fantastic stew

The stew turned out fantastic!! Very yummy! And so cheap! Cost us less than $10 for 4 meals for us and many for the furkids! We had some pastry leftover from when I attempted a home made mince pie so on Tuesday night we turned some of the leftovers into a delicimo pie. It made us feel oh so domesticated! Sadly, I forgot to photograph our fantastic creation. However I am sure there will be many more tasty stews.

I've been frequenting a forum set up by Trade Me Messageboarders to store all the wonderful recipes that get posted. There is a whole tread on crockpot recipes! Its great to get ideas of the types of things that you can just chuck in the crockpot. I can't wait to make vege soup!

I've been speaking with my brother online recently (& finally!!), I really want to go and visit him. He is living in Perth, working and enjoying the higher wages that Australia offers. Its funny, we fought like cats and dogs when we were young but I miss him so much now. And as much as he doesn't say it, I know he misses us (me) too. I've been working on a special package for him full of things to remind him of home. Its been a work in progress since his birthday in March so I really need to get a move on.

Speaking of family members, (who I know my brother dearly misses) this is our family dog Cleo:

She is 13 years old and such a sweet girl. She lived with mum in Nelson til Feb last year when she moved up to Wellington to live with my dad. She's lived with every family member at some stage or another. She's getting on in age and I don't know how much longer we'll have her. I think I'll go and spend some time with her this weekend. :)

Well D is home from football training so I better go give him a hand with the dishes....

Oh and before I forget... I got to the short short list of a job I applied for! Its down to me and 1 other. If the other is who I think it is, I'm not sure what my chances are. That said, I'm not 100% what I want to do yet so I won't be too disappointed if I don't get it. There was a very large number of good quality applicants so I feel very pleased to have least made it to the short short list! I'll let you know :)