Our friends Jean and Ian arrive from the UK this evening, so I am baking a couple of bits and pieces to leave in their apartment, lest they have the inevitable midnight munchies after their long journey from Somerset. Continue reading “Sticky fruit tea-bread”
Spinach, goat’s cheese and walnut tart
When I have a weird collection of vegetables in the fridge that need using up, my thoughts immediately switch to one of three things: soup, curry, tart. I bought a big bunch of spinach at the weekend, not really knowing what I was going to do with it, and there it was, still glaring at me when I opened the fridge to get the milk this morning.
There were also a couple of tired leeks and half of a wedge of goat’s cheese, which I must confess is long past its sell-by date (things like goat’s cheese shouldn’t have a sell-by date in my opinion – it just gets tastier. If it really has gone over, it will be sporting some kind of colourful mould that will give you a tip-off that it’s going to try to kill you if you eat it). Continue reading “Spinach, goat’s cheese and walnut tart”
Amazing nature
Turkey may be one of the world’s less attractive nations in terms of political and social freedoms, but when it comes to pure geographic and natural beauty, it is breathtaking.
Every time I question why we live here (and, believe me, I did today after being fined 416 lira, plus half as much again in notary fees, and wasting two days of my time, for failing to invite the authorities to my wedding reception), an answer presents itself. Continue reading “Amazing nature”
Emergency cake needed
It was all going swimmingly this morning until we accidentally owned up to being married. Having gathered a forest’s worth of paperwork yesterday, we then failed to complete the online form at the Turkish government’s new e-visa website, because the site wasn’t working. No surprises there then. Continue reading “Emergency cake needed”
Hot and spicy vegetable balti
It’s Tuesday so it must be a 5:2 day. Oh joy. And it’s residency permit renewal week for us, so we’re spending the day gathering the several thousand pieces of paper required to show that, since this time last year, we haven’t been in prison, haven’t become bankrupt, haven’t radically changed our appearance, have health insurance, still live at the same address and haven’t been out of Turkey for more than 120 days. Every piece of paper has to have an official stamp, so we are trawling around from office to office, dragging our feet like a couple of slothful teenagers. Continue reading “Hot and spicy vegetable balti”
Just walking the dog
Yesterday, on what was probably one of the hottest days of the year so far, we joined in with a group of volunteers to take some dogs from our local dogs’ home for a walk to Kyaneai, a Lycian city thought to have been inhabited as far back as 500 BC. Continue reading “Just walking the dog”
Sunshine salad
Post-party, post-very hot walk, piles of laundry ironed and put away, kitchen floor and kitchen terrace well and truly mopped. Phew, what a day. Continue reading “Sunshine salad”
Chunky fruit and nut breakfast muffins
We’ve been invited to our friend’s 50th birthday party this evening. Handily, it is being held in Çukurbaĝ – the almond farming village where we own a converted farm cottage, which we rent out during the summer.
Continue reading “Chunky fruit and nut breakfast muffins”
A REAL view from my kitchen
After weeks of balmy weather, today is so blustery it feels more like autumn than spring – very clear skies, a howling wind and lots of white horses on the water (white geese to the Turks). I happened to look out of the window a few moments ago at exactly the right time to spy Diagoras, the Rhodes-Kastellorizo ferry, coming in – that’s the island of Kastellorizo that you can see behind the ferry. Continue reading “A REAL view from my kitchen”
Piccalilli crisis
It’s true. We’ve scraped out the last jar of piccalilli. At the beginning of the winter, I made a Piccallilli mountain so vast that it probably qualified for some kind of EU subsidy. It is just the thing to perk up our cheese butties when we go out walking – I used to hate it, but have gradually acquired a taste for it after years of making it for Robin. I still don’t like the bits of cauliflower, but I’m in charge of making the packed lunches, so I just sneak those into Robin’s sarnies. Continue reading “Piccalilli crisis”
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