With my mother-in-law arriving tonight, I'm trying to plan the menu in advance. She has pretty simple tastes. Whenever she is here, she makes a point of always eating fish because where she lives in Country New South Wales, there's no fishmonger or locally caught fish on offer.
I remember in one of her earlier visits with us (pre-kids) I made my mothers' famous and seriously delicious fettucine marinara. I went to the fish markets and got fresh prawns, salmon, calamari, baby octopus and mussels. I cooked it with love and much pride as I was sure she was going to be impressed with the variety and quality of the seafood. mmm not really 'what are these 'fings'?' I remember distinctly being the questions and then she didn't eat most of it because of the baby octopus and it was a little 'rich' for her tastes. So from then on it's been pretty simple cooking - the kind of stuff you find at an RSL or country house. I do splash out every now and again and do something on the original side but don't really go 'out there' with the ingredients if that makes sense... like a baked cheesecake or home-made pasta - that kind of thing.
So, Good Friday being tomorrow it's always been tradition to have fish for dinner anyway (hang over of the Catholic upbringing my mother and grandmother had!) and to make my mother-in-law very happy we've purchased some fish all ready to go. This is a new recipe I'm going to give a go from http://www.sandisrecipecorner.com/ - called Magically Moist Fish - I'm not going to make the Tangy Tartar Sauce- I'll make some chilli-lime-coriander mayo instead.
For tonight, she gets in quite late, I've made my chorizo lentil soup. - might be a bit spicy though and she might not feel like eating anyway.
Saturday night I think I will make some home-made ravioli with the kids. They love making and eating it, and mother-in-law can learn and help too. It will be fun.
Sunday lunch my Nanny is coming over and I think a roast will be in order - my mother-in-law is going to make the family recipe apple cake - passed down through the dynasty of german bakers in her family. We do have this recipe but I'm not allowed to make it myself let alone share it - it's my hubby's thing and it's secret! It is spiced apple in a sweet shortcrust pastry. It's really delicious. I'm looking forward to eating this!
Might make Ms Butterfly's cake today with the cream cheese frosting and some almond vanilla biscotti using my biscotti recipe and substituting 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence for 1 teaspoon almond essence and pistachio for almonds. That way there will be morning/afternoon teas taken care of.
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1 lovely comments:
I suffer the same fate. I feel like i have to dumb down the menu to suit my picky in-laws. Which is hard considering they love burgers and chip shop fare!
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