Oops! I changed my e-mail address last night on WordPress. And what did it do to me? Well, it deleted all (oh yes, ALL) my subscriptions.
So…over the next few days I will try and visit you all and re-subscribe. If I´m a regular visitor/commenter to your site and I haven´t done this in the next week, I won´t be offended if you drop by and give me a gentle nudge….I don´t want to miss out on anything.
Grumble, grumble….
Remember my Safari Skirt? When I bought it, I also came across another one, in a pretty pale blue pattern. This was more fitted, made up of panels, but way too small at the waist. It also had a zip.
Here´s how I made it fit (and I can be quite determined when I want to be)!
First I cut the skirt from around the top to give me the length I wanted less 2cm (I was going to add a waistband).
Then I unpicked the zip from the piece I had removed (you may need to do this first if it overlaps into the section of skirt that remains). I unpicked the side of the skirt to the length of the zip and reinserted the zip.
The skirt was now too big around the waist for me, so I added some darts at the front and back to make it fit comfortably.
Then I cut the piece of fabric from the top of the skirt lengthways to make two narrow strips which I joined together to make one long strip (this would become my new waistband, although I would not need it all as it became one very long strip).
This was pinned wrong sides together round the outside of the skirt.
I left a few cm at each zip edge to turn in.
This was stitched down, then the waistband turned over and under on the inside of the skirt and stitched again. I did this by hand because I enjoy hand stitching, but it could be done more quickly with machine stitching.
Finally I tucked in the ends of the waistband to give me a little overlap to add some snap fasteners and I also reinserted the hanging loops which I had recycled from the original waistband.
The finished skirt, which will is cool and comfy…I love soft cotton which is slightly “worn”, perfect for running around in the heat.
The photo makes it look very short and “stumpy” – I should have removed the half-finished top from Marilyn, I am sure that would have helped!
Chicken is a great healer, so they say, especially chicken soup. Well, I made soup last week for the sick girl, but fortunately she was at that point of recovery where she was wanting to move on from invalid food and, as we joked, to using a knife and fork!
In London it´s easy to get wonderful vegetables year round and I was inspired by a beautiful little butternut squash that was in the veggie basket. As with most of my dishes, this is simple to put together, then you forget about it for a while, then you eat it and the next day you make another delicious soup. Well, I fancied it, it was raining.
Ingredients for 2 people
Put all the ingredients into an oven tray, pour over a little olive oil and season then sprinkle over the cumin and chili. Mix it all up to ensure everything is covered with oil and seasoning then pour over the wine/stock and tuck in the herbs.
Cover with foil and cook on a medium heat for about an hour and a quarter. Remove the foil, check that the chicken is cooked through (if not leave for a little longer) then turn the oven up to high and cook for a further 15 minutes until the chicken skin is crispy and the vegetables start to turn brown at the edges. Serve and enjoy!
The next day I peeled what was left of the pumpkin and potatoes, put it all into a pot, added a little more cumin and chilli then covered with water. I bought the dish to a boil and then simmered for about 15 minutes. Then I blended with a stick blender and added about a cup of milk to thin it slightly then warmed through and served.
One of our local villages is famed for its cherries, and even has a fiesta dedicated to this beautiful fruit next weekend. What lucky folk we are! I am back from my trip toLondon where I was spending time with Best Friend Ria who was not long out of hospital. She is on the mend and we spent a week doing things very slowly…always best when you are feeling sore and tired.
On a trip into the village (before leaving for the UK) to buy som of the famed cherries, I was also given half a dozen over-ripe bananas as the fruit lady knew that I used them to make cakes. “Let me know what you do with them” she called, so I made an extra large batch of batter and sent her over some little cup cakes I made with the extra mixture.
To make one large cake though, follow this simple recipe. You won´t regret it!
Ingredients
Heat the oven to 180ºC and line either a large round or loaf tin or two small ones with greaseproof paper. Beat the oil and sugar together then beat in the eggs. Add the banana, cherries and vanilla and stir then gradually stir in the flour. Pour into a prepared tin and bake for 1 hour (large tin) or about 45 mins (2 smaller tins).
This recipe is adapted from my banana bread recipe. And if you´re feeling like you need a little drink to go with your cake, why not try a glass of Cherry Brandy or a Cherry and Watermelon Granizada. Don´t you just love summer fruits?!
Finally, I thought it was about time I put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) for this classic recipe. I went to a local expert, he´s called “Chef Colorin” and he makes the paellas for all the local fiestas. Be warned, there are LOADS of photos in this post, but I hope you enjoy seeing the process.
