A note about, and from, Jake.

My place in time #18
A handwritten note from someone I love


Saturday night we went out for tea at our local community club. Brett's brother was over from the Eyre Peninsula and we were catching up. We had a great night.

I wasn't a late night, but late enough. Especially as we had a late one the night before at an Indian potluck dinner. I left so full from that, all the food was delicious. I woke up full the next morning!

While we were out at the club, Jake dropped in and left a message for me. He had brought some of Mum's lasagna with him and left it with the note on the bench.

He's been living at Mum's for the last couple of weeks after a relationship breakup.  There was a lot more involved which I won't go into here.

It doesn't matter how old you kids get, you still worry, still hurt when they hurt. I am so glad to he is much better than the state he was in when he came back two weeks ago. Physically and mentally.

My boy has aspergers. He doesn't communicate his feelings very well. They get bottled up and usually come out as anger eventually, out of frustration or anxiety.

What I would like to add here is trust your intuition as a mother. If you suspect something is wrong, something isn't as it should be, you are probably right. Don't procrastinate, act on it. I have so much guilt where Jake is concerned. There are so many times I should have yelled louder, stood firmer and stuck up for him. I am so grateful that I still get huge hugs, and hear 'I love you Mum' come from his lips. 

I am taking him to pick up the rest of his stuff today. I am feeling nervous about it, for both of us, and I am praying it all goes smoothly. I am not looking forward to it, it is going to be hard, and awkward. But has to be done.

I will be most likely be requiring wine tomorrow afternoon at around wine-thirty or before!

An InLinkz Link-up

Lamb feast with friends

We had a dinner party on Saturday night. The kids equalled the adults. Three 3 year olds, a two and a one year old, and a 6 month old. With 6 adults all talking at once, and 6 kids vocalising and running from pillar to post, we had a very noisy household, a good noisy.

If I do say so myself, the food was good too. There is a certain satisfaction in successfully feeding a crowd, and seeing everybody happy. 

On Thursday night, I still had no idea what I was going to cook. That was until I watched Masterchef's masterclass with Heston Blumenthal, and his roast lamb. It was a lamb leg studded with garlic, rosemary and anchovies and slow roasted. I did however cook it for twice as long as he suggested, we prefer our lamb not still baa-ing and pooping in the paddick when it gets to the plate.

I roasted it for an hour on 100 degress, then roasted it at 150 for the next two and a half hours. I removed it from the oven and wrapped it up with alfoil and let it rest for about half an hour.

Roast browned and studded with garlic, anchovy and rosemary

  

I used my cake cooler as a rack (multi-purposing at it's best). I just bent it a bit
over the same pan I had just made foccacia in!

I made a burghul pilaf, garlic and mint yogurt and chick pea salad.

Just in case there were some less adventurous, plus the kids, I made roast potatoes, corn and broccoli and the Heston suggested jus(fancy for pan juices made into a sauce) to go along with it too. I also had a tossed salad and some homemade foccacia. 

It was a great feast that went down a treat. I was surprised at how the yogurt went down, it was amazing with the lamb, burghul and the bread, most of us were going back for seconds just to get a bit more garlic yogurt.

Garlic and Mint yogurt
375 grams greek yogurt
2 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped finely
1/3 cup of finely chopped mint
A small squeeze of lemon

Mix all together. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

I made this about 5 hours beforehand  the garlic really had intensified in that time. 

When it came to serving, I just put everything in the middle of our big table and let everyone help themselves. It was awesome. 

My delicious leftovers lunch on Sunday