Posted on

An Ironing Board could be useful: The Trials and Tribulations of blogging on holiday

I am trying to write a daily blog whilst on holiday, which is quite a challenge. I discovered that my own laptop has a non-functioning battery, so will only work when plugged in. Fine, I can cope with that. However, on arriving at the apartment in Sardinia, we discovered that the internet connection is non-existent inside. So we have some further potential problems – I am only able to blog by using Paul’s laptop, as I can take it out to the public areas of the apartment block and not have to plug it in. This of course assumes that he will not need it at the same time that I do. Also, there is the question of heat – how long is it possible to sit at a steamy laptop writing great words of wisdom with no air-conditioning, in temperatures of 85 degrees plus?! Then there is one more issue, of where to put the laptop. Okay, so Paul’s model is lighter than mine, and you could possibly actually use it on your lap, but I find this makes me work slowly and end up with a crick in the neck, pains in my calves and an ache in the behind! Right now, there are Italian children playing on their ipads, and listening to Christmas music very loudly!! Why?!!

Part of the solution would be to find a table to work at, as the table-height logs are in full sunshine for most of the day. Our apartment has two tables – a dining table which cannot be carried outside, and a coffee table of the wrong height. You would think it might be simple to go to Bricofer, the local DIY Store, and buy a camping table, but no, nothing suitable was available – unless you count the wooden table and chair set, which we did not really need, or the plastic table with removable legs which would not fit in the car with all the luggage for our return journey. It was whilst investigating the possibility of using an upturned laundry basket that I suddenly remembered the ironing board which our host’s mother had brought for us the day before! Perfect! Many people sit down to do their ironing, so it would be possible to adjust the height and have a novel laptop station, with room for my camera, mouse and glass of wine!

So here I am in the public area of the apartments La Perla del Mare writing my blog at an ironing board, listening to very loud Christmas music…… I’ll have to ring Paul in a minute to ask him to help me carry all this paraphernalia back to the apartment….

Posted on

Cooking in Sardinia – the first few days

First Dinner cooked at the Apartment in Lu Bagnu

 

 

I love cooking on holiday more than eating out. Those who know me well will know that I am ever amazed at the lack of vegetables in meals in Southern Europe on restaurant menus.

I look forward to cooking in  our self-catering accommodation, and spend a lot of time and money buying local produce. Admittedly we do tend to use the supermarkets more than the street markets. From a practical point of view, markets tend to be in cities, and so, apart from buying non-perishable goods and really firm fruit and vegetables, the question of how far it is to dash back to the villa to get the food into the fridge. This year we are having average daily temperatures of 85 degrees plus; no joke when you need to keep food fresh.

All of my recipes are a blend of Southern European, with a touch of Modern British and some Indian and Asian thrown in for good measure. The pictures above are of the first dinner I made in the apartment: Pasta with roughly sliced Italian sausages, canned tomatoes, fresh fennel, courgette, onions and garlic, with some white wine and fresh parsley and basil thrown in for good measure.

I also cannot resist making my version of Spanish tapas. Whether or not these are entirely authentic does not matter to me. I always think it is worth taking some good base ingredients, and a wonderful concept such as tapas, and creating a snack that you really enjoy. The other night we had a meal entirely composed of my tapas recipes. In the following pictures you see:

Tuna and Chick Pea Salad with Fennel and parsley, dressed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Olives with feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and some mushrooms from a jar, in olive oil

Egg Mayonnaise

Warm Ratatouille

Squid cooked with Chorizo and Hot smoked Paprika

We ate all of these with thin Italian bread, which is a speciality of Sardinia

I’ll be posting more holiday recipe ideas as we continue our jolly jaunt in Sardinia!

Posted on

Getting Ready for our long summer holidays: don’t let those left-overs fester in the fridge!

