When Mum comes to town (we eat a lot of great food).

 

Last weekend Mum came to stay. We got a fair bit of stuff done around my house, but most of the time was spent eating. And teaching Mum how to use social media (Twitter, Instagram and the art of the selfie).

It's so good having a foodie Mum - we spend a lot of time talking about food - especially the food we cook. She is happy to come to stay and be well fed.

We ate at some local restaurants...

For Friday night dinner...Toast with eggplant, feta and honey (amazing!) and lamb, apricot, date and almond tagine (so warming on a freezing night). We also had quail in a chocolate sauce. That was our first time at Arcadia. Really impressed with this restaurant and will go back soon.

 

And for lunch the next day, we had a Mexican share plate at La Tortilleria. I am so in love with this place - it's fresh and tasty Mexican. My favourites were the toasted tortillas filled with pork, pineapple and cheese - crispy tortillas, tender pork, sweet pineapple and melty cheese. Yum!

The tortillas are made on site in this big machine. It was great to watch this process. Mum and I both bought packets of freshly made tortillas - hot from the machine.

Eating great food at restaurants inspires both Mum and I to cook great food at home. And of course we did. We went to my local shopping strip to stock up on fresh produce - meat, veggies and cheese. I bought a rolled pork roast - I felt so grown up!

I made a major purchase - a new fridge - which I admit has rekindled my passion for spending time in the kitchen. This fridge holds a lot, its shelves are sturdy, and the crisper keeps the vegetables crisp. The milk has some friends now - there's cider and wine on the bottom shelf now!

Once the fridge was delivered and installed, Mum and I got cooking. On Saturday night we cooked a Mexican inspired feast:

Pico di gallo (onion, tomato, coriander, olive oil)...

Salad of spinach, beetroot, mandarin, hazelnuts, feta, lime juice...

And roasted pork filled tortillas like the ones we had that day...

It was a fantastic meal! Quite healthy, and really relaxing preparing all the dishes. Lots of leftovers too.

On Sunday we lunched at Hausfrau with Camille. Mum hadn't met Cam before but she had heard lots about her of course - and loved her of course!

I ate a pumpkin fritter with beetroot, creme fraiche and a poached egg. Yum!

And we had some cake...

I cooked a faux-fancy meal for dinner on Sunday night. That is, a dinner that looks quite fancy but is really easy. It's chicken fillet rolled in prosciutto and stuffed with spinach and cheese, with herbed potatoes and turnips, steamed choy sum and carrot, and cranberry sauce. Yum!!

It was a really lovely weekend - thanks Mum!