Things that make you go 'ah'

 We had Leo and Rosie here for a couple of hours again on Friday afternoon, that definitely put smiles on all our faces.  Rachel got Rosie out of her car seat and she immediately ran across the lawn shouting 'Nanny's house! Nanny's house!' She was so excited.  As was her brother who had brought with him two bags full of things he wanted to show us, although once here, he totally forgot about them and just got stuck in with playing with the things we keep here.  We try and spend as much time as we can outdoors just to be super careful and Leo just loves digging in the dirt looking for treasure, making ponds out of holes that he's dug and lined with some plastic and turning over stones looking for creepy crawlies.  After a while he shouted across the garden to me 'Nanny!' and I was expecting him to ask if he could have a drink and a biscuit so it was a lovely surprise when he just shouted out 'I love you!' Definitely two things that made me go 'ah' on Friday.

So what made me go 'ah' at the weekend?  Well, we cook meals from scratch every day of the week so it was made a lovely change to have a Waitrose Thai meal for two that we could just put in the oven, all prepared and ready to go.  Just to make it feel a bit special we decanted the food into metal bowls and laid them on the table on heated plate trays so it almost felt like we were in a restaurant.  All washed down with a pink gin and tonic with a slice of lime and a couple of raspberries (does that help with my '5 a day' do you think?)

Then the weather turned cold with snow forecast so on Sunday, the thing that made me go 'ah' was comfort food.

Roast Chicken, roasted new potatoes, honey roasted chantenay carrots, savoy cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli cheese and a spoonful of special gravy.  This is a variation on a recipe by the queen of the kitchen, Mary Berry and promise me you will try this next time you roast a chicken.  Slice two onions thickly and put in baking dish.  Lay chicken on top of onions and roast as normal.  When chicken is cooked you will have a layer of chicken juices and meltingly soft onion slices.  Stir in a tablespoon of flour and stir to a thick paste.  Add about half a pint of chicken stock, a generous spoonful of redcurrant jelly and a large splash of Worcester sauce.  Oh boy.  The flavours!  

Woke up to this today

So I got dressed, wrapped up warm and headed over to Rachel's with Coco for some fun outside with the children.  That really made me go 'ah'!  Coco was having so much fun, Leo was making 'snow angels' in the snow and Coco was joining in rolling around on her back too.  It was a good start to the day.

Here's hoping we all have a good week with a few more moments of 'ah' along the way!