Tuesday 19 January 2016

Tuesday - a culinary experiment...


With residual heat left in the wood burner we decided we would try jacket potatoes so that we had something to eat when we returned from Paphos.  We had done it before but ended up with two charcoal briquettes for our troubles - this time there were just a few glowing embers and John was going to shut the fire down so there would be no draw to ignite them further.  I prepared the potatoes as I would do Hasselbacks by scoring them through and then rubbing them with a little oil and salt.  I wrapped them in a layer of greaseproof and then a blanket of tin foil before putting them to bed in the fire.

John bought a little metal tray thing with a handle from Jumbos which fits snuggly inside the wood burner and so the three potatoes were given a warm home for the day.  As it happened they had around eight hours inside - news of which later.

We are well into our winter foods and the pressure cooker is currently my best friend in the kitchen as we have been making all sorts of soups using up leftovers.  I need to replace my liquidiser as the one I brought over from the UK sadly met its maker the other week so the soups we have at the moment have rather a rough texture to them!!!  The latest offering is a sort of leek and potato affair.  It has leeks and potatoes (obviously) but I also added cauliflower, onion, lemon, ginger and chilli and then gave it a bit of richness with some double cream.  Although I say so myself it is rather delicious and the hit of the ginger or the chilli gives a nice warm to it.

I have finally had to replace my beloved long washing lines - for several reasons, most importantly they were pulling the fencing down - which is reason enough but secondly the garden below has grown up over the years and we have had to dodge all sorts of spiky plants whilst trying to hang out our smalls.

I purchased a rotary line before Christmas from someone who was going back to the UK and it is a good heavy duty one and fortunately we had a concrete umbrella stand which fitted it perfectly - it is marvelous save for one small detail - I cannot reach any of the lines!!! John is going to have to get his engineering brain into gear and either build me some steps so I can reach or sink the concrete block down so that the lines are more accessible!!

The rotary got its first airing today - it was another lovely day and the few towels and things we had were able to christen it.  I liked my long lines but they had started to be very impractical.

We got ourselves sorted and headed off in the sun down to Paphos - badminton and pickleball calling and, before that, a haircut for me at long last!

We have decided that our kitchen cupboards would benefit from the addition of more shelving.  The current shelves are to widely spaced so we either have lots of unused areas or crockery or food stacked up in unstable pyramids - this does not please John!!!

I have no idea how much melamine shelves should cost and having heard Simon say how expensive carpentry is I was probably out with my estimate of €10 a shelf unit particularly as we wanted cream rather than the ubiquitous white.  John said I clearly had no idea how much shelving would cost and if I was going to penny pinch he would 'knock me some up' out of some random off bits of wood he has in his store!!!  Anyway we agreed to just go in and ask as we would be sort of passing Andreas's shop (where we were greeted by the biggest cockroach I have ever encountered and which was, fortunately, dead!!!).


I got my hair cut and not before time - it has been driving me absolutely nuts and I decided to have it all cut off.  Bless my lovely hairdresser - I asked her if the price was the same as usual as I thought her charges might have gone up this year and she said no and then said yes the price was different it was free and it was her gift to me for the New Year - no matter how much I argued she wouldn't take no for an answer.

We traveled along the Tombs of the Kings Road to Emba - John had read somewhere that the dual carriageway project was due to be completed by April but as we said they didn't say which April and looking at the state of the works so far it ain't going to be this one!

Pickleball was a bit exciting with the ball going everywhere.  I unfortunately hit Rosemarie in the face on two separate occasions but she went one better and hit one of the sensors which made the alarm go off and it took us some time to get it turned off!  The noise was so loud we couldn't play and it prompted a man from the bowls to come and investigate as to whether there were intruders!!

Mum Dad and I were going to go out for an afternoon cuppa at the cafe which is at Tala Monastery  - we drove up to find everything was closed for the season which was unfortunate so we had to find an alternative.  As I was on the Tremithousa road I suggested we suss out the newly finished Acropolis Tavern which is on the traffic light junction near the Outlet Store.


It is reasonably well set back from the main road that if you are sat on the upper terrace you are sheltered from the noise and as it faces the sun it was quite warm there - it is a traditional eating establishment - the food prices looked reasonable but wouldn't suggest you drink wine there as it was expensive €18 for a large carafe of house wine is way over the top in my book! 


Once John and I got home we rescued the jacket potatoes which were well done - in fact next time I will double wrap them in the tin foil to ensure they don't burn as we weren't there to turn them.  They were so well cooked that the inside was like mashed potato and John had his two with the leftover steak pie from Sunday.  The pie was so delicious I shall most definitely make that again and ask for the flank instead of the usual cubed beef that I buy.


I left John to go with Elena to the inaugural meeting of the Droushia Anglo-Cypriot Theatre group.  This is being organised by an actor from the village Nicos Shiafkalis who is Elena's uncle.  We had an impressive 13 people at the meeting from as far away as Limassol.!!!


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