Mother's Day is coming May 8th--are you ready? Are you going to give your mother the sweet, thoughtful gift she deserves...or are you going to give her the same old tired presents you've been giving her since you were a kid? Your mother loves you no matter how lame your presents are, but if you really want to wow her this Mother's Day, make these standard Mom gifts extra special with our Mom-approved advice!
Cookbooks are a great Mother's Day present...for moms who cook. If she doesn't cook, doesn't like to cook, or doesn't cook very well, it can be seen as an insult, or even gender stereotyping, and nobody wants that! How do you keep a cookbook from looking like a request for better food? You put some extra thought into it.- First of all, avoid any cookbooks with "For Dummies" in the title or frazzled looking cooks on the cover. If she's a bad cook, she probably knows it and doesn't want to be reminded of it...and if she doesn't know she's a bad cook, for goodness sakes don't tell her on Mother's Day! If she's "inexperienced", get her a cookbook that has recipes that are purposefully simple but still delicious, like a 5-ingredient-or-less cookbook, or the grilled cheese cookbook we've raved about previously on this blog.
- If the mom in question is a good cook, think about getting her a cookbook that is a little more exotic, but not frighteningly so. Make sure she's tried Indian food or Asian barbecue (and liked it!) before presenting her with a book full of their recipes. By giving a foreign cuisine cookbook, it makes her feel more like a chef and less like an under-appreciated short-order cook.
- If she's a busy mom (and frankly, I have never met a mom who wasn't a "busy mom") you might consider getting her a few of our 101 series of cookbooks, which have recipes revolutionizing common ingredients like chicken and ground beef into new recipes, and, most famously, using store bought ingredients like cake mix and canned biscuits to make all manner of dinners, sides, and desserts. These books will help a busy mom with menu planning, which is one of the most tedious and under appreciated parts of cooking for a family.
Do you want to make a really, really special gift out of a cookbook the Mother's Day? Buy the book, then make one of the recipes out of it yourself, divide it into individual serving sizes in plastic containers and stick them in the freezer. Giving her a prepared meal from the book shows that the recipes are easily made, delicious, and you know how we said all moms are busy? Giving them a full dinner for their family that they can just warm up and serve is one of the best gifts you can give a mom, period.
