Magic Meals

7th June 2011 - Tuesday

When I ask my nephew what they’d like us to bring when we come and visit the baby tomorrow he says,

Eco disposable nappies, shower gel, flapjack and meals for the freezer.

When I tell my friend I bought nappies today she looks at me in horror and wonders if it’s me or my husband who has become incontinent overnight.

No, it’s for the baby, I say, and we double up laughing.

I start cooking in the afternoon and it reminds me of the kind of food I used to make when I had my own business selling frozen vegetarian meals in foil containers which I delivered all over London in my powder blue VW beetle in the 1980s. I called myself Magic Meals then. Today I soak pearl barley and split lentils, grate parmesan cheese, chop veggies and cup up bacon and haddock and stir my bubbling pots on the stove, conjuring savoury aromas.

By 8pm the garden is in shade but the kitchen is ablaze with late sunshine pouring in through the windows and the open doors and the plastic roof, showing up smeary marks on the glass and grubby cabinet doors. No time to clean now. I still have to wash up and filter the second batch of elderflower cordial - made with the right sugar this time - into bottles, and de-cant the contents of the pans into containers to cool before I can freeze them.

When my husband comes home - I thought he was at Gi-gong but he said he didn’t feel like it, he dropped in to say a prayer at the Cathedral and went for a drive instead - we sit on the sofa and eat bowls of wild mushroom risotto for supper. There is still plenty left to take to the parents of our great nephew tomorrow. He won’t be ready to eat coconut lentil dahl or Provencal fish stew or bacon and barley bake for a while yet.

I was so busy today I didn't remember the kingfisher very often - just caught a glimpse of him flashing through the garden and gave my husband an extra long hug.