ABOUT M.O.M.

Through her travels, Chef Lisa came to realize that the best meals of a country are not found in its restaurants. They’re found in its homes, made with love by mothers cooking for their families. So, in addition to Mother’s regular menu where she serves food from mothers around the world, Chef Lisa highlights a different mother each month and features some of her special dishes.

The special mother is called the Mother of the Month (or M.O.M.™), and her photograph, story and menu take a prominent place at the beginning of Mother’s menu. We choose a mother that allows us to take advantage of the seasonal availability of ingredients, such as a Greek mother in the summer months and a Polish mother in the winter months.

If you’d like to nominate a mother to be the M.O.M.™, CLICK HERE and tell us something about her and her special dishes.

M.O.M. Menu

SANDRA PROTEAU

Lunch & Dinner

Hushpuppies

fried cornbread with jalapeno peppers & green onions, housemade pepper jelly

10

DINNER

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

dijon mustard & balsamic vinegar-marinated, dirty rice
(pork, chicken livers, onions, celery, green peppers & aromatic herbs),
pork jus, green onions

25

Prawns Étouffée

prawns smothered in a sauce of onions, peppers, celery, garlic, tomatoes & herbs,
jasmine rice, green onions

26

Dessert

Carrot Cake

walnuts, cream cheese frosting, caramel sauce

10

SPECIAL Cocktail

Vexin

Beefeater’s gin, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, grapefruit & cranberry juice, dash of orange bitters, champagne & a orange twist
(this refreshing cocktail hails from the Village Café in Lafayette, Louisiana, Sandy’s hometown!)

11

CURRENT M.O.M. STORY

Sandra Proteau

Sandra Ann Comeaux was born in 1943 and grew up happily as one of five children in Lafayette, Louisiana, the capital of Cajun country. She studied Home Economics at the University of Southwest Louisiana, and met her husband, Paul, on a blind date. (They reluctantly went out together after constant nagging from their two best friends). Sandy and Paul were married ten months later in 1966, and spent their honeymoon driving to Maryland where Paul was a graduate student in Microbiology. Three years later, Paul accepted a teaching position at Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C. and they moved onto the campus where Sandra worked as a House Mother in one of the residences. A few years later, they relocated to Arlington, Virginia with their three daughters and their only son was born a few years after that, in 1975.

Her children remember home cooked meals and family dinners together. While there were many comfort food favorites, Sandy also looked for different and new flavorful recipes to try. Since everyone was usually busy with sports on the weekends, the family made sure to cook at least one big breakfast together; one person on eggs, another on bacon, one on pancakes, another on set-up and two people on clean-up. Their fondest memory is of the “mystery fruit” pancakes Sandy made on Sundays. Her children wouldn’t watch her cook and then had to guess what kind of fruit was in the batter.

Sandy was initially a stay-at-home mom, but then went on to sell real estate, work for a mortgage company, and eventually took a job as executive assistant to Don Beyer, a car dealer who ran for Governor of Virginia. When he was an awarded ambassadorship in 2009, Sandra and Paul moved to Bern, Switzerland for three years, enabling them to travel and dine in all the major capitals of Europe. Sandy and Paul are now retired and living in Delaware, where they continue to frequent local farmers’ markets and food stores, and test out new recipes while also remaining true to the old.

Nominate A M.O.M.

The M.O.M. menu has been an important part of Mother’s since we opened in 2000.  This allows our guests to experience both new flavors and dishes from around the world and meals prepared with love by mothers cooking for their families.  Our past M.O.M.’s include a wide variety of individuals- mothers, sisters, grandmothers, daughters, friends, and wives- and we’ve even had a few honorary male M.O.M.’s!

If you would like to nominate somebody (or yourself) to be a future M.O.M. at Mother’s, please fill out this form and return it to the host at Mother’s or [email protected].  Once we receive your form, we will contact the nominee (if possible), or you, (if it’s you or if you’d like to be the intermediary) to discuss potential dishes for the M.O.M. menu.

When making menu suggestions, please keep in mind that our M.O.M. menu typically includes an appetizer, salad and/or lunch item, 2-3 entrees (usually a meat, poultry, and/or vegetarian/fish dish) and a dessert.  When making suggestions, feel free to make your list as long as you’d like, but don’t suggest dishes that replicate those on our main menu (even if yours is the best meatloaf in the world, meatloaf is on our regular menu, so couldn’t be offered on our M.O.M. menu).

It’s likely we’ll have a bit of back and forth where I may ask you to list ingredients in a dish to gain a clearer idea of how it might taste, but keep in mind that we won’t need any recipes until after we finalize the menu.

Thanks again for your interest in the M.O.M. program.  Feel free to contact us with any questions you have!