It's a carve up

The OH is on his knees. We have the Welsh grandchildren for three days.

It’s lovely, of course. In fact, it’s the first time their mother (the OH’s second son’s wife) has ever allowed them to stay with us - so that makes it extra special. Particularly for the OH.

As we see far less of these grandchildren than the others it gives him a chance to be In Charge. 

Yesterday he fell back on an old rainy day stand-by – the RAF Museum in Hendon. So while they looked at planes and helicopters, I stayed at home and cooked a lasagne without any input from Masterchef.

Admittedly, when they came back he moved it down a shelf in the oven and turned the heat up a little, but I let that go and was pleased to see that everyone cleared their plates and even asked for seconds – even the youngest.

This was particularly gratifying as, despite their parents’ reassurance that the children (and I quote) ‘eat anything’, it turns out that ‘anything’ does not include courgettes and red peppers, tomatoes (unless they are cooked), crusts on sandwiches, home-made carrot cake and strawberry yoghurt.

I am not sure – yet – how they feel about pumpkin. The OH has just taken them off to the supermarket to buy one, possibly two, although I feel he may baulk at the price. His plan is to carve (with the grandchildren’s help) Halloween lanterns.

In the past, this was a task always left to me: he has asked for no advice, so I have offered none. But there’s a way of cutting off the top so the lid still fits, and there’s a fine line between removing so much flesh that the pumpkin collapses and not enough so that it hardly glows at all when you light a candle inside.

And it’s much harder than it looks – unless you go for a very basic design.

And children get bored after five  minutes!!

And I’m just wondering if he will have the stamina to create a pumpkin pie (which he used to insist I made with the leftovers) once the morning is over.