The mysterious bond between mother and child is the most fundamental of all human relationships. From Biblical descriptions to modern-day psychology, the unity between mother and child is the basis of human trust, the primal link between "I" and "Thou", or self and other, which holds human society together. This love is shown in many ways, most of which are unspoken, the first being touch and the giving of food. From the earliest moments of life, there is the equating of food and love, milk being the tangible presence of mother's love, and later, food the evidence of God's giving and caring.

In the Eucharist, bread becomes the mystic bond between God and man's salvation. Food, and the love it symbolizes, is fundamental to life. All of mankind shares the need to eat, and the food which nature provides is a constant reminder of God's love, a physical link between man and the universe. Our capacity to share that food replicates God's love in our love for each other. The spirit of love and cooperation in our society then creates more food and more giving. A mother's giving to her child and the child's response is the beginning of this loving process.

All people have childhood memories which are unique to themselves, and yet universal. I recall, for example, my mother gently waking me in the dark, chilly mornings, getting me up for school, not an easy task, a bowl of hot cereal or a platter of eggs waiting for me at the breakfast table. This was something she did, day after day, for me, which was repeated day after day in millions of homes by millions of mothers, each with an individual child with individual needs. I remember the countless little things my mother did, and foods she prepared, some which seem silly, but which always displayed her love. She catered to my strange tastes, for example, by making plain mustard sandwiches (just white bread, butter, and French's mustard, my favorite), and salami on rye when all the other kids were eating peanut butter. And when I could not stand the cafeteria food at my school, she made me boxed lunches to take with me every day which included all of my favorite goodies, right down to the obligatory Twinkie.

How many favorite childhood dishes do I remember, hot turkey sandwiches ladled with gravy, mountains of macaroni and cheese, tuna with mayonnaise, hamburgers, spareribs, apple pie, chocolate cake! For all the fancy dishes that came with adulthood, the simple foods of childhood conveyed the most love, the daily fare which sustained both body and spirit. I could create a Mother's Day page by replicating those recipes, but feel it would be a more fitting tribute to instead offer some of her favorite foods, a Mother's Day menu centered around my own mother's greatest weakness, SEAFOOD!

"Feed your mother," my father once advised me. After all the times she has fed me, that is exactly what I will do.

Filet Mignons with Sauce Béarnaise

Baked Potato with sour cream and chives

Asparagus tips

Hot French bread

This is a fun and easy recipe but requires time. From the making of the dressing to the grating of the cheese, it should be performed with flourish and ritual. Give yourself plenty of time and this salad is indeed a joyful task.

The begin with, the secret is in the dressing:

This is best done ahead of time.

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk

½ tsp Dijon mustard

½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

½ cup or more extra virgin olive oil

½ cup or more canola oil

¼ cup white balsamic vinegar, to taste (Alessi brand is good)

½ tsp dried tarragon, or 1 Tbsp chopped fresh tarragon

Ritual:

In a 1-pint, glass bowl, beat the egg yolk, mustard, and Worcestershire with a wire whisk. Drop by drop, beat in the olive oil. As the sauce begins to thicken, the oil may be added more quickly, first in a thin stream, then by the tablespoon. If you add the oil too quickly or your egg yolk isn't fresh, the sauce may curdle. Beat vigorously if this happens.

Add the canola oil after the olive oil. Depending on the quality of your olive oil and on how much you like the taste of olive oil, you may adjust the proportions to suit your taste. By now the sauce should have formed into a thick mixture that stands in peaks and will hold the whisk upright for a second or two. Keep beating and adding more oil as necessary until this level of stiffness is reached. You now have homemade mayonnaise.

To turn into a salad dressing, add the vinegar gradually, beating after each addition. Taste carefully until desired acidity is reached (this will depend on the flavor of your oil and your own personal taste). ChefBilly usually makes this dressing quite mild, without too much "bite", because lemon will be added to the salad later.

The dressing should be smooth and creamy. Beat in the tarragon. Chill.

