One Pot WONDERFUL lunch

It's a lazy sunday afternoon and despite to superbly crappy weather I have had a really nice day.

Today we got to have lunch with two of our very special friends and it got me to thinking. We are very very lucky that we are close enough to some of our favourite people in the world to be able to see them often, or as often as our busy lives allow. It is not lost on me that this is not the case for everyone and it makes me feel very greatful.

For the last few weeks every sunday we have sat down for  a meal with some awesome friends and family. They have mostly been spontaneous lunches, which just makes me super excited.

Since our lovely warm week turned cold and sour at its conclusion, I decided to make a wintery warm dish to fill everyone up. I got the recipe from Frankie magazine and as per normal I put my own twist on things.

Basically in a big casserole dish (with lid) I put 1.5kg of chicken thighs and drumsticks with 5 diced white onions and one tin of diced whole tomatoes (half below and half on top of the chicken). Before you put the second half of you onion and tomato in you cover the chicken with a layer of sliced smoked bacon. To finish you add some thyme and bayleaves and 375mls of white wine. It cooks for two hours at 180 degrees, with the lid on only for the first hour.

This is how it looks when it is done

The first picture is a Digger sized serve.

It was warm and comforting, as was the company.

Today was just what I needed wonderful people, yummy food.

All smiles in my house.

I hope your sunday has been brilliant too..

Gifting is fun....

The Poppet is sleeping so right now I should be doing alot of things.. like housework, making myself look presentable..paying attention to the dog!!! I just don't have the energy. 
Lately Miss Poppy has not been the happiest camper..
With this warm weather she is having trouble sleeping, she can't sleep unless she is swaddled but summer swaddles are soo stretchy that baby houdini always finds her way out.. So I have been getting up to swaddle and resettle her every half an hour for a while.. This explains why my bronchitis just doesn't want to go away and probably why I have had an irritable girl most days. Or atleast part of the reason, she has been really grumpy around feeding time for quite a while now.. not even the doctor or maternal health nurse had a reason for me beyond "she's probably having a growth spurt"... for two months?????
Understandably we have not been out much. The Poppet has been unhappy and since we live in an area where you have to drive to go anywhere.. sleep deprived I don't really trust myself behind the wheel. So we have stayed in,, And I started to feel a little blue..It's only natural I think.
Luckily I know something that always makes me feel better.. Gifting. Especially when it is something I have made myself or when it's to someone who really needs it.
I am almost to the bottom of my list for the bottle cozies and I am planning some new knitted things too..


It makes me feel good to know that I can cheer other people up even if I am not soo cheery myself.
So that's where Poppet On is at right now. Gifting to some wonderful friends and to some people I hardly know, and it has helped me to feel better.


Well my mother in law is due here any minute... so I best at least brush my hair and make sure there is no food on my face... hang on did I eat today??????????


Hope your having a lovely day


x

What a Year !!

Isn't it strange how you never really seem to sit down and take stock of just how much you have accomplished in a year? Or it is just me.

I had to call my course advisor the other day, I decided to switch to off-campus study for a while. Whilst we were discussing the pro's and con's of this she asked me about my exam rate, clearly it had decreased quite a lot of the past twelve months. My response... I have kind of had a very busy year......

We went to Japan...
As soon as we got back we listed our unit for Auction...
We put in an offer on a house in suburbia..
We sold our house at auction... The night of the auction we got engaged...
We started planning the wedding...
We moved to our new house...
We started to nail down wedding plans..
We found out we were pregnant...
We changed wedding plans and got a wedding up and running in a very short period of time...
We had some pregnancy drama... (turned out just find)
We GOT married
I got soo big I had to finish up work earlier than planned...
We had a beautiful baby girl.....

Japan I believe was in May/June 2010... Poppy was born on June 3rd 2011.
In between all of those things I have left a lot out, but I am sure my course advisor really didn't want to hear my whole life story..

Seriously though think about it.. Make a list of everything you have done in the last twelve months. Time sure does fly, but I am certain you will be amazed by all you have done.

My favourite things.. Part 1

I tried to make a list of all my favourite things.. The list started getting really really long, which made me think how can all these things be my favourites when there are soo many.. by definition my favourite things should be kind of exclusive.. But then I thought about all the things there are in the world and by comparison my massive list of favourite things is actually tiny..

Here are some of them...

I love lists (well that was kind of obvious)

I love being a mum

I love handmade things

I love Coffee..

I think we already established the above in my last post so here are some other things amongst my list of favourites

I love birds, clouds and hot air balloons. Any item that has pictures or prints of all three I have to have!! Who am I kidding items with any of the above make for a "i really want one.. i must have one" item.

I love animals... especially our dog frank! When the Poppet is bigger the hubby agreed we can have a bunny rabbit.

I love baking and morning tea/afternoon tea.. tea in general.

I love second hand bookstores.. I could spend days and I mean days going through all the shelves.

I love aprons of all shapes and sizes.

I love the colour burgundy, maroon, red wine whatever you want to call it! 

I love french films.

I love receiving mail... I still on occasion pen letters to my Aunty in sydney and she always writes straight back.

and when the mood takes me I love to paint...

Thats maybe half my list maybe less. I have only had two coffees today so that severely impacts my ability to think/write. So I am off to do something else I love.. Online shopping for stationary,,, yes I know I am a big fat nerd.