Frittata.

Onion, fennel, spinach and cheese frittata with green chilli jam.

We had a dozen too many eggs so I made a huge frittata a few days ago. We've just finished it. Gray's been having it for lunch, and it's finally all et up. Fennel makes things taste so fresh. I think it's a good companion for egg. Spinach and cheese are made for each other.

One for Nana.

Corned beef, roast potato (two types; spicy and 'plain'), sauteed carrots, roast parsnip and onion, steamed silverbeet, steamed cabbage and a very yummy cheese sauce.

Eaten by three grandchildren of my beautiful Nana B. (me, and two of my cousins) and four great grandchildren (she didn't live to meet them in person) - two from each of my cousins, and their wives (though one abstained from the beef - and Nana would have been proud at how quickly I whipped up marinated tofu for her) and my lovely husband. Ten for dinner.

Those leaves (we talked about earlier..) are falling hard and fast.

This seems to be a very intense time for us here at Polly HQ. We're not at all in charge of our days and we are feeling ~sans safety net~ (Shandra, is there a word I'm looking for here - 'bare/honest'?) and it's okay. It really is okay. It's just a lot, all at once, to accept and to move on from and to forgive and to REALLY forgive. And I think this might be the other side of the process that began with our knee injury.

God bless, good health etc.
(Hey - seems like we had a kinda Thanksgiving by accident.)

Sunday dinner party.

Four people. Two bottles of wine.

Nibbles:

Plate with olives on one side and carrot sticks on the other
Plate with dried figs on one side and rockmelon slices on the other
Brie and crackers

Then, on little plates;

A slice of pizza (boccocini and tomato)
Stuffed mushrooms

Then, on big plates (with people helping themselves):

Baked fennel
Steamed zuchinni
Butter bean and pasta salad (with mint, parsley and sun dried tomato)

Staying with Mum, getting pats and dinner!

We had a good time together, Mum and me. We ate mostly takeaway Thai food from the fantastic Thai Noodle Bar around the corner. That was wonderful. We drank wine in the evening together, with Friday at our feet. It was very good. The girls were sad about losing Friday but so happy that she loves Mum. It was a growing up experience for them, a moral lesson about putting Friday's and Mum's interests ahead of their own. Though I know that Gruesome said she understands Men Who Kidnap Their Children now.

We talked to her (Friday) when she caught us half way down the stairs with our new purple suitcase. She figured out that we were going. We told her how much we wanted to take her, and that we would take her if she wanted but that we thought she would prefer to stay with Mum, getting pats and dinner. She seemed to agree with that.

We didn't cook a thing the whole time we were away. Made a salad or two, but that's it. When we visited Watkins we brought Mary a whole barramundi and intended to cook it but got distracted by the Vesuviano family drama down the road and a wonky corkscrew and Nadia cooked it instead, the champion.

Now we are home. I made dinner for Nadia and Troy for their Doctor Who evening here and I'm so grateful that it no longer hurts to cook. It doesn't even hurt to hunt for saucepan lids in the back reaches of the cupboard. It doesn't even hurt to fetch a chair to have to retrieve the salt from the mantlepiece where Gray sometimes puts it. It does still piss me off that things are never in the same place and I'm trying to deal with my outrage in a healthy way, but apparently failing. I do wish I had my own kitchen. I suppose I am selfish.

Dinner made:

Tomato and mint salad - peeled tomatos with finely chopped mint leaves, pepper, salt, slivered onion and smashed garlic, steeped for at least an hour
Orange and sultana salad - diced orange pieces with sultanas, steeped for at least an hour
Yogurt with corriander - there is no mystery here
Baked spicy potato - baked with a rub of hot spices
Rice - with lemon myrtle powder, so aromatic
Lentil and Carrot Tomato Curry - sweet and spicy

There was also a jar of green chilli jam.

It was such a pretty plate!