Recently we left for our long jaunt to Sardinia and Corsica via Bilbao and Barcelona. Now, just be aware that this is not an announcement that our house is empty for a month! Sorry, but we don’t leave the house empty, as my daughter will be staying behind. We also have family and neighbours watering the garden and painting the house whilst we are away.

My daughter Jess is a chef, and like many chefs, has little time to cook at home. I therefore aimed to use up most of the food in the fridge, leaving a few bare necessities and, more importantly, some money for her to buy easier to cook food. As we ate up the food, every time I looked in the cupboards and the fridge, the chance of making just one more tasty meal seemed ever less and less likely. I surprised even myself with the amazing dinner I managed to rustle up on Saturday night. It started with a lamb bone I took out of the freezer. This was one of a few left over from a roast lamb feast the previous weekend. I catered for a party and cooked for my mother’s birthday all over two days, and basically did the same menu twice. Cutting lamb legs off the bone and butterflying them was hard work, but so worth it for the tasty bones left behind! I also found half a bag of raw prawns in the freezer – one of my stock items for the freezer.

The meal that resulted with these two basics was absolutely divine, and completely unplanned. I give you a vague recipe below, but the point of this kind of meal is that quantities and exact ingredients should be flexible.

Warm Lamb and Prawn Salad with Fresh Flowers and Herbs

Roast one lamb leg bone for about half an hour with olive oil, salt and pepper (both freshly milled), chunks of onion, fresh chillis and herbs – use them from the garden if you have them. I used rosemary, sage, marjoram, mint and lemon balm. Meanwhile cook some carrots and fresh sweetcorn (cut off the cob) in a pan with a small amount of water and butter. You could of course roast these with the lamb. Cook some puy lentils until just soft. Cook a handful of prawns in a pan in some olive oil.

When the lamb is cooked, cut it off the bone, and mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl. Toss with more olive oil and some balsamic vinegar, plus plenty more pepper. Mix in some chopped olives and, if you have them, a few snipped anchovies. For the fun bit, toss in a few edible flowers. Obviously you need to be sure that your flowers are edible and have not been sprayed. I used rose petals and nasturtiums. Day lilies are also edible and suitable. If you have some spinach or salad leaves, these would be great tossed in too.

This is the kind of salad which needs to be eaten warm and fresh. If you have to chill it to keep it fresh, it just will not taste as good! I would serve this in smaller portions as a first course, although it worked very well as a last supper at Vine Cottage! I am so pleased with this recipe that I want to share it with the world. See the picture below for how it looked on the night! Oh, and this recipe is meant to be flexible. If you want to give it a go and don’t have a lamb bone, you could try some lamb neck fillet instead. Or it would be great with pork too.

Image may contain: flower, plant, food and indoor

 

Posted on

Muy Hecho (well done!), or The Perils of trying to relearn Spanish in middle-age….

I passed ‘O’ Level Spanish at school, and then never visited Spain, so really lost it all. In recent years Paul and I have been visiting Spain on a regular basis, and keep trying to learn the language. It is just so difficult to remember anything. French was so easy to learn when I was at school, and I then did my degree and visited France a lot as a child and teenager. My brain is just not as fresh as it used to be.

We are both fine with restaurant menus and the basics of saying hello, good morning, good-bye and so on. Well, the menus are fine if they are in Castillian, rather than Basque, Catalan or Galician! Names for meat and fish varieties are always an interesting challenge in foreign languages. Yesterday we were having a set menu lunch in Bermeo, and I  took out our Eyewitness Guide to Northern Spain to check the useful glossary of words provided. There is a survival guide for eating in a restaurant, and I quickly scanned it for useful words. The last word in the list was ‘Muy hecho’ which translates as ‘well done.’ I said to Paul “that’s a bit patronising isn’t it?! To say well done to the waitress for bringing your meal to the table!” He thought I was trying to be funny, which of course I was not! However, I then noticed that the words above ‘muy hecho’ were ‘poco hecho’ and ‘medio hecho’ which of course mean ‘rare’ and ‘medium.’ So ‘muy hecho’ was the word I would not use for ordering my steak! (as I prefer mine poco hecho!)

