sweet celebrations

So many things to celebrate, so many things to eat in celebration. What better way to celebrate Mother's Day and Greg's graduation than with a selection of bread, croissants, pies, cookies, creme brûlée and ice cream. We'd better throw a few Tums on the list for good measure. 

On weeknights last week, I made my special desserts of creme brûlée (for Greg's dad), toasted coconut chocolate chip ice cream (for Greg's mom) and chocolate drop cookies aka Mama Chokers (for my parents). I considered making Greg a pie for graduation as well, but I was glad I decided to wait on that one after I found out what we were making in class on Saturday. 

We started the day with pies. Believe it or not, I'd never made an apple pie before last Saturday. We used the old-fashioned method of not cooking our apples before we baked the pies and we added a variety of spices and chopped up pecans to the filling. I also monogrammed the top with a very versatile letter.

"M" is for Majewski. It's also for Mother's Day. And if you're Greg's dad then it really stands for "Mike's Pie." No matter how you look at it though, this was one delicious pie. I will be making apple pie again this year for sure. I probably won't be making a strawberry chiffon pie again though. This pie has a very light and fluffy texture, but it really wasn't worth all of the hard work. The graham cracker crust was my favorite part.

After the pies were done we started our quick breads. We made simple spice muffins with pecans and biscuits with cheddar cheese, garlic and oregano. Both items were delicious and enjoyed for breakfast several days.

We also made challah bread and croissants and these were baked off after much rising and folding throughout the day. I was very proud of my challah loaf and would go so far as to say that I had the best looking one in the class. The three braid style was a breeze compared to the six braid loaves that we make at the bakery.

My croissants turned out very buttery and flaky and the chocolat au pains were to die for as well. Especially fresh and still warm from the oven right after I came home from class.

But I've saved the best for last. Greg graduated on Mother's Day Sunday, so we had multiple things to celebrate with our parents. After the graduation ceremony and a buffet lunch at one of our favorite local restaurants (where we all sampled the dessert buffet), we came back to our house to continue the sweet celebration. I caramelized sugar on the tops of the creme brûlée and scooped ice cream into teacups. 

And I served my mother one giant Mama Choker cookie. Here's her place setting.

There was basically a second dessert buffet in our dining room. Needless to say, the apple pie didn't get eaten until Sunday. But all of my special desserts turned out well and we enjoyed a really great weekend with family. Congratulations to Greg on his new Master's degree - a specialty pie will be in the oven for you very soon!