Recipe: Winter salad with roast garlic dressing

My stomach (or my mouth really) can be a contrary thing, always craving what is not in the house or is out of season, so it was no surprise really that in the middle of a cold winter day, my contrary stomach decided it really wanted salad. Not really winter food but much as I love soup, stews, curries and other comfort food, there comes a time when you just need a salad. I'm pretty sure the last couple of weeks of indulgent eating may have had something to do with the need for greens.

However, winter does not make for the best salad ingredients and despite the salad craving I still wanted something warm, so a roast veggie salad seemed the way to go and I topped it with some chicken for a protein hit but this would be equally good minus the chicken as a side for a steak or even a roast.

A warm salad is a great dinner. Warming, filling but healthy. And while winter may not be a great time for salad veggies like tomato, many lettuces like it. My backyard rocket patch has gone crazy allowing for a great green base.

When thinking of a dressing to accompany the richness of all those roast veggies, a garlic vinaigrette came to mind but to complement the roast taste, I roasted the garlic. The soft, delicately roasted garlic pretty much dissolves when you shake it like crazy with the rest of your dressing ingredients. Just be sure to not add any leftover chunks of garlic to the final salad.

This amount makes a great dinner for 2, or a side for 4.

Winter salad with roast garlic dressing
2 potatoes peeled and chopped into 3cm cubes
2 carrots chopped in half lengthwise, then into 2cm lengths
1 medium eggplant chopped into 4cm cubes
1/4 pumpkin chopped into cubes
1 capsicum cut into 3cm squares
1 leek thinly sliced
a chicken breast
a couple of handfuls of rocket leaves
2 garlic cloves unpeeled
olive oil
maldon (or other flaky) sea salt
oregano
paprika
dried garlic
red wine vinegar
maple syrup

Preheat your oven with a non-stick baking tray in it to 200 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss the potatoes, carrots, eggplant, pumpkin and capsicum with enough olive oil to lightly cover the veggies, a couple of pinches of salt, a few shakes of oregano and dried garlic. Pour onto the pre-heated tray and arrange in a single layer.

Bake for 30-40 minutes till everything is golden and well roasted.

Meanwhile, gently fry the leek in a little olive oil until caramalised and golden.

Butterfly the chicken breast so it is an even thickness. Dust with paprika, dried garlic and oregano then fry in a little olive oil until both sides are golden brown and the chicken is cooked through.

To make the dressing, pop the whole unpeeled garlic cloves on top of the other veg and roast for 10-15 minutes until just starting to ooze. Take them out of the oven and squeeze the garlic out of their cases into a jar. Top with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1-2 tablespoons red wine vinegar and a teaspoon of maple syrup. Screw the top of the jar tightly and shake like crazy. The garlic should disintegrate and make a lovely creamy dressing.

To serve, in a large bowl add the rocket, roast vegetables straight from the oven, leek and enough dressing to lightly dress the salad. Toss together, then top with slices of the chicken breast.

Recipe: Beef and barley soup

It is mid-winter and I'm truly in nesting mode. It is the season for slow cooked braises and soups. The kind of things that bubble away on the stove all day, filling the house with rich, warm, delicious scents.

Soup has been a staple in our house for the last few months. But as the winter gets deeper and the days colder I want something with a bit more substance to keep me going. Warm and hearty is what I'm after and I just don't think that you can beat beef and barley soup for that.

There is nothing particularly revolutionary about my recipe, it is a collation of ideas with chili added but I love it and I thought you might too. This makes a reasonably large amount, but this soup freezes extremely well so it is a great one to make a big batch of for those cold days when you don't want to venture outside or to keep you going all week.

I don't own a slow cooker, so I do this recipe in my cast iron Le Creuset pot on the cook top. If you do have a slow cooker you could do everything from the point where you add the spices and stock in it, however the browning of the meat and veggies at the start is really important as that is where a lot of the flavour comes from. You will note there is quite a range of time frames.

This soup is best the longer you can cook it for but not every day allows for 8 hours of cooking, so you just cook it for as long as you can.

Beef and Barley Soup

800g-1kg chuck steak diced into 2cm cubes
Worcestershire sauce
3 stalks of celery diced
2 carrots diced
1 brown onion diced
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 dried chillies
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
approx 1 tsp thyme leaves
approx 2 tsp ground black pepper
1 litre beef stock
3/4 cup of pearl barley, rinsed and picked through
1 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 bunch kale shredded
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Heat a dutch oven or heavy based saucepan till hot. Add a couple of tablespoons of canola oil and a knob of butter and allow to melt and sizzle. Brown the steak in batches.

