Put a smile on her face

A beautiful start and finish to your Mother’s Day meal

I’m part of the generation that ate dinner with my family, at a table, and with the TV off. My maternal grandmother did a lot of the cooking, mostly simple things — shepherd’s pie, roast chicken, Swiss steak, baked fish, iceberg-lettuce salads, potatoes, carrots and green vegetables. Sometimes there was liver, which I ate with plenty of ketchup.

When my mother cooked, the food was more exciting and there was the occasional lasagna, pineapple chicken, chili, stir-fried chicken with almonds, or spaghetti and meatballs. She loved cooking, trying out new recipes, and excelled at baking. I learned the basics from these two women and became a kitchen devotee at an early age. Cooking came naturally to me and I eagerly learned how to make an omelette, bake bread and roll meatballs that were all the same size. I am extremely grateful for all of this.

As I evolved into a seeker of new and interesting foods, I took my mother with me on the journey and introduced her to things that were unimaginable while sitting around the childhood dinner table. Quiche, dim sum, cheesecake that was not baked to death, and cheeses that were a little more exotic than cheddar were some of the first things. As I branched out, so did she into Middle Eastern, then Italian, then Thai food. I taught her how to make tabbouleh, spring rolls and risotto. Brie and Cambozola became her favourite cheeses.

I’m giving you something to begin with and something to end with. The middle can be brunch, lunch or dinner. Both are rich dishes, so I would lean toward a simple frittata — zucchini and tomato for example — with a side of marinated beets and cucumbers. Or, a large and colourful salad with spinach, roasted squash, pomegranate arils and avocado. Salmon or halibut filet with asparagus and multi-coloured cherry tomatoes would be a delicious middle as well.

I would serve my mother the halibut, because it’s a real treat. We would laugh our way through the meal and when it came to dessert, she would marvel at the apple roses and wonder how they were made. After we were finished eating, I would go to the kitchen and come back with a cutting board, knife, vegetable peeler and an apple. She would look up at me with a great big smile on her beautiful face.