Anyone who knows me well will be familiar with my ability to laugh at my own jokes and idiocies and the accompanying fit of the giggles which can last for quite a long time after the joke has passed! I have even been known to wake up in the night laughing at a joke I made hours beforehand!

You can be sure that ‘muy hecho’ is our new family phrase when you just need to say to someone ‘well done you!’

Posted on

Slow Food, Fast Food (October 2015)

Beans for Easter Dinner

My passion is food and for years I have been creating amazing food for my family and friends. I decided not to pursue catering as a career, taking the view that the hours would be anti-social and unless you have your own business the pay is not good and it could also take the pleasure out of cooking at home. So for over twenty years I worked as a professional librarian and enjoyed coming home and cooking after a long day at work. I have worked full-time for most of my career, although I took 3 months maternity leave and worked term-time for a couple of years. Now I have come full circle and I work part-time and, more surprisingly for me, I actually cook as part of my job. But it is not full scale catering in a hot, pressured kitchen. I work as a housekeeper and my job includes housework, companionship and cooking a proper lunch. In fact I eat lunch with my employer, as that is in the nature of the job and I don’t think it would work as well otherwise.
What amazes me is the number of cookery books and television programmes there are based around preparing meals very quickly. To be honest, I’d be lost if I only spent 15 or 30 minutes in the evening cooking dinner for the family. After all, cooking a meal is also time to listen to the radio and (some evenings) enjoy a glass of wine. If I have a left-over meal in the freezer I am often reluctant to use it, as I always prefer to make something fresh.
But what is fast food? For me it is definitely not a take-away. For a start, most take-aways are pretty bad to eat and bad value. I think that pizza is particularly bad value, being comprised mainly of dough with a very small amount of topping. And for me, a take-away is more inconvenient than a home-cooked meal, as we live miles from any shops and restaurants. It would be quicker to make an omelette or do a fry up. So really on both counts most take-aways fail to be either ‘fast’ or ‘food’ for me. I make an exception for Indian take-aways, for which I do have a weakness (but this does not make them any more convenient to buy).
And at home quickly cooked meals can be more difficult to plan and get ready on time. Think of steak and chips or the simple cheese on toast, or perhaps scrambled eggs for 3 people. When I make scrambled eggs I quite often have to enlist the help of my daughter for watching toast and buttering it. And then I have to assemble everyone before actually cooking the eggs; otherwise they will probably decide to have a shower or make a long ‘phone call at the crucial moment! And hey presto, one runined pan of scrambled eggs!
Now a casserole may take several hours in the oven, but the preparation time can be quite short, depending on the recipe. And then all that waiting will be rewarded with wonderful smells and a dish that will not mind if the diners decide to make a ‘phone call, have a shower or be late turning up if invited as a guest. Just add mash and you have a meal fit for a king!
But as Paul my dear husband once said to me, to him all food is fast and convenient, because he knows that if I cook it, he does not have to worry about a thing and his dinner will be on the table at the required hour.

Posted on

Hints and Tips for Camping

Make sure you repump your airbed every night, and even then you will probably end up with a crick in the neck
Don’t pitch your tent next to people who snore…. (this one is tricky!)
Keep loo rolls and a torch by your bed
If you need water in the night, keep it in a bottle rather than a glass
And if you wear glasses, don’t leave them on the ground for people to tread on…..
Take a spouse or partner who is good at putting up tents, or if this is not possible, have the patience of a saint….

Posted on

A Real Gem of a Traditional Hardware Shop

I am a great painting and arts and crafts enthusiast, although the rule in our household is that I am only allowed to do messy jobs such as painting outside! This of course rules out painting walls in the house (Paul let me do the kitchen and then said ”never again!”) Why is this? I have this talent for getting glue and paint everywhere as well as on the object I am painting. So glue or paint ear is a real possibility. My worst habit is to step in paint that I have dripped on the floor and then transfer it to other parts of the house! Hence my painting jobs are confined to renovating book-cases, painting garden tables and chairs, and really anything that can be moved outside. Of course this does also mean that I am a fair weather painter.

