The non-hangover

Do you get the after-birthday blues? You know, the after-party hangover that doesn't necessarily result from imbibing too much pixie-juice, but rather just from the slump that comes the day after a celebration? When you enter your lounge room the morning after and see the debris of a good time, and feel a little bit low because it's back to normality? (Can I just say that in days of yore, when my parties involved more adults and fewer (well, actually zero) children, the debris was more along the lines of empty bottles and a few sleeping bodies ground into the carpet. These days the left-overs are more likely to include plastic cups put in random places, toys placed in obscure spots, and crumbs...but actually that just sounds like the aftermath of a normal day...)

The Mouse woke me, as usual, at 5:45am. Given that we had thrown Daddy a little shin-dig for his birthday last night, I was a tad tired, but no more than any typical Sunday morning. After our morning feed / wrestle in which I attempted to get a few more minutes of shut-eye, and Maisie tried to find out if she could breastfeed while crawling, I got up and prepared for the after-party slump. And do you know what? It never came.

Apart from a little bit of grass on the carpet that came from six little pairs of feet tramping in and out, as opposed to three, (oh, and the bottles of plonk left on the kitchen bench...) you would never have been able to tell there was a party here last night. The dishes had all been done; the rubbish had been put out; and since the kids and their mates had predominantly played outside all evening, even the toys had stayed in their boxes! Is this what a grown-up party is all about? Does the presence of children at a soiree somehow cause a more efficient clean-up before bedtime? (a perverse idea, I know, simply because usually children are the primary cause of the mess...) I had a moment of concern, wondering if Christian's party had been so deadly dull that no mess was made - but then I remembered being a part of a loud circle in the kitchen, all of us holding some sort of beverage and laughing, so it can't have been that bad. Well, I had fun, anyway!!

Anyway, apart from the excellent tidying-up job, I was quite chuffed with my catering efforts for the night - and this in turn, contributed to a lack of party-hangover this morning! Christian has always been conscious of eating well, even more so since his poor health last year. So rather than throwing nutrition to the wind for the sake of a party, I spent the last week researching yummy recipes to cook for the birthday dinner. Gertrude and I found some fabulous salads on Thursday while she was down visiting, and I must say they went down rather well. And as a result of all this, we now have a fridge absolutely chockers full of leftovers, which means I don't have to cook tonight! Score!

My gift to you, on this grey-skied Sunday morning, is the rice salad recipe that I made last night. Apparently everyone enjoyed it. Even Phoebe took a forkful and exclaimed, "Mumma! This lettuce is berry tasty! Well done!" in a very surprised tone. So, with credit to the Almighty Mr. Jamie Oliver, here is a lovely-jubbly salad for you to make at home - let me know what you think!

250g mixed brown rice and wild rice (I used 1 cup brown and 1/3 cup wild rice - it turned out ok!)
a few sprigs of fresh basil
a few sprigs of fresh mint
a few sprigs of parsley
200g roasted red capsicums from a jar
1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the rice, drain and let it cool. Finely chop the herbs and capsicum, and mix them into the rice. Zest the lemon over the top, add a squeeze of lemon juice, and salt and pepper. How easy is that? (Jamie adds olive oil to his, but I didn't because the capsicums came in a jar full of oil.) Enjoy with a glass of pixie juice! Nom nom nom.