Dinner....

I'm not usually a soupy kinda girl, it's just not something I ever really get an urge for, but recently we've been making and eating all kinds of yummy soups. I LOVED our pumpkin soup on Christmas day but this one is even better! It's roasted tomato, onion and chili and it's just soooooo good! The perfect mix of freshness and warmth, with a delicious sweetness from the onions, mmmmmm!

For dessert as a team effort Neil and I made panacotta. I had no idea it was so easy to make! Bit of cream and sugar, some gelatine and a few hours in the fridge and you end up with one of my favourite pud's ever! We served ours with a rhubarb and strawberry coulis and a very fancy looking sugar garnish made by moi! (it tasted a little burnt but it looked pretty spectacular!)

a little something extra.......

We're so addicted to coffee we're eating the beans whole now and like pretty much anyting they're all the better dipped in chocolate! (Warning- don't eat these too late in the day if you feel like getting any sleep that night :)

Sully's new look....

I have to admit, he does look a bit odd but he's so much nicer to cuddle now that he doesn't smell of wet wool!

Just to add to his humiliation after being shaved to oblivion, I dressed him up in clothes too!

Awww! Everyone wants a cuddle with the new sweet smelling Sullivan!

Sully get's the chop.....

These are our newly purchased, heavy duty Llama clippers ( it actually said llama on the box although I think they're more often used on sheep). We had to go to extreme lengths because nothing else would have been able to cope with the matted, smelly jungle of our woolly mammoth Sully.

We thought we had a big dog, it turns out we had a skinny little dog with lots of hair.

Poor thing! haha!

This morning....

This morning I came downstairs ready to enjoy a yummy breakfast and realized that we had nothing....NOTHING I TELL YOU! So, with Neil still sleeping, I packed up the kids and headed straight to No Frills, our crappy local supermarket, to grab something with which to feed my children. I'm not sure what came over me but when I got home I was suddenly overcome by an urge to make pancakes (this almost never happens), I was just feeling all pleased with my self at how impressed Neil would be when he awoke to the wafting smell of deliciousness when I realized we only had wholewheat flour. Hmmm. After 2 minutes on google, problem solved, I would use it! The resulting wholewheat buttermilk pancakes (yes we did have buttermilk ??) were a hit with me and the kids. I topped them with my homemade creme fraiche and berries. I carried Neil's pancake along with his freshly brewed capucino up on a tray and served it to him in bed (extra wife points for sure!) but he wasn't so impressed, apparently he doesn't like the taste of wholewheat. Oh well, it's the thought that counts!

Self portraits....

The trouble with being the family photographer is that when I look back through our blog I could be quite easily convinced that I don't exist! So I took matters into my own hands and took some pictures of myself. I discovered that it's quite difficult to get a good picture, partly because I'm the most un-photogenic person in the world and partly because I can't see the buttons to set the focus or otherwise control my camera in any way. Never mind, here are a few that I don't mind.

Who's for hot sauce?

These were Neil's healthy chicken wings (baked not fried) served with the best guacamole ever and of course a good old bowl of hot sauce. Surprisingly both kids loved the wings although I didn't much enjoy having to pick all the meat off the bones for them, I'm pretty sure I lost out on my fair share of the wings while I was being so helpful!

Seb's favorite part of the meal was the lime! hahaha!

Spice-a-licious!!

I read the other day that happiness is all about quantity, not quality. Even a lottery winner's extreme state of euphoric happiness is short lived and then they will adjust to their new situation and be just as happy as they were before their win. In other words, the key to being more happy is to do lots of little things that make you a little bit happy, all the time. You're probably wondering what this has to do with glass jars in a cupboard....well it's one of those things. Neil's been going on about having all his spices on display and easy to get to for...pretty much for ever. So he went to ikea and spent a small fortune on glass jars. Then I, being the highly creative person that I am ;) came up with the bright idea of painting them with blackboard paint and labelling them with chalk. We nearly gassed oursleves with the fumes from the paint and had a few spills and minor problems adjusting our painting and masking techniques but now when I look in this cupboard I'm a little bit happy :) and Neil is very happy!!