I like Leopard Print and I Cannot Lie.

The depression that is a Sunday evening started early this week, when I realised at about 4pm that my time with the gals and Husband#1 was soon disappearing for yet another week. It's just not fair and I don't know how to make myself feel better about it, in fact, I am feeling quite depressed.

Was it an extra special weekend? No, the girls were as naughty as usual and the word "mummy" was used, as usual, on average, about eighty-eight times per minute. The pile of nappies I'd saved to go into nursery now we don't use them all ended up on random heads and bums (including mine) by 9.30am on Saturday morning. They fought like cat and dog. I put Booboo's hair clips back in approximately 27 times each day. The bathroom was a flood-site after bath time. There was no privacy to be had. I got up ten times during each meal to get something else for someone else. I sorted and washed about twenty sets of hats, scarves and gloves in preparation for the winter plus the usual never-ending piles of washing. I picked up fifty empty boxes from Biggie's bedroom floor to prevent her using them for 'recycled art or invention.' Was Husband#1 extra-attentive? Not really. I did all the cooking, except the toast he buttered this morning and wraps he made this afternoon. Did he tell me I looked slim? No, but he did say he loved all my jelly nonetheless. (Fool!). I've even become fond of the fly who has been checking out the house over the weekend and have named him Dewey II.

Not sure what to say about any of it really, except that I suppose I must quite enjoy my weekends and I must have the perfect family, so regardless of what they do, I'd like more please!

So onto tea last night. I made up my own recipe and was quite proud of it in the end, although pictures will show my risotto to be a little watery, it still tasted good and guess what? I ate the 'soup' at the end.

I started out sautéeing some leeks and garlic in butter with lots of white pepper and sea salt. I put this into a bowl, after eating half there and then as it was so delicious, and used the same pan to start the risotto. I added a little extra olive oil to the juices and then put in the rice (50g each). I sauteed this for a while and then replaced the leeks and mixed well. I added a LARGE glug (half a cup?) of Pernod and lit it to bur off the alcohol. Once the flames died down, I started to add chicken stock but by bit. When 3/4 cooked, I added three additional ladles of stock the remainders of a jar of crab meat, some small scallops and topped it all off with a load of langoustines in a pretty pattern and cooked it at 200 degrees for about 15 minutes. When out, I served it in a bowl with chopped tarragon and some extra virgin olive oil. Soupy? Yes. Tasty? YES!