MOTHER’S DAY DINNER — WITH LOVE FROM THE KIDS

Photo: Chicken Bouquet is a centerpiece for Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day became a national holiday in 1914. Since then, it’s a day of love and memories, with no gifts more appreciated than the “I made it myself” or “I cooked it myself” variety.

I remember so well the fledgling attempts by my oldest child to cook for Mother’s Day. Jose wasn’t much more than a toddler when he got the idea on his own to make hot cocoa for a Mother’s Day treat. While I was still in bed, he went into the kitchen, turned on the electric stove, and started to make the cocoa by setting a china cup full of water directly on the hot burner. I came into the kitchen just in time to prevent a disaster. As you can imagine, a quick lesson on kitchen safety followed.

The Perdue Farms home economists want to be sure your kids don’t have a similar close call and recommend that all kids be warned to stay away from the stove unless there’s adult supervision. But assuming that there’s an adult around to help, children can participate in making a wonderful treat for their mother.

The recipe that follows is “a dinner bouquet for Mom.” Grade school children and older can create a bouquet of chicken kebobs, helping to thread fruit and fresh boneless thigh meat on skewers and to “plant” them in rice. For younger children, even toddlers, Drumstick Blossoms are an easy alternate recipe in which drumsticks are rolled in Parmesan-flavored crumbs. Any age child can help scrub vegetables and spoon sherbet into orange cups. Teenagers can enjoy creating radish roses, making stir-fry rice, and scalloping orange baskets to hold sherbet.

Editor’s Note: Please see accompanying recipes and photograph.

*Citrus Chicken Bouquet

*Drumstick Blossoms

Stewed Tomatoes

Idaho Baked Potatoes with Sour Cream

Succotash

Dinner Rolls

Berries and Cream

*Recipe follows

Chicken Recipes – The Perdue Chicken Cookbook

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