And now:

Allow yourself plenty of time, mainly because of the cutting and cleaning.

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic, minced (you garlic lovers may add more)

¼ tsp salt

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced

1 medium heart of Romaine lettuce (or available greens in season)

½ medium head of green leaf or iceberg lettuce

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 Tbsp dried chopped chives, or ¼ cup fresh

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup seasoned salad croutons, or more

2 beefsteak tomatoes cut into wedges and/or 1 cup cherry tomatoes

4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

½ cup Greek (preferably kalamata) olives

1 ripe avocado, sliced

4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced

¼ tsp black pepper, coarsely ground

ChefBilly's Secret Salad Dressing (above)

Ritual:

Wash the greens well, tear into chunks and dry thoroughly, preferably in a salad spinner.

In a large salad bowl, crush the garlic into the salt using a strong fork and rub this mixture all over the bowl. Recite an incantation, if you wish.

Spread the sliced cucumber on the bottom of the bowl. Add half the lettuce, half each of the chives and Parmesan, then the rest of the lettuce. May be done ahead of time, as it is good to chill the salad at this point.

Just before serving and in front of your guests, pour the lemon juice around the sides of the bowl. May be done with a flourish and flick of the wrist. Add the remaining chives and Parmesan and the croutons. Add about ½ cup of ChefBilly's Secret Salad Dressing and toss thoroughly. Be sure to toss up from the bottom to get all the cucumber and flavorful garlic mixed in. Greens should be nicely coated with the dressing; add more dressing as needed. Sprinkle with pepper, toss again, and taste carefully for seasoning.

Top the salad with an attractive pattern of tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, sliced hard-boiled eggs and avocados. Serve the salad on chilled plates, making sure each guest receives a little of everything. Serve with additional dressing, cheese, pepper, croutons, etc., as desired.

You may want to serve the salad early to allow plenty of time for it to be savored! Good with French bread, soup, and a bit of a rest before the main course.

My mother has often told me the story of how she and her sister shelled and deveined pounds fresh shrimp for their parties, in the days before cleaned, frozen shrimp were readily available. Today you can buy delicious, tail-on shrimp ready to serve. But there is an advantage to buying fresh shrimp and cooking them yourself, if you have the time. Boiling them in their shells imparts a rich flavor to the meat which far surpasses the package prepared.

To boil the shrimp yourself, bring a large kettle of water to the boil (about 6 cups water per pound of shrimp) with 2 stalks chopped celery, 1 small chopped onion, 1 small quartered lemon, a bay leaf, ¼ tsp black pepper and a teaspoon of salt. Simmer about 5 minutes, then add the fresh shrimp in their shells. Return to a boil. In about 2 minutes, shrimp should have turned from brown to bright red. If shrimp are very large, boil an extra minute.

Drain but do not rinse. Spread the shrimp out on a plate and let cool. Shell the shrimp by pinching the backs and pulling gently; the shells, with the heads and legs, should slip right off. Often the sandy "vein" along the back of each shrimp will come off as well. If not, make a narrow slit along the length of the back with a sharp knife and scrape the vein out. For completely shell-free meat, slip the shrimps out of their tails. For shrimp cocktail, you may leave the tails on. Wipe the shrimp clean with a damp cloth, but for full flavor, do not rinse.

You may use the cooked shrimp in stir-fries, curries, or other recipes, or chill them for shrimp cocktail

For Eight Servings:

2 pounds cooked, shelled, tail-on shrimp, chilled (above)

Lettuce leaves

1 cup finely chopped celery

White Saltine crackers

Butter

2 fresh lemons, cut into wedges

Cocktail sauce (below)

Arrange a few clean, crisp lettuce leaves on 8 small, chilled plates. For each serving, sprinkle 2 Tbsp of the chopped celery over the lettuce. Divide the shrimp into 8 equal portions and arrange on top of the celery. Crown each serving with about 2 Tbsp of the cocktail sauce and garnish with lemon wedges.

Delicious served with buttered Saltine crackers on the side.

