90 again

Yesterday we had the third and final celebration of my mum's 90th birthday - and her third cake. First one at Crieff, before the actual day, with my brother and family; second on the birthday with Daughter 1, Son-in-Law 1 and Grandson; and third yesterday with all the offspring, SIL 1 and future DIL as well as Mr Life's aunt, uncle and cousin. For some reason I decided not to do the buffet salad that I usually put together when entertaining largish numbers. I felt I should be a bit more ambitious. So as part of my menu I picked two recipes that I'd never done before - WHY? - and cooked for about 36 hours.

We're complicated to feed because SIL 1 eats fish but not meat, my mum also likes fish, Mr Life doesn't and prefers meat, the girls and I are vegetarian... . I was also aiming to do all the preparation in advance so that I could just calmly whip things out of the oven when it was time to eat. And this did indeed happen, but there was a vast amount of washing up beforehand in preparation for what I fondly saw as one-dish choices. So we had one pot chicken casserole (yes, you end up with one pot, having used every pot you possess as you go along), easy salmon with broccoli (the word "easy" is slightly misleading there) and chick pea fritters (yup, a serious fiddle, just as you would think, though I'd made them before so you'd think I might have known better.) And raspberry choux ring and chocolate mousse, which are standbys but don't exactly make themselves.  

Anyway, it was fine and seemed to go down well and there are a lot of leftovers (because you have to cook enough so that the omnivores can have whatever they like), which is good because if I never have to cook again in my life, that'll be splendid.

Daughter 2 introduced Grandson to some Weebles - wobbly men. He liked them a lot. (Do you see that black thing in his left hand, Ali Honey? That's one of your coasters!)

He played with his squeaky carrot, a firm favourite.

It was so nice to have Son and Daughter 2 together. He lives up north, she lives down south and their visits don't often coincide.

On the other hand, it's so horrible once they go away again.

Tomorrow I take my mum to the oncologist to discuss the bits of cancer which appear to remain in her innards. Hmm.