A big-screen television or a gorgeous Le Creuset makes for a flashy present, but nothing quite matches the gift that requires a little effort, especially when kidlets are involved. In honor of Mother's Day, here's a super-cute Epicurious video featuring Chef Bill Telepan (of Telepan restaurant in New York City) and his daughter, Leah, as they make a quick and easy chilled cucumber and dill soup for Mom.

We won't give away all of Leah's one-liners, but she makes the video sparkle with her kid-cook commentary about everything from salt ("That's a lot of salt!") to tuna ("ew!"). Best of all, this is only the beginning: the soup is part of an entire Epicurious Mother's Day Picnic Menu encompassing all sorts of picnicky fare. Enjoy!

[Via Epicurious]

You've called around and every brunch place within a 20 miles radius is booked up solid for Mother's Day. How can you salvage the holiday and make your mom feel special without a reservation?

• Take her to a local Farmers' Market on Sunday morning. You can buy her a cup of coffee or tea and the two of you can wander around, fondle the fresh produce and taste jams and honeys. If you get there early enough, you may be able to grab a dozen local, free range eggs (those babies sell out fast). Poached and served on top of a bed of tender baby greens and you won't (even for a minute) miss the hassle of the restaurant.
  
• Pack a picnic and head for a local park. Who says a celebratory meal has to be eaten in a restaurant? Gather up an assortment of sliced meats, a couple of good cheese, bread or some good crackers and quickly blanch a pound of asparagus. Strawberries or grapes can take care of dessert.
  
• If your mom is a chocolate lover, put together a chocolate tasting for her. Hit the candy aisle at your favorite natural or gourmet foods store (I've found that they have the best assortment of chocolate) and buy four or five good varieties. The two of you can munch on chocolate to your heart's content and when she figures out which one she likes the best, promise her that you'll get her a few more bars of it next time you go to the store.
  
• Even an outing to a local bakery or coffee shop can be a good way to celebrate your mom. Often, the thing she wants most is time alone with her children. This doesn't even have to happen on Mother's Day, if you can't sneak away, schedule a time to get together over coffee and a scone or muffin for some quality mother/child time.

OK, so you didn't start making glacé fruits last month, to be tenderly rolled in sugar and wrapped in handmade paper for Mother's Day. And you didn't pre-order the fancy chocolates from the local chocolatier, the coconut truffles that say "I love you mom" in pink-dyed white chocolate. You didn't even remember to go the grocery store to get more butter to make her a batch of oatmeal cookies. Now it's Sunday morning. What to do? Here are a few ideas.

1) Buy her a subscription to Bon Appétit, Gourmet, or Cook's Illustrated Just order online and go to the bookstore to pick up this month's copy and roll it up with a ribbon and a flower. If she's far away, just forward her the confirmation email and an e-card.

2) Take her to the movies and smuggle in several bags of her favorite childhood candy (my mother's partial to Charleston Chews and those jaw-killing Jujubes). Have an illicit movie theater candy picnic.

3) Create an electronic recipe box for her on Epicurious.com - you can compile your favorite recipes and make comments about them. Email her the password.

4) Show up with a shopping bag full of ingredients and suggest you bake a cake together. Eat half the batter raw. Eat the rest while watching cheesy movies on TV.

5) Send her some virtual chocolates at virtualchocolate.com. One caveat: you must follow it up in a few days with some real chocolates. I'm partial to Moonstruck Chocolates these days - check out the friggin cute chocolate ladybugs.

It's almost a given that you need an egg dish for brunch, but you don't need to limit yourself to scrambled eggs or an omelet. Nothing wrong with either choice, of course, but there are other options. Why not try a quiche? All you need is a pie crust, a good quiche base recipe, and whatever fillings you want to throw in there.

You can get great pie shells in your supermarket freezer. Just bake the pie shell about half to three quarters of the way, put in your chosen fillings, and pour the quiche liquid over the top. Then bake that at 325F for about half an hour or til it's done. You can find lots of quiche ideas here, as well as a recipe for the actual quiche liquid.

They say that the greatest form of flattery is imitation, but what do you call an outright swipe? I guess that would be stealing. I have to admit right off the bat that I swiped this right off of Smitten Kitchen. I came across it one day, and it was so beautiful that I knew I had to include it on this menu idea list. Instructions are on the blog.

Wouldn't mom absolutely love this salad? It would be a colorful, flavorful, and seasonal addition to any brunch menu. I generally think of brunch as more breakfast-y, but (a) lot of people include lunch or dinner items in brunch and (b) who wouldn't want something as beautiful as this salad at breakfast? Anyway, it's just a suggestion, but one I know I wouldn't want to pass up!

Does this strawberry tart look amazing or what? Mom would flip if you presented this beauty on Mother's Day. They're really easy to make, from scratch or "semi-homemade".