Of course, he wasn´t going to just sit down with me over a glass of wine and give me the recipe. Much better than that, I was going to join in with the cooking. Fantastic, I thought, how many are we cooking for then Chef? Oh, not too many he told me, only 420 on Sunday. Get there about 11am he said, and we´ll show you the ropes.
Not one to balk at such a challenge, and I even wore the exceedingly unflattering hat (yes, I´ll show you the photos). It was one of the hottest and windiest days we´ve had for a while, so we couldn´t even put a shelter up for shade. Hey ho, the show must go on, and of course, it did.
We used 3 Paella pans which make 140 portions each. Feel free to adapt for smaller groups! The ingredients below are per 140 person pan.
Start with your base stock which is made in large 50 litre pots, sheltered from the wind today with a clever little device which goes round the base of the gas ring.
Into each pot goes 800g of stock cubes to 50 litres of water (at home, you´d probably use home made chicken or fish stock), 5 bay leaves, 2 tablespoons of sweet pimentón, 200cl of dry white wine, 500g each of chopped peppers and garlic, 1kg of monkfish, assorted fish bones, 400g of chopped tomato and 4 kilos of prawns with their shells on. Bring to the boil then simmer for about 20 minutes or so. Chef added 14 sachets of paella food colouring to the mix but at home we´d use saffron or turmeric.
Strain out the prawns, fish etc.
Then, wearing your glamorous outfit, count out 280 prawns (that´s so that everyone gets at least 2 each) and pull any meaty bits of fish off the bones. First come, first served on any extra prawns!
Is your fire ready to cook? I hope so, we´re going to begin.
Heat 3 litres of olive oil in your pan and add 8 kilos of chopped pork and season with salt to taste. Fry gently for a few minutes.
Now add a couple of heaped tablespoons of sweet pimentón.
Next comes a kilo each of red and green peppers and 250g of chopped garlic. Don´t forget the seafood – 2 kilos of chopped squid.
Stir gently while making silly faces.
Time to add 4 kilos of chopped tomatoes and a kilo of sliced roasted peppers.
Open the bags of rice carefully – 14kg for 140 people, which translates to 100g per person at home.
Add to the pan.
Stir gently into the sofrito with your giant paddle.
Now add30 litres of stock (which is 2 litres of stock per kilo of rice, plus a little extra – at home you would add 200cl plus a dash per 100g of rice…see, not so complicated!).
Keep that rice moving without burning your legs on the fire underneath the pan.
It´s much harder than it looks! (And don´t forget to taste).
Remove from the heat and sprinkle over those prawns and the fish you set aside.
Phew, job done. Time to show off an enormous loaf of bread baked by a local baker.
While we´re eating, you can enjoy a vaguely arty shot of a clean paella pan (don´t forget to oil it after washing up).
PS. Am off to London tomorrow for a week so will try to keep up with all your lovely blogs and comments, but apologies if some have to wait until after 20th June. Hope you enjoyed the paella making as much as I did, sorry it was so long but I really enjoyed putting it together. I do have to admit though, I was quite glad to take my “uniform” off and sit down in the shade of an olive tree with a large glass of tinto de verano.
Things are really shaping up in our huerto, our little vegetable garden. Yesterday the last of the broad beans were harvested and they leave us with a nice patch to fill with something else tasty.
Our garlic, which is a variety from Granada, is now just about ready for harvesting.
As you can see, it´s a small variety, slightly pink, and it tastes very sweet. Here it is alongside one of our onions which we had expected to be bigger, but no matter…they taste great.
So, we now need to pick our 320 garlic bulbs and dry them out a little. We already have a waiting list of people who want a few, so my worries about how on earth we would use that many are already being addressed.
In order to celebrate the new garlic I made a simple dish of chicken joints, potatoes, small chunks of a whole lemon, a bulb of the fresh garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil and some rosemary and oregano from our garden. I was inspired by this lovely simple recipe from Mary Cadogan over on the BBC website, but played around with it – I hope she won´t mind!
Into the oven it went, after having a good slug of local dry sherry poured over, where it sat cooking slowly at a medium heat for about 2 hours.
A little salad of finely chopped tomato with some chopped garlic and the last few fresh broad bean pods was my final tribute to the garden.
Simple, tasty and a perfect pick me up for the Up the Mountain garlic pickers!
This is a lovely, light dish which looks impressive but is quick and easy to prepare. More so if you have already made some tomato sauce and buy ready cleaned squid.
If you need some help cleaning your squid, click here.
Ingredients Per Person
Simply warm the sauce through then drop in the squid (this can be served whole or cut into smaller chunks. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes or until the squid has turned white. Taste, season, then serve – see, I told you it was easy!
