Proper MEALS

When it came to Sam's culinary skills, Helen had the recipe for success

- Susan Wright

Once she’d laid out all the ingredients, Helen walked to the bottom of the stairs.

‘Sam!’ she called out. ‘It’s time to make a start on dinner’

‘I'm in the middle of a game!’ Sam called back.

Helen sighed. ‘Turn off the computer. We need to start cooking now.

‘OK,’ Sam muttered before he appeared at the top of the stairs. ‘Why do we have to start this early though?’

‘Because we're going to cook a proper meal.’ Helen walked back to the kitchen as he came down the stairs. ‘You can’t eat beans every day once you leave here.’

‘I won't,’ Sam replied. ‘I like them cold.’

‘Very funny,’ Helen said as he came into the kitchen. ‘But you need to eat properly, so we're going to make a cottage pie with fresh vegetables.’

Sam screwed up his nose as he stared at the ingredients. ‘You can buy frozen vegetables, and that raw meat looks disgusting. Do I have to touch it?’

‘No. We'll just put it in a pan and brown it.’

‘Oh, good,’ Sam said.

‘But we need to peel some potatoes. I’ll do the first one and you can do the rest,’ Helen said.

Sam sighed. ‘Couldn't we just use that stuff from a packet?’