Happy Mother's Day - Lunch

For Mother's Day, my sis, bro and I made lunch for our mom. Well, 90% of it! After all she's done for us through the years and putting up with us as kids, this was the very least we could do.

My sis made Pancit Palabok, which  is her specialty. It's corn starch noodles with shrimp gravy topped with shrimp, chopped boiled eggs, sliced green onions and crushed pork rinds. Yeah, pork rinds!

She also made Chicken Wraps - as you can see, you had to peel the leaf off the iceberg lettuce yourself. The filling had chicken and shiitake mushrooms. She couldn't find the same noodles as the ones from PF Chang (the crispy fried white ones) and used a clear glass noodle instead.

I made angel hair pasta with sauteed garlic and chopped clams finished off with lemon juice,a little bit of butter, and chopped Italian parsley.

My dad made BBQ beef skewers - I believe the meat was marinated with lemon, brown sugar, Mafran banana sauce and soy sauce. These were the most popular item today - the kids attacked them first (my bro and sis have 5 have 3 and 2 boys respectively; I have the only girl) and finished off the skewers. The meat was really tender and I loved how the caramelized it was.

My dad also sauteed homegrown sweet peas from their garden with oyster sauce, shrimp, chicken, celery and red bell pepper. The sweet peas were picked before they got too big so they were sweet and tender.

My brother provided the main carnivorous items - Grilled ribeye and beef ribs...

One of my nephews hinted that he wanted lumpia so my mom ended up frying a few pieces for the kids. She wasn't supposed to do anything today but she wanted to please my nephew I guess. Her lumpias are made with ground chicken, carrots, onions, and water chestnuts.

My bro also bbq'd some pork...or as he called it, "Swine" ( a John Travolta phrase from "Pulp Fiction")

And here it is...he ended up chopping it later.

My mom, being the Filipino mom that she is, couldn't resist making something sweet even though we told her not to make anything. Her sticky rice bibingka is unfortunately not pictured because my photo came out craptastically. My brother's girlfriend and I hijacked the corners! Ha ha. I also sliced off the crispy edges because I loved how crisp the rice was. 

Here's my contribution for dessert, my Lemon Cheesecake Bars which is always a crowd pleaser. My brother was amazed that I actually included the corners AND the edges. Normally, I'm selfish and I keep the four corners to myself. CRUST RULES!

Bert made me breakfast in bed (heart shaped waffles with a cheese omelet and tiny slices of watermelon and juice. TC made me homemade gifts (a keyring holder, a mini note holder, origami butterflies on an origami lily pad and a homemade card) which I loved!

To all the mothers that read my blog, "Happy Mother's Day"!  C, if you're reading this, Hope you had a great Mother's Day!!!

Here's a few Mother's Day related videos for your enjoyment:
1) a fan video of the song, "Mother" by The Police. It obviously wasn't one of their hits and was sung by guitarist Andy Summers. "Mother" was Song 4 from Side A from Synchronicity (1983). I think it's hilarious (the song, not the video). It could be a theme song for Norman Bates!

2) and "Mother" by Danzig. This song was also spoofed by Beavis and Butthead in one of their early episodes. Okay, wait, here it is!!!

This song actually cracked the Billboard Charts in 1994.

and lastly 3) because I have a twisted sense of humor, "Mother" by Pink Floyd (the song is from their 1979 album, "The Wall") featuring footage of Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's classic "Psycho"!