Not A Cooks Blog ... Mastering French Cuisine With Julia Child ... (Once A Week): Series Two: Part Ten

Mother'- Day - a day to celebrate being a mother, having a wonderful mother and remembering those mother's gone. I believe my Grandma Olive would have liked Julia Child and her shenanigans in the kitchen. Olive was a Taurus (birthday just a couple of days ago) - she was elegant but feisty, strong, with a little pinch of naughtiness and she lovingly prepared the most wonderful cooked lunch time meals for us. So in memory of Olive, this mother's day lunch was a mix of her favourite lunchtime fare infused with a touch of Julia.

As a little starter, we roasted some chestnuts - marrons. These were sourced from our neighbours at Mill Stream Gardens (a source of great gifts and magical lotions and potions). This wasn't a particular Julia recipe, although Julia does provide some guidance on how to prepare and cook these little morsels. Chestnuts have an outside shell and a bitter inside skin, both of which must be removed before the chestnuts can be used. Roasting was a quick easy way to prepare, although don't forget to stab the skin with a knife before hand otherwise you may experience grenade like explosions in your oven.

The roast lamb was the stable favourite. Back in the day there use to be quite a distinction between lamb types and in historic French cookery books you will read an array of terms. These include Hothouse Lamb and Milk fed lambs - Agneau de Lait & Agneau de Pauillac, which is very young lamb raised on milk and considered a prime delicacy. Goodness! We were going for a la supermarket lamb today.

I prefer lamb cooked to a rare, rosy and juicy state so adherence to cooking times was essential. For the lamb I used Julia's herbal mustard coating. This is a combination of Dijon mustard, soy sauce, garlic, rosemary, powered ginger and olive oil. You just paint the mixture on the lamb and throw it in a roasting pan to cook. No searing or basting required. Accompaniments to the lamb included roast potatoes and cooked vegetables. Dessert-were non-Julia and included, what is affectionately referred to in the family, as a "scream sponge".

The lunch was had at my parents house, with the chestnuts and lamb being cooked in the barbeque. I should fess up that I didn't actually cook the chestnuts or the lamb ... the menfolk were left holding the cook book and instructed to cook on, whilst the my mother and daughter and self enjoyed a pleasant autumn walk... it was Mother's day after all - I think my Grandmother would have approved!