Glenn is very much the cook in our household. I enjoy it, and can cook stuff when required, but Glenn will find amazing recipes and flavour combinations and ingredients and cook us delicious food. It is one of the ways he shows his love for us. However, I am the sweets baker in the family. For Father’s Day, Glenn requested I make the Precious Pear Tart from Jamie Oliver’s new book, Together. Thankfully, I have more experience now at assessing how long a dish will actually take. Things like actual helpfulness of my helper, and baby nap successes, must be taken into account.

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Friday. A large bag of Imperfect Pears were bought. My helper and I chose the best 12.

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Saturday. I bought the extra ingredients in the morning… except for elderflower cordial, which was nowhere to be found in our local supermarket. Glenn assured me he would find it in the afternoon.

He did not. Due to Covid, there was no supply. Elderflower tonic water was bought instead.

Saturday night, after the girls were in bed, I managed to soak the pears in the syrup, reduce the syrup, and measure the dry ingredients into bowls, in between attending to baby wake-ups.

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Sunday. During the lunch nap, my helper and I made the base. Later in the afternoon, we managed to make the filling, choose the best of the soaked pears, put them in the frangipane, sample another pear for, uh, quality control, and bake the pie.

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By the time it was ready, it was far too late for a 3yo to have sugar. Glenn and I enjoyed some after dinner, and the 3yo was allowed to have some on Monday. Which really meant, she had her ice cream in a separate bowl and ate that first and had a meltdown when Glenn made her have a bite of tart with ice cream but recovered and licked the ice cream bowl and tried a bit of the tart, just a bit, and said she was really sharing it with me. I’m ok with that.

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