Playing with Food

After a bit of unexpected morning rain Saturday evolved into a beautiful day. In the early afternoon I went down to the Ruhr festival with a friend and our younger kids where the boys fed ducks and we all indulged in ice cream treats.

In the evening we were invited to barbecue with two other families. Our hosts provided an amazing watermelon and cucumber salsa with grilled prawns for a starter, then some wonderful marinated fish and seafood skewers for the main course. Another family brought a huge bowl of delicious guacamole with veggies spears and chips as an appetizer, a fantastic couscous salad, and luscious fresh strawberries and crème fresh for the dessert. My contribution was an assortment of side dishes, including grilled green asparagus with fresh Parmesan shavings, horse-radish and roasted pepper stuffed monster mushrooms, and these goat-cheese stuffed baked tomatoes. It was a very colorful meal :)

We "old folks" were starting to fade around 1am, but the 11 children we had with us and who were running around having a blast together, begged us not break up their party. Hence several of the kids organized sleep-over options. I grabbed the two I had brought with me and scuttled them home, only to be met by my 18-yo daughter who scolded me for staying out so late and not texting her an update! Oh the times they are a changin'!