G is for Greek Food

G was a fun letter, too. We debated how we wanted to do it (Greek food or "Grand Buffet" - a Chinese all-you-can-eat which the kids love and our bank account doesn't). Unfortunately, Dh and I had visions of Greek food like we get down in the big city, full of flavour, hot, fresh and with good ambiance. This outing was doomed from the start. The kids both napped late and we had to wake them up to go (we wanted to beat the dinner rush) and whenever they have to be wakened up, it's ugly. Little Bean wasn't too bad but it was about two thirds of the way through the meal that Pk started to thaw a bit. She ate a few nibbles of souvlaki and drank lots of milk. Our food was cold and not terribly flavourful, but then, what can we expect from a chain? It made me want to go home and watch Shirley Valentine, though (I loved that movie - must buy it again one of these days).

Pumping gas was much more fun. Pk always wants to help and on occasion, I let her, although, given how much I hate getting her in and out of her carseat, I don't allow it all that often.
Of course, there is a host of grandparents, all of whom seemed to be unavailable, even via Skype. Fortunately, we have a good friend that Pk adores who she calls Grannie A and she was a perfect choice.
I was thrilled that we managed this. I wanted to feed geese and so on the Saturday, we decided to head out to see if there were any around. It was incredible - a Saturday in November and we didn't even really need coats. We took old muffins from the fridge that were on their way to the green bin and the birds were big fans. Sadly, geese are NOT as quick as seagulls so the gulls had a great feast.
Finally, we decided to make granola. There is so much controversy about sending food that might have nuts that I worried about this. In addition, in our province, there are new guidelines about schools needing to serve healthy foods and you never quite know what is going to be deemed inappropriate (which I find amusing, given the total crap the kids in my class always seem to bring - given all the things we aren't supposed to send these days, including nuts, seeds, coconut and eggs, I am beginning to think that the powers that be won't be happy until we are all sending "Lunchables" - no risk since there are no authentic food products in them anyway). I found this granola recipe on epipen.ca and it turned out really well. We left out the sesame seeds and I called the school and left a message for Pk's teacher, just to let her know that this was school safe. Little Bean loved it and if it wasn't so expensive and high in sugar with all the dried fruit, I'd definitely make it again.

I'm looking forward to H - I have a great idea, I just hope I can make it work out.