Families are weird creatures.

yes indeed they are. My history is littered with times where I haven't seen **ahem** eye-to-eye with my fam of origin. Because of various ishews.. some clearly self-inflicted and induced, there has been a history of being on the outer of my fam.

So I was both shocked and chuffed when Furry suggested we invite the fam to Chez Fur for Easter lunch. And equally shocked and chuffed when, en masse, the accepted.

Being the cuckoo in the nest, particularly in regard to food, I dithered furiously over what to serve.

I erred on the side of caution and went with pizzas in the outdoor oven. My table was laid with a variety of goodies, ham and salami, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, capsicums, prawns, cheeses, sun dried tommies, grilled capsicums and anchovies.

**side SOLE note** A V slicer is a SOLE-ful way of preparing veggies. 6 large end-of-season beefsteak tommies can be sliced fine enough on a V slicer to provide pizza topping for 20 people.

$200 got me everything I needed, and as per my previous post, only the pizza bases, anchovies and pasata was not locally sourced. The mushrooms were Victorian (Northern Melbourne).

I am thrilled to say the whole day was a huge smash hit!! Cousin JJ manned the oven like a pro! for a family often obsessed with hygiene, eating with the fingers, from communal platters proved a huge hit. Aunties and SIL's bought fresh fruit and meringues, Mater Beige made her marvelous iceream slice, chocolate googie-eggs abounded and much laughter, mirth and merriment was had by all.

It left me to thinking, about families and all, that despite glaring differences (whether they be religious, ethics, social justice or politically based), that sometime food really IS the great leveler. And that eating together really does (re) inforce bonds of blood.