Portraits Of My Mother And Other Subjects, Part 2

...Continued from yesterday:
     On Saturday afternoon my mother suggested that she, Tom, and I go out for lunch at Applebee's.
     My mother seldom eats at Applebees, preferring rather to patronize the several small, locally-owned eateries in Seaford - she said she hadn't been to Applebees in years - but she thought it would be nice to go there for a change, a special occasion. So we did.

     Tom had the Salmon,

​...while my mom and I split a Bouron Street Chicken and Shrimp. Delish!

    After we returned home my mom started reminiscing about her mother, how she did laundry for a living, how my mother when she was a little girl would walk to people's houses to pick up the dirty laundry, help her mother with the washing, and then on foot return the clean, ironed, and folded laundry to the customers.
    My mother told us that her mother charged twenty-five cents to wash, stretch, and iron a pair of curtains.
     She then talked a little about her mother's recipes, which reminded me that one of my mother's favorite comfort foods from her childhood was rice pudding - which was also one of my favorite comfort foods from my childhood.
      So I decided to make a batch of rice pudding.
      For anyone else who might have a hankering for rice pudding, here's my recipe:
      Patti's Rice Pudding:
      Ingredients:
      5 1/2 cups milk
      1/2 cup sugar
       1/2 cup rice
       A few shakes of cinnamon
       2 Tablespoons raisins

    2 teaspoons vanilla extract, if you can find some. (See post from 5/18/2019, "The Vanilla Beans")

Instructions:
       1. Combine all ingredients except the vanilla in a large sauce pan.

   2. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture just boils. (This takes a while. Maybe fifteen minutes. Be patient. The rice pudding can't be rushed.)

  3. Gently simmer for 50-60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mixture should be pretty thick.

   
      4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
      5. Enjoy! Delicious hot or cold.
      Or with some milk poured over it, as is my mom's preference.

      The following morning, Sunday morning, after mass we went back to P.K.'s (see yesterday's post) for breakfast.

   After we returned home I took a walk around my mom's yard and saw a pretty orange and white cat hanging out in the yard, though he took off when I tried to get a picture of him.

   When I asked my mom who the orange and white cat was she said that oh, he was just one of the cats who liked to hang around.
    I have the impression that my mom's house is to all the neighborhood cats what our house was to all the neighborhood kids when I was growing up.
    That afternoon we received a call from one of my brothers that he and his wife were going to drive down from Pennsylvania and meet us for dinner.    
    This time we went out to the Stargate, another of my mother's local dining venues of choice.

   My mom had the Ravioli,

​...Tom had Broiled Tilapia,

...my brother had the salad bar, my sister-in-law had an omelette with hash browns,​

​...while I had a hankering for an omelette with a side of home fries smothered in onions and another side of pancakes.

     Later that evening -  as this was the last night of our visit, we'd leave Seaford the following morning - I once again besought my mom to let me take one more round of portraits.

     Once again she was a good sport about it,

...even if she did find it funny that anyone would still want her as a photographic model.

        And yet she always was very photogenic.

​     My mom and me.

     My mom and me.