cooking
I need to be well prepared this week. Our days are full of appointments and other jobs. A quick survey of the fridge led me to using up most of the eggs. That involved a crustless quiche. I have made this in the past following recipetineats.com Crustless Quiche recipe and it was very good. This time I based my quiche on her quantities, sort of, but added chives to the spring onions, a tomato for some colour and used sheeps yoghurt instead of cream. No ham left from Christmas! I also used a Spanish goat and sheep cheese (El Hidalgo) because I had it in the fridge.
Aiming for 30 different foods a week.
There were leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch ( I love leftovers for lunch). After lunch we set off to the shops with a rather long shopping list. I like semi-emptying the fridge and getting everything fresh again and have a fair idea what I’ll be preparing this week. I also made a sourdough loaf but that’s going very quickly! I also bought watermelon, because what’s summer without watermelon? It lasted one day.
Image Pixabay
grow
Although I don’t have a big garden I make use of all the space I have available. I have a lime tree in the centre of the front courtyard which fruits at a different time from my neighbour’s lime tree, hanging over the fence. Fresh limes are wonderful!
Then I have a side courtyard and a back courtyard. I like fresh flowers in the garden all year round but I also like fresh herbs and vegetables. All my herbs and vegetables are grown in pots. This includes perpetual spinach, which can be added to almost anything savoury and a lot of herbs plus spring onions. At the moment, the entire side and back area are a bit overwhelmed by tomatoes! I have two sorts, one a cherry truss tomato my Mother grew forever and the other an unknown tomato. My friend gave me a tomato to taste when she was given a bag full and it was very good. I harvested the seeds and they are thriving. So, of course, I grow a lot of basil, too!
read
Do you keep some books because they were really engaging and you know you’ll read them again, one day? I have a few books in the category, one I reach for about every six years if I get a cold, and two I’d forgotten about but really enjoyed rereading now. The first book I referred to is Lisa St Aubin de Terran’s A House in Italy. The author is English but loves all things Italian and writes with great affection plus a little frustration about restoring a palazzo in Italy. She writes about her treasured collections being sent from England, Scotland and a few places she’s rented throughout Italy. Amusing to read, but no so funny to experience!
My other two books are both by Karen Wheeler, who writes articles for glossy magazines about beauty and health. After discovering her fiancé was otherwise engaged when he was away on work, she takes some time to consider her future. She travels to France to visit a friends and buys a derelict house in a small, rural town and sets about renovating it. This is a slow process as she still travels to interview famous designers, perfumeriers and grand hotels and spa resorts. It’s called Tout Sweet, Hanging Up My High Heels For A New Life In France’. Very entertaining.
Her third book Sweet Encore, A Road Trip From Paris to Portugal Via Northern Spain. ( I cannot find the second one in the series. All that tidying up!) is about driving through France, Spain and Portugal with her 16 year old niece who lives in the Caymans. A real travelogue. Whilst in Portugal she visits the grave of her long time boyfriend who died as the result of a car accident. She describes Portugal as warm, beautiful and very affordable, and Spain as the exact opposite!
I sympathise with her views on Spain. Even before we lived overseas we liked to travel and have been to some very underdeveloped areas. In forty plus years of traveling independently, Barcelona is the only place someone tried to mug me! I’m sure I’ve been overcharged and my poor language skills have annoyed, but I have never been attacked like I was in Spain. We packed and took the next train to Zurich.
The other book I have read is Kate Atkinson’s Big Sky. If you enjoy a gritty, fast moving ‘who dunnit” this is for you!
