As we aren’t able to spend it with our mothers it is very kind of them to have arranged to get together anyway with the rest of the Anderson clan. Although we are very jealous of the lamb roast that Keith’s mum is cooking so we thought we would join in and celebrate so took ourselves out for lunch for a good Paella at one of the restaurants that we have been wanting to try for a while…. by the way, just in case you were wondering it was a black rice which is with Squid ink…. very rich, but full of flavour…
I don’t know where the time has gone but the last two months have just disappeared and the blog appears to have gone with them.
It won’t be of any surprise though to find that the time has been filled with food, drink, discovering new places and a bit of planning – I know, it is unusual for us but we have been putting quite a bit of thought into the plan this year – normally we don’t think much further than a few days ahead, if we are lucky – however we have extended it a little further than normal …. deciding to bite the bullet and go to New Zealand for three months towards the end of the year. Don’t get too excited though as all we have done is booked the flights and hired a motorhome (after much contemplating of whether we should be shipping ours over there). The rest of the planning will probably happen on the plane in October!
We are however coming towards the end of our time in Alicante, so with roughly five weeks until we set off we should be thinking a little more about the next part of our adventure to Eastern Europe…… that will come I guess, probably the week before we leave or possible after we set off as we know we need to get to Venice first …..
In the mean time, whilst we haven’t been planning, we have had a fantastic weekend in Madrid back in January, doing a bit of a tapas crawl through Malasana which is an area just north of the center with hundreds of small bars, each heaving with people catching up with friends for a couple of drinks and a few tapas on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. We hopped from bar to bar enjoying everything from Spinach Croquets to Mussels before giving in to the proper hunger and indulging in two perfectly cooked (which means with the eggs slightly oozing) tortillas and a lot of Chorizo in Cider in the early evening …. possibly a little bit over indulgent for four people but, we were four very happy (and a little fat) people afterwards !!
It hasn’t all been food related, we have ventured a little further afield towards Benidorm with Pilar, Nuria and a couple of other friends to do a lovely wooded walk…. getting to see the nicer side of Benidorm from above before heading back to Villa Joyosa for a lunch (Ok, I lied – it is all food related!) with the most amazing dessert Keith and I have had away from home for a long time …. Tarta de Turron – which basically consisted of melted down nougat (almonds) on a pastry base …. it was heavenly!
We have had a few visitors over the last couple of months or so and on Richards’ (Gonzo) request, we agreed on a grey day to venture over to Benidorm to see where the show ‘Benidorm’ was filmed… it was a bit of a disappointment to find that the hotel was being renovated, the bar was shut and actually much of it was filmed elsewhere …. that said, as the day went on the sun came out and we did get a reasonable sunset but I don’t think that he will be in a rush to go back.
After a couple of slightly cooler and windier weeks – believe it or not there was actually snow on the tops of the mountains here for a few days – the sun has started to come out a little more, rising to around 20 during the day and only falling to 10 overnight…. Summer is finally here (well British summer anyway!) so the bar b q has come out a little more and we have even started to eat breakfast outside again … pure luxury!
I have added a few more recipes onto the blog just in case you fancy them, Cassoulet, Dijon Chicken and Meatballs… just to keep things ticking along!
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