Significant Other and I decided that having a leg of lamb for Sunday lunch was a good idea on Friday. She didn't have a roasting dish but I have several and of course being a typical Kiwi bloke they are all the usual family hand me down variety with the outside being discolored from years of use. I pulled it out of my bag on Saturday and realised on the spot that it was unacceptable. Before she could call her niece to remedy the situation I took immediate action and put 40 minutes of elbow grease into cleaning the old dish and got it to an acceptable standard. I also pulled out the leg of lamb and pointed out that their was a lot of meat on it and with vegetables we could actually feed us her nephew and niece as well as R and her three kids.
I had a $30 one card reward voucher to spend at Countdown so we popped down to get some veges and other staples. Significant Other was appalled at the the Countdown prices, given that the whole shop came to $37 and we had a 10kg bag of rice, veges, milk and other stuff I can't recall for a cash outlay of $7.00 I wasn't to concerned but I am fairly sure she will not be making the move from Pac & Save any time soon.
Sunday involved a trip to the baker to get some croissants for breakfast I managed to secure the last 4 which meant Significant Other, Niece and me had a pleasant breakfast followed by church, now having not looked inside a church since my grandmothers funeral well over 20 years ago I was unsure what to expect. It soon became apparent that this was no ordinary service it was in fact the pastors final performance and tributes rolled in throughout the service, including an memorable analogy that involved "Saving Private Ryan " made even more remarkable because the orders came direct from President Lincoln in the White House. I have no idea if " Saving Private Ryan " was based on fact and this was an attempt to fictionalise it or perhaps Roosevelt was the modern incarnation of Lincoln, given it was a christian event I decided speculation on Dalai Lama style reincarnation being a newly discovered exciting feature of the American Presidency might not go down well.
This is of course the point at which the wheels started to fall off. Sunday Lunch was being provided by the church to farewell their pastor a man who ran a congregation that clearly had no concept of classical theology but a man whose pastoral care I have come to admire greatly, that alone convinced me I could probably get along with him and I did, ironically on his last day in the ministry.
Clearly when you are putting a leg of lamb in the oven at 2.30 pm you are no longer cooking " lunch", R's daughter S about 12 was astonished that I was cooking my explanation that we were cooking a Kiwi meal and I was the only person who could cook Kiwi meal was dismissed as she was learning to cook at school however I gather the modern equivalent of home economics hasn't reached legs of lamb yet as she didn't want to prepare it for me when I gave it to her.
For all that the kids were really patient from left J2, J1 and S.
J2 the youngest amusing us trying on Significant Others nephews shoes.
No pressure well at least not for R. " Lunch " was a success although it started at about 4.00 and took till about 5.30.
Leftovers, actually given the dish was overflowing with vegetables and I carved the lamb onto a separate platter I was not unhappy with uptake particularly given we gave a rice option, the kids loved drowning the rice and lamb in gravy but still ate the veges. The only incongruent note was when a friend of Significant Others nephew told me he enjoyed the beef and he hadn't had it cooked this way before.
Lots off dirty dishes. You can see the roasting dish bottom right. I bet it has been scrubbed spotless by now. I am not allowed to do the dishes if Significant Others nephew is at home and I felt a bit sorry for him. He had been off for a weekend camp organised by the refugee service and arrived back in time for " lunch " and of course the dishes.
I make a lot of dishes when I cook and yes I was laughing when I took this but I did feel a little bit guilty about the work I had created for him.
Significant Other is keen to do another lamb roast, she watched everything I did. I doubt I will even be allowed in the kitchen when it happens and I suspect that it will be a fusion dish incorporating some African cuisine ideas.
Sunday involved a trip to the baker to get some croissants for breakfast I managed to secure the last 4 which meant Significant Other, Niece and me had a pleasant breakfast followed by church, now having not looked inside a church since my grandmothers funeral well over 20 years ago I was unsure what to expect. It soon became apparent that this was no ordinary service it was in fact the pastors final performance and tributes rolled in throughout the service, including an memorable analogy that involved "Saving Private Ryan " made even more remarkable because the orders came direct from President Lincoln in the White House. I have no idea if " Saving Private Ryan " was based on fact and this was an attempt to fictionalise it or perhaps Roosevelt was the modern incarnation of Lincoln, given it was a christian event I decided speculation on Dalai Lama style reincarnation being a newly discovered exciting feature of the American Presidency might not go down well.
This is of course the point at which the wheels started to fall off. Sunday Lunch was being provided by the church to farewell their pastor a man who ran a congregation that clearly had no concept of classical theology but a man whose pastoral care I have come to admire greatly, that alone convinced me I could probably get along with him and I did, ironically on his last day in the ministry.
Clearly when you are putting a leg of lamb in the oven at 2.30 pm you are no longer cooking " lunch", R's daughter S about 12 was astonished that I was cooking my explanation that we were cooking a Kiwi meal and I was the only person who could cook Kiwi meal was dismissed as she was learning to cook at school however I gather the modern equivalent of home economics hasn't reached legs of lamb yet as she didn't want to prepare it for me when I gave it to her.
For all that the kids were really patient from left J2, J1 and S.
J2 the youngest amusing us trying on Significant Others nephews shoes.
No pressure well at least not for R. " Lunch " was a success although it started at about 4.00 and took till about 5.30.
Leftovers, actually given the dish was overflowing with vegetables and I carved the lamb onto a separate platter I was not unhappy with uptake particularly given we gave a rice option, the kids loved drowning the rice and lamb in gravy but still ate the veges. The only incongruent note was when a friend of Significant Others nephew told me he enjoyed the beef and he hadn't had it cooked this way before.
Lots off dirty dishes. You can see the roasting dish bottom right. I bet it has been scrubbed spotless by now. I am not allowed to do the dishes if Significant Others nephew is at home and I felt a bit sorry for him. He had been off for a weekend camp organised by the refugee service and arrived back in time for " lunch " and of course the dishes.
I make a lot of dishes when I cook and yes I was laughing when I took this but I did feel a little bit guilty about the work I had created for him.
Significant Other is keen to do another lamb roast, she watched everything I did. I doubt I will even be allowed in the kitchen when it happens and I suspect that it will be a fusion dish incorporating some African cuisine ideas.
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