Leftovers for a sunny day

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So all good things sort of come to an end, and 3 days later, Venice seems like just a beautiful memory. This afternoon, I have taken the path of least resistance and sent the kids out into the garden with a tub of water. As I type they are naked, muddy and having a whale of a time. I’m trying to put off the inevitable ‘what’s for tea’ question because frankly I’m not rightly sure.

Since 6.30 on Monday morning I have been in full end-of-term-mummy mode, juggling cub investiture (Blue, Monday evening), ballet ‘show’ (Pink, yesterday, 5 – 5.45) school Easter ‘production’ (Blue, yesterday,  6-7 – the story of Easter set to what can only be described as hotel lobby music...), class trip (Pink, today), class assembly (Pink, tomorrow). The children are exhausted – evidenced by the fact that Blue isn’t waking up until our alarm goes off, and Pink is staggering downstairs around 7.45 – and frankly, we all need the holiday. On top of that, I have been returning the house to my version of chaos, as opposed to Allotment Junkie’s version. The cutlery drawer has been re-ordered; and the cheese grater is hanging up on my pan rack, not in the dresser; and the cereal bowls are in the dresser and not in the cupboard. I have NO IDEA where the loo rolls have gone.

I have to whisper because I know that it makes me sound incredibly ungrateful. She has fielded my kids for a weekend AND done my ironing, with my father in situ (he came to ‘help’ this time, which is always a tricky one), and I am NOT complaining. But it is true that she always rearranges everything. Still – I doubt it’s going to stop me relying on her amazing grannyness in future.

She has also left me with half a roasted chicken which will probably save me this evening, because 2 paragraphs later and I am still feeling distinctly uninspired as far as food goes. I can’t wait until Friday because the kids are having a school dinner (‘Easter lunch’) so I can throw sandwiches at them for tea instead of thinking of something delicious and nutritious. In fact, on the way up to school this afternoon, basking in the glorious sunshine, some of us have hatched a plan to go to the park after school on Friday with a picnic tea for the kids and a bottle or 2 of wine for the mummies, so that will ease us into the weekend nicely.

Despite my pre-trip organisation frenzy, I did nothing in relation to this week apart from ear mark a cottage pie that was in the freezer for Monday evening. So we had cottage pie, and last night the kids ate cold chicken with some potato salad made out of some cold potatoes left over from last week (well they smelled OK) and some rogue spring onions that we discovered hiding in a corner of the veg patch. The Husband had the left over cottage pie and I had the cold chicken made into a couscous salad (the kids ate all the potatoes) with some pine nuts, and chopped cucumber. The Husband, lucky man, got to take the couscous to work with him for lunch too.

Further inspection of the fridge has now revealed the remaining gravy and – what a bonus!! - some leftover cream that Allotment Junkie must have brought, so it looks like creamy chicken and parsley pasta this evening (I have a water trough full of parsley, as I may have mentioned previously. It comes in handy when there’s nothing else fresh in the house). Sorted.