St David’s Stores (http://www.stdavids-stores.co.uk/) is a real gem of a shop, and one we have taken to using in the past 12 years or so since we moved to the area of Maidenhead near Pinkneys Green. It is so refreshing to find a shop where you can buy single light bulbs and screws, and in addition the staff are really helpful and knowledgeable.  It is of course a family-run business; I have had many a friendly chat with the staff there, who are able to help and advise on products, whether you need something for painting, DIY or specialist cleaning. It is a typical hardware shop which packs so much into a relatively small premises. For my painting projects,  I can find much of the same range that you would find in a big DIY store. I am a big fan of the Dulux paint mix ranges, and of course because they are mixed to order, it does not matter that the shop is smaller – you can still get the full range of colours.

For me the big draw is the location; for us it is a local shop that I can drive to by myself. I have a driving phobia, so am very limited in where I can get to on my own. It is always my first choice for painting products. There is ample parking outside, and there is always a friendly member of staff available to carry heavy shopping to your car. In the winter we buy fuel for our open fire, and I have never had to carry the bags of coal or logs myself.

My most recent project was to renovate our barbecues using an amazing black paint, which withstands extremely high temperatures; of course I purchased the paint from St David’s Stores, and had a lovely chat with the young girl who served me. If the weather is still fine when we get back from our holiday, I shall be going there to stock up Cuprinol Wood Paint and re-paint the table and chairs in the picture you see on this post.

In this modern age, it is so refreshing to find a friendly, local shop where the staff have time to help you and really know their products. Long may this shop continue to thrive and provide a good service for Maidenhead residents!

Posted on

Strangers on a Train at Frinton Summer Theatre – starring Christopher Weeks

Sarah with Christopher the Star
The Set for Strangers on a Train at Frinton-on-Sea

I am a fan of detective stories and thrillers, and have always loved Alfred Hitchcock films. Strangers on a Train was written by Patricia Highsmith, (published in 1950) and I have seen the film adaptation from 1951 on many occasions. The stage play is apparently much truer to the original book. To my shame I have never read the book, so this will be a good one to take on holiday with me this year.

We have known the Weeks family for many years now, and have performed with Graham, Jenny, Christopher and  Eddie on many occasions in open-air Shakespeare productions. Debbie Keenan, Christopher’s aunt, has also performed with us. You could say that we have performed with a whole month of Weeks’! Indeed in the 2014 production of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ which Paul Seddon directed, Christopher played Gratiano,  and I spent most of the performance serving canapes and drinks, and trying to move a rope across the stage without tripping over any of the actors.

When we heard that Christopher was to make his debut professional appearance as Guy Haines in Strangers on a Train, we just had to book tickets for this exciting occasion. Frinton-on-Sea is a long drive from Maidenhead, but not unachievable without staying over-night in a hotel.  We arrived at Frinton Summer Theatre just in time to have a first course at Avenue Bistro just a few minutes walk away: http://avenuebistro.co.uk/ I’d highly recommend this for a really good dinner. We had a sharing starter of mixed meats and olives, and I am just sorry that we did not have time for a full meal.

The theatre  at Frinton is small and has a real buzz. Do go there if you get the chance: http://www.frintonsummertheatre.org/ and everyone was very friendly and welcoming. This was the 78th season at the McGrigor Hall, which is the UK’s oldest repertory theatre.  I was sorely tempted too by the next production of ‘The Odd Couple’.

