The View From Mrs. Sundberg's Window

Mother's Day Adventure

May 9, 2011

Listened to the show Saturday and it was not bad. I spent most of the evening getting laundry done and bread pudding made for breakfast so we could all just get up and go on our Mother's Day Adventure. Which is not a yearly thing, mind you, but now and then for Mother's Day I get it in my head to do something off the beaten path.

Which, this past Sunday, included a trip to the Minnesota Zoo. Not because the kids wanted to go to the zoo, but because I did. I have fond memories of visiting Samson the Gorilla at the Milwaukee Zoo, and feeding bears at a zoo near my hometown. Plus, it's a good way to spend time together while learning a bit and walking here and there and laughing now and then. It felt like an adventure to me. And mothers got in free.

Especially when we got to the area where they keep the Asian Wild Horses. Beautiful creatures, they are, and the only undomesticated horse on the planet, I believe. And, in the spirit of spring and wildness and undomestication itself, one of the male horses chose the several minutes it took us to wander by to act on his state of arousal -- which was outwardly both formidable and difficult to not notice. "Run!" one of the kids hollered. They looked at me, unsure of what to do next. It's okay to watch, I told them. It's a natural, normal thing.

The female horse involved continued feeding on grass while the male did his thing and then it was over. "Well, I guess we can go now, now that we've seen everything," one of the kids said. They were quiet for a while, and then wanted cotton candy. We walked on, and saw bison, bears, and a beautiful trumpeter swan; prairie dogs, camels, tapirs and angelfish. Glory.

Wasn't a perfect day. It began to rain mid-afternoon, and that's when we left. Stopped for Chinese food on the way home, where I opened some lovely gifts. An ice cream scoop, some Dead Sea bath salts, chocolates. And flowers. And then we sat together and talked about storms and schoolwork and the mating habits of horses.

I take that back. It was a perfect day. And those children. Oh, I love them.


Time for berries, and the best recipe I've found for shortcake is on a box.
Here it is, and I've changed it a bit to make it my own, and you can do the same.

The Best Shortcake

2 1/3 cups Bisquick baking mix
3 T butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
3 T sugar

Heat oven to 425° F. Stir baking mix, melted butter, milk, and 3 T sugar in a mixing bowl until soft dough forms. Add a dash of nutmeg if you're a nutmeg person. Drop by 6 or 8 spoonfuls on to a greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with a bit of sugar. Bake 9 - 10 minutes or until light brown.

Makes 6 larger biscuits or 8 smaller. Serve with strawberries crushed with sugar, fresh peaches and cinnamon sugar, or blueberry topping. Include whipped topped for a complete meltdown.

Enjoy!

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