When the steak is all browned, add it all back to the pot along with any juices and a good helping of Worcestershire sauce. I use a couple of tablespoons worth but it is a strong flavour so you can start with less. It will all bubble up, cook over the high heat until all the liquid is gone, stirring to keep from sticking. At the end the meat should be dark brown and fragrant.

Add in the celery, carrots and onion and wilt down. Again you want to cook it until there is no liquid left from the veggies - approx 10-15 minutes.

Add in the bay leaves, rosemary, chillies, garlic, thyme and pepper and stir to combine before adding the stock. Bring to the boil, then cover and cook on a low heat for 3-5 hours.

Remove the chillies, bay leaves and rosemary stalks (the leaves will have fallen off), along with any large chunks of garlic left and add in the barley and water. Cover and continue to cook on a low heat for another 2-3 hours.

10 minutes before serving, turn the heat up to medium high and stir in the shredded kale and parsley. Allow to wilt and enjoy a big warm bowl with a crusty loaf of bread.

Random Musings: Keeping Cozy

In news to no-one who lives in Canberra or the east coast of Australia, it is a COLD winter. Ok, winter in this town is always cold but I've really been feeling it the last few weeks and when the snow starts falling in Queensland you know it is a bit out of the ordinary.

So even if it isn't the start of a mini ice age (if you missed that amusing news last week just google it), it is pretty cold and  I'm just craving all the traditional forms of coziness. I can't tell you how many times I've said to S that our next house will have an open fire.

While we may not have an open fire, we have been indulging in all the other traditional forms of winter warmth. I'm blogging while wearing ugg boots and my snuggly dressing gown. There is a pot of potato and leek soup on the stove and I have a steaming cup of tea by my side.

Soup has been the mainstay in the house. I cook up big pots each weekend to keep us fueled for our lunches during the week. My recent foray into bread making also means that each Saturday we have the bonus of oven heat and there is something about the smell of freshly baked bread that just screams cosy.

Our house is strewn with doonas, blankets and cushions, from our deliciously warm bed, to the couch where we snuggle up in front of the telly. And speaking of the telly, the cold weather lends itself perfectly to snug evenings of binge watching all the great shows that are on.

So while I may not love the cold, I do adore this season of cosy. How are you keeping warm this winter?

Recipe: Potato and Fennel Bake

Winter took some time to arrive this year, but now that it is here, boy is it here. Today started with a minus 5 degree morning, followed by a brief splash of sunshine before heading into the depths of icy cold rain.

All of this cold, grey, wet weather means one thing - it is time to hunker down with some full on comfort food. And what is more comforting than a lovely creamy potato bake?

As it transpired, I also had a random fennel in the fridge. Fennel isn't something that we regularly eat which was made especially obvious by S asking what it was. However we inherited one from my parents who were doing a fridge clean out so as I contemplated my potato bake I decided to incorporate the fennel.

The result was just yummy. Rich and creamy but with that lovely light aniseed tang of the fennel.  I think fennel may just be seen more regularly in our fridge!

What is your go to comfort food in this cold miserable weather?

Potato and Fennel Bake

potatos
fennel
cream
parmesan
salt and pepper

Allocate roughly  2 medium potatoes, a quarter of a fennel and 50ml cream per person - but make extra because you will want seconds!

Grease a baking dish thoroughly with butter.

Heat the cream a little to make it more runny - 30 seconds in the microwave will usually do it.

Thinly slice the potatoes and fennel (I use the thick side of my mandolin slicer). Layer one third of the potato, slightly overlaping to fill the base of the baking dish. Scatter with half the fennel, a generous amount of salt and pepper and a third of the cream.

Repeat another layer of potato, fennel, seasoning and cream then top with a final layer of potato and the last of the cream. Sprinkle over with a generous amount of freshly grated parmesan.

Bake at 170 degrees C covered for one hour, then uncovered for 20-30 minutes till lovely and golden.

