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The Columbia River Gorge opened up before us. We were in a car—his car—driving 70 miles an hour through the rough-hewn Columbia River Valley surrounded by massive rock formations that took as long as 17 million years to form. We’d last seen each other the week before, just two families meeting for pizza.
Looking down at the spicy paste that came with my sushi takeout, I marvel that I spent most of my life thinking this mixture of horseradish and green food coloring was wasabi. I only recently had my first taste of the real thing—a zesty perennial called Wasabia japonica rarely grown outside of Japan—at Markus Mead and Jennifer Bloeser's Oregon coast farm.
Sure, you can take mom out for brunch on Mother’s Day and present her with a little wrapped parcel topped with a bow. But that’s what everyone will be doing. What about making her brunch instead? Even better, make her brunch from one of these three new cookbooks, and leave them behind as a gift for her.