I had one of those classic mother’s mornings today. I woke up, made a hot chocolate for Poppet and a cup of tea for myself. Then I constructed a wooden pirate ship while Poppet tried to play with it. The instruction weren’t as easy as I thought they would be. This was followed by a pirate breakfast of porridge–anyway that’s what I told Poppet it was so he would eat it. Then I baked a mandarin and almond cake to take to our friends, who were having us over for lunch. I hung up a load of washing, unpacked and repacked the dishwasher, and finally headed off for a run. This was all before 10am. Maybe it’s corny but I found it all very satisfying.

These are the mandarins I boiled for 90 minutes to use in the cake. I blended them in my food processor just after I took this photo. It’s early in the season and they aren’t as dark in colour or as sweet as they will be in another couple of weeks. Nonetheless, I like the slightly tart taste.

My mandarin and almond cake came out a little dark. It was just right on the inside though. I left it in the oven while I went for my run and misjudged the time. I’m not used to using the oven in this house. In our last house we had a great Smeg, which I knew like the back of my hand. Now we have an old Chef which is really unreliable. It goes out sometimes, it’s difficult to regulate and doesn’t switch on sometimes. Until we renovate the kitchen this is it.

Lunch was a real surprise. Our friends made a tender juicy veal roast. I wish I had taken a photo. Is it rude to ask your hosts if you can photograph the food before you eat it? The veal was rolled with prosciutto, which is the best way to cook veal roast as veal has a very mild flavour and the prosciutto gives it that extra depth. Italians love veal. My mother cooked it in one way or another every week without fail. I haven’t had a veal roast for ages so I was thrilled to have one cooked for me. It made me very nostalgic for my mother’s cooking. My mother suffers from Alzheimers and can’t cook any more. For me it’s one of the saddest things about her having the disease because cooking gave her so much joy and she was so skilled at it. It was also one of the ways we really connected. Living on the other side of Australia to her I only experienced her cooking when we visited at Christmas, but we would talk food and recipes on the phone all the time. I really miss that. I think about her almost every time I cook.