Spring Cleaning...

So basically we are having a stress free weekend - no football and no cooking Sunday lunch although John has a plan for Sunday - not sure what it is yet though!  So with that in mind what does a woman do when she has the whole of a Saturday stretching before her with nothing much planned?  She cleans her kitchen cupboards that's what!!!  There was a good reason for this, in fact two good reasons - firstly we have inherited food stuffs from leaving visitors for which we are very grateful but we don't always make a mental note of what we have received or if we have duplicates and secondly there is a danger of getting pantry moths if you are not careful.  Their larvae can be introduced when you buy packaged dry goods like flour, rice or pasta.  I try and keep everything in a container and also add a fresh bay leaf for good measure but thought I had seen a couple hanging around so better to be safe than sorry - everything got taken out, checked, cleaned repackaged and returned.  Let's just say I will not be needing to buy any tinned tuna any time soon - we did so for Hazel but then it never got eaten nor will I need any ground cumin because for some reason I have four separate jars.  We had a jar of jam that Louis Pasteur would have been proud of and some pesto that we thought we could donate to a food museum but finally what we did have were lovely clean and organised cupboards filled with things that we will use.

I took the opportunity to spend some time in the garden.  The last couple of evenings have seen such condensation that we have not needed to do any watering save for checking that the cat drinking bowls are full.

John has plans for the sitting area outside the kitchen door (which is actually our front door).  Currently we have shade provided by two elderly umbrellas one of which, the bigger one, I have repaired on numerous occasions.  It is holding its own but the bougainvillea is wreaking havoc with the fabric so its days are numbered.  We also moved some things around on the decked area in the front so that we have curtains out to provide shade and privacy.

I have utilised some of John's old beer bottles for some of the cuttings I have taken as I want them to root in water - they look aesthetically more pleasing than a jam jar but I can only a couple in each bottle.

Outside the clock vine is at its most beautiful.  This is the original plant which we split last year so there is a second one outside the kitchen which you can see in the picture above.  Today we have a glut of brown caterpillars on what remains of the vine - they are decimating it and covering the decking with poo!!

We decided to go and check the post - you can now drive through the village but only if you are careful and only for a while until they start the next phase.  It is a dusty and bumpy drive and there was no post at that time although Di and Rob checked later and I had a parcel which they kindly brought up with them.  I was very excited because it was my reusable stretchy silicon food covers which you use instead of cling film - I am trying to do my bit for the planet.

As we were out in the car we decided that we would treat ourselves to an ice cream down in Latchi and that would allow us to deliver the noodles we had bought for Louisa from the Smart Shop yesterday.  She had been saying that sometimes her working hours means she needs something quick and easy to eat and John had been telling her about the 'Yum-Yum' noodles he gets from the Smart Shop - they come in a variety of flavours but as Louisa is vegetarian we stuck to the vegetable ones although we did check and none of the others seemed to contain anything she could not eat - what might have been meat had been substituted with all sorts of flavourings and E numbers!!!  Anyway we found her walking towards the Childrens Centre at the Latchi Family resort and handed her the goodies and she was delighted.  She text later to say she had had a late finish and so these little beauties had come in handy.

We treated ourselves to ice creams at Porto Latchi - it was much sunnier and warmer down on the coast and there still seems to be lots of tourists about.

I decided to try the pomegranate flavour with a helping of vanilla.  It was OK but nothing stunning - I guess pomegranate isn't a very distinct flavour - if I had closed my eyes I wouldn't have been sure what it was - the vanilla is most definitely my favourite and I would do wise to stick to it!!

We returned home for a quiet afternoon.  We sat through the agony that is the cricket - bloody hell the England team is so bloomin' frustrating - they put themselves in with a chance and then throw it all away - blimey I think even I could do better at times!!

We had a small amount of last night's curry left over although not quite enough to feed two of us so I decided to try making some onion bhajis using the Curry Frenzy kit that came with the curry kits from Laura and Mark.  I do have an easy recipe for making them but thought these would be more authentic.  The first couple I tried to cook were a disaster because the fat had to be super super hot and once it was they cooked perfectly and were very very tasty.  The only problem was that it made quite a large batch and once we had eaten them we were full!!!