Perfect Place to Park in Portugal

Rio Guadian between Spain and Portugal
Now this is what I call living the good life. We love the area along the Guadiana River which forms the border between Spain and Portugal. We found this beautiful spot quite by accident and are in awe of the beauty that surrounds us.

Passion for Pancakes

Lena’s deevine pancakes
Passion is definitely the theme for January so I decided to share another passion, this time one of The Husband’s Passions. Joerg loves pancakes (me too!) and Lena’s pancakes are positively fabulous. I make a mean Apple Pancake (Lynn my American mate can vouch for this), but these are deevine too.

Chorizo, Butternut and Pearl Barley Recipe

Chorizo, butternut and pearl barley
I saw this recipe from Rachel Allen in the Sunday Times Magazine and have adapted it to suit us. Her original version is no doubt super, but I wanted a one-pot meal. She roasts the butternut in the oven first, something that is always good, so give it a try that way too.

Cooking chorizo the Portuguese way

Cooking chorizo in alcohol
Now that’s what I call cooking. You take a heat resistant baking dish, pour in some local schnapps, set it alight, put in your cured chorizo sausage which you keep lifting with your fork and voila, you have dinner! I ain’t seen nothing like this before.

Passion for Portugal

Laranjeiras mountains
I love Portugal! J’aime Portugal! Ich liebe Portugal! The incredible blue skies, the never ending sandy beaches, the deevine food and last, but certainly not least, the amazing Portuguese people. We’ve arrived once again at our second home, Portugal and are thrilled to be here.

Happy New Year!

May 2016 bring all the joy and happiness you do or don’t deserve! What would a New Year be without New Years Resolutions and I have no intention of changing this (useless) tradition. So I aspire to write many, many posts this year…don’t hold your breath, it could be dangerous! No, no, that’s not getting into the New Years spirit! I WILL WRITE. Now that’s more like it.

Table d’Olivier, Samatan, Gers, France

Pannacota
Our wonderful mate, Deirdre, invited us for dinner last month to probably the best restaurant in the Gers. We eat out quite a lot and I can say unreservedly that this restaurant serves superb, quality food, beautifully presented, imaginative and deelicious. I highly recommend it!

A sad day

My sincere condolences to all the families and friends lost in the terrible attack in Paris last night. It's unbelievable what the human species is capabale of doing. The wonderful student, Mathilde, told us today that everyone was lighting a candle in their windows today to show solidarity, so we have done the same. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

Noble November

Pyrenees from our house
We have been having the most magnificent November I've ever had here in France weatherwise and have had magnificent views of the Pyrenees. This is what it looked like a couple of days ago.

Lena's Potato Salad

Lena's Potato Salad
I don’t know about you, but I love potato salad. My mother made a deevine yet incredibly simple one with just potatoes, hard-boiled eggs and mayonnaise which we always had with braais (barbecue to the rest of the world!).