as it is written

I have a great lasagna recipe that I copied from my sis. It's dead easy, and three outta four family members agree that it tastes really, really good. (the fourth? sigh... she was SUCH a good eater when she was a baby. I thought it was gonna be easy. What happened??)

The only issue I have with this recipe is that it encourages dissension. If I make it with anybody else around, I have to contend with comments from the naysayers. I spend the entire casserole construction time calmly reassuring the nonbelievers.

"you don't precook your noodles...?!"

"350F won't cook that in an hour"

"that's not enough noodle layers"

And then everyone enjoys dinner (except the fourth) with incredulous comments about how good it is. Yes, it is.

Your welcome. And next time, just trust in the recipe.

channelling my Grup*

When my Mom was my age, I was in my mid-teens. At that age she was as foreign to me as... umm well... as a foreigner! We lived in different worlds, more so then than any other time in our lives I believe.

I don't really know what she was busy with. Like I said I was in my mid-teens and very busy being a teenager. Great job, great boyfriend, great happy music (it was after all the 80s). My band of choice? The Police, of course. And anything alternative, edgy, funky. It was New Wave for me mostly; no mainstream Top 40 for this music snob. My Mom? Who knows... I do recall a Children's Protest against Zamfir, this pan flute player. My Mom and her friends had a couple of albums of his and it got so bad that me and my sisters started chanting "Down with Zamfir! Down with Zamfir!" to drown it out whenever she had the audacity to put it on. My Dad listened to classical or marching bands and at one time wanted to get Muzak piped into the house. I kid you not.

We had such different musical tastes, to say the very least.

I still listen to alternative music. And when my daughter was 2 yrs old she exclaimed 'Mummy, it's Weeeeeezer!!' one day from the backseat. I know there's no equivalent interaction between me and my Mom. Oh, now wait... maybe there is. My first album as a child was Andy Williams when I was six, apparently. (I used to croon Moon River.) But my kids tell ME to turn the volume down in the car because they're trying to read. (They're 12 and 10; yes I know this will all change...)

We still listen to music from the 80s... the equivalent would be me listening to Top 40 from 1961. Yeah, that just NEVER happened.

Does this mean that one day my daughter will sigh, roll her eyes and protest "enough Metric already Mum!"?

*A grown-up in the minority, finding themselves among younger people. Coined by Adrian Spies, writer of the Star Trek episode featuring a post-apocalyptic world where only teenagers survived.

It's a kid's game chiefly, but you can find grups playing too.