All Brown

My daughter is a whizz at desserts, she can whip up a bowl of jam roly poly topped with steaming hot custard quicker than I can proclaim to be on a diet. She created a leaning tower of profiteroles for her Italian friend's wedding and won first prize at school for her prized Baked Alaska. She really is the Queen of Puddings. But whilst she is more than capable with 'afters' she completely lacks in 'befores', in fact I could go as far as saying she is a culinary disaster where main courses are concerned. Her steamed mince puddings are flabby, she burns steaks to a cinder and last time we had fish it resembled the sole of my right slipper. Understandably I did not jump for joy when she suggested cooking for us both last night. However it being the first sign of brightness in my daughter since the demise of her international love affair I agreed to her making tea and off she skipped to buy some ingrediants. Now I maybe partially to blame for the concoction she rustled up, my cupboards aren't stocked with chef's basics and neither do I have the time to read cookery books. In fact I imagine Louise gleaned the recipe for tonight's dish from the back of a cereal packet. A high fibre cereal packet at that. As I found out this morning she loaded the lasagne with bran. Aside from the burnt cheese crust it was tasty enough and she served it with a refreshing garden salad. Continuing on a theme dessert was a bran based Apple Crumble. Now this was delicious, melt in the mouth molton apples with a crunchy topping. It was so tasty I had thirds and Louise was smiling from ear to ear. She loves to cook and it melted my heart to see her smile. Indeed I thought of her happy face as I sat in agony on the toilet today, clutching my spasmodic bowel. I am still sure she cooked the meal for love and not for my Ex, who I am hoping didn't suggest the secret high fibre ingrediant.