How to Make a Mother's Day Salad Bar Brunch

It might be one of the biggest restaurant holidays of the year, but what if your mom bucks the trend and doesn't feel like getting dressed up and going out? Treat her to a pampered day of home-based attention. The celebratory meal doesn't have to be a big labor intesive to-do, make it one of her favorite ta-das-the one that puts a smile on any health conscious mom's face. Salad bar anyone?

Things You'll Need

• A collection of serving bowls
• Tongs, serving forks and spoons
• Jars for making and shaking salad dressing
• Salad Bar ingredients
• Hairnets and saliva screens (just kidding)

Instructions

1. Research your mom's favorite salad bar ingredients. Review your mental home movies from all those Souplantation and Sizzler visits.

2. 

   Create a shopping list and hit your local farmers market. It might help to think about the salad stacking order. Here's what's on my list:
   • Lettuces, arugula, raddichio, mache, watercrest, spinach
   • Tomato, grilled asparagus, garlic, cauliflower, broccoli and squash
   • Herbed potatoes, fresh peas and egg salad
   • Marinated tofu, curried chicken
   • Vegetable dumplings, rice noodles and cucumber salad
   • Chilled ginger carrot soup
   • Homemade vinaigrette, blue cheese and ranch dressing

3. 

   The beauty of the salad bar is seeing all those matching bowls filled with an explosion of deliciousness. So if you can, grab a set of clear glass or wooden bowls to display the feast. Google keywords "clear glass bowls" for a million ideas on where to find them. Fill them with Mom's favorite salad bar ingredients, then place a set of tongs or serving pieces in each bowl for easy self-service.

4. 

   Or, make it a butlered salad bar where you serve the salad to your mom. Start with a medium-sized wooden bowl. Invite your mom to stroll the salad bar telling you each ingredient she'd like in her salad. As she calls them out, you add it to the wooden bowl. Once she selects her desired dressing, toss the salad in the bowl and serve it on a large plate. Be ready for seconds. Note: The prepared dishes like egg salad, chicken salad, soupls or dumplings can be added to the plate after you've tossed the lettuce and other ingredients.

Tips & Warnings

• Ask each family member to make their "famous" salad dressing to feature at the salad bar.

• Make the salad bar a tradition and pick one night a week to have it for dinner. Each member of the family prepares some of the ingredients-this sounds ripe for a competition!