thank you bags

I made these bags as teacher thank you gifts, which I packed with some home made cookies for our boy's favorite teachers, although lots more of his teachers and school staff got cookies as well, I ran out of time to make bags for everyone. I got the pattern over at the lovely and so helpful purlbee - this is listed as a 40 minute bag. It did take me longer to make these, as I couldn't find my rotary fabric cutter and had to do the cutting with scissors, but the bags do come together quite quickly and are a lovely size. I think the hardest part was chosing the fabric for the outer and inner bags.

I was really pleased with the way the bags turned out and will remember this pattern when stuck for gift ideas in the future.

Dinner from the oven

Although our weather has been a bit too hot to do dinner from the oven lately and has been more salad based suppers, this is a good option if you aren't going to be in your kitchen while this is cooking. It's especially good when using new local potatoes.

Chicken with roasted shallots and roasted potatoes (adapted from David Lebovitz)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1tbsp soy sauce
2 shallots, sliced thinly
Salt and pepper
6 chicken thighs
A couple of large handfuls of scrubbed new potatoes, sliced and chopped
Glug of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 deg F.

In a baking dish big enough to hold all the chicken pieces, mix the oil, vinegar, soy sauce, shallots and some salt and pepper. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Turn so the pieces are all skin side up. In another baking dish toss the potatoe pieces with olive oil and then smooth the potatoes into a single layer. Bake for 40 minutes until the chicken and potatoes are golden brown.