Thursday 24 February 2011

Tricky teenage stuff

This week my eldest child (nearly 13) came home and said:

"Mum can I ask you a question?"

I replied "Of course! You can ask me anything anytime!"

Although I was thinking back to all the times he has probably tried to ask me stuff and I was so busy with 400 million things going on at once I forgot to listen.

As he would say...... "Epic Fail!"

Anyway....his problem was this:

"There is a kid at school who wants my mobile phone number & I don't want to give it to him"

Straight away I was in a situaution totally foreign & unfamiliar......I knew all this stuff was gonna come at me. By that I mean all the stuff I have NO IDEA HOW TO HANDLE!!!!!

In the dinosaur age when I was a child we didn't have mobile phones.

So I said to him ...."I'm gonna have to think about that and get back to you. I'll talk to Dad too & see if he has any bright ideas"

His ideas were really bright & really funny....but not fit for publication! They certainly made us all laugh!

We still haven't really come up with any ideas that he feels comfortable with apart from telling this kid that his mum says it is an EMERGENCY phone only and that if he wants to ring him he can ring the home number.

All I can think of is it's time to buckle in......Here we go into our journey of the unknown....Wish us luck!

SUGGESTIONS WELCOME!

Tonight's dinner is Beef & Guinness Pie.
I need some good ol' fashioned food to make me feel like I am not totally out of my depth!

GOURMET GIRLFRIEND'S BEEF & GUINNESS PIE:


WHAT YOU WILL NEED:



  • 500g beef shin (gravy beef) 
  • 1 large onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 3 carrots
  • 1 can of Guinness (and another for the Chef!)
  • flour
  • canola oil
  • S & P
  • Puff pastry
  • egg (for pastry wash)
METHOD:

Finely dice onion & garlic.
 Add  oil to a pan and fry till translucent.
Dice beef into large chunks and roll in flour to coat.
Add to pan.
Cut carrots into large chunks.

Open Guinness and add entire can to pot. Add bay leaves.
Add salt & pepper.
Stir ingredients through.
Bring to simmer. 
 
I make a cartouche to cover  (essentially this is just a piece of baking paper cut to cover the ingredients to prevent drying out) Click HERE to see a little video on how to make one.

Transfer to oven at 150C and cook for 3 hours.
After 3 hours remove from oven and cut pastry to size.
Remove cartouche and place pastry on top of braised beef.
Brush with egg wash and place in oven at 180C for 10-15 minute or until pastry brown.


Serve with creamy mash & a crunchy green salad....and a COLD FROTHY GUINNESS of course!

Today's listening pleasure is from Gil Scott-Heron- "I'm new Here": 

6 comments:

  1. And so it begins.
    My advice, he either tells him the truth or gives him the number.
    First option...too hard, I mean how do us adults handle it when we don't wish to befriend someone who is keen to befriend us?
    Second option, easy. If he does not wish to be his friend, he just doesn't answer or respond to his calls or txts. If the kid in question asks him about it, he can just say "sorry, I was busy" the kid will get the hint eventually, surely? If things get nasty he can just block the number on his phone.

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  2. Yes....the truth it must be! Especially as my eldest is very honest and totally uncomfortable with not telling the truth. I don't want that to change....
    I did think of him just not taking his calls....to be honest he only ever has it on between here and school anyway, otherwise it's turned off.......so far! I guess it won't be long before that changes.
    And I did think about the joy of the way you can see EXACTLY who is calling and chose to ignore!

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  3. Being truthful about not wanting someone as a friend is surely one of life's trickier situations. Unless someone is just a wanker or an arse-wipe, THEN you can tell them to their face. But, if it's someone you're just not clicking with, it is so much harder, because you don't want to hurt them.

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  4. I can't believe how amazing and delicious everything you make looks.. I come home at around 6 - 6.30 every day and just wish I could magic exactly that gorgeous dish onto the dinner table. I wish I had my very own Gourmet girlfriend fairy living in my kitchen....
    Giles tells me I am an above average cook - like set 4 or 5! (They have 10 sets at school - where 1 is the best..) A harsh measure.

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  5. I wanna know what the ideas dad came up with ... Otherwise, I am pretty sure the little guy will work out the way he deals with it all by himself, and it will be just right.

    Greg

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  6. Oh my. Yes, we are right in the thick of all this too!
    Our son (almost 15) seems to just deal with everything himself. But our daughter (almost 13) has a daily "OMG wait til I tell you what happened/they said/did..." It does my head in. And all thanks to texting and facebook. The potential for misunderstandings is mind-boggling. The way they talk to each other just does not translate into plain text where they cannot tell if someone is being bitchy or joking, or being sarcastic or serious. And if there is a difficulty in school, there is no getting away from it when they come home.

    I've no idea what to say to you about this. It's a tough one! Although you haven't said why he doesn't want to give this other child his number, it seems to me your son knows to protect himself. Maybe he's hearing stuff that goes on and just doesn't want to get involved. Smart boy.

    Let us know how it is resolved! With two more still to come up through the ranks, you never know, I might need your advice on this!

    ReplyDelete

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