Wednesday 6 October 2021

Blogtober 2021 :: Day 6

 



Back to glorious weather today, so I squeezed in a quick hour of gardening after tea. There's so much to do out there at this time of year. I picked up windfall apples and pears and pulled out the tomatoes and sweet peas and that was about it. But I'm learning the value of doing just a bit when I can, rather than trying to find the time to spend hours on things.

Work is quite full on at the moment and while that's good, it does mean that I simply don't have the time to do all of the stuff I'd like to do. So, quick bits of gardening here and there will have to do for now.

I'd really like to do a deep declutter of the house, but that will have to wait. The children's clothes are a lot of the problem. All that constant growing out of stuff, so it needs to be put away for the next one and then got back out and on and on. I absolutely love decluttering and sorting and making everything neat, or at least I love it when it's been done, so I need to fit in some micro-decluttering as well I think. I am slowly working my way around the place, a drawer here and a cupboard there. 

The littlest boy and I fell out over school cookery earlier on. At least it wasn't one of those, 'Surprise, it's school cookery tomorrow and I need twenty ingredients!' scenarios. Like last week for example, when we ended up doing a tour of corner shops in the hopes that there were some part-baked baguettes left somewhere in town.

Tomorrow it's fajitas and he is cross that, unlike ALL of the other mothers, I have not peeled and chopped his onion for him in readiness. He told me I was lazy. I am still feeling rather incendiary about that to be honest, having worked all day, and probably most of the evening and cooked and washed up and blah, blah, blah. Plus, I don't like the smell of onions on my hands and in my clothes. So the onion is sitting in the kitchen in its whole and perfect state. Honestly, if I cut up the onion, there wouldn't really be anything left to do apart from throw things into the pan.

As it happened, I did pre-chop his chicken for him because we ended up with more than he needed, so while I was dividing it up I cut it into cubes. I did it without reading the recipe because he had the booklet in his room. Unfortunately it transpires that it is supposed to be cut into strips that are exactly the same length as his strips of red pepper (which he will be chopping himself ). Imagine how cross he is going to be when he finds out. If his teacher sees, he might even get told off. Of course, he can always say that his mother did it for him and was too lazy to read the recipe and do it properly. It's going to be brilliant.

10 comments:

  1. I wish I could be a fly on the wall for tomorrow’s lesson. Especially when he sees the chicken :) well done on keeping the onion whole and I’m glad you had all the ingredients on hand. I used to hate it when the recipe was handed to me last thing at night and I was expected to magic ingredients like a rabbit out of their hat. Quite often they sent my sons home with a very vague scenario which meant that mum had to think up a recipe in the first place because heaven forbid they would use their own brains. Out of three sons I have only one that truly enjoys cooking. Better than non I suppose. I look forward to hearing about the outcome tomorrow. B x

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  2. Well done on the onion! I did chuckle re the chicken. I remember umpteen years ago my mother being frustrated by my cooking ingredient list. She was working full time, we lived out of town and it was the cost too, we sometimes couldn't afford the ingredients. It sounds like your boys are making practical recipes. I remember one of my makes was a simnel cake.

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  3. My ears have smoke coming out of them just reading about the onion, not surprised you are still smoldering! I don't like onion either so definitely would have been whole in my house too. Hopefully you can look back and laugh about it- and maybe as an adult he will even apologise and be embarrassed. Having done a lot of tidying after 3 boys I feel your pain. Maybe the lads could have a bag each to 'neatly' add clothes they find they have grown out of! Only saying as I didn't request or receive much help either and I have one son who is very tidy and two that continue to just live in and amongst piles. I now feel for their future partners. Cant wait to hear about the chicken :))

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  4. Another post that made me smile. That first picture is wonderful. xx

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  5. Ah, I remember the days of school cookery and the nonsense that it brought on the day before. Bravo for not chopping the onion - suspect the teacher will back you up on that one. They should do, or be forced to attend a workshop on Why We Should Let Our Children Chop Their Own Damn Onions.
    Lost all of my tomatoes to blight this year, which nearly made me cry. 12 whole plants to the bin. Sigh.
    Hope you can carve some time for yourself soon x

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  6. Oh that's brilliant! Made me laugh out loud. Top parenting :-) xx

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  7. The picture of your son opening his container of chicken and finding it the wrong shape is making me smile! My eldest Daughter did food tech gcse and loves cooking, second Daughter always seemed to have things catch fire in her lessons and refused to take it as a gcse and hates going anywhere near the kitchen!
    As the weather was so awful last weekend we tackled piles of clothes. It is a tedious task of trying on, labeling for next child down and chucking. I am always relieved to get it done.

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  8. Oh, I've been there - the ...We're 'cooking' chorizo and manchego cheese sandwiches in Spanish tomorrow and I have to bring the ingredients ... this said in a vegetarian household at about 8pm (cue dash to supermarket with gritted teeth and seething son who does not understand why on earth his mother is miffed or why he should have to go shopping too .... (he was only 8 at the time - but still!!)

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  9. Brilliant post. Chopping an onion is definitely a life skill. Most recipes seem to start with it (well, they do if you're vegan anyway!), so your son will be that bit more prepared! He will just have to chop his pepper to the same size as his chicken chunks! :O) xx

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