Sunday was mother's day. I cooked a meal for eight people. Roast potatoes and sweet potato, lemon roast chicken (a recipe from when I stayed with gillpolack), steamed green beans and snowpeas with toasted macadamias, and tomato basil tagliatelle for starters. Dessert was mini pavlovas with a spoonful of cream, a drizzle of passionfruit pulp and defrosted "summer berries".

My mother said it was the best mother's day since 1984 (my birth year) and 1986 (my brother's birth year).

Also, my beans were NOT oversteamed. They were a bright and juicy green, with just the right about of crispness to them.

We had guests as well - the exchange student who stayed with us most recently and his father, and my Italian lecturer friend Daniela and her friend (also a lecturer) Michele.

Gillian - the roast chicken was a brilliant success. Thank you for sharing that delicious method with me! You and eneit would be proud of me, as I orchestrated the whole thing with perfect timing and almost singlehandedly (the only thing I was assisted with was the carving of the chicken). I also cooked with an oven that was almost overflowing - 2 large chickens and a whole bag of potatoes and three sweet potatoes. Mmmmm!