Mother’s Day Feast

So…the long promised Mother’s Day lunch.  I think I even managed to scrape by as the serene hostess I was aspiring to – by 10.30am I had prepped ALL my vegetables, the pie was made bar the pastry top, and I was nearly ready to ice my cake.  Things I nearly slipped up on: almost completely forgot about my soup starter (eek!); forgot to take the butter out of the fridge to soften for my icing, so reluctantly had to shove it in the oven on a very low temperature; and we didn’t have any nibbles.  Otherwise, I think it was a success – I was especially pleased with my pie.

For starters we had a bowl of pea soup – which is one of my storecupboard favourites and is dead easy to make.  Simply bung a load of frozen peas (!! I know, frozen, but they taste great and there’s no way I would sacrifice freshly podded peas from the garden to soup, they rarely make it as far as the kitchen anyway) into a saucepan – if you want to measure your peas out, a good way to do this would measure them into your soup bowls to the level you would like the soup.  Crumble an organic chicken stock cube (I know…another cheats item, but this is a storecupboard recipe and sometimes we all need a night off) over the peas and pour over boiling water, just enough to cover the peas.  Bring to the boil, and simmer for a couple of minutes.  Turn the heat off, blitz up the peas – the longer you blitz the smoother the soup (I feel it tastes better as smooth as possible).  Mix a spoonful of natural yohurt in to give a subtly creamy hint and season to taste with salt and pepper.  I served our soup topped with a garnish of sunflower seed sprouts, which was a bit ponsy, and quite difficult to eat.  N’s mom described it as ‘spaghetti’.  Not quite what I was going for…  Next time I would probably opt for some chopped parsley.

pea soup

For mains I created a chicken pie.  Pie was perfect as it gave me a better chance to be a more visible hostess, rather than the one previously described waving from the kitchen door as our family arrived.  I had looked at so many chicken pies recipes, but none I really wanted to make.  Menus seem to come upon me, from nowhere, just a lot of thinking and looking at what’s available at the grocers or markets, and then it suddenly all makes sense.  So the ‘spring’ part of this chicken pie came from the vibrant greens that are at my local shops at the moment.  Spring greens, savoy cabbages, leeks, kale, and the first of the French parsley.  What I envisionaged was a chicken pie that was bursting with greeness that is filling the hedgerows and lanes as we progress into Spring.

You can find the recipe for how to make my Spring Chicken Pie here.

honey and walnut cake

And finally, for dessert we had a honey and walnut cake with a lemon frosting.  This was a deep golden coloured cake, that was flecked with walnut.  I changed a recipe for a plain honey cake, initially wanting to add some lavender to it, but discovered that my lavender was out of date and had lost its smell.  Instead I used some walnuts that I chopped up quite finely as N is not a nut fan.  The cake really needs the lemon juice in the frosting otherwise it’s way too sweet – or maybe you have a super sweet tooth and then it would be fine.  But the lemon frosting adds a really nice dimension to the cake.  I decorated our cake with lilac hyacinth flowers and minature daffodil heads.  Sadly they weren’t edible, but soon the viola’s and heartease will be flowering and I can make you a cake with edible flowers, which is truly stunning.  I will post the honey and walnut cake in a future posting, so be sure to check back soon if you fancy making it yourself.

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Ideas for a Mother’s Day lunch

On Sunday N’s parents are visiting us for Mother’s Day lunch and to see our newly decorated bedroom.  What I’ve failed to mention in the last week, or in fact, since I started this blog, is that we do a lot of DIY.  Our house is a work in progress, like many people’s, and there is always something to do to it.  Since becoming a homeowner I feel like I have quickly progressed from young and carefree into a fully fledged adult.  All those decisions I remember my parents making – do we go on holiday…or do we put in new windows… are choices I am now having to make.  And with a love of my ‘home’ and wanting to make it as nice as possible the new windows ususually trump the holiday. 

So, the past two weeks have been spent decorating a bedroom that we gutted last year (the second bedroom that we have gutted I might add).  The last bedroom took us a year from the first hammer hit into the crumbling plaster to carpeted and curtains up (still no light fitting though…)  We were determined that this one wouldn’t take as long, and it seems that the only way we can get anything done is to set ourselves an immovable deadline.  I know…invite parents round to see the ‘finished’ room.  Last night I believe, I hope! that I painted my last inch of wall.  Tonight we will hoover it and prepare it for the new carpet that is being fitted tomorrow.

Anyway, back to Mother’s Day and food more importantly.  N’s mom is a fantastic cook – which I’ve probably mentioned before – and a serene hostess.  I long for the day when I am that calm to have everything prepped and probably mostly cooked by the time my guests arrive.  I usually greet my guests by sticking my head around the kitchen door, hands covered in flour or madly dicing carrots, and hollering ‘hello!’  I really enjoy anybody coming round for lunch as I love to entertain and feed people.  Usually by this time – with about two days to go – I have planned the meal and got at least half of the ingredients for it.  Currently, I have zilch.  And a very hungry looking fridge that contains some chorizo sausage, a piece of stilton and some yoghurt.  Not exactly the stuff of Mother’s Day lunches to impress the in-laws.

Which is why I’m madly searching my recipe folder searching desperately for some inspiration for what I can cook.  I also have to take into consideration Easter Sunday which is looming on the horizon, when N’s parents return for lunch with granny.  So I don’t want to cook something fantastic this weekend, and then think “balls, I should have done that for Easter,” and technically I feel Easter lunch should be more impressive.  So many things to consider! 

My current thinking is along the lines of a chicken pie (which hopefully might help me to look the part of the serene hostess) possibly with lots of end of winter/beginning of spring greens like a variety of cabbage, spring greens, leeks etc, maybe a bit of lemon in there?  For starters I’ve thought about a smoked trout, horseradish and beetroot salad….or perhaps Stilton pate with beetroot, salad and crusty bread…  And then dessert…well I’m not really a dessert person unless it involves pure, unadulterated chocolate, which isn’t to everyone’s taste and not very ‘spring-like’.  I’ve seen a nice recipe for Honey Cake, which sounds nice, and a cake can be baked in advance!  So it scores top marks in the stakes to recreated me as the serene hostess.  At this point – suggestions more than welcome!!