A Fabulous Weekend Of Family, Frivolity, Festivity, And Food, Food, Food!

There are a few things that you can expect when you stay at my parents house – a comfortable bed, a fridge full of beer, and a barrage of delicious mouth-watering delights. My mum, aka super chef, was put to the test this weekend with a full house to cater for, including my grandparents and aunty and uncle (hi Deb!).  It was a really wonderful weekend full of laughter, wine and anecdotes.

Mum and Dad recently returned from Italy where they took part in a cooking class, and we were treated to an Italian feast of pasta amatriciana, made with pork cheek, and authentic tiramisu for dessert.

There was a slight incident involving mutton the next night, but Mum wasn’t cooking! I still enjoyed it, but the meal has gone down in family history as ‘The Double Mutton Disaster of 2011” – word of advice – doubling the recipe doesn’t always work. I’ll leave it at that…

Mum made a delicious rustic pork belly and liver terrine – one of Rick Stein’s recipes. The flavours were sensational!

One of my favourite entrees is prawn wrapped in prosciutto, and as we were celebrating my birthday on Saturday night, the dish was added to the menu! They were served with a salad and balsamic dressing – delish! We followed with rabbit ragu. I’d never eaten rabbit before so I was excited to try it. The rabbit looked like chicken but had a much stronger, meatier flavour – I really enjoyed it.

Being a sucker for anything chocolate I decided to bake a cake I’d made before (which had been a huge hit) for my birthday cake. The recipe’s aptly called Ultimate Chocolate Cake (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3092/ultimate-chocolate-cake). The recipe is very easy to follow, and it doesn’t matter if the top of the cake splits or isn’t even because it all gets hidden with the chocolate curls. I made my chocolate curls by melting down a block of chocolate, pouring it into a log cake tray and putting it in the fridge to set. Once  the mixture has hardened I removed it from the tray and scraped a cheese grater along the edge until I got the shape I wanted. Not only is it an ultimate chocolate cake, but it's an ultimate crowd pleaser. My uncle's not much of a sweet tooth, and he went back for seconds!

 "There is no love more sincere than the love of food." - George Bernard Shaw.