We have guests arriving at our rental cottage this evening – they have stayed with us before, so at least when they arrive in the middle of the night, they know where they are aiming for.
Guests are pretty thin on the ground this year – the threat of terrorism after the recent bombs in Istanbul, the refugee situation and the little spat between our government and Russia means that many tourists are choosing to holiday elsewhere. Continue reading “Banana maple walnut muffins”
Yesterday was the final, chaotic, day of the 9-day Şeker Bayramı holiday. Over the last week, Kaş has been practically under siege.
Essential grocery shopping trips were restricted to a small hour-long window, post 8am opening, before the hordes of holidaymakers from the big cities were awake and taking over the town. It wasn’t just parking that was an impossibility, getting into town at all was simply a non-starter. On arrivals weekend, queues of traffic backed up for over a kilometre either side of the main roundabout. As the town was physically unable to absorb any more cars, they simply ended up crawling along the main road before eventually passing the people queuing up in the other direction. If it hadn’t been so frustrating, it would have been quite comical. Continue reading “Welcome to Kaş, have a nice stay!”
Sausages are not common around these parts. The Turks make sucuk (pronounced ‘sujuk’), which is like a cross between pepperoni and chorizo, though obviously no pork is involved. It comes in two forms – sweet and hot – which refers to the heat level of the paprika which forms its main flavour. It appears with alarming regularity on pizzas and in toasted sandwiches, as well as being the main ingredient for sucuk yumurta, a breakfast dish where beaten eggs are added to sliced sucuk which has been fried in olive oil – you end up with a kind of hot, oily, spicy, sausagy scramble. I’m not a fan of either eggs or sucuk, so that particular combination of ingredients would definitely constitute my Room 101 breakfast. What’s wrong with a bowl of cornflakes? Continue reading “Sausage and fennel traybake”
Today is the first day of Şeker Bayramı, the ‘sugar feast’ which follows the holy month of Ramazan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Today will be a day of family celebrations with everyone contributing special dishes and plenty of sweet treats for the children.
I’ve baked chocolate chip muffins – mini versions to offer to children who are going door to door looking for sweet gifts, and normal-sized treats for our friend the almond seller in town and for Zerrin, our lovely housekeeper who helps us with our rental cottage in the next village. Obviously one or two may have to be sampled for quality control purposes, but we are having a 5:2 day today, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. (*brushes away incriminating chocolate crumbs from keyboard*) Continue reading “Double chocolate & cinnamon muffins”
When I opened the editor to add this new post, I noticed it is 18 days since I last wrote something. Appalling behaviour – I WILL do better.
We’ve been on holiday for a week to the very south-west tip of Turkey, hoping to find some cooling west coast breezes. What actually happened was that it was a good deal hotter there than here – over 40 degrees for several consecutive days. That wouldn’t be unusual later in July or during August, but it’s very worrying to have those temperatures as early as June. Thankfully it has now dropped back to the mid 30s, which is a little more manageable. Continue reading “Bread and butter pudding: back to basics”
Before we came to live in Turkey, when I had a proper grown-up job, I was working on a major project just outside Lisbon in Portugal.
One morning, after a particularly lively night out in Lisbon with some members of the British press, we asked a taxi driver to take us to wherever was his favourite place to have breakfast. It was a life-changing moment – and one from which my figure may never recover. The place the taxi driver took us to was Pastéis de Belém – a famous pastry shop in the Belém district of Lisbon, right on the bank of the River Tagus. Continue reading “Portuguese custard tarts (Pastéis de nata)”
We’re back in Turkey after a very swift visit to France, with a night in Amsterdam thrown in on the way home.
We managed to miss the floods and the strikes, and were treated to even better weather than they were having back here – hah!
I thought I’d better leave France while my bottom would still fit inside an aeroplane seat – those croissants and pains aux raisins are just TOO dangerous for comfort. It is so hard to believe that something so deliciously light is so calorie-laden. At least our pool is now warm enough for swimming, so 2km for me today – half already done, half to do when I’ve finished writing this. Continue reading “The easiest muffins in the world”
I am very excited because tomorrow we are off on an unexpected jaunt to the Jurançon wine district in France and then travelling back here next week via Amsterdam – a city I have always wanted to visit. Getting to places from here is never simple, so we are going by a very convoluted route, which involves four different airlines. (*Sighs dramatically*) The route was originally going to involve the TGV, but in view of the strikes, we’ve decided to avoid that option. Continue reading “Slow roasted tomato and red pepper soup (5:2 recipe)”
Our internet connection is being super-unfriendly this morning. It may take me until about next Thursday to actually load this post, the way things are going.
After a very dry spring, followed by weeks of unsettled weather, both rainy and windy at times, there are signs that summer has finally arrived. One sign was that I actually got into the pool yesterday after making myself hot doing a few housekeeping chores. I think it is possible that I stayed in there for all of 4 seconds – basically the time it took me to get back to the side and leap out before any polar bears lurking in the Arctic conditions got wind of my presence. Toast and Marmalade looked on from the safety of a sun-lounger – I am sure I caught sight of them shaking their furry heads in wonderment at this crazy behaviour. Continue reading “Crunchy rosemary multi-seed crackers”
Whenever I’m stumped for ideas for what to make for dinner, there’s quite a good bet that we end up with roast chicken in one form or another. There are so many variations – sometimes we have classic French-style poulet aux herbes, others we go a bit more exotic with Thai or Chinese flavours, and then there’s the good old British roast with stuffing and roasties. Continue reading “Slow-roasted chicken with lemon & garlic”
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