Do you know what day June 2nd is?

Of course, it's the anniversary of the opening of the Ports of Yokohama and Nagasaki! Yes, but at home, we celebrated a belated Mother's Day, as we had to postpone it from May 12th (this year's actual Mother's Day) to June 2nd due to her work commitments.

On Mother's Day, people often give a bouquet of carnations or a small present. I can't afford to buy the expensive accessories sold for Mother's Day at department stores, and I would be a little embarrassed to buy her flowers (LOL), and anyway I'm sure every family has its own Mother's Day gift tradition. My friends tell me they give things like bath bombs every year, or club together with their father to give their mother a nice bottle of something to drink.

Our tradition is to give something practical and handmade!
My mother often has to go away on business, so last year we sewed a cloth bag for her change of clothes (it was so hard to make...).

*By the way, my sister and I always give presents to our mother jointly. I come up with an idea, we make the present together, and we share the cost.

And this year, we decided to open our own, one-night only restaurant called "Niji-Iro Restaurant" or Rainbow Restaurant, just for her!!! We thought this was a great idea because the food would be eaten and wouldn't add to the clutter in our house (LOL). And here is the invite (see the picture below).

We decided that I would make the entrée, soup and dessert, and my sister would make the main dish and the bread.

And the result looked like this! (See the picture below.)

Tada!

From the front:

Scallop Salad in Choux Pastry

Radish Salad Drizzled with Sesame Seed Oil

Creamy Spinach Potage with Soy Milk
Beef Patties in Tomato Sauce Stew

Buttery Dinner Rolls & Dutch Tiger Bread

(and the one behind the dinner rolls is) Sesame Seed Tartlet

And though it's not pictured, we also made:
Grilled fish with fresh coriander and frozen yoghurt!

We started making it in the morning and finished our preparation at around 9 o'clock in the evening... (^_^;)

There were a few episodes in our cooking day... My sister used normal self-rising flour instead of bread flour, and she also forgot to sprinkle fresh coriander when she grilled the fish, so it was just a grilled fish - this brought some added fun and laughter to the dinner table.

We were so happy we were able to make all the items listed on our menu, so we thought it was a success. My mother told me later that she thought the menu was our "target," and that she expected we would encounter lots of problems and end up offering fewer items in the end.

This year, since we gave her the dinner invite in advance, I think we managed to outperform her expectation and show how much her two daughters have grown! So - how did we do?! （＾－＾）