Cooking with cancer

My mother in law is a pretty good cook and over the years has produced some very tasty meals, cakes, and biscuits and...Hell, who am I kidding I'd say a simple cheese sandwich was awesome if someone else made it for me! Hmm, Ok, maybe I'm not that easily pleased but let's face it...Food prepared and served up by someone else always seems to taste a bit better right?

So, my mother in law cooked dinner for us last night and whilst that may not sound like much of a big deal it sort of was. You see, she has cancer and is at the tail end of 6 months of a pretty rigorous course of chemotherapy; Cooking hasn't been high on her list of priorities.

She's had good and bad days over the last months and mostly hasn't felt like doing much at all mainly so when she called and asked us to come over for dinner we were a little surprised. Of course, it's a great thing as it means she's feeling better. A little better, at least. So, off we went last night to have dinner with her.

• She started us off with chilli egg rolls served with a soy dipping sauce and fresh lime. It was sort of like a very thin omelette with spring onions, red and green peppers and some spices in there. It was then rolled up and sliced into sections. A tooth pick held it together and made them easy to eat. The soy sauce drizzled on top and a squeeze of lime gave it some zing and made it a pretty decent way to start the meal.

• The main course was South Australian lobster (chargrilled) served with aubergine (egg plant) custards with a red pepper and red onion dressing/salsa. There was some warm crusty bread and a green salad as well. Need I say more? Probably not...But I will..."It was awesome!"

• Desert was a baked ricotta cake with a red berry sauce and berries. You can see the picture of it in this post. I added a small touch of my own, the dollop of ice cream, for a little more sweetness.

I can't fault any of the food and the meal was a big success. I'm sorry I don't have pictures of the entree and main course but at the time I wasn't thinking about steemit...I was too intent upon consuming my dinner and enjoying the company.

Last night's dinner was a big step forward for my mother in law and my wife was also very pleased to see her mum getting back to a little normality. Sure, she couldn't taste the food herself due to a reaction to the chemo treatment (and having no taste at all) but just doing something familiar made her feel good.

Today she was back in hospital for another chemotherapy treatment so tonight she may be in for a bad night. So goes chemo treatment unfortunately. We'll see though, she might be ok. My wife was with her all day today and she reports that everything is on track so fingers crossed it continues huh? It's been interesting to watch her journey and to see her ups and downs. She's a pretty resilient person and has generally handled it all very well, but like all of us she has fears and doubts as well. One never knows how they will handle a life-threatening illness but my mother in law has been a real trooper...