#100happy today - Sunday Lunch

Boeuf Bouguignon... comme un chef (geddit?!)

400g/just under 1lb beef (I used casserole beef chunks cos stupid supermarkets don't sell shin or cheek, grr!)
4 carrots
1 onion, diced (should be shallots but again, these don't seem to exist in my Sainsbury's in country bumpkin land!)
1 beef Oxo cube
1 can of Baxter's beef consomme (yes, I used this instead of a beef stock, so sue me. It was delicious.)
Red wine (I emptied the can of consomme and then filled it up with wine, so it's about a 1:1 ratio of stock to wine)
Mixed herbs (OMG I used dried herbs instead of a bouquet garni, wtf!?)
Sage (I'm not giving you quantities because I just guessed and can't remember what I put in. Play it by ear.)
A shit load of black pepper (no need for salt because of the stock cube and consomme)
Plain flour
Olive oil (1 "glug")
Butter cut into cube-ish sort of shapes
~
Cheddar-y mash/pommes purees avec du fromage:
2 large white potatoes
Mature Cheddar cheese (use as much as you like, it's all personal taste)
A "glug" of full cream milk
Butter. None of this "healthy" olive oil mash malarky, we're cooking (vaguely) French food, damn it!
Black pepper

Chop the carrots and onion and fry it in olive oil and a bit of butter (yes, there should be celery in there too but it is "the debbil's vegetable" to quote Jess). Add some herbage and pepper. 

Put some more herbage in the casserole dish (I got a cast iron one from Grandpa for my birthday, woop! It's shiny and red and pretty.). Dump the veggies into the pot.

Flour your beef (make sure you add black pepper in with the flour too and be generous with the flour) and seal it in the same frying pan. Deglaze your pan with a tiny glug of wine and then dump all that into the pot, too.

Pour your consomme on top and follow it with the red wine.

Leave it for, like, 3 hours or whatever.

Boil your potatoes then drain the water and mash them together with cubes of butter and grated cheese. Season.
You know what to do next. Serve with the same wine that's in the sauce. Say "zut alors" quite a bit.

Happy Sundog!

#100happy - Best of the Web: Postsecret

^ by the Epic Peoples who send postcards to [Postsecret]

#100happy today - If Animals Were Like Pokemon

(Stolen from pokememes.memebase.com - go there after this)

Come on, you know you all still love Pokemon.

Watch this video "If Animals Were Like Pokemon" and I DARE YA not to laugh.

http://pokememes.memebase.com/2012/02/04/pokmon-if-animals-were-like-pokemon/

#100happy today - Roses Are Red...

For less conventional Valentine's Day messages, see someecards.com

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
I'm really bad at writing poetry
So I'll rip-off someone else's website instead.

#100happy today - Nostalgiagasm

Thank you kontraband.com for giving us a Nostalgia Feast!

If you were a kid in the 80's/90's you'll appreciate this :o)

More [HERE]

OMGAWESOME

#100happy today - SNOW DAY!

#100happy today - Music Monday

Because it's Music Monday on Twitter, Christina has asked (via the awesomeness that is @hundredhappy) what music can make Monday happier.

I'm off work today, using up the rest of my annual leave I have to take before the end of February, so am compiling a playlist of make-Mondays-better songs :)

Here's what I have so far:

Emmy the Great - Iris
Queen - A Kind of Magic
Dario G - Sunchyme
The Rocket Summer - So Much Love
Belle & Sebastien - Legal Man
I'm from Barcelona - The Painter
Ting Tings - That's Not My Name

So get thee to Youtube on your dinner break and listen to some of these gems to put a smile on your face on this bleak Monday in February!

Review - "Piercing the Darkness: Leave a Note"

WORLDWIDE EVENT: It's happening wherever YOU ARE AT!! January's event is super easy: Leave a Note. On January 17th, take 30 seconds to write an encouraging note on a piece of paper. Leave it anonymously somewhere that someone who needs it can find it - and let destinydo the rest!

On top of a stack of cans in the grocery store? Post-it note on the bathroom mirror at work? Written on the back of your bill at a restaurant? Scribbled on a napkin and left on a bench? Scrawled on a piece of notebook paper and slipped into the locker of someone you don't know? Yes, yes, yes! All of these are perfect. The idea is to make someone smile, give them hope, encouragement...and pierce the darkness that has overcome our world.

The purpose of Piercing the Darkness is to help be a source of light in the world in these times of darkness. We do easy, simple things that help others feel a little better, and in turn, we feel a little better, too. It's a baby step towards bringing light back into this perpetually darkening world.

Each month, we have a small, simple event. Something super easy that anyone can do, anywhere in the world, to make the world a lighter, brighter place. Please join us as we spread joy, hope and love - and invite your friends and family, too! And to be invited to future events, please "Like" our page, and join our Group!


[LINK]


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I participated in this project on Tuesday 17th January and I've got to say, it was a heck of a lot of fun :)

The night before the project, I wrote out my cards and thought about where I would put them on my lunch break from work...

To my great delight, on my lunch break it was crisp and freezing cold, but there was glorious sunshine and a bright blue sky :)

I set about a random walk around the town centre and picked the spots I wanted to leave my notes. 

I ended up choosing a parking meter (because who likes paying for parking? We need to make paying to park your car better with notes!), a public toilet (I brightened up grey tiles with a sunshiney greeting card!), a table outside a cafe, and I posted one through the door of a (closed on Tuesdays) cheese shop, hehe!

 I stuck the one about growing old/up onto the carton of milk in the fridge at work (because my colleagues are legends and they deserve a smile on a Tuesday morning!)

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Here's some of my favourites from others that posted their photos of notes:

^ by @rachelpatti on Twitter

^ These three are by Emily from the Events page on Facebook

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This event took place on 17th January but there's no reason you shouldn't carry on Piercing the Darkness any day of the year - add a little light into someone's life by posting a note of your own (and then uploading a picture of it to the Facebook page!)

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Please consider "liking" the Piercing the Darkness page on Facebook - they do one event like this per month

Excitement!!

#100happy now has a new Facebook page!

Please "like" it at www.facebook.com/100happy

Ta! :o) xxx