Hooray for Mom

This is one of the first pictures of me and my mom. My dad is there too, but I cropped him off. Today is not about him (his day is in June). It's about my mom. Doesn't she look fabulous?! And me, well, how cute am I?!?

We're in the driveway of my grandparent's house in Syracuse. You can make out Grandpa's back in the picture. In the whole shot, you can see that he's grilling up a batch of what we call Jack Chicken. My grandfather loved to cook. Maybe it was the French in him, I don't know.

I do know that that love of cooking was not passed on to my mom. Nope, Jan doesn't like to cook. At all.

But that's OK. She worked as a teacher, and then came home and took care of us. That taught my sister and me that women can be successful and have careers, and still keep it together at home. We didn't always see eye to eye when I was growing up. She told me once that she was not my friend, she was my mother. I think that kept me on the right path. And now that we are both adults, I can honestly say that we are friends, too. She is the first person I want to share news with, whether it's good or bad, important or silly.

Speaking of silly, I must say that we certainly were not raised eating fast food every day. She did cook for us, and had quite a few "go to" recipes that were always crowd pleasers. (And, because we're French, there was always salad.)

I made my favorite mom recipe today, in honor of Mother's Day. It was called No Peek Beef Casserole in the cookbook that came with her Crockpot, but we've just always called it Crockpot Stuff. I put it in a family cookbook I put together, and my cousin's husband said he would eat it every day. It's super easy, as most Crockpot meals are, and yummy.

Crockpot Stuff (or No Peek Beef Casserole)
1 1/2 lbs stew beef (1 inch pieces) (You can go up to 2 lbs. of beef)
1 pkg. onion soup mix (I use Beefy Onion flavor)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 4-oz. can mushroom stems and pieces (I don't drain them, but you could)
1/2 cup red wine (and a little for the chef)

Combine all ingredients in Crockpot. Stir together well. Cover and cook on low for 8-12 hours (high, 5-6 hours). Serve over noodles or rice. (We always had it over rice, but some people like it with noodles. It's a personal call.)

Enjoy, and have a very Happy Mother's Day.
I LOVE YOU MOM!