Eat with, well just about anything, or potentially just a fork straight out of the dish. Mmmmm

Spanish Inspired Warm Dip

When the weather gets cold in Canberra the parties don't stop, they just move inside and focus on warm canapes.  And for those occasions I turn to a delicious, warm Spanish inspired dip.  This is not a dip to have on a delicate wafer, it is a hearty, chunky topping for a lovely piece of sourdough bread.

I love this dip for so many reasons, not only is it warm and gently spiced, it is vegan, gluten free and most of the contents can be found in my pantry and fridge.  In fact if the parsley is growing in my garden (which disappointingly it is not this year) the only thing I have to buy is mushrooms and bread.

This is comfort food to share, which for me, makes it even more comforting.  What are your comfort food favourites for this time of year?

 

Spanish inspired warm dip

olive oil
2 onions sliced into 8ths
4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
small handful mushrooms thinly sliced
1tsp smoked paprika
1/2tsp cumin
1/2tsp hot chilli flakes
1/2 cup white wine
3 chargrilled capsicums, sliced in half lengthwise then in 1cm side strips
2 x 400g cans diced tomatoes
1 x 400g can chickpeas rinsed well
250g chopped frozen spinach thawed and excess moisture squeezed out
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 bunch parsley chopped

Sour dough bread to serve

Add a splash of olive oil and onions to a large pan on a medium-high heat.  Cook, stirring regularly, until onions are softened and golden brown.  Add garlic and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are softened.

Add paprika, cumin and chilli and cook till fragrant.  Add white wine, capsicum, tomatoes, chickpeas and spinach.  Stir to combine, lower heat and cook for about 20 minutes till thick and warm.

To finish, add red wine vinegar and parsley.

Serve with sliced sour dough bread while still warm.

Winter warmers

One of the many funny Canberraisims is that you don't turn your heater on till ANZAC day.  The gorgeous mild autumn we have been having has made this fairly easy this year, however in the last week the night time temperatures have started to plunge into the low single digits.  A work colleague down from Queensland told us he was needing to wear thermals!

While my thermals are still safely tucked away in the cupboard we have started piling on extra blankets at night so today I decided that the time has come and switched our summer weight doona over to the thick duck down one.  I made up the bed with crisp, fresh linen and topped it with the swathe of light as air but warm as a cuddle down doona.

I adore our soft, fluffy, warm winter doona.  There is something incredibly comforting about snuggling down into its soft folds on a cold night. It gives off a feeling a security and safety, the kind that can protect you from the terrifying ghost in the scary move we watched last night.

Tonight we are headed out to a great party, but I'm already looking forward to coming home and snuggling in.

Are you a doona or a blanket person?  And have you put your winter bedclothes on yet?

C-c-c-cold

Our last week in Copenhagen was quite cool.  "It is good" I told S as we put jackets on over t-shirts "we will be all aclimatised for when we get home".  WRONG!  A nippy breeze and grey skies do not aclimatise you for -5 degree mornings and days where the apparent temperature is 4.5.  The weather man tells me that this is a particularly cold winter and my toes tell me that too as they struggle to thaw out.

But every year at this time, when I'm feeling like it will never warm up again, spring starts to raise its head.  I've spotted the first blossom trees, the daffodils by my front window are budding up and the wattle is coming out.  Spring is coming, I've just got to survive the rest of winter first!

Apples

It is the first day of winter, although after one of the coldest autumns on record (May nights averaged below 0 degrees - the first time since 1961) it feels like winter has been here for awhile.  However after a week of clear sunny skies, today is grey and dull and really feels like a day to be spent in front of an open fire.

One of the things I enjoy about the seasons is the different produce they bring to the fore.  Apples seem so ubiquitous.  Thanks to cold stores, they are always available, however they never taste quite as good, quite as crisp as they do at this time of year when they are fresh off the tree.

I'm currently enjoying an especially nice bag of small pink lady apples we picked up at the local fruit market for $2.  Pink ladies are among my favourites.  They share that spot with fujis and really good galas, however when it comes to cooking, you can't beat a granny smith.  And on this wintery day, I think some kind of hot apple dessert is calling me.

What is your favourite type of apple and do you have a great winter apple dessert for me (that is hopefully more healthy than coring, stuffing with mars bar and baking)?