Now that the heat seems to have arrived (and looks to stay), we make the shift to summer food. Fast cooking, not so much time spent in the kitchen, and a lot of cooking on the barbecue…as long as we can find a shady spot for it.
Couscous ticks a lot of the boxes as it´s so quick and easy to prepare, and provides a blank canvas to work with. I´m sure many of you have your favourite ways of preparing it, and I´d love to hear what they are. Here are a couple of ways I´ve served it recently. Both versions serve 4 as a side dish and were made with 1 cup of cous cous prepared according to the packet instructions and served chilled.
Couscous with Mushrooms and Courgettes
Couscous with “Gazpacho”
Two simple dishes to inspire and feed you.
As some of you may know, I enjoy a trip to the local (well, 50km away) Charity Shops, I think they´re known as Thrift Stores in the US. There are several reasons for this. I´m not a sylph-like babe but I´m not a pensioner yet. Many clothes made here in Spain for the more…shall we say…curvaceous woman, are designed with a 90 year old widow in mind, so I don´t tend to even find many new clothes which I´d actually want to wear.
Secondly, I love to sew and enjoy the challenge of refashioning a well made garment into something for myself and knowing that rather than ending up in a landfill somewhere, it´s enjoying a second life.
Finally, the charity shops are there to provide much needed help to those in need. The two shops in the little town I go to support different causes. One (CUDECA) is a Cancer Hospice for the terminally ill which makes no charges at all to anyone living in Andalucía who needs to spend their last days in such a facility. The second, (APARIV) rehomes stray dogs, of which there are a huge amount. The second charity also ensures the dogs are fit, well and (very importantly) sterilised or neutered, before they go off to their new homes around Europe.
So…here´s a typical refashion for me. I find a lovely dress which is way too tight across the chest, but fits me from the waist or hips down. I couldn´t get it onto my mannequin Marilyn, as she is set up to be roughly my shape (poor thing), but you get the idea. Do make sure to wash the garment first (apart from the fact that it will need a good wash, you want to make sure it doesn´t shrink after you have altered it). I loved this fabric as, apart from being in my favourite orange, the print made me think of safaris (a dream of mine)!
I started by measuring where I wanted the hem of the skirt to be on me. I then pinned the outer fabric and inner lining all the way round just above my natural waistline and then cut the dress just above the pins.
After tacking the fabric and lining together (you could also machine this) I turned the fabric in to create a new waistband leaving enough space to thread ribbon or elastic through. I´ll show you another day how I do a similar refashion but with a zip. I sewed by hand (because I enjoy it) but this could easily be done with a machine.
Finally I threaded some ribbon through (I have since bought some matching ribbon, but it ties and hangs on the inside anyway).
The finished skirt, which will be enjoying the summer with me up the mountain!
This is a great technique to use on any skirts you have hanging, forgotten, in your wardrobe because they are a bit tight at the waist. As long as you don´t mind losing a little length, you can cut them down from the waist and – voilá – you have a wider waistband which you can then refashion as above and either insert elastic (or ribbon) or move the zip down.
And don´t worry, the top half will be refashioned into a new top for one of my more petite friends.
Keeping with the recent Indian theme, a final recipe (for the moment at least) from the very reliable Anjum Anand. A delicious side dish or vegetarian main dish as part of a curry meal. I have eaten versions of this dish which have been thin like a soup, thick like a paté and others which are between the two (like this one). All are equally tasty and delicious with roti or any other Indian flatbread.
Ingredients
Place the lentils and 900ml/1¾ pints of the water into a pan, stir well and bring to the boil. Skim off any froth that forms on the surface of the water with a spoon. Cover the pan with a lid and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer, stirring regularly, for 35-40 minutes, or until the lentils are just tender, adding more water as necessary.
When the lentils have cooked through, remove the pan from the heat and use a stick blenbder or potato masher to break down the lentils slightly (optional). Set the mixture aside to thicken and cool.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and fry for 20-30 seconds, or until fragrant.
Add the onion, chillies and ginger and fry for 4-5 minutes, or until golden-brown. Add the garlic and tomatoes to the pan and stir well to combine.
Add the ground spices and 100ml/3½fl oz of water to the pan and stir well to combine. Season, to taste, with salt and simmer over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, or until the oil from the sauce has risen to the surface of the sauce.
Add the cooked lentils to the sauce and stir well, adding more water as necessary to loosen the mixture. Bring the mixture to the boil and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in the chopped coriander (if using) just before serving.
This recipe can also be found on the BBC website here.
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