Cooking and Making Things

 

As I said to Mum today "Sundays seem to come round ever so quickly" - not that she would have heard, she admitted as she came in through the door that she had forgotten to put in her hearing aids.  This so irritates us because her excuse is that she has to take them out to shower.  As I pointed out she takes her glasses off to shower but always remembers to put them back on.  She wouldn't dream of coming up here without her glasses but her hearing aids are a different matter.  Jane said it didn't seem to have affected her hearing much as she managed to engage in conversation with her and John as they drove up.  It wasn't a good start to the day as you can imagine.  I became the adult telling Mum off and she became the petulant sulky child!

I had made Stifado today - it is my go to dish because it never fails - well I say never but once I cooked the Stifado for so long and used too good a cut of meat so that I ended up with thick gravy - today no such problem as I had boneless shin from Naz which keeps its shape and is packed with flavour.  I didn't think there was that much meat when I started to make it but actually it was more than enough.  We had smashed roasties and carrots and peas.  I enjoyed it because I had done most of the cooking and all of the other prep yesterday so didn't have to spend all morning faffing about.

We cheated today with a bought pudding.  John had chosen a Mango confection from Paps which was nice.  The colours were a bit disconcerting though!!!  Everyone seemed to enjoy it and it was one less thing we needed to bother with.  Tomorrow we are going to lunch at Sonia's because it is her birthday and then in the evening we have Liselotte and John coming round for cards and a Lebanese meal - this will be the last time we see them this year as they have a very busy Christmas ahead of them.

I had decided to do Lebanese for tomorrow.  I am really enjoying discovering new recipes and flavours and creating meals which we enjoy which do not rely on meat.

I have to thank Nicky for allowing me to use her newly purchased cheese straining bag.  One of the starters I am trying to make is called Labneh.  Basically it is extra extra strained yoghurt so that it ends up like a curd and then you flavour it.

You need to have full fat Greek style yoghurt which you mix with some salt which I guess draws out the fluid.  Then you pack it into the straining bag and suspend over a bowl so that over the course of a day or so you extract as much whey as possible - it is a slow process and the temptation is to squeeze the bag but then all you get is a messy hand!

I shall report back on this tomorrow as I will remove the curd tomorrow and mix with lemon juice and zest and black pepper and then you put olive oil and za'atar on the top.  Za'atar is a mix of spices and I have made my own - only by virtue of the fact that I bought Sumac ages ago and have never got round to using it!

I did not get to Craft this week - the weather was just too awful to venture out although it may well have been ok in Neo Chorio but the walk to and from the car would have been enough to get me soaked to the skin.  

I had intended to make a gift for Jane so had to try and do it at home with all the things I had knocking about in my craft cupboard some of which Janet and Jackie left behind (for which many thanks).

I hope Jane likes it.  Jane and John have, after many years, recently moved house to Somerton so it might just grace a corner somewhere at Christmas and serve as a reminder of many times spent here.  

We have made arrangements to see them again on Wednesday when we plan to go to the winery for lunch and then wander down into Polis and see what the Christmas Village thing is all about.  Photographs taken there are the weekend look good and I want to try out the new wine bar place if only to see the decorations.  We shall then see them again on Friday for their last night when they have chosen to go to Letymbou as they did last year - I might enjoy it more this time, last time I was on my super restricted diet!

It was a chilly evening and so we actually sat down with the gas fire lit.  John is contemplating lighting the wood burner tomorrow night when we have guests but we usually hold off until December 1st!!

We watched some of the world cup and finished off the bottle of red which we had opened for lunch.  All the cats were in and snuggled up with us too.  Tomorrow we are going to get down the thick throw to put on the bed as the bedroom temperature has begun to drop rapidly - tonight it was only 13 degrees.  We don't actually like a hot bedroom but like to get into bed feeling cosy and warm so the fluffy bed sheet might get its first outing too!!!!

Fingers crossed that the wet weather has gone away for a while as my sister arrives on Sunday - when she came last year she had good weather and we managed to sit outside to eat when we went to Molos.  

She arrives and leaves on a Sunday which is a bit awkward in terms of eating here - she arrives too late the first Sunday and will need to be back to the airport too early on the other.