Here we are again with a round up of this week’s small pleasures involving food, plants and a surprise.
Dinner, post St Valentine’s Day
As I mentioned in the last post, Karl and I went out for dinner at Field and Green on Thursday. Their 3 course supper offering is really good value and always tasty, with wine pairings for the first and main courses. The service there is always just right too.

I had the sweet corn and sage arancini and Karl the chicken broth with tarragon dumplings to star with. For the main event, I had the falafel with a really good white bean, watermelon and halloumi salad and Karl, the steak sandwich with the most amazing looking onion rings. Desert is one of Field and Green’s ice-creams, with the honeycomb for me and rum and raisin for Karl.

Plants
One of the supermarkets in New Zealand gave away seeds as part of a spring promotion. My swan plant is doing well, my courgettes at least flowered and now my cucumber has a tiny, wee cucumber! I also bought a tiny, wee cactus.


My husband
After we came home from dinner on Thursday, my dear husband disappeared upstairs and reappeared dressed in…a kilt! He had ordered it in Dunedin when he was down there before Christmas. Such a surprise….I was totally speechless.

The tartan is called Pride of New Zealand, and the pin is shaped like a silver fern. All he needs now is a sgian dubh.

A new pasta dish
This spinach and artichoke pasta was so creamy and delicious. The recipe comes from From My Bowl, and was the simplest dish possible.

Thanks to Mani over at A New Life Wandering for the original idea.
You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram@thistleandkiwis. As for Twitter….am totally inactive these days. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com
look at that cucumber, how exciting! 🙂
I know! 🙂