Canberra - Why -5 degree isn't as bad as it sounds

I can just imagine all around Australia tonight there will be people watching the weather and thinking "thank god I don't live in Canberra".  And I can understand.  On paper a temperature range of -5 to 15 degrees celsius doesn't look good.  But here is the reality.  -5 means that you have had a clear night with the biggest most sparkly stars and when you spend it snuggled under a thick doona with a loved one it is delicious.  And 15 on a day like today means bright blue skies, warm sun, no wind, it is invigorating and beautiful to wander about in.  Add in a city coloured red, orange and gold with autumn clothes and you have a stunning day.

Yes you have to dress appropriately - the perfect excuse for accessorising with boots and scarves - but I can say that days like today really are gorgeous and one of the reasons why I love living in this city.

Flox Tights

Check out my "normal" opaque tights.
(Not the best photo - it is hard taking a picture of your legs.)

Other than a random week in November and my time in Adelaide over Christmas, I don't feel like I had a real summer.  Scorching days were pretty much non-existent.  My power bill was the lowest it has ever been owing to the lack of air conditioning use.  So you would think that the change into winter weather would be easy.  But somehow I'm struggling this year.  I keep finding myself not quite warmly enough dressed, particularly at work.  I've had too many days of cold feet so today I brought out the big guns - my Flox tights.

I discovered Flox tights last year.  They are the holy grail - fleecy lined tights.  Yes you read that right.  Some genius managed to merge tracksuit pants with opaque tights and the result is awesome.  They aren't quite as warm as thermal leggings, but they are close and they look exactly like normal opaque tights so no one will know your secret to staying warm.

They do have a slight tendency to pill, so you need to be careful with your handwashing and they do stretch a bit over time - but people, they are fleecy lined tights, they are still awesome.

Apparently this year they are also selling footless tights.  This I don't understand.  Being someone with perpetually cold feet, why if it is cold you would not want your feet covered is beyond me.  But if that is your thing, the option is there.

So if like me, you insist on continuing to wear dresses through winter I highly recommend Flox!  You can buy them here on their website.

This review is all my own opinion, I am not in anyway connected with Flox, other than through my now toasty warm legs.

Winter is Here

Our dog Bella used to wander along and then suddenly flop down. We always said it was like she thought " I want to sit down ... NOW".  Sure most of the time she would do the usual dog sniffing inspection before seating herself but other times, almost mid-stride, she would decide that now was the moment to be seated.

Winter arrived like that this year.  One day I'm walking along the beach in a t-shirt and shorts, splashing in the water, the next I'm reaching for the winter doona and turning the heating on.  And I'm not being in any way metaphorical.  It was warm and sunny on Sunday, it snowed on Monday.

The cold arrived so fast that it caught us by surprise.  S and I ended up wearing a strange assortment of clothes as we each kept adding layers while we tried to figure out the weather.  Somehow it didn't occur to us to turn on the heating, instead shocking each other when we touched freezing noses and hands.  You see in Canberra the rule of thumb is that you don't switch the heating on before ANZAC day, I lasted one cold day before I caved and flicked the switch to the wonder of a warm house.

However I didn't even last one day before I swapped out our lightweight summer doona replacing it with the thick, snuggly, winter one.  Bedding is one of the few areas where we do not agree.  You see I'm a doona girl.  I love the freedom, the loose, light, fluffy, yet warm feeling of a doona.  S prefers layers of blankets, heavy and thick, he likes the solid feeling and the ability to peel one layer back at a time to get to the perfect temperature.  We have compromised on a doona with a sheet and extra blankets at the end of the bed, however, I suspect I won that compromise.  Still even S had to admit, as the temperature dropped, being cocooned in the soft, fluffy layers of our bed was just gorgeous.

Are you a doona or a blanket person?  And did winter catch you as much by surprise as it caught us?

Wattle

In the midst of the coldest days of winter, when the fog hangs low, the frost lies thick and the night is heavy on both ends of the day, the wattle flowers.  Those luminous yellow balls of sunshine light up the cold winter landscape and you know that summer is on its way.  The sight of it glowing from the dull countryside lightens my heart as soon as I see it.

A frosty start

When people around Australia tonight watch the weather they will no doubt shiver and thank their lucky stars that they don't live in Canberra when they see that last night the temperature dipped below -6 degrees.

What they won't realise is that those seriously cold morning are actually lovely.  I can imagine skepticism in your mind as you read that, but let me explain.

