Feliz Cumpleanos a mi madre!

Today my mom became part of an elite group in our society - those old enough to be eligible for a senior discount. To celebrate such a monumental occasion Chris and I took her out to lunch at Hula's, where I failed to cash in on her elderly savings, and then whisked her off to Corning to Lucero Olive Oil where we sampled oils and vinegars and had a personal mill tour.

Mom and I getting ready to dig into our steaming bowls of meat and veggies.

Yesterday was the Winter Crush at Lucero where they did a special Meyer lemon and mandarin orange oil press hosting over 1500 people, so in contrast, we had the whole place to ourselves today.

Mom and the Canadian sampling different flavors of olive oil. There were mini dispensers for every flavor oil and vinegar to sample as well as wheat thins with which to dip in the samples.

I went straight to the tapanade samples. Lemon artichoke, roasted tomato, black olive, and green olive tapanades. Lemon artichoke was the clear favorite with all of us and both mom and I ended up with a jar. We're taking our jar with us up to the 'rents for our little Christmas festivities.

They had some times listed for mill tours, but the gal in the tasting room said those were for yesterday when they had so many people and that she would take us on a little tour whenever we wanted. The tour basically consisted of going in the neighboring building and listening to her tell us about their operations while looking at some photos on the wall. But it was still interesting to hear how their olive oil is made. And the special Meyer lemon and mandarin orange oils they'd just made smelled wonderful! They throw the fruits in whole during the press so all of the essential oils from the rinds put off the most amazing aroma and flavor. Mom picked up small bottles of each for home.

Back at home we ended our afternoon with some generous slices of lemon meringue pie which is mom's favorite even though I think meringue is the devil. Then I pointed at the door and told the old lady to get out, but sung like Jesus in the Jesus Christ Superstar when he's kicking all the vendors out of the temple square. Or at least that's how I wish I'd done it. That would have been so much cooler.