What Do Forklifts Have To Do With Mother’s Day?

On Sunday I got up with the intention of making Katy breakfast. I did get the breakfast made but it took a little longer than I expected. Those pesky kids, I tell you.

I have to give you some background here. First, I am a pack rat. I keep everything. Second, I love Lego. As a pack rat who loves Lego, I have some fairly old Lego sets around, including two “Advanced Builder” sets, which were highly prized. Nobody ever got to play with them but me. Nobody.

At some point in the last week, Cameron noticed the tell-tale Lego logo on these boxes, which were stashed high up in one of the bedroom closets. He wanted to play with them. I told him they are daddy’s and that he can play with them when he is older. He would not be deterred. If he couldn’t play with them, he wanted me to build the sets up so that he can play with the finished product. He wanted to set a time when we will play with them. He was most persistent.

I told him that we would look at them on Sunday.

It should come as no surprise to you that Cameron asks me about said Lego while I am getting breakfast ready for him and Claire. I got the sets down and started putting together the forklift. It took me a while with all the helping and question-asking and examination of the instruction sheets and boxes and such.

Here is what the end product looked like:

(I found this very cool ray-traced picture at Coby Bassett’s website.)

Of course, when we got back from our Mother’s Day excursion to Descanso Gardens he wanted me to rebuild the kit into a grader:

And this morning he wanted me to rebuild it into some other thingy that is pictured on the box. Those of you familiar with Lego will know that if it is pictured you can usually build it from the kit – however, most kits only have step-by-step instructions for one or two models. There were not instructions in the kit for the thingy Cam wanted built so I referred him to Katy for assistance. She may as well put that architecture degree to use.

Soon he will want me to start building stuff from this kit:

This is the UberLego from my youth, Advanced Builder Kit 956. It was the most expensive kit available at the time, and I spent a month’s paper route money to get it. I may have to hide it for a few years.

Anyway, pop that off the stack. Let’s talk some more about Mother’s Day.

For Katy’s Mother’s Day Brunch I made Eggs Benedict. The key to this dish is the hollandaise sauce. Some of you may think that you should just go for the packet but don’t – it’s not hard to make, you just have to give it your full attention. Hollandaise sauce has been around since the 19th century. We’re not talking rocket science here.

I recommend toasting the English muffins and cooking the Canadian bacon first. Keep these ingredients warm in your toaster oven. (You don’t have a toaster oven? You should get one. Now.) Once that is done you can prep for poaching the eggs and making the sauce. Poach the eggs, assemble the egg/bacon/muffin stacks, and put a towel over them to keep them warm. The sauce doesn’t take long but you don’t want to be distracted.

Hollandaise Sauce:

3 egg yolks
1 stick butter, melted
1 T lemon juice
salt and white pepper to taste

Heat some water in the bottom of a double boiler to just below boiling. Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks and lemon juice together in the top of the double boiler. Put the top on the double boiler and slowly add the melted butter, whisking as you go. Do not stop whisking. After you get the butter in, add salt and white pepper to taste. Keep whisking.

When the sauce starts to firm up – don’t worry, you’ll notice it getting thicker - take the top of the double boiler off. It will continue to cook a bit after you take it off and you don’t want it to go too long.

This whole process (assuming you’ve separated the eggs, juiced the lemon, melted the butter, and heated the water beforehand) takes less than five minutes. And you will look like a Hero.

Apply sauce to the waiting egg stacks, garnish with a dash or two of paprika and you’re done. Ta Da!

One last picture and I'm done: