Mother’s Day is fast approaching and to help with your celebration and plans, I have a few gift ideas, links to recipes that would be perfect for your brunch or special meal with mom and a giant giveaway (below).
First up, what mom wouldn’t appreciate a lovely breakfast or lunch, the photo below reflects my menu from Easter Sunday where I shared Bonne Maman preserves along with maple nut scones, biscuits, bacon, ham with Gruyère. I love Bonne Maman’s quality and the jars make the table look homey and beautiful. The Mango-Peach, a new flavor, was incredibly tasty on our biscuits with either the ham or bacon – sweet and salty perfection.
For the scones, I adapt a recipe from The View from Great Island. The Saturday before Easter, I made a few desserts and wanted to make the scones ahead of time as we were going to too-early o’clock mass. I hurriedly blitzed the oats to make oat flour, threw the ingredients together and even though I knew the dough was too wet scooped them up and put them in the oven. Two minutes later, I took a peek and found a flowing sea of maple nut scone soup. The tray came out, I dumped everything into a bowl and added more oat flour and regular flour, re-scooped and put the tray in the fridge for at least an hour. I retrieved them and baked them off – best darn scones I ever made. Disaster averted.
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Every St. Patrick’s Day, I make our family recipe for Brown Bread that my sister-in-law, Ann, found many years ago, and I realized that it is a perfect bread for a Mother’s Day Brunch. I’m sharing the recipe today for two reasons – you may wish to make it for a brunch or breakfast – or as a gift for mom with a few jars of preserves or mustard – and secondly I will never lose it again now that I have it posted. This bread is so flavorful with the crunchy sugary top that you can’t stop eating it. The bread itself isn’t overly sweet so that sugar topping is needed. I serve it with an orange butter that I make with a 1/2 cup of soften butter and 3 tablespoons of Bonne Maman orange marmalade.
Brown Bread
Preheat oven to 375
- 1 cup of all purpose flour
- ¼ cup of sugar
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 cups of whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup of vegetable shortening
- 1 ¼ cup of buttermilk
Put the dry ingredients in a bowl (the first 6 ingredients – even though sugar is technically a wet ingredient as it dissolves). Then cut the shortening into the dry ingredients with a pastry fork, pastry blender or large fork. Add the buttermilk and mix until it comes together – do not overmix.
Flour your bench or board – and take the mix out and knead it about ten times until it comes into a nice round 7 inch circle.
Mark an X on the top with a knife.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile in a small sauce pan – mix 2 tablespoons of sugar with 1 tablespoon of water and heat until dissolved – at 40 minutes brush this mix over the top of the loaf and let bake for 5 additional minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for as long as you can before you must have a piece. Serve with orange butter mentioned above.
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Maille mustards make an elegant gift for anyone who loves to cook and especially for mom. Just as the Bonne Maman jars look special on your table setting – so do the Maille jars. I know it is strange to say a jam or mustard jar is beautiful – but they are. Maille’s Spring honey and mustard collection is very special with three flavors to satisfy all palates. I love mustard and honey and these flavors are incredibly delicious. These mustards and a few of these adorable condiment spoons and you have a charming gift. For a limited time, check out the White Truffle Mustard. Maille also has a delicious assortment of vinegars and I’ve been pleading with them to make their walnut vinegar available to us in the States. Maille, are you listening? For the love of all things fermented, please!
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La Tienda has been selling Spanish products since 1996. They have a wide variety of quality items for the food lover. The entertaining basket is another gift possibility for mom and contains a wealth of delicious items. I love Spanish food and I cannot wait to dive into this collection of goodies – I think I know what we’re having for appetizers on Mothers’ Day. I made a mistake and started looking at all the gifts under $100 – I want the tapas plates, the white terra cotta cazeula, okay – I just want everything. Beautiful food related gifts at reasonable prices.
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Anyone that knows me, knows that I have an addiction to French cast iron enamel pans. I’m trying to behave and only collect white pieces and vintage pieces but there are a few pots such as the Perfect Pan from Staub that I have picked up in Graphite. It’s ironic – I had no interest in this pan until a friend messaged me and told me – she had it in her basket and deleted it after she realized that she had a wok and dutch oven. I do love this pot – it is perfect – and a great starter piece for someone building their kitchen.
Le Creuset still has most of my heart — look at this gorgeous pot – sweet mother of French cookware – this is gorgeous what mom wouldn’t love this? Right now LeCreuset will send a petite heart cocotte with any $150 website purchase. This special pot below, I first found at Williams-Sonoma – I’m in lust – it is also on the Le Creuset site and will qualify for that cute little heart cocette.
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No gift guide written by me can be complete without mentioning a few cookbook titles which I believe would be fantastic choices for Mother’s Day. I narrowed it down to a dozen books:
- Bread Crumbs Toast, see my full review at Eat Your Books.
- The Great Dixter Cookbook is a stunning book that combines gardening and delicious food, truly beautiful.
- Dinner Changing the Game, see my full review at Eat Your Books.
- Provence to Pondicherry is a stunner from Tessa Kirros. A review and recipe can be found at Eat Your Books.
- Eat in My Kitchen, James Beard Award Winner! is one of my favorite books from 2016. A link to my full review can be found here.
- Pomegranates & Saffron, is a beautiful book, more information can be found here.
- Lamingtons & Lemon Tarts, is a stunner of a dessert book. I’ll be sharing more information about this title soon.
- Simple is spectacular, jam-packed with delicious dishes. My previous post shares a few photos of dishes I have cooked.
Katerina Nitsou is offering $10 off her cookbook, Macedonia, for Mothers’ Day using the code THANKSMOM at checkout. Macedonia, Recipes from the Balkans is a beautiful title filled with delicious recipes and full page color photographs of every dish. This book is my first book that is devoted to Macedonia and while I haven’t had a great deal of time to work my way through it – I will be. Homey, comfort food from starters to desserts and preserves, are shared in this lovely self-published cookbook which is well worth our attention.
Another author, I must mention who writes beautiful books, is Adelina Pulford who has a number of titles on Italian food and desserts. I am working on bringing a promotion to you on these books and I am especially taken with Adelina’s Kitchen Dromana: Dolci from my Italian Kitchen.
Lee Clayton Roper has written two cookbooks that also would make delicious gifts A Well-Seasoned Kitchen (written with her mother) and Fresh Tastes both of which I covered previously (Fresh Tastes and A Well-Seasoned Kitchen). Lee shares two of her menu plans in the Menu Suggestions below.
Updated 5/5 — I just received Nancy Baggett’s new book Cooking with Lavender and it is beautiful – what a great gift, with some culinary lavender and lavender sugar cookies from the book – it would make this mom happy. Make sure you check it out.
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And the last gift suggestion, but certainly not the least, an Eat Your Books membership along with one of the cookbook titles above would be a wonderful gift for the cookbook lover in your life. Yes, I am the Cookbook Promotions Manager for Eat Your Books (“EYB”) – but I honestly love the site. For those readers who are not familiar with EYB – it is a website for people who love cookbooks and want to make better use of the great recipes from those books. With EYB, a member can create their own personal Bookshelf and quickly find recipes from their cookbooks, food magazines, food blogs, personal recipe clippings, and favorite online recipes. New cookbooks (as well as older titles) are indexed every week. More details can be found at EYB. We also offer dozens of giveaways every month on the newest titles.
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MENU SUGGESTIONS
My friends have shared a few of their favorite recipes for a Mothers’ Day celebration:
- Pattie, has shared her post with great brunch ideas.
- Claudia has a scrumptious recipe for Triple Berry Cannoli Stuffed Italian Breakfast Toast.
- Lee has a make-ahead lunch plan and a make-ahead dinner menu.
- Marc has a Souffled Apple Pancakes with Cinnamon Maple Syrup.
- Beth has Challah Bread Pudding with Blueberries and Peaches.
- Signe shares her video for a Sweet Omelette.
- Janis shares Hattie’s Goat Cheese Torta with Pesto and Sun-dried Tomatoes.
- Renee at Kudos Kitchen has a wonderful selection of recipes for brunch.
- Lisa at The Cutting Edge of Ordinary always has delicious recipes perfect for any time but her Blueberry Cake would look beautiful on your Mothers’ Day table.
- Eat Your Books has two dozen recipes for Mothers’ Day in the online recipes search and remember you can search your cookbook collection by ingredients for specific recipes as well.
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GIVEAWAY
Simple Essentials, America’s Test Kitchen DIY, Crescent City Cooking, The Foods of the Greek Islands, Heston’s Feasts, Pintxos, Sunday Suppers at Luques, Real Cajun, Asian Dumplings, Simple to Spectacular, Golden and Grandbaby Cakes.
In my travels and work, I have come across a few duplicates of favorite books and I want to share them with you this Mother’s Day – a dozen cookbooks, a cute pastel set of measuring cups, a Cookbook Junkies apron made by the incredible Kudos Kitchen and a one year membership to Eat Your Books – so that you can enter all these wonderful books above. This giveaway is through Rafflecopter – with lots of options. You must be a member of Eat Your Books (a free membership is available) to enter. Open to US residents only. Good luck!
Disclaimer: I hope this information is helpful to you. Links to Amazon are affiliate links and help to support this site. I received no compensation for sharing my opinions but did receive samples from Bonne Maman, Maille and La Tienda. Staub and LeCreuset do not know I’m alive and if they sent me something I would no longer be – as I would die from shock. Review copies of most books were kindly supplied by authors and publishers through my work for Eat Your Books. The items in the giveaway are supplied by myself and Eat Your Books is supplying the year membership.
We have usually celebrated with a nice lunch with our Mothers. My husband and I both lost of Mothers this past year, so it will be very different. New traditions will be made as time goes on.
my favorite memory and tradition was to bring my mom a red rose and small perfume on mothers day morning
This will be my first Mother’s Day without Mom so it will be a hard one. She loved yellow roses and she loved chicken so Mother’s Day was always about yellow roses and some kind of a chicken meal. She too was crazy for cookbooks and I was fortunate enough to get most of them. One of my sisters made a book called “Mama’s Recipes” for her siblings last Christmas. In it, she placed copies of all of Mom’s handwritten recipes with all of her goofy notes. It is now placed on my counter on a stand.
Mother’s day isn’t really celebrated in my family. I am not sure why. But I do love that Staub perfect pan. I want it and have wanted it for a long time. It would be perfect for frying taco shells or tempura.
This is another year that I can say that I am blessed to have my biggest fan, number one supporter, and inspiration for everything – my mother – with me and therefore, am planning to celebrate accordingly! I’ve got a lovely farmer’s market-lunch-shopping date planned with a special dinner menu for a special woman to cap it off!
Every year, our family hosts a cheering station for a half marathon that benefits The Cancer Connection. This organization supports people who have been diagnosed with cancer.
My favorite Mothers Day tradition is making my Mom breakfast in bed. Now my children do it for me.
The only mother’s day tradition we have is to get together with family and the guys cook for the girls.
Mother’s Day for me has always been a breakfast, if I am lucky I get to sleep in, and kid’s colored pictures or other creation. With that said, I guess my favorite part is if I get to sleep in. 😉
My favorite mother’s day is because I have a wife who wants no fuss.
Mother’s Day breakfast made by the kids for me….doesn’t even matter what they make.
Happy Mother’s Day
Favorite and only Mother’s Day tradition in my house is the homemade cards, the kids make every year. I still have ones from over 35 years ago and love them all.
Cards and flowers are the usual nice additions to the day…
Favorite tradition is my riff on Eggs Benedict with mimosas.
We don’t have any Mother’s Day traditions other than planting the summer vegetables. As a new mom, I’d like to make it a baking weekend, which could be a new tradition.
Our Mother’s Day tradition is a tea party for all the women in our family. Homemade scones, madeleines, finger sandwiches and of course petit fours– yum!
My favorite Mother’s day memory is receiving homemade cards and gifts from my sons. I still often use a glue gun holder that they made and painted for me. I love my image one drew of me as I’m skinny and have my apron on!
