Tuscan Bean soup on Sunday afternoon

It's Sunday afternoon.

My handsome husband is napping and I am sitting looking out our window at the city bathed in the pale wintry sunlight, rereading my recipe notebook. There's a slight fog in the air and it reminds me of my childhood when the slight fog was the smoke from our log fire or in autumn of burning the leaves. It reminds me of Mum calling us in from the garden, fingers tingling with the cold, cheeks pink from the air, to wash our hands for dinner. It reminds me of the warm fire inside, the feeling of safety as the night and cold fell darker and colder outside the windows. 
ahhhh....the good ole days. 
But we're living in good days now too! 
This afternoon for early dinner we will be eating homemade, hot, wholesome Tuscan Bean soup.

Pears poached in red wine

Our friend M. came back over the Christmas period for a surprise visit. It was a good surprise. We had 'the gang' over for dinner, 10 people around our table. It was a good night, one of those nights that becomes a reference point sometime in the future.

'Don't you remember that dinner at their place, when M. came home?'

It was everything a good night with friends should be. A lot of laughter over silly jokes, silly stories to recount and silly stories to create and of course some good food.

These poached pears graced our table for dessert. I found them in the market that morning. Cold, firm and deliciously blushing. They added the magic to the end of our evening. 

Herb and Mustard Crumbed Pork

After the cold snap before Christmas we now have above average temperatures in January and the snow seems but a distant memory. Paris saw the worst snow for 20 years. I was happy to watch it from the window of my 15th floor apartment. Friends came for dinner that very same night and one of them had walked from work (no bus) for one hour just to get here. She arrived with frozen feet (no snow boots) but my NZ possum and merino socks saved the day (thanks Mum).
After the long celebrations over Christmas and New Year it's time to fill our stomachs with something hot and light(er). We ate this last week and it filled all the right criteria for a mid-week January dinner.