Strangers on a Train is a really gripping thriller, which is enjoyable even if you are more familiar with the film. I actually enjoyed spotting the differences. You could feel the agony of Guy Haines, especially after he committed his murder! In the film of course, he does not carry out the murder. I make no apology for spoilers here, as the film is so well known. Inevitably the play has a smaller cast, and the characters of Miriam, the hated wife, and the father of Charles Bruno, do not appear. Bruno gives a wonderfully graphic description of how he has killed Miriam.

Christopher graduates this year from the Oxford School of Drama: http://www.oxforddrama.ac.uk/ which is also where Abram Rooney (Charles Bruno) and Molly Chesworth (Anne Faulkner) have been students. Molly also graduates this year. Jonathan Tafler (Director) has also taught there.

We are really pleased to have been a part of this exciting development in Christopher’s career. We met him afterwards, and he was kind enough to sign my programme and have his photo taken with me (see photos above). We also met Colin Baker (aka the 6th Doctor Who) who is the father of Christopher’s lovely girlfriend Lucy Baker. Lucy had her first book published recently. Watch out for a future blog post about the wonderful ‘Rhino wants a wife.’ Rosie Baker was also watching the play that evening. I just regret being too shy to ask Colin for a photo opportunity too! As Paul said afterwards, with the traffic being so bad that day, Dr Who probably missed not having the Tardis any more.

All in all this was a night to remember, and we look forward to following Christopher’s career on stage and maybe screen.

 

 

 

Posted on

The worst tapas bar in Salamanca….. (probably) (August 2014)

Possibly the worst tapas in Salamanca…

We are taking our usual long summer holiday this August and this time decided to head for Orgiva, in The Alpujarras in Southern Spain. The format of the holiday is to take a long drive and ferry trip. We are not keen on flying for various reasons, and Paul loves driving. So on the journey down we camped at various sites until reaching Orgiva after 6 days travelling. The journey also gave us an opportunity to visit some other great cities and regions of Spain.

Those of you who know me know that I love food. That is a big understatement but we’ll leave it at that for the moment! In fact really I prefer to cook than eat out, and fortunately Paul prefers my cooking to restaurant food. In the UK this is not only because of the quality but also the cost. So on holiday (as we are this year for 4 and a half weeks) we eat out more than we do in England for the rest of the year. When travelling this is inevitable; I do not actually cook when we are camping. What we did not have much of last time we were on holiday in Spain was tapas. We seemed to go to the wrong type of restaurants. And we were never offered free tapas with drinks. So on this holiday I have been delighted to encounter both free tapas and plenty to buy from menus.

I am not going to name this restaurant, but I shall just say that it is in Salamanca and was not a good experience. We arrived before 8:00pm and the dinner menu was not available until 8:30. So we decided to go for tapas, or rather raciones, which are bigger than tapas. We did get carried away and order 4 each, so 12 dishes for the 3 of us. Amongst those dishes were some repeats; Paul and Jess both chose Spanish Omlette, and Paul and I both opted for Patatas Bravas. For a start the portions were huge; I should maybe have looked more closely into exactly what a raciones is! It was not just that though. It was all so stodgy, with mainly carbohydrate-based dishes. My Russian Salad was indescribable! Awful dressing and slightly rancid-tasting vegetables. It was the Patatas Bravas which defeated us though. In fact we thought maybe he had brought us the Patatas with pink cocktail sauce by mistake, which was also listed on the menu. The bill listed it correctly though. As is traditional with this dish, the potatoes were cooked separately with the sauce dolloped on the top, but even Jess was not tempted by extra chips! So you should be able to see two plates of that in the picture, barely eaten.

On the positive side, I enjoyed my mussels and Paul enjoyed his potatoes cooked with chorizo. It did become a bit of a competition to compare who had actually managed to eat a complete dish of food. It reminded me of a lovely tapas bar in France last year, when we really challenged the chef by ordering everything on the menu!

On another positive note, it was a very cheap dinner, as they all tend to be in Spain!

