A Labour of Love

I know I must come across as a very good wifely wife and a good 'mom' (Oh how I detest that word) Please call me 'mother' if you must? even 'mum' will do, my children call me 'mamma'. Anyway so you probably have this vision of a sunshiny person. You think I wake up smiling in the morning with a skip in my step and I smile a gleaming toothpaste commercial smile at everyone. And then I serve breakfast to the family with a glow on my face. Different things for everyone, whatever they want! I never scold the children, I bake them goodies every day, I don't have even the hint of a frown line on my forehead and then I wave them goodbye with my hair bobbing up and down in slow motion. The kids go to school and the husband with his briefcase goes off to work and then I sit down and read a magazine and bake. 

Well I am not that person. For one my husband does not carry a briefcase to work. Does anyone carry a briefcase to work? secondly, I don't know how to cook. I have never known how to and I couldn't be bothered to try. So yes, I can make tea or coffee or salad at the most, but producing a meal for the family is beyond my capabilities...unless of course cake counts as food. My husband does all the cooking in the house, Or as is the case now, he tells the cook what to make and gives an exact recipe. When I say he cooks, I don't mean he knows how to cook. I mean he cooks better than most people I know. He can make anything from butter chicken and kababs to plated degustation style European food, complete with little sauce dots on the plate. If we eat something outstanding at a restaurant, he can replicate and in fact better it at home.

I think maybe he believes in that old saying about the way to the heart being through the stomach, well good for him because my heart is IN my stomach. He made the most outstanding Vietnamese chicken salad the other night and I thought I must share the recipe. This isn't just a baking blog. It says so right on top

Ingredients

Salad:

1 small head of chinese cabbage shredded

1 carrot julienned 

1 green mango julienned

2 handfuls of bean sprouts

2 red onions finely sliced

2 pan roasted boneless chicken breasts thinly sliced

2 tablespoons roasted sesame seeds

handful of chopped coriander 

handful of chopped mint

Dressing:

1 small knob of ginger

6-7 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

100 ml fish sauce

100 ml water

2 fresh thai red chillies

juice of 2-3 limes

Method:

Toss all the shredded vegetables, sprouts and sliced chicken together. 

Add most of the dressing and toss again.

Serve and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top

Of course those were not the portion sizes, when we were polishing it off.

On his birthday a food surprise is always a good surprise. He doesn't like anything that can be bought in the market. And the only food I know is cake. Here is what I made. It is a golden cake frosted with Bavarian Cream flavoured Swiss Meringue Buttercream, layered with mixed berry compote and then covered in fondant.

And how do you keep something like this a surprise when you live with the person? It was painstaking to say the least. I would make all the little gum paste details in the morning after he left. Then they would dry on the table and I would pick them all up and put them into a box and hide the box in the cupboard before he got back. Again the next morning, I would take them all out to let them dry.

Lazy that I am, I also invited N’s friends over to help me make the little vegetables. That was a play date that got me lots of brownie points from the kids and the mothers.

It was an extremely enjoyable cake to make, to think of all the different elements I could put on the kitchen counter and see it all come together in the end. The muffin pan on the counter is a little bit of me in the kitchen.

It is no secret that given half a chance, he would leave his current job and be a chef, but unfortunately for him, nobody is giving him that chance. Well he gets to wear a chef's uniform on his cake at least.

My husband is not bald (so far). I just completely forgot to make hair for him. I hope it is not a premonition of some sort...yikes!

So that is how it is with us. When he wants to tell me he loves me he says "here eat food" and when I want to tell him I love him, I say "here, eat cake" So if you come a-visiting and we feed you good food and cake, it is a happy day and all is well.