Usually when there’s a weather warning out for our general corner of the world, it never actually hits our specific corner of the world. I suppose being tucked away between two mountain ranges and two rivers might have something to do with that, but be that as it may, this time around, it actually hit us. “Storm Gusts of 85-95km/h” they predicted and that’s exactly what we got – and more, what with our two usually so protective middle mountains acting as a perfect wind tunnel.
Continue reading “Chickpea Flatbreads with Fig & Cashew Chutney and Goat’s Cheese”
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Oh boy. Here it is! That uncontrollable nasty little urge to bite into a juicy, not too sweet, dark chocolatey piece of brownie that crawls out of the woodwork about once or twice a year… and of course it comes knocking down the front door when there’s no oven in sight. What to do, what to do?
Slowly but surely, the world around me is going bananas. The great outdoors around me looks like an 80’s aerobic class and the local brewery teamed up with a Cirque de Soleil stage set and all the confetti ever produced for the CSD parades all across the globe… and had a good twirl on the Studio 54 floor together.
Alright, time to lighten up the wintery mood of our meals! While I’m honestly not fed up with Winter-themed comfort food at dinnertime yet, I’ve recently found myself prepping zingy, light and summery meals for lunch – looks like my inner clock is slowly but steadily ticking towards warmer temperatures while my tummy’s still kinda-sorta content being wrapped in a wintery comfort-blanket of sorts~!
Oh boy, it’s that time of the year again~! Certain markers, especially the smaller ones like the upcoming Valentine’s Day always startle me in a “didn’t we just do this like… yesterday?”-kind of way. The bigger holidays always seem sooo~ far away but, at least to me, the small ones really make the passing of time blatantly obvious. So, Valentine’s Day in just a bit over a week – as always a reason for Hubby and me not to do what extensive pink, flowery and chocolatey media bombardment expects us to do~!
As you guys may have already gathered from my general step-back from most things in the “sweets” department, sweet wines aren’t exactly my cup of… well, glass of wine I suppose! either. But, with the winter festivities not that far behind us, of course there are still some remnants and strays lingering around my pantry. Like, for example, a bottle of semi-sweet Burgundy Pinot Noir Hubby’s Grandmother gave to us – according to her, her favorite late-night “Sip-let” before bed.
Just last week, while I was in the middle of finishing up the Baked Apple post, I had that famous Art Print of Woodstock and Snoopy jumping into a large pile of dry leaves labelled “We Love the Simple Things in Life” flash through my head. And of course my mind immediately bolted over to Madeira, the islands heart and way of life so perfectly mirrored in its deliciously simple yet vibrant and colorful cuisine.
Now that the holidays are over, the “real” winter appears to be settling in around our corner of the world. Not just in the weather-related sense, but also in a more subtle way where the sudden lack of the all-encompassing fog of overly flamboyant Christmas-themed foodstuffs, -decorations, -music, -media coverage and the like leaves you with a sense of… focus? Awareness?
Welcome to 2019 everyone! I hope you had a good time over the last couple of days and celebrated the end of 2018 with a roaring party (or in any other way suited to your personal picture of “perfect”) that set exactly the right tones for a fantastic new year~!
The colder and nastier it gets outside, the more often my mind wanders off to about 2,800km west-southwest of here, to Madeira. Since there’s nothing I can do about shortening the actual distance on the spot, I can only tap into my recently refilled inner reserve of Madeira-Zen, roll up my sleeves and start cooking to bring a delicious little piece of the island into our corner of the world instead~!