From scratch, line a tart shell with pate sucre and bake it completely. Put a little strawberry jam on the bottom of the baked tart. Fill that with pastry cream and top with sliced strawberries. The ground pistachios are a suggestion, but sliced almonds are also very nice, or just let the strawberries shine. You can do individual tarts or one large one.

For the semi homemade crowd, get a frozen pie shell and bake that completely. It's the same deal with the jam, then fill it with a high quality vanilla pudding, and top with sliced strawberries. The pudding won't be exactly the same as the pastry cream, but it'll still taste good. You're mom will forget all about what a trouble maker you were when she sees this beauty on the table.

I know this sounds difficult, but a lemon napolean really would be a simple and elegant dessert to make for mom this weekend. All you need is store bought puff pastry sheets. I'd cut the sheets into whatever size you want while the dough is raw. You should use three layers of puff pastry for each napolean. Bake the puff pastry according to the package instructions. Once the puff pastry is cooled down, spread each of the first two layers with lemon curd and stack the three layers together, with the plain one on top. You can spread vanilla icing on top and use chocolate frosting or chocolate sauce to create the design or just sprinkle them with chocolate jimmies. Here's a recipe for lemon curd, or a high quality store bought curd would be great.

Mom will think you spent all day in the kitchen making these beautiful things, and she'll think you're the best (which you are).

I like to make up salads. It's one of things I happen to be good at, especially fruit salads. One that I haven't gotten around to trying yet is the strawberry mint salad that's been bouncing around my head lately. But my slowness is your gain. This would be a great fruit dish to serve with all of the egg and bread and breakfast meat options that are sure to be on the table.

Simply cut the stems off the strawberries and cut them in half or quarters, after washing them thoroughly of course. Chop up a bunch of fresh mint leaves and toss together with the strawberries. Drizzle the mixture with some balsamic vinegar, and voila. Quantities are hard to say. I'd do a tablespoon or so of chopped mint per pint of berries. Balsamic vinegar is completely to taste.

I know, I know, this a classic brunch item, nothing too creative there. But it's sooo good, it's worth a second look. There are lots of things you can do to jazz it up, too. For instance, use blue potatoes or even use sweet potatoes. Either would be a great choice. Also, try this recipe from Food Network. It looks like it'll turn out nicely, with some great flavors. Play around with fresh herbs, as they are great for adding color and big new flavors.

I know there are eggs in the picture, but you should regard those as optional, especially if you're going to have quiche!

Pity my poor kids. Forced to eat the slop I make for them. No doubt they'll grow up with horror stories to tell their friends. Like the time their mom made them Rice with chicken crap. Or any one of a dozen other examples. Home cooking may be an expression of love, but in my case, perhaps I'd better content myself with buying them more Nintendo chips.

Then I got to thinking: What could one get the mom who can't cook -- but is forever trying?

The basics: I'd start with a nice new copy of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It's the Joy of Cooking for our generation, a large yellow tome featuring the basics of roast chicken and chocolate chip cookies. Foodies might sneer at its simple level, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? And if Mom is starting late, gently help her along in her cooking adventures with a book that will hold her hand down the road. The recipes are simple, and more likely to turn out than not.

Chew on That poses a question to food bloggers each month in a feature called the Monthly Mouthful. This month, they asked, "Do you plan on cooking for your mom this Mother's Day? Please tell us why it's such a special dish and why your mom is so great!"

Gilli from So So Simple Food responded that on Mother's Day in her family, it's the men who cook: "All the women in our family are Mothers so it's boys (except for my husband, who can only cook toast) on the case." This makes sense to me - just because you can cook well doesn't mean you should always have do the cooking for every event. As an example, Gigi of Gigi Cakes recently blogged about a birthday cake she made for her own birthday! While the cake looked amazing, many people left comments questioning why she had to make her own cake.

Jessie from Cakespy wrote that her mom is too far away to cook for, but if she could do it, she would make
her mom's famous silver cake, "a beautiful and delightfully moist layer cake topped with a creamy buttercream frosting." I love the idea that someone who bakes all kinds of mouthwatering creations still loves the cake her mom makes and would choose to make it as a testament to her.

Check out Chew on That's Monthly Mouthful for the rest of the list.

Every mom loves flowers-- except the ones who are allergic. So what's better than getting flowers for mom on Mother's Day? Making her a cake with flowers on it, of course!

I began with two 6-inch round cakes, leveled and stacked with a layer of buttercream between. I then iced the entire thing with white buttercream and let sit for a couple of minutes before smoothing. To get a 'fondant finish' (smooth like fondant but tasty like icing), I used my wooden fondant roller and a Viva paper towel and gently rolled over the surface of the cake.

I found a Wilton tulip and daisy muffin pan and thought it was perfect for baking flowers for the top of a cake. Each flower was leveled so it would sit evenly on top and alternate in a circle. The daisies were iced using tip #220. When I got it, I really thought this tip was going to make a neat drop flower but mostly it just makes pretty fat swirls. I made the centers with small pale yellow fondant circles. For the tulips, I used tip #3 so you could see a basic outline of the petals shape then did a small star tip to fill them in.

