, not messy and absolutely delicious!  I grilled boneless, skinless chicken breasts and chicken quarters (breast, wing and leg, thigh, all had bones and skin).  I preferred the chicken quarters, but even the skinless, boneless breasts, which can be so dry, were delicious.  I plan on using the recipe quite frequently; it’s great for guests because so much can be done ahead of time.   

So thanks, Matthew for turning me onto beer and chicken.

This was a great dinner, the new potato and green bean salad, outstanding and the peanut butter bars are no bake – so good on a hot day.  If anyone wants either of those two recipes, let me know, I will gladly supply them.

*Beer Brined Chicken                                                                                                                *New Potato and Green Bean Salad                                                                                   *Grilled Vegetables                                                                                                               *French Bread w/ butter                                                                                                     *Peanut Butter Chocolate No-Bake Bars

Beer Brined Chicken

Yield 8 servings           Active Time   55 minutes                  Total Time    10 hours

Ingredients

Brine

2 cups water

1/4 cup kosher (coarse) salt

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

4 cans or bottles (12 oz each) beer or nonalcoholic beer

Chicken

Chilled 2 cut-up whole chickens (3 to 3 1/2 lb each)

Barbecue Rub

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon table salt

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Instructions

For Brine

1.In 6- to 8-quart noncorrosive (stainless steel, enamel-coated or plastic) container or stockpot, mix water, kosher salt and brown sugar, stirring until salt and sugar are dissolved.

2.Stir in beer.

3.Add chicken.

4.Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours but no longer than 24 hours.

For Chicken

1.Line 15x10-inch pan with sides with foil.

2.Remove chicken from brine; rinse thoroughly under cool running water and pat dry with paper towels.

3.Discard brine.

4.Place chicken in pan. Refrigerate uncovered 1 hour to dry chicken skin. Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix all rub ingredients except oil; set aside.

For Grilling

1.Heat gas or charcoal grill for indirect cooking.

2.Brush oil over chicken; sprinkle rub mixture over chicken.

3.For charcoal grill, move medium coals to edge of firebox; place chicken over drip pan. Cover grill; cook 15 minutes.

4.Turn chicken over; cover grill and cook 20 to 30 minutes longer, turning occasionally, until juice of chicken is clear when thickest piece is cut to bone (170°F for breasts; 180°F for thighs and drumsticks).