Sunday 16 September 2012

Grub's up

For the first time in almost ten years of having a family we sat down to a dinner that was (mostly) cooked by one of our offspring. Inspired by the Great British Bake-Off amongst other things, Sean and Finn have been poring over the cookbooks with the intent of cooking up a storm in the kitchen. The challenge with Sean is getting him to do any cooking that doesn't involve sugar but this weekend the pair of them picked out breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes. Finn managed to do cinnamon pancakes for breakfast yesterday but didn't quite follow through on his plans for the rest of the day.

Today, Sean started the day making porridge for his brothers then followed that with a tasty lunchtime chicken pasta dish and garlic bread, despite having just come in from a two-hour gymnastic class. But to top it off, he made an excellent chilli con carne with tortilla chips for Sunday dinner. I chipped in with the rice and kept him straight on the chilli but he did very well working with the food chopper, browning the meat, opening the cans and adding the spices. He even added a special, secret ingredient - cocoa powder. Everyone enjoyed it.

It was the climax to a good weekend of eating for Sharon and me as we were through at Betty and Ian's last night for one of their splendid dinners while Lesley and Stuart minded the boys. The venison carpaccio with beetroot and horseradish cream was definitely the highlight. A few glasses of carefully chosen wine helped wash things down, but didn't help when Angus appeared in the night, several times. Sharon eventually gave up and left him in the bed with me.

Finn had a go at the Penicuik gymnastics class today and I took the boys for a walk in Colinton Dell this afternoon as we hadn't been along that way by the Water of Leith in a while. I was at Spylaw Park yesterday with Angus and Rowan and noted a few changes to the fixtures. It shows how long we've been going to these playparks when we've outlasted some of the fittings. The tractor climbing frame (with the unbelievably squeaky steering wheel) was gone, as was the small house and slide ("Sean's house" we used to call it was Sean was barely big enough to walk) and the wooden climbing frame with the big slide and fireman's pole. There are different installations now but gradually I get a sense, as Angus grows up, that we're leaving behind a phase of family life and passing the baton on to the next generation. Angus has had plenty dry night-time nappies of late and knows it. If we could crack the nappy hurdle that would be another major milestone passed in the Wallace family.

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