This week’s small pleasures #417

Thistles and Kiwis

December rolls on, and it is only 2 weeks until Christmas. The herring has arrived (including the correct fish for Janssons Frestelse), the snaps bought, and I will do the smoked salmon run this week. The tree won’t go up until next week, so I’ll need to make sure there is some sherry to partake of during the decorating.

The week’s sandwiches

The old Pandoro bakery and cafe on Willis Street has reopened as a new place, offering breads, pastries, sandwiches and of course, coffees. I popped in on their second day of opening, and despite a few natural teething troubles (eg water glasses) things seemed pretty organised. I chose a banh mi style sandwich which was very tasty and had lots of crisp vegetables. I was surprised they hadn’t painted the space or added much to ‘make it their own’, but good luck to the new owners anyway. I had a ham baguette from The French Baker for lunch ‘a la desko’ on Friday – it looks huge in the picture but I can assure you it was a normal size!

In the basket

The Wonky Box delivered a lovely crisp lettuce, asparagus, potatoes, bright red capsicum, some wonderful aubergines (or eggplants) which went into Sunday’s moussaka, a small leek, a lovely bunch of basil and….a few very unseasonal small parsnips. These threw me a bit, but you can see what I did with them at the end of the post. It was lovely to see the first sweet corn, and I also added a couple of peaches and nectarines, strawberries (which seem to be very good this year), green beans, feta, more asparagus, lemons and I could not resist one heirloom tomato to have with mozzarella and some of that basil.

Out and about

On Tuesday, we attended the prize giving at The School of Government at Victoria University of Wellington. There was a very good jazz band, made up of music students and some amazing canapes (think mini bao buns stuffed with a lovely chicken based filling). This was the view from the window over the waterfront.

Wednesday was my Name Day, something that is celebrated in many European countries, such as Poland, Latvia and Sweden. To celebrate, we went out for dinner on Saturday to Pravda, well known for its cheese scones, but also its full lunch and dinner menus. I started with oysters (see the empty shells below), and Karl had duck arancini (which I also tried and can tell you they were good). I them opted for the pea risotto and Karl had a steak with peppercorn sauce. We finished with an espresso. The food and service were both really good.

Simple things

  • Looking out at blue skies – at least for part of the week! We had a wild storm on Sunday night.
  • Enjoying bacon sandwiches for a Sunday breakfast treat.
  • Going to a Christmas drinks celebration at the Pilates studio (and working very hard there on Saturday morning).
  • Having a very relaxing Sunday – reading, cooking and resting.
  • Buying a bag of cherries at lunch time to enjoy as I worked.
  • Making and eating a parsnip lemon loaf (recipe from Steffi Knowles-Dellner’s book Lagom (and last featured here).

What were your small pleasures this week? Here are some other blog posts from a few fellow bloggers looking at the good things in life. Also entered in the weekend coffee share hosted by Natalie.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

29 Comments

  3. Sometimes I think that I would like to live where there are many and varied eating places, but I do like the quiet life, so perhaps just reading about them will have to do.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I am not keen on going out in a big group to eat in a restaurant, but do enjoy a nice evening with Karl or maybe a couple of friends. I should walk more to compensate for all this eating 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  5. Happy name day to you Barbara. I learnt about them when we had a youth exchange student from Hungary and she told me when my day was and what was expected. I love the idea! Your meals out sound fabulous. Thanks for the mention, I’m among some great bloggers.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  7. What a lovely post! Your Christmas preparations sound festive and delicious. Your creativity in the kitchen shines through. Happy Name Day. I love how you balance festive outings with simple pleasures like blue skies and relaxing Sundays—such a joy to read!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. I have just found your blog as I was searching for cloudberry jam and your blog post popped up.
    I live in Wellington as well!
    I also have a blog, although I haven’t written any posts for a while, I am in the process of freshening it up and writing again.
    Lovely to see Wellington photos! 😁

    Fiona

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. Is that a new Moomin cup? Did you see my Moomin Advent tea calendar? I thoroughly recommend it for next year! Love it. So cheery each morning…and goes perfectly with MY moomin mug.

    Duck arancini does sound good!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. The wonky box always looks so tempting! I am in the process of going through my freezer and use up some of the produce I have there. I need to make room for holiday foods, but the freezer (a very big one) is filled with kale (LOTS of it,) beets, berries, and broccoli (LOTS of it). .. I’m going to make baked kale chips with olive oil and sea salt today.

    I don’t know if I already told you, but my dream is to one day have a small farm and provide weekly, local, organic veggie boxes for the community. I think that is very doable. Maybe in combination with having a self-serve farm store, and some seasonal events a few times a year.

    Like

    Reply

  14. I Ditto the Happy Naming Day to you, Barbara. All that food looks tempting, although I was at Sydney’s Glebe Markets and the sweet temptations there were more than I could resist indulging in Bannoffee Cheesecake and Berliner donuts which I brought home for the family.

    I am currently reading a fabulous book which I wthought you might enjoy if you haven’t already read it. It’s “Bookshop Dogs” by kiwi Ruth Shaw. who wrote “The Bookshop At The End of the Universe”. It’s set in Invercargill. Here’s a link to a preview: https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Bookshop_Dogs/snLJEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT10&printsec=frontcover

    I probably shouldn’t be reading books and I have I think put my art aside until after Christmas. I managed to drop 6 bags off to Vinnies today, although I must also confess I bought a few things too. A friend of ours was also moving and parting with stuff and of course, we took it. This did include a powerful old Singer sewing machine which can get through leather and is much more powerful than the modern thing we bought at Aldi.

    Hope your Christmas preparations are going well.

    Best wishes,

    Rowena

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. I Ditto the Happy Naming Day to you, Barbara. All that food looks tempting, although I was at Sydney’s Glebe Markets and the sweet temptations there were more than I could resist indulging in Bannoffee Cheesecake and Berliner donuts which I brought home for the family.

    I am currently reading a fabulous book which I wthought you might enjoy if you haven’t already read it. It’s “Bookshop Dogs” by kiwi Ruth Shaw. who wrote “The Bookshop At The End of the Universe”. It’s set in Invercargill. Here’s a link to a preview: https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Bookshop_Dogs/snLJEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT10&printsec=frontcover

    I probably shouldn’t be reading books and I have I think put my art aside until after Christmas. I managed to drop 6 bags off to Vinnies today, although I must also confess I bought a few things too. A friend of ours was also moving and parting with stuff and of course, we took it. This did include a powerful old Singer sewing machine which can get through leather and is much more powerful than the modern thing we bought at Aldi.

    Hope your Christmas preparations are going well.

    Best wishes,

    Rowena

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.