Mother's Day Treasure Hunt

Happy Mother's Day! My family is lucky enough to all live within a block of each other, so we've been able to see each other during the COVID-19 quarantine. We regularly do walks in my neighborhood, where we can stay six feet apart.

For Mother's Day, Mer and I planned a treasure hunt throughout the neighborhood! We told Mom to meet at my house at 2 p.m., and handed her the first clue.

There is only one marine animal that we know of on Briarwood
Find a clue there to get started on a hunt through the ‘hood


Now that you’ve found your first clue,
let Lucy lead you to clue #2


Lucy loves to sniff the mulch on this particular section of the street, and she did lead Mom right to the clue! Dad helped find it.



Only a fairy could fit through this door
Find a clue there and then you’ll find more

The fairy house at Abby's house!



You can hook up a fire hose to this tap,
But you gotta find it yourself, we’re not giving you a map


A grand driveway entrance made of brick
Is where you’ll find our next clue trick



Onward! Now you must push
To find orange flagging tied to a bush


What’s this? Irises ready to bloom
Find a clue there then zoom zoom zoom


Underneath here you’ll have to look,
The only place on the street to borrow a book


When you find the next clue you won’t be failing
To look underneath a public railing


Down on the “low side” you’ll see
A place to live if you were a chickadee


This thing that looks like a lollipop
Actually tells your car just where to stop


When we moved to Athens I didn't understand
Why there seemed to be so many Tigers fans
Then I found out that this special D
Was for Dispatch, not baseball, you see


This is it!
Your final clue
Head to Mer’s house,
we’ll show you what to do
Little Kate made a lovely finish line sign!



Mer and I decorated the yard, and had disposable gloves and hand sanitizer available! And gift for mom!



Felix was excited to watch Mom open her gift. A weather station!



Though we've seen each other throughout the quarantine, this Mother's Day gathering was the first time we actually got to relax and enjoy each other's company. We had beers! Mer grilled sausages and served them very safely with gloves on.



Felix supervised my sausage eating.



We also had individual bags of chips! No sharing.



Family time!

Cooking Club Quarantine: Crab Ravioli

Due to the COVID-19 social distancing measures, cooking club hasn't met since February!! I was supposed to be the host for our March dinner, but we canceled that gathering, obviously. We did meet on Zoom for a drink together that evening.



Well, finally we decided we have had enough! We simply had to come up with a way to have cooking club, despite the coronavirus quarantine situation. We decided to choose a recipe that we would all cook variations of, and then get together and compare and enjoy our dishes online!

We chose crab ravioli as the base recipe, mmm. Everyone was encouraged to put their own twists and sauces on it. We also sent each other progress photos throughout the afternoon. Here's Yumi's dough! She doesn't own a pasta maker, so she rolled it out by hand. Impressive!



Summer made a black pepper pasta. YUM!



Valerie's fresh pasta, all rolled out.



Emily's dough resting!



Yumi's dough, about ready for fillings.



Nancy had to work late on Saturday, so she resorted to wonton wrappers. Mmm, looks like Nancy's is going to be lemony!



Emily fashioned herself a drying rack!



Valerie also made a pile of fresh angel hair pasta. LOOK at that!!! It looks amazing!



Sooner or later, wine was poured. Cheers!









I also took the easy way out with wonton wrappers. I don't have a pasta machine, and was intimidated by rolling dough out by hand. Also, I've never made wonton ravioli before, and was curious to try it! With my extra time, I enjoyed the beautiful weather outside and played some cornhole with Ben.



Summer's filling! Crab, mint, mascarpone, parmesan.



Valerie's filling! Sweet red pepper, onion, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, capers, and crushed fennel seeds.



Yumi's ravioli sauce featured  chestnut mushrooms and oyster mushrooms from the farmer's market!



Nancy's cooking club quarantine station.



Emily surprised us all with a cocktail gift, dropped on our doorsteps! Her twist on a negroni, it was delicious. Cheers! We all enjoyed our cocktails together on Zoom.



It was really really really great to see everybody's faces and enjoy a meal together.



Valerie's ravioli were stuffed with crab, sweet red pepper, onion, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, capers, and crushed fennel seeds.

The sauce contained onion, garlic, butter, flour, heavy cream, dry white wine, and parmesan cheese. YUM!!

Mine were crab and shrimp ravioli with a spicy red pepper cream sauce. I thought the wonton wrappers turned out great, and were fun and easy to use! YUM!!



Summer made crab and mint stuffed black pepper ravioli in lemon butter. YUM!!



Emily made crabmeat, ricotta, creme fraiche and sauteed onion ravioli, with a buttery, garlicky lemon cream sauce! YUM!!



Yumi's fillings were ricotta, goat cheese, lemon zest, crab, and the sauce had chestnut mushrooms & yellow oyster mushrooms, heavy cream, ramps, and white wine. YUM!!



Nancy's ravioli were filled with crab, ricotta, and lemon zest, and they were sauced with a brown butter lemon sauce. YUM!!



Summer was also a sneaky surpriser, and left us each a little lemon tart from Z Bakery!



It certainly wasn't the same as spending the evening together enjoying each other's dishes, but it was really fun and delicious! Mostly it was really special to spend the night together as cooking club! Till next time.