15 Mother’s Day Recipes from Food Network Staffers | Mother’s Day Recipes: Brunch, Dinner, Desserts and More

This southern staple has it all and then some: Cheddar and mozzarella for a deeply cheesy flavor, eggs for a custardy base,” plus I included some Cajun spice and smoked gouda to add that hint of smokiness you never knew your mac and cheese needed, ” says Food Network culinary producer Nikki Scott. Nikki learned the recipe from her mother, who was taught by her own mother after the family moved from South Carolina to New York City.

“Growing up in a very large family, there was always a guarantee there would be a huge Sunday dinner at my grandmother’s house, which usually included Southern baked macaroni and cheese,” says Nikki, shown here in the 1980s with her mother, Ellen, in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. “Over the years, the richness of the recipe made it an exclusive for special occasions. My version is slightly elevated but equally indulgent, requiring a three-cheese minimum, always in a big batch and loaded with love.”

The homemade noodles in this cozy pantry soup are not only incredibly easy– they are also really, really fun. You just pulse together the ingredients in a food processor, then grate the dough directly into the simmering broth. Chock full of carrots, onions and shredded rotisserie chicken, the soup is inspired by the comforting meals Food Network recipe developer Emily Weinberger ate growing up.

“We lived right outside the snow belt of Lake Erie,” says Emily. “That meant a quick chicken noodle soup with extra-wide egg noodles was on the menu pretty much every week.” Fast forward 25 years: “It might not be as cold where we live in New York as it was in Ohio,” says Emily, who is mother to Ben and Annie. “But with my mom as their ‘nanny,’ my kids are eating grated pasta chicken soup well into the summer.” Emily’s recipe swaps out the store-bought noodles from her mother Laura’s version. “But I promise you, I channeled her love throughout the whole development process.”

“These are a great cozy family breakfast treat,” says Food Network recipe developer Martha Tinkler. Her mother reserved the rolls for special occasions when she was growing up, topping them with spoonfuls of honey butter when they were still warm. “I love how sweet and nutty whole wheat is,” says Martha. “The texture and the flavor of the bread is more complex.”

“My mother embraced whole health food and slow food movement very early on. So growing up, we had fresh ground whole wheat, carob chips and all the things,” said Martha of her mother, Melinda. “She is a great bread baker. Years later my sister and mom started a bake stand at the Memphis farmer’s market. She would bring these whole wheat cinnamon rolls and they always sold out.”

Sweet golden raisins and plump ruby ​​pomegranate seeds make this juicy spiced chicken a feast for the eyes. And though former Food Network stylist Michelle N Warner developed the dish for a weeknight–you need just one skillet and 25 minutes to get it cooking–the combination of the pearled couscous pilaf and za’atar chicken is special enough for an easy dinner with friends.

When Michelle tasted za’atar in her 20s, “it was like a time machine to a memory I had almost forgotten,” she says. “My mother used za’atar when I was little living in Israel. Since she passed when I was only 6, and we had since moved to the USA, it somehow dropped off the radar,” says Michelle, pictured here with her mother Nechama . When creating za’atar chicken thighs with pearl couscous“I tried to whip up those memories and flavors into a satisfying dinner.”

The secret to this flavorful chicken salad with cabbage, says Food Network Kitchen recipe developer Susan Vu, is her mother’s nuoc cham (dipping sauce): She would make a thick simple syrup before adding aromatics and fish sauce.

Susan Vu is shown here as a young girl with her mother, who has been known to say: “No one likes a bland nuoc cham!” Her delicious version of the sauce is used in this Vietnamese chicken salad.

Grated extra-sharp cheddar and slices of white Pullman bread are the secret to this no-fail soufflé, a recipe from the mother of former Food Network Kitchen recipe developer Bob Hoebee. “She loves that you set it up the day before and just bake it on serving day,” he says.

With the help of his mother Marie, Bob Hoebee cuts into a cake in the late 1950s. His mother’s recipe for Never-Fail Cheese Souffle was originally from a women’s club potluck dinner.