It still looked a little plain so I decided to use the flower fondant cutouts and make alternating colors of daisies and tulips for that as well. As an extra touch, I took dark purple fondant and cut out a butterfly shape. I shaped them over a bent piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil and let them dry overnight. I made four just in case I broke one which was good because I ended up breaking two.

Once I added a little green grass around the edge to finish it off, it was all done. As a mom myself, I think I would much prefer to get these flowers than the kind that come in a vase.

We're on the home stretch for Mother's Day, which means that times a-ticking to get the perfect card and gift before the big day. There might be only a handful of days left, but there is still time to get a gift that looks full of thought and effort. And if you've got a mom who loves meals made of beef and other tasty forms of meat, this guide is for you.

What follows is list for creating the ultimate indoor grilling gift for your carnivorous mom. It's all the pieces you need for one perfectly grilled piece of meat. But the kicker is: with just a little finagling, you can take this list and make it work for mom's preferred cooking method -- barbecuing, roasting, stewing, what-have-you.

The pages that follow are each piece of the puzzle, from prep to plate. If you're thinking big, grab them all. If you're on a budget, pick up a few. Check the list out, and please comment if you have any ideas or pieces to add to the mix.

In recent years, my mom has become increasingly difficult to shop for. She has been working at reducing the amount of stuff in her life and so doesn't want the knick knacks and gadgets that we once plied her with. So I've had to get creative and find ways of letting her know what I appreciate all that she does for me without filling her house up with things she'll just get rid of. Here are some of the ways I've given her clutter-free food-related gifts.

Bake! My mother tries to eat healthfully, but she can't resist certain homemade, chocolate-based treats. This is a great way to go if you live far away from your mom and still want to put a personal touch on her gift. A batch of freshly baked granola (packaged in an easily recyclable plastic container) is also a good way to go.

Jams and jellies make good Mother's Day gifts (as long as your mom likes that sort of thing). You can either make up a batch yourself (Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam would be seasonal and delicious) or head to a local farmers' market to pick up a couple of jars.

Draw up a personalized gift certificate for a food-related service. I realize that this might sound like an idea straight out of the third grade, but the offer of a pot of soup, deliverable on demand or a monthly loaf of freshly baked bread is something that is certain to make many a mother swoon.

If your maternal figure is a gardener, a collection of herb seedlings from a local nursery would surely delight her (in my family, this particular gift is reserved for my dad on Father's Day). It is a gift that produces all spring and summer long, and when the season ends, can be uprooted and delivered to the compost pile.

Many a mother likes to entertain. Tell her that next time she wants to throw a cocktail party or backyard cookout, you'll be there to be head shopper, chef, server and cleaner. It might just be the first time in years that she'll get to enjoy her guests at her own party.

What other ideas do you have for clutter-free, Mother's Day gifts?

Mom made you eat your veggies for years, so return the love with vegetarian-friendly gifts this Mother's Day. Whether her diet is strictly vegetarian or just veggie-inclined, check out these lovely presents that will surely brighten her kitchen and her day!

Culinary Herb Garden Kit from wishingfish -- The gift that keeps on giving.

Swiss Peelers, Set of 3 from Williams Sonoma -- Simple, colorful, practical.

Subscription to Vegetarian Times magazine -- Great recipes and fun eating ideas from a magazine that your mom will love all year long.

Mother's Day petit fours from Figis -- Who am I kidding? These are for any mom -- vegetarian, meat-loving, herbivorous, sweet-toothed...

Olive and Rosemary Topiary Trees from Stonewall Kitchen -- A beautiful way to present a practical gift. These will look great anywhere, and come in handy when cooking with fresh herbs.

Organic vegetable box from Mode Organic -- Produce straight to your door.

Bamboo steamer from WokShop -- Great for veggies, and anything else.

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian from Amazon -- My favorite cookbook. Soon to be your mom's. Bittman offers easy recipes and plenty of suggestions for a well-balanced vegetarian diet.

Vegan body lotion from von Natur -- Organic beauty she'll feel good about.

6-pack Coffee Sampler from Grounds for Change -- Organic and fair trade.

Kenneth Jay Lane Apple Necklace from Max and Chloe -- Not really a cooking gift, but a bit of bling never hurt anyone.

Membership to the Harry and David Fruit of the Month Club -- Classic!

Soy candles from Welcome-home Candles -- These yummy candles come in great scents, and since they aren't made from beeswax, they'll please even the most conscious vegan.

Vegan baking mixes from Goodbaker -- Chocolate cake, oatmeal cookies, fudge frosting, multi-grain muffins...

Anyone have more ideas for the vegetarian Mom? Feel free to share!