You can't get to a really cold, below -3 degree night unless it is crystal clear.  Any clouds hold in the heat.  So that means on a seriously cold morning you awake to clear blue skies and sun - lots of surprisingly warm sun.  However the air takes some time to warm up, so for the first few hours you have the glorious situation of bright sunshine on a frost coated landscape.  Dry grass at the side of the road becomes a fairy's crystal wand as the light highlights every fine strand of its feathery seed head coated in a layer of ice.  Wattle glows under a veil of frost.  The landscape glimmers and glistens.

Rugged up in appropriate winter wear (and what better excuse for a ladylike ensemble including gorgeous stockings, gloves, a coat and bright scarf) a frozen morning is a true delight.

Wheat Pack Warmth

It is the depths of winter and a deep cold winter it is proving to be.  Today didn't start out as icy as many days have recently but it was soon beset with cold wind and stingy frigid rain.  It quickly became the sort of day which makes me long for open fires, mulled wine, snuggles - but being a Monday that wasn't going to happen.

Mondays are always a bit of a shock to the system, after a lazy weekend of sleeping in, getting up, ready and at work before 9am is always somewhat of a challenge.  However the last month or so of Mondays has been particularly harsh as the heating in our office has partially died.  This means that because the building chills right down over the weekend, it takes till approximately 2pm till it is warm enough to emerge from coats and scarves.  Of course with the very cold weather at the moment heating repairers are in such demand that we still have another 2 weeks to wait until it will be fixed.

In reality this means that we still spend the majority of our week working in comfort, but I've had to come up with some ways to survive those cold Monday mornings. I've ditched wearing skirts or dresses on Mondays, in fact if I know there are no client meetings, I wear jeans and jumpers - not to mention thick hiking socks under my boots.  Hot drinks are a must, along with something nice and warm for lunch.

But today I've come up with the best solution so far - a wheat pack.  Who would have thought a corduroy pillow stuffed with wheat could be just what I needed?  If you are not familiar with them, they are exactly as I've described and you heat them up in the microwave.  They hold their heat really well, so it is like a hot water bottle without the risk of spilling hot water.

I brought my old faithful wheat pack in this morning, heated it up, and it sat on my lap while the office's partial heating struggled to warm the place up.  For the first time in weeks I wasn't shivering at my desk and I could get stuck straight into work.  In two weeks all this will no doubt be a distant, cold memory, but for now, my wheat pack is my favourite colleague.

DIY Pizza

I'm going to blame the freezing weather for the fact that I completely forgot to take any photos yesterday, but S and I went to a fantastic birthday party.

Pretty much everyone likes pizza.  Even better is gourmet woodfired pizza.  So how did my friends top that?  With gourmet woodfired pizza that we assembled ourselves and cooked in a woodfired oven on a trailer in the front yard!

Yes some very clever people in Canberra came up with the excellent idea of putting a woodfired pizza oven on a trailer that you can hire for parties.  It arrived, set up involved lighting the fire and then we got stuck in.  Our fab hosts had provided an amazing array of delicious items from which to create our toppings.

For the carnivores there was chorizo, steak, prosciutto, duck, chicken, ham and salami.  Cheese selection included shredded pizza mix, fetta, bocconcini (which had an unfortunate habit of rolling off the pizzas while they were cooking) and brie.  There were marinated veggies, pumpkin, beetroot, semi dried tomatoes, rocket, potato, mushrooms, olives, pine nuts, capsicum, shallots, herbs and a whole host of other things I've forgotten.

People got very creative and came up with some truly delectable creations.

The only issue was that it was FREEZING yesterday.  Strong winds occasionally threatened to blow the toppings off the pizzas before they made it into the oven, we had a few dashes to catch plates or topping containers before the wind took them and during the cooking process we tended to huddle around the back of the oven keeping warm.

But in spite of the less than comfortable cooking conditions, we had a fantastic time and my long held desire to have a pizza oven in my backyard (and a backyard big enough to fit a pizza oven) is well and truly reignited!

Breaking the Ice

Winter is really getting stuck in this week.  Maximum temperatures in single figures, icy rain and gale force winds.  It is the kind of weather that makes you grateful for open fires, red wine, snuggly doonas and hot bowls of soup.

The other thing it makes me extremely grateful for is my collection of thermals.  A few years ago I was heading on holiday to South America during winter and knowing I would be facing some extremely cold temperatures, I thought I had better invest in some thermals.  I had visions of ugly, itchy, stripey garments, the kind of thing you would be mortified to have anyone know you own.  However somewhere along the way, thermals underwent a transformation and became gorgeous clothing items.

