Winter storms attacked us again. Sneaking in from behind they walloped us good yesterday. It wasn't much of a day for venturing out, although we did that - there is something to be said for the snowsuit overtop of PJs. Rather, it was a day for the oven. And really, it was a day for the couch, but unless you want to watch this all day you have to get up and encourage the kids to jump on the beds.

With a pile of carrots and parsnips in the house stew was on the menu. Passion fruit ice cream too, but that will come another day. The Monster and I set about peeling veg while Hubby tried to rest on the couch. Oh, did I mention that all four of us have colds right now? So we get all our veg peeled and chopped and I set to browning the beef. After a quick deglaze of the pan with orange juice (my favourite thing to use when making stew) I turned around to grab all my veg. As you can see from the above photo I had cause to pause. We have a 'no hands on the cutting board' rule in the house, but apparently that doesn't apply to rubber duckies.

There are so many reasons to cook with your kids, giggles notwithstanding.