This very popular recipe goes back to the 1940's or before.

½ cup Heinz chili sauce

¼ cup Heinz ketchup

1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ tsp prepared horseradish, or to taste

¼ tsp Tabasco sauce, or to taste

Combine all ingredients and taste carefully. If you like more "zip" you may add additional horseradish or Tabasco and make it as hot as you like. Chill well and serve in a glass dish with an additional dollop of horseradish on top for someone who wants to clear their nose.

Yield: enough for about 8 servings of shrimp cocktail.

This wonderful treat is also popular at our house for New Year's Eve.

4 frozen lobster tails, 5-6 ounces each

2 tablespoons sea salt

4 quarts boiling water

1 stick (4 ounces) melted butter

Soak frozen tails in a plastic bag in a large pan of cold water about one hour or until thawed. Crack the backs of the shells by bending the tails backwards or by cutting them with a sharp knife, but be careful: they are slippery!

Dissolve the salt in the boiling water in a large kettle. Toss in the lobster tails and rapidly return to the boil, then begin timing about 6 to 8 minutes. Lobster is done when the shells are pink and the meat opaque. If either undercooked or overcooked, they will be tough. Larger tails will take longer.

Serve the lobster tails with the melted butter in individual bowls for dipping. For ease of eating, you may wish to remove the meat in one piece from each shell and serve on top of the inverted shells.

Suggested accompaniments: Filets Mignons with Sauce Béarnaise, steamed asparagus, and peeled boiled potatoes.

--ChefBilly

We conclude our Mother's Day menu with my mother's favorite cake for dessert. It also makes a wonderful birthday cake.

The one drawback for this cake is that it must be assembled the day it is served, or it will go soggy. You may, of course, make the sponge cake ahead.

Sponge cake:

5 eggs, separated

1½ cups flour

1½ cups sugar

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1 tsp vanilla

Beat egg yolks with sugar until very light and fluffy. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites alternately with sifted flour. Fold in vanilla and lemon zest. Pour into two buttered and floured 9-inch round pans. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool, remove cake from pans.

Cream filling:

2 cups whipping cream, well chilled

4 Tbsp powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp unflavored gelatin

2 Tbsp cold water

In a teacup, soak the gelatin in water 5 minutes without stirring. Then place the cup in some simmering water until the gelatin is dissolved and the liquid is clear. Set the cup of gelatin aside and let cool to room temperature, but do not chill.

In an electric mixture, whip the cream in a large bowl until soft peaks form. (It helps to have your bowl and beaters well chilled.) Continue beating, adding the gelatin mixture and then the sugar and vanilla, and beat until stiff. The finished mixture should cling to a spoon without falling off easily.

Assembly:

1 pint fresh, shapely, whole strawberries, cleaned

1 package (8 ounces) frozen sliced strawberries, thawed and drained (reserve juice)

Sponge cake

Cream filling

Strawberry jam (about 4 ounces)

Rum and/or brandy (optional)

Place first layer of cake on a serving dish. Sprinkle with ¼ cup reserved strawberry juice and 2 Tbsp optional brandy or rum (or both). Spread with ¼ cup strawberry jam (thinned with juice or rum if it is too thick to spread easily). Cover with half the drained, frozen strawberries and about 1/3 of the cream filling. Place the second layer of cake on top. Repeat sprinkling of ¼ cup strawberry juice and 2 Tbsp brandy or rum, and spread with ¼ cup jam, the rest of the drained, frozen strawberries, and 1/3 of the cream filling. Use the remaining cream filling to coat the sides of the cake and pipe an attractive border around the top (optional). NOTE: this recipe makes a lot of cream filling and not all of it need be used.

Dip whole strawberries in strawberry jam so they are shiny. Carefully decorate the top of the cake with the whole strawberries, sticking them stem-side down into the cream. Use as few or as many strawberries as you like.

Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve.

For a more elaborate version, cut each sponge cake sideways into two layers and assemble a four-layer cake. For an easier version, use store-bought sponge or angel food cake.