Generally speaking, I am old enough to know that that are some things I should not contemplate, such as trying to make two desserts on a hot day.
The original plan was very good: to have 12 people over for Sunday lunch in order to celebrate Junior 3’s 18th birthday. Since Junior 2 and I also have birthdays in June, why not celebrate at the same time? Throw in Father’s Day and we can have a real riot of a party.
But there is the A Level revision to consider, a fridge that is only big enough to hold food for four people, not much help in the kitchen and an impending cold.
I am sniffling and just about managing to hold it together.
Thankfully the ducks were deboned and its stuffing prepared two days ahead, only needing to be roasted for an hour before lunch. The five salads were cut down to three salads, and I held off making the much-loved triple layer chocolate cake until later. One pear and amaretto cheesecake would suffice along with four Charentais melons.
The thing is, when under pressure in the kitchen, you need to cut down and cut back, but most of all you need to start cutting.
Thus the slicing and chopping began and I started to breathe a bit easier.
For any gathering to be successful you need people who are keen to join in and contribute. What are you bringing to the table? Joe and Anju, always good sports, brought along their uuni 3 wood firing oven.
They set up shop and the excitement began as everyone had the opportunity to hand-make and hand-bake their own pizza.
The pizzas brought so much fun and joy to our communal lunch. We all said the uuni would be a great addition to our life. We were even optimistic that the hot weather would last for a very long time. And what about the health benefits? Don’t Italians live such long lives because they eat pizzas?
At the end of the day, after our final guest leaves at 7.30pm, I contemplate another round of washing up. A juicy and crunchy red apple beckons after that.
Finally, to be fair I too ask myself what it is that I bring to the table. The answer is simple: I own the table. And the kitchen. With this comes the responsibility of cleaning, cleaning and even more cleaning. This is why I have asked, for my birthday, three days off from cooking and cleaning (baking does not count). I am really looking forward to this.