I favour Icebreaker.  A New Zealand brand, they have taken the softest, warmest merino wool and have transformed it into garments that are not only warm, they are beautiful on your skin and look great too!  They don't come cheap, I hang out for sales and even then I'm counting the cost but then along comes a day like today and I realise that they were worth every cent.

I woke this morning to the house pretty much rattling in the wind and opened the curtains to a spray of icy rain against the window.  At that point I seriously considered just turning around and getting straight back into bed.  But instead, I pulled out a pale lilac thermal top to layer under my blue and purple striped shirt.  I added a jacket, a coat and scarf but once out of the wind, found that my thermal was so effective at keeping me warm I didn't need the coat or scarf!

I think that Winter is a beautiful time of year, but I do enjoy it more when I'm feeling warm and comfortable so I think my thermals and I will be inseparable for the next couple of months!

Saving - how not to do it

In theory I'm on a savings kick.  I say in theory because somehow I keep forgetting and my savings aren't doing that well at all.  I blame internet shopping.  It is so easy to just have a little browse over lunch and with the strong Aussie dollar everything seems like such a bargain.

So while the savings plan may not be working well, but my mail is very exciting as I much prefer the packages that arrive to the the credit card statements that follow.

This week a lovely package arrived from ASOS.  One of the things I love (and hate) about internet shopping is opening the package with bated breath to work out if what I ordered is as good as it looked online.  This week's ASOS package was filled with winners, brilliant items that really do look great.

Image from ASOS - this is a model not me!

Today I'm wearing this ASOS Ponti fit and flare boat neck dress.  It is so gorgeous.  Of course being Canberra in winter I'm wearing it layered over a thermal top with some lovely Jonathon Aster lace stockings and an ASOS bow belt.  I adore having a new outfit to wear, it is so exciting it just puts me in the best mood all day.  Maybe saving is overrated!

Bare branches

One of the many things I love about winter is the look of bare branches against the sky.

In some ways, the starkness emphasises the cold.  They are often grey and you look through them to the frosty sky.  Birds sitting in them look exposed, and the wind whistles through rather than rustles as it does in summer.

I love being able to see the structure of the tree, how different they all look without their leaves.  I especially love it when you can suddenly see a bird's nest exposed that come spring will disappear once again into the foliage and be filled with babies.

The lack of leaves changes the view too.  Longer vistas open up.  New perspectives on old scenes.

Experiencing things like this is one of the joys of living in a place which really does experience all four seasons.

My favourite things in cold weather

As I've mentioned on Sunday it got cold.  Normally we get eased into the cold weather, but it seems this year Mother Nature decided to flick the switch straight from Summer to Winter with very little in between.  Naturally as always happens, people are having a good old whinge about the weather, but I like to focus on the good side of the cold.

Here is a list of some of the things that you get to enjoy in cold weather that just aren't quite as good in summer:

• Ugg Boots and slippers
• Soup
• Open fires
• Jumpers / coats and other fleecy clothing items
• Boots
• Curry 
• Hot desserts like self saucing pudding
• Patterned or coloured stockings
• Mulled wine
• Thick feather doonas
• Scarves
• Snuggling

I could go on and on!  What are your favourite cold weather things?

Hot Chocolate

Canberra decided to turn on a blast of Winter today to remind us what we are in for over the next few months.  The sky is grey, the wind is blowing and it is properly cold.  The trees are still clad in their autumn glory and when the sun makes a brief appearance it is still quite warm, but in all other respects today is a classic winter day.

There are some things that you can only truly appreciate when it is really cold outside - a roaring wood fire, a snugly wool jumper, a steaming bowl of soup - and hot chocolate.  Hot, frothy, chocolate milk.  It is the perfect antidote to cold weather, so after I made it back into the office from my lunchtime errands in the freezing wind, it was high on my list.

I'm lucky enough to work in an office complete with a fantastic coffee machine which produced the perfect hot chocolate for me with just the press of a button.  And so I sat at my desk, hands cupped around its chocolatey warmth and watched the cold, grey day progress outside.  Perfection!

P.S. After posting this, I managed to squeeze in another hot chocolate - a chai hot chocolate at Koko Black.  It really is the perfect antidote for the cold.