Reviewing the mother of all presents for mum’s day of the year

ELAINE REEVES takes a look at three books that any mum would be pleased to receive for Mother’s Day

I’M looking at three books, all by mums (except for the aunt of five), that other mothers would be pleased to receive.

One is aimed specifically at mothers of children under school age, one at women with busy lives to whom simple and straightforward are important cooking criteria, and one is a present full of food gifts.

Starting with the last mentioned, Sophie Hansen’s A Basket By the Door (Murdoch Books $39.99) is “food that doubles as a hug”, says the author. The day she and her husband brought their first child home they found a basket by the door. In it was a bottle of wine, an apple cake, and a tray of lamb shanks ready to be reheated. The donor had departed relieving the couple of the need to entertain.

Her book has 140 recipes to put in a basket by the door of someone “recovering from surgery, heartbreak, diagnosis or disappointment”, to celebrate a joyous occasion, or to say a little thank-you. There is a chicken pie “for anyone in need of cheering up”, menus for a weekend away (including a baked apple porridge), an apple and marmalade cake sturdy enough to take on picnics (that “if it were a woman would wear sensible shoes), and a “comforting family food” care package for firefighters sick of toasted sandwiches.

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And there are many little thank-you gifts, such as lime chilli salt to use on watermelon, a jar of sweet dukkah, or your hand-made cultured butter laced with cinnamon and maple syrup or anchovies and capers.

Hansen, who blogs as Local is Lovely, took the photographs in her book herself over a year, mostly on the farm she lives on just outside Orange in New South Wales.

Not as beautiful a thing to leaf through is My Smoko Break (ABC Books, $27.99), a

no-nonsense collection of recipes and hints with no photos of food to live up to. Hayley Maudsley always makes pikelets with the kids on rainy days — just as her mother did with her, and her grandmother before that. But given she lives on an isolated wheat property in Queensland, there are not so many pikelet days.

Her book has two pikelet recipes: the rainy-day old recipe, and a mix in a plastic jar ready for a camping trip. About six years ago, Maudsley consulted the internet about dinner and was put off by perfectly lit and styled dishes with some ingredients she had not heard of and/or did not have access to.

She began a Facebook page (the same title as her book) and posted favourite recipes, hints and stories about raising her three children. Now that page has 126,000 followers.

The usual meal chapters are there, but headings for “Smoko”, “School lunchbox” and “Harvest” (something for her husband to eat while driving the header, for instance) are pointers to a preponderance of finger foods — it’s an ideal book for anyone asked to “bring a plate”.

There is the recipe for the banana cake tasted on honeymoon in Fiji, written for her on a dried banana leaf — at least Maudsley’s best remembrance of it, because Customs confiscated the banana leaf.

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Boosting Your Basics (Viking $39.99) follows on from One Handed Cooks in 2016, written by Allie Gaunt, who began the blog that became onehandedcooks.com when cooking with a child on her hip, co-founder Sarah Buckle (the aunt of five), who photographs and styles the food, and Jessica Beaton, who runs a dietitian’s eye over everything and has made a special study of fussy eaters.

There are heaps of ideas for ringing in the changes in attractive, nutritious food, and lots of sound advice on encouraging kids to eat when they start to restrict the number of things they like and how they like them presented (not touching, for instance).

Best of all, to me, is the “One Meal Three Ways” chapter, which allows for the whole family to eat together without the parents dining on puree. For example, the baby serve of taco bowls comprises a mash of the meat, vegies, avocado and granted cheese; the toddler has a tortilla cup filled with the beef and vegie mix with avocado, tomato and grated cheese on the side to combine however they like; and the adults have everything in the tortilla and a dollop of sour cream.

Originally published as Reviewing the mother of all presents for mum’s day of the year