This can be eaten hot, warm or cold, so it’s very flexible. And deevine at the same time! And easy too. Man, this just keeps on getting better. Does take a bit of time to julienne the vegetables though…what was that about clouds and silver linings? No, that’s the other way round, duh.

After all that relaxing, one needs a little exercise. Or so says my husband. Sigh. I had no idea there were so many mountains in Portugal. Really huge ones. Or so I say.

This photo needs no explanation and depicts me enjoying the sunshine. Okay, so I (mostly) sit in a slightly more ladylike fashion, but there‘s nothing like warm sunshine on a full tummy.

My mate Anja (her blog is called reisenundspeisen.com for German speakers) loaned me her South African cookbook so I could get homeland feelings. And it worked! There was a recipe for Guinea fowl maafe, but I had never heard of the word or the dish. If you have, let me know please!

I know it was 2 weeks ago, but I just have to tell you about the wonderful New Years Eve we had and the awesome food we ate. Us 4 had a super party and Liz made a magnificent 5 course meal that would put many a restaurant to shame and will leave you wishing she was a friend of yours too!

Another year has passed and what a year it was. There's not many a year that can trump Trump and Brexit! 2017 is set to be a very interesting year. Hubby and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that 2017 will be exactly as you want it to be. C&Jxxx

So you‘ ve had the travel log of the journey to Bologna, but now we need party info. We were fortunate enough to be surrounded by friends and acquaintances and lest we forget, the wonderful birthday boy, Roger, so it was perfect from the start.

Roger is a wonderful friend of ours and every 5 years he celebrates his birthday in a big way. This year was his 85th and he invited 70 of us to celebrate it with him in Bologna, Italy. Wow! I want to be just like Roger when I’m 85, just minus the moustache…

And I mean it literally. We had tea in a teapot! This magnificent, ginormous teapot can be found at Castelnau-Magnoac in the Gers, France. It was originally situated in Scotland, but as the old saying goes, “have teapot will travel”, it is now in France!

Bobotie is South Africa’s national dish and I never tire of it. I have put some of my own little twists to it, but the basic recipe is the traditional one. We had the deevine Rob and another new friend Guel for dinner a couple of days (make that months!) ago and they were a little worried about what to expect, but enjoyed it so much they have asked for the recipe. Thank you for the complement! So here it is!