Hanging out with my Mom
I took two days off to have a retreat with my Mom. It started Wednesday night with dinner. My parents joined us for stuffed pork, served with tart apple rhuberry spread and a side of asparagus and new potatoes. As an appetizer we had old cheddar cheese and goat cheese with roasted red pepper spread on crackers. For dessert we had delicious peaches in brandy with the sauce simmered down and frozen vanilla yogurt.
For breakfast I made fresh scones (a la Jamie Oliver) with an assortment of jam samples and cream cheese. I packed up some shopping bags and we drove off to see the recently renovated Hamilton Farmer’s Market. Mom was totally surprised! We picked up fresh Ontario strawberries and asparagus, and then came back to make two batches of Holiday Jam.
They were triple berry with an additional 1 cup each of rhubarb; one batch was strawberry, raspberry and blueberry and the other strawberry, raspberry and blackberry. Why Holiday Jam? Because I was on holiday! We had 2 cups of each (4 cups total) and it was Mom’s first time making jam using a soft-jel set, not with pectin.
Next night, we headed back to Oakville for dinner at Alhambra. For starters we had Bastia (phyla dough filled with a mix of chicken, almonds, saffron and figs with an apricot glaze) and Maftoul (hand rolled phyla cigars stuffed with extra-lean ground beef spiced with raselhanut – a 12 spice mix – cashews and raisins with a hot harissa mayo sauce). Mom ordered chicken Tajine with saffron rice and I had lamb souvlaki with Moroccan fries (i.e. a mix of fries and sweet potato fries) and a side of garlic sauce. We packed up the left overs for Dad and headed down to Bronte harbour to watch the boats coming in while enjoying gelato.
