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"  Viewers of TLC&amp;#039;s hit cooking show Take Home Chef know handsome Australian chef Curtis Stone for his supermarket surprises: He approaches an unsuspecting shopper in the grocery store, helps her select items, and accompanies her to her home, where together they whisk up an extraordinary meal. In celebration of Mother&amp;#039;s Day, REDBOOK and Curtis paired up to give Los Angeles mom Elizabeth White, 45, a special treat. The part-time interior decorator and full-time mom to Colin, 8, and Caitlin, 4, is spending a day with Curtis on his own home turf \u2014 his kitchen. He&amp;#039;ll be her personal chef and cooking instructor, and prepare brunch for her and her family. It&amp;#039;s an easy invitation to accept.  The day is sunny and perfect, and after shopping for fresh fruit and other brunch ingredients, Curtis and Elizabeth make their way to his welcoming Hollywood home, decorated with Buddha statues and a long, heavy Brazilian wood dining table, which serves as the focal point of a residence clearly designed for entertaining. &amp;quot;Food has always been at the center of my life, even when I was a kid,&amp;quot; Curtis explains. &amp;quot;To me, food is the vehicle that brings happiness. When you cook for someone else, there&amp;#039;s a bit of appreciation, contribution, and conversation \u2014 all things that make me happy.&amp;quot;  Check out Curtis Stone&amp;#039;s tips for an easy and delicious brunch! Stepping up into the raised, open kitchen, filled with cookbooks and Curtis&amp;#039;s own line of high-end but practical cookware, the two unpack the grocery bags. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m definitely a foodie,&amp;quot; Elizabeth says, &amp;quot;but I don&amp;#039;t always have time to make big, fancy meals. I&amp;#039;d love to find a little easy inspiration to mix up my meal routines.&amp;quot;  Luckily, Curtis has just the thing to inspire her: a decadent brunch menu from his new book, Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone, including blueberry hotcakes, scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and chives, and a plum crumble for dessert. To Curtis, brunch is the perfect relaxed meal. &amp;quot;With dinner, you&amp;#039;re often rushed because you know you have to get to bed and get up early the next day,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;But brunch is chilled out. You can open a bottle of wine, enjoy a delicious meal, and you still have the whole day ahead of you.&amp;quot; To kick off that laid-back atmosphere, Curtis pours Elizabeth a cocktail, the &amp;quot;lychee-lovers&amp;#039; Bellini,&amp;quot; a sweet mixture of fresh lychee, Chambord raspberry liqueur, and sparkling wine. The two toast to the meal ahead and get preparations underway. Curtis suggests that one way to make guests feel important is to give them a job to do, and Elizabeth is more than happy to oblige, mixing batter for what Curtis calls &amp;quot;the fluffiest hotcakes you&amp;#039;ll ever eat in your life.&amp;quot; (The secret: Separate the egg whites from the yolks.) A healthy eater by habit, Elizabeth eyes the cooking pancakes eagerly. Curtis assures her, &amp;quot;If you don&amp;#039;t deserve hotcakes once in a while, you&amp;#039;ve done something seriously wrong!&amp;quot; Once the cooking lessons come to a close, Elizabeth&amp;#039;s family arrives to share the special Mother&amp;#039;s Day meal. Little Caitlin \u2014 with her dad, Peter, in tow \u2014 heads straight for a plate of chocolate-chip cookies; Colin relays to Curtis the endless potential of Legos. Elizabeth, used to the hectic bustle, explains with a smile that in her whirlwind life, mealtime is a treat in itself. &amp;quot;Meals are a time for us all to talk about the day,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;We goof around or work on manners, but mostly we&amp;#039;re just not rushing around connected only by cell phone.&amp;quot;  With not a cell phone in sight, the White family heads outside to Curtis&amp;#039;s patio. The kids sip colorful berry beverages; the adults dive into the scrambled eggs that Elizabeth correctly predicted would be her husband&amp;#039;s favorite part of the menu.  As the meal winds down, Caitlin gives her mom the ultimate Mother&amp;#039;s Day gift: &amp;quot;Thank you, Mommy, for having me in your family.&amp;quot; Elizabeth gives her own thanks to Curtis. The day fulfilled all three of his happiness requirements \u2014 appreciation, contribution, and conversation \u2014 and gave Elizabeth the inspiration she was seeking. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not that hard to be adventurous,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s as simple as adding a new ingredient, like the ricotta we used in the pancake batter, or doing something I hadn&amp;#039;t done before, like spreading cream cheese on a toasted baguette instead of a bagel. These things make a meal more interesting. But most of all, it was such a lovely day. The food was delicious, and it was wonderful to be able to share it all with my family.&amp;quot; Check out Curtis Stone&amp;#039;s tips for an easy and delicious brunch! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/food-recipes/entertaining/advice/a4944/celebrate-mothers-day/>