 

 

 

 

Posted on

El Nidito – a beautiful holiday villa in Orgiva (August 2014)

Dinner provided by Ainsley on our first evening in El Nidito
Fun in the pool at El Nidito

I first found this villa four years ago when doing my usual internet search for interesting, out of the way properties to let in Europe. The first thing that struck me was the amazingingly good value rental cost; no difference between coming in April or August. However, the properties (there is a larger one called El Nido) are obviously so popular that the couple letting them get repeat business so you really have to plan ahead. So I found another villa in Spain and forgot about El Nidito. Last year soon before we were due to set off for our holiday in Southern France, for some reason I remembered the little villa in Orgiva and made enquiries. Because of the good price, we made a provisional booking for three weeks in August of this year. We have taken to travelling in Europe by land and sea, so the journey is all part of the holiday and we see much more of the country than we would if flying.

Anyway, back to El Nidito. It is in the Alpujarran town of Orgiva, and is the area of Spain made famous by Chris Stewart of ‘Driving over Lemons’ fame. Paul is much more travelled than I am and was enthusiastic at the prospect of visiting this part of Spain again. After travelling across Spain via Cherbourg, St Nazaire and Gijon (our two ferries, more of which I’ll tell you in another piece) we reached Orgiva on Saturday evening. We had left England early on Monday morning. There are three properties next to each other, and Clare and Ainsley live in the largest house and are on hand if guests have any problems or questions. The properties are reached up a steep, rough track just out of the town. It is a ten minute walk into the town with its wide selection of shops, banks and restaurants. If you are as unfit and vulnerable to the heat as I am, you might find the walk back really tough, and not to be attempted between 10:00 and midnight without a bottle of water!

Clare and Ainsley are an English couple who have lived in the area for over 20 years. They are very in tune with the needs of holiday makers, and as well as the usual welcome pack of wine, butter and yoghurt and a well-stocked cupboard with spices, olive oil and vinegar and local eggs from their neighbours’ chickens, we accepted their offer of a starter veg box. Also Ainsley cooked us a two-course dinner to make it a little easier for us arriving on a Saturday evening.

The kitchen cupboards are well stocked and there are plenty of saucepans and bowls as well as useful utensils such as a vegetable peeler, sharp knives and a corkscrew. I was also impressed by the inclusion of kitchen scales and a good lemon squeezer.

The layout of the house is all on one level; a single and double bedroom each with an ensuite, then one kitchen/dining room. Of course most of the living and, for us, dining, takes place outside in the summer and there is a lovely big table outside under a gazebo/awning construction. As the property sleeps only four and there are only three of us, the space is generous. I sometimes find that if properties are for small families or groups, tables can be very small and there are never extra chairs. Not so at El Nidito, which has plenty of dining chairs, and also extra small tables outside so that you can sit in different locations depending on where the sun is shining. The pool is small, but just right for a family of three as we are. Paul keeps saying he will go for a swim if it gets warmer! Jess and I swim several times a day which we consider necessary to our sanity and well-being.

There is a washing machine in the garden, which I use frequenntly. We have found that in smaller holiday properties there is either a dish-washer or washing machine, and I much prefer the latter given the choice. There is also an excellent charcoal barbecue which heats up really efficiently. Personally I can only barbecue later in the evening given the intense heat. Last night I lit it at about 7:45.

The pool is filled up and cleaned every day, which is very pleasant. I am used to spending much time pool cleaning as we have an above-ground one at home.

Finally, the main bedroom has an air-conditioning unit, which is great if you are hot and weary during the day, as you can just sit and be blasted by cool air. It is far too noisy to use during the night, so we leave the doors and window open; there is a bead curtain and mosquito net to deter biting bugs. Happy to say that in this part of Spain there are fewer horrific insects and mosquitoes than for instance in Tuscany, where Paul acquired some truly ghastly bites.Also we could not eat outside in the evening as much there.

We have just over a week left here at El Nidito and can truly say that it was a good choice, whilst being a very economical option for a three-week break in August!