My favorite Mother’s Day tradition was going to the Circus Drive In for a delicious hot dog. No big lines, you can eat in your car and my kids loved it. I now have a kid In Taiwan and a kid in California so I settle for a call or email and a gift card to the local garden center. Unfortunately, the Circus Drive In is closing this year too. Insert sad face here.
I look forward to getting a call from my kids and lovely breakfast I don’t have to make
I waited a long time to be a mother so kisses from my son are all I need. But not having to cook is nice too.
On Mother’s Day, I typically go buy plants and do some gardening! I much prefer this to going out to brunch with 9000 other people.
lazy morning
When I lived near my mother, we always celebrated with a nice brunch out at a local buffet-style restaurant, with carved meats, tons of sides, and a beautiful view of the river!
Mother’s Day is all about spending time with my family, especially my mom and sister. Last year we added my niece to the group since she is a mom of a 16 month old little girl and this year a 3 week old daughter. We have a girl friendly meal and get gifts of flowers. It’s a lovely day.
My family always makes me a special Mother’s Day breakfast, and I am not to lift a finger for the day. It’s good to be a queen for one day 😉
I wouldn’t be a mother without my 3 sons and 3 grandchildren, so I celebrate them.
My mom left me when I was very young, so Mother’s Day for me always had a negative connotation. That changed in 2002 when my cat had a little of kittens on Mother’s Day. It is important to not that I was told she was fixed when I adopted her. After getting my cat fixed for real, and finding homes for 3 of her kittens, we decided to keep the runt, and named him Timmy after the kid on South Park. So, in my house, Mother’s Day has become Timmy’s birthday. This Mother’s Day Timmy will be 15!! As I do every year, I will torture him with extra cuddling and photos of him in a pointy hat…because I am his mom.
Just celebrating the moms in our lives!
I recently found your site and I’m super excited to explore!
Go for a hike
My book club goes away most years on Mother’s Day weekend and arives back in time for Sunday dinner, which
our husbands cook for us!
Mothers day for us always means cooking a delicious meal so she doesn’t have to, and we always have great fun looking through cookbooks and picking yummy recipes to make!
I’ve always made dinner for the mothers in my life including my mom, mother in law, grandma and wife. Luckily they all like the same dessert, coconut cake, so I’m not stuck making more that one.
That brown bread looks just wonderful!
making a strawberry love heart cake. and her lasagne. spending all day in the kitchen together. amazing.
W.O.W! Thanks for the opportunity and such a great post!!
I was estranged from my mother 2 years before she died. I have no family anymore other than my sons, who have never really taken notice of Mother’s Day, so we really don’t even acknowledge the day. However, I know that being a mom is the hardest job there is, so Happy Mother’s Day from this mom to all you other moms out there.
Getting hugs from everyone and a bouquet of flowers, followed by a nice meal at favorite restaurant is our tradition!
We bake cakes!!
I’m very happy to receive thoughtful cards. If the dishwasher is emptied and filled that’s a delightful bonus.
My favorite tradition is celebrating with family!!!^_^
Deviled eggs
All the men make dinner for the women in the family. I love it!
Mom is miles and miles away, but she gets to open a package filled with books and a new bird house- miniature, hand made.
When I still lived in FL with my mom, we would always spend Mothers Day at the beach! It was a great day off for her!
Strawberry shortcakes all around!
My mother passed away a year ago. I plan to make her favorite waffles for Mother’s Day breakfast.
My favorite Mother’s Day tradition is letting Mom have exactly the day she wants!!
My husband and I were married on Mother’s Day (13 years ago now) which is probably the best gift ever for my mom! We recently found a recipe for Apple strudel, with a pulled dough, that looks like what her mother used to make — so we want to try making that together. Cooking together brings lots of memories….. And makes new ones…..
Fancy foods with my kids… and perhaps a trip to the beach.
My favorite thing to do on mother’s day is make my husband get up early to take care of the kids. OK, but really my favorite thing is to take time to connect with my mom, my stepmom and my mother-in-law.
I have 7 siblings. We never made a mother’s day tradition to celebrate with our Mom. From year to year it varies from just send a card to having a meal together.