As we already know I lost my mother on December 1st 2020 and no doubt it has been very hard dealing with the loss, even though I know she's home with Jesus, the absence of her still stings. But with the support of so many of you, it has really helped so I wanted to return a little bit of Mom Bowe sunshine back to you. My mother never thought she was much of a cook, meanwhile I've eaten all over the world on tour and I have to say my mother's cooking was always the best! From her spaghetti sauce to her meatloaf all fantastic. Many people who have come to work with me who were fed here at my home by my mother, (because if you were here during dinner time you were eating, that is how she was) always raved about how good her cooking was. Very rarely there were leftovers!

That being said one of the things I loved the best that she made was what she called "Lace Cookies", she would make them every year for my Farther before he passed away in 2003 and she had not made them since. I am not sure if that was on purpose, I just know I asked every year and it just never happened. Well a month into cleaning up the house moving things around, organizing and the things you generally do when you lose a family member, I realize that there was no recipe for lace cookies anyplace! I mean it wasn't an emergency but it definitely made me sad, so much so that I mentioned it to my sister when I went to her home on Christmas for dinner. As I was telling her this her eyes lit up as she responded that when she moved out of the house many years ago in New York that Mom in fact gave her the recipe, in a large binder of recipes that my Mom armed my sister with since now she was eating on her own, no one to cook for her and sometime down the line she would have a family of her own to cook for. Again, this is totally something my mother would do, trying to make sure she armed you with everything you needed to go out there in the world. So, my sister runs to the bookshelf near her kitchen and grabs this rather large loose-leaf binder, which she admitted she had not opened for many years. The binder consisted of many pages and as she plopped it down on the table in front of me, the binder opened up to exactly the page for the Lace cookie recipe! Prior to this we were just talking about how we missed her and how odd it felt just us two and her kids without Mom there and then wham RIGHT TO THE VERY RECIPE PAGE! BOOM! I mean you couldn't have done it a second time if you tried, and trust me we tried, a bunch. There was absolutely no rhyme or reason to this, no bookmark, it was just another recipe page in a large book of recipe pages that looked exactly the same. I kind of felt that was God letting me know my Mother was in good hands now and having her first Christmas in heaven and that we were OK! Amazing small moments where you know the Hand of God was in the mix! So, after sharing all that with you all I wish to also share her actual Lace Cookie recipe with you all in the hopes that if you knew her this story will give you a little smile and a bit more to remember her by. But if you did not have the pleasure of meeting her at the very least you can have a sampling of a bit of deliciousness to make you smile the way it made all of us! PS If anyone does make these, please send some photos to me via email of the adventure, before, during and after and I hope you find them as delicious as we all did! No matter how many Mom would make they sure never lasted long in our household! God bless and enjoy!