A cooking sort of day

I was just congratulating myself on finally having children old enough to play nicely together while I whipped up a batch of olive-oil and lime muffins (this recipe, but we were too impatient to wait for a whole cake to bake, hence muffins; mini, even), when things in the next room degenerated into shrieks and I looked in to find the three-year-old naked and the six-year-old throwing small pieces of toys across the floor. Maybe another couple of years, then.

But still. Underpants may come and go, all the pieces will be picked up eventually, and now there's a bag of tangy muffins in the freezer. It was worth it.

Later on, while the children were eating their rudimentary offerings (don't judge me; my husband's away), I accidentally made myself a delicious dinner instead of just heating up the leftovers I'd intended to have. I got carried away and turned the plain broccoli I had been planning into these amazing broccoli fritters (from my favourite food blogger, of course). Mabel had some trees pre-battering, and I was the only person who profited from the fritters - but profit I did, because they were totally worth the extra washing up. I dipped them in Greek yogurt left over from making the muffins, thus making the day's baking and cooking mesh into one delightfully symbiotic relationship. Or whatever you're having yourself, as they say.

So now I am redolent of garlic, because I think a speck flew off when I splatted it in the garlic press, and I hope it's on my t-shirt, which I can take off, rather than my hair, which I was not planning to wash tomorrow. Does garlic brush out?

Speaking of brushing, Mabel let me put her hair in pigtails today for the first time in about two years. Maybe we have a summer of extra cuteness ahead. It might make up for the wanton nakedness and the post-four-pm general awfulness.