This week’s small pleasures #441

Thistles and Kiwis

With being off sick for most of the week, the small pleasures were mostly to be found at home. As I write, the wind is blowing, the rain is falling and we are nice and cosy indoors, with candles lit and the prospect of leftover shepherd’s pie for dinner.

The real highlight of the week was the Peter Gordon special event at Floriditas that I wrote about here. The food was fantastic, meeting and talking to the great chef himself a special moment, and an evening to remember. Do please check out the link if you want to see a feast!

All about being at home…

I have been reading, watching cooking and gossip videos on YouTube and making lunches at home. There was some good salami from our local deli, with some sheep blue cheese and a pile of home made red cabbage coleslaw (that cabbage seemed to go on and on…), mushrooms (shiitake) on ciabatta toast with microgreens and ajvar, and some roast pumpkin soup (which was so sweet!) with more ciabatta toast, some more salami and microgreens.

In the basket

The Wonky Box delivered up another red cabbage (took me over 2 weeks to use up the last one), a head of broccoli, two large parsnips (still have last week’s ones as well), carrots, more of those little red kumara, three yellow capsicum, a couple of red onions and a big bag of rocket (not pictured).

I topped this up with apples (I might make a braised red cabbage and freeze it for use at a feast planned for next month), tamarillo, a jar of sauerkraut (I like this one with added dill pickles), mushrooms (which we had with pork filet on Saturday evening), locally made Polish sausage, and some lamb mince for Sunday’s shepherd’s pie.

Fungi time

Being at home, I am going fungi spotting in the garden. The little white ones were not there when I hung out the washing on Saturday morning, but were there at lunch time, then gone by Sunday morning. Keeping up with the mushroom theme, for Australian readers, I am following the trial of Erin Patterson on an ABC podcast. If you know, you know!

Staying at home

We watched the Danish drama Secrets We Keep on Netflix (highly recommended and funny to see a church that was just along the road from where we used to live), Australian Masterchef, the opening episodes of UK drama Code of Silence, a new Welsh comedy crime Death Valley and a 1980s Miss Marple for a cosy evening at home.

Simple things

  • Reading a couple of good books.
  • Seeing the sunshine for much of the week.
  • Making a pear and apple crumble for a Sunday dessert treat.
  • Pulling on favourite sweaters.
  • Thinking of what to cook for the next BKD Bookclub with the theme of ‘favourite comfort food’.
  • Staying cosy (note on the candle holders – featured image has the classic ‘snowball’ from Kosta Boda, along with a mini Dalarna horse, the second is the lotus flower from Holmegaard and the one below is from Iitala).

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 shared 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.

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

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

40 Comments

  3. You have certainly made the most of your unexpected time at home, so I hope you are feeling better by now. Our daughter spent the weekend with us while she attended her 25th school reunion – what a way to realise how we are growing older 🙂

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      1. Yes, just made some from leftover cabbage, a couple of carrots and a dressing from mayo, yoghurt, mustard, white wine vinegar and a pinch of paprika. Turned out OK.

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  8. I am glad not to see the fungi appearing in your food for the week. 🙂

    I like sheep’s cheese, but it is quite hard to find here, and I have never seen blue sheep’s cheese.

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  9. The braised red cabbage with apple sounds a good solution. IT’s one of my favourites to serve with Turkey at Christmas. The Code of Silence series sounds interesting. I’ll check it out. Thanks for the recommendation

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  12. As it is spring in Maine, I am busy, busy gardening, which is a big pleasure. Maybe dirt under the fingernails counts as a small pleasure?

    The mushrooms and micrograins sound so good. I will be trying that soon.

    I will be checking out the various television shows you suggested.

    Hope you are feeling better.

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    1. Dirt under the fingernails is a small pleasure if you enjoy gardening.

      Slowly feeling better but still not 100% – 2025 has been quite a year for health related things!

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  16. You always have such lovely food pictures. Have you ever made coleslaw? I’ve been thinking about try to, but I need to find a good recipe.

    A rainy day with candles and a cozy meal at home sounds wonderful.

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  18. I hope you’re feeling better. You have a lovely collection of candle holders. I have the same Kosta Boda candle holder and a mini Dalarna horse in blue and white from my first visit to Sweden. Thank you for the mention and for your weekend coffee share.

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  19. I’m late commenting from last week. I’m trying to think of what to make for BKD as well. It’s summer here, so looking for a fun take on “summer comfort food”. So sorry you’ve been sick. By now hopefully you are feeling better.

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