You’d be surprised how much flavor a left over ham bone (even one without ham on it!) imparts to this pantry-friendly soup. Food Network recipe developer Amy Stevenson says “we weren’t really a turkey family at holidays. We had it on the table, but we were way bigger fans of a glazed baked ham. And after all the leftovers were gone, my mother would use the bone to make a rib-sticking bean soup like this one.”

Amy’s mother made use of every part of a ham roast. Before making ham bone soup, “she would turn the leftover ham into ham sandwiches,” says Amy of her mother, Helen, shown here with a baby Amy. “Then my mom would grind up some of the meat to make ham salad (like tuna salad, but with ham, don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it!). I still make the soup every time I have a leftover hambone.”

This simple broccoli dish is a 20-minute recipe that incorporates ginger, garlic and chiles. Former Food Network Kitchen recipe tester Vivian Chan says her mother came up with the recipe as a way of offering a better alternative to typical takeout.

“Fun fact,” says Vivian Chan, with her mother, Estella, in the late 1980s: “I think my mother coordinated my outfit to match hers.” Thanks to her mother’s easy recipe for stir-fried broccoli, Vivian never orders such dishes from her local takeout place anymore.

After her grandmother moved to New York City in the 1950s, she stayed true to her German roots in the kitchen, says former Food Network Kitchen purchasing assistant Amanda Catrini. For this salad, the potatoes are tossed with cooked onions in a mustard sauce and sprinkled with chopped herbs and bacon.

Amanda Catrini and her grandmother, Annelise, are pictured in the kitchen of the family farmhouse in 2013. In addition to making potato salad, her grandmother “continues to cook the most-delicious and -authentic German food,” Catrini says.

Stephen Jackson and his mother, Elisabeth, in the mid-1970s. His recipe for spicy pasta with shrimp was one of the first dishes he made, he said, “love seafood.”

This rich, hearty soup gets extra body from a fluffy baked potato, but it’s the double dose of cheese that puts it over the top in our “best ever” category. Food Network lead recipe developer Amanda Neal says her mother, Peggy, would always add extra broccoli and leave some of it chunky “so you get satisfying bits of broccoli in every bite.”

“On ski trips we would often cook together in the evening and warming soup was a regular on the menu,” says Amanda, shown here with her mother, Peggy, skiing in Colorado in the late 1990s. “My family is in Kentucky, but I live in New York. When I make the best broccoli cheddar soup, each bite feels like a big hug from my mama.”

A mix of pasta shapes plus white beans, tomato paste and pecorino cheese make this comforting pasta e fagioli. The recipe also calls for salt pork, which former Food Network Kitchen sous chef Vince Camillo remembers his mother using in place of the traditional Italian pancetta.

Vince Camillo’s mother, Carmela, would sort the beans for her version of pasta e fagioli the night before making it.

These 20-minute tea cookies are made with just four ingredients: puff pastry, lemon, sugar and an egg white. Former Food Network Kitchen recipe developer Andrea Albin recalls her mother making the original from leftover dough scraps.

Here’s a photo of Andrea Albin and her mother, Veronica, taken in the early 1980s. On the left are recipe cards for glace royale and a puff-pastry apple galette –– the original source of the dough used to make Sugared Puff-Pastry Tea Cookies.

The secret to this cheesecake, says former Food Network Kitchen executive chef Robert Bleifer, is his mother’s use of whipped cream cheese in place of the conventional variety, which she used in defiance of the package instructions.

Robert Bleifer’s mother, Gail, is on the left as a young girl in the 1940s, on her way to a birthday party. “My mom is a terrific cook,” Bleifer says. “I always looked forward to big family dinners, not just for seeing relatives but because I knew she would be making the best cheesecake ever.”

“As simple as this recipe is, it always projects the love she puts into it,” says former Food Network Kitchen food stylist Richmond Flores of his mother’s pork belly adobo. The Filipino dish calls for marinating the pork in a sweetened soy-garlic marinade and cooking it until tender.