Time

Today, not for the first time I completely forgot my normal mantra of tackling only one job at at time and as a result I was exhausted by lunch. The kitchen was littered with a dozen started, but not completed tasks and I had left no room for,and gave no thought, to preparing lunch. As I surveyed the worktops my heart sank when I calculated how much time I needed to finish everything I had started. It was not going to be before midnight.

I did the most logical things that I could think of:- Panicked and then shouted at Steve. Steve was obviously being unreasonable coming into the kitchen at lunchtime and offering to set the table, with the built in implication that that we might be eating sometime soon. The fact that the table was no longer visible under the piles of washing in various stages of organisation didn't help. Rather than let him mess with my laundry system I told him to make the Salad. He said nothing, just looked helpless as the ingredients for the said salad were still in a bucket mixed with random vegetables  green stuff for rabbits and chickens all with a healthy amount of soil attached. It was also still on the Patio so not really obvious ( but irrelevant he should know where it might be!)

We managed lunch eventually, Steve went to work, I had a cup of coffee and tried to calm down. I also tried not to be angry with Steve for the unpardonable sin of finishing early on a Friday (Glass of wine, crisps and a film) and no chance of extracting myself from the unintentional chaos I had created this morning. I sighed and thought longingly of the life that some of my old friends in England still think I lead. A villa with a pool in the Sun and me on deckchair with a Gin and tonic.

Tomorrow I need to tackle the garden but tomorrow is another day.......

PS I didn't forget the walnuts, we had vegetable tagine for lunch and I replaced half the chickpeas with roasted walnuts, it was good move definitely worth repeating. Not as good as the walnut sauce yesterday but good enough. If walnuts really are a super food we will be so healthy by the end of the week.

And now for that glass of wine

Mushrooms and another walnut recipe

My first find this morning

Frades and the surrounding woodland is well known in the area for wild mushrooms and every year we see people park in the lane and head out with baskets. Among them are commercial pickers and this sometimes creates a little annoyance in the village. I have heard my my neighbour M getting quite loud ( he has one of voices that carries), suggesting that his cows are being disturbed and his gates left open When he found a couple with full baskets in his field.  The ladies just gossip shaking their heads at the cheek of strangers. The truth is no-one minds people gathering mushrooms or later chestnuts for themselves, if anything it is a matter of pride that we have the best mushrooms and the best chestnuts. The line is drawn when people pick to sell though people usually mutter amongst themselves rather than confront the offender. rather than confront the offender.

 I went out this morning, not really hopeful because I had seen pickers in the fields yesterday. The wood below the village was awash with ceps and probably for the first time ever had to stop because I couldn't`t carry any more rather than stopping because I couldn´t find any more. The pickers were probably looking for field mushrooms so I will try for those maybe tomorrow.

Maggots got there first.

Ceps are my favorite for drying as they re- hydrate well and have a lovely concentrated flavour.So today's haul will be dried rather than eaten fresh.

 I have to honest about mushroom collecting as so much is written on the Internet which is a bit misleading. Ceps are loved by all kinds of creatures and it is a rare day when you will get a whole mushroom for yourself above are the mushrooms that the maggots got to first. I always expect to throw away some of what I pick and I keep dried ones in the freezer for a while just in case any little creature or egg survives both the drying process and my inspection. Don't be put off it's worth it and soon becomes a bit addictive. What could be better than tramping though the woods on a clear autumn day with the promise of a gourmet meal (Have seen the price of them in the shops)at the end.

Today's Walnut recipe

Spinach and walnut sauce

Half a dozen leaves of everlasting spinach stalks removed or a big pile of normal spinach

a big hand full of walnuts

3 cloves of garlic

a grating of nutmeg

the juice of half a lime

olive oil.

Blanch both the spinach and the walnuts(unless they are very fresh) and add to a blender with all the other ingredients except the lime juice. When smooth add lime juice and salt and pepper to taste 

and maybe extra olive oil. We ate it with Salmon and it was so good.

Raining Walnuts

The thing about rain in Galicia is that once it starts there is little to be done in terms of outdoor work, that is for wimps like me. I mean it really can rain here. So after a three day downpour pretty much all of our walnuts are down from the trees. We have three sacks in the hall drying and two roasting tins full(The wettest) at the back of the cocina. I know that there are more to collect.


 The thing is that we still have a sack full left from last year, we do like walnuts quite a lot but they take such a long time to shell so somehow they haven`t all been eaten. They are really good for you so I have decided that this next week will walnut week with walnuts featuring in at least  one meal each day.


Today´s recipe was a no- brainer. Coffee and walnut cake. It´s Steve's favorite cake and since it's only for us, Needed no fancy layers and will be cut into squares. The icing makes it last a bit longer and for extra walnutness I've added walnut fudge icing to the coffee butter icing.

The cake is a simple pound cake recipe using 250g butter sugar and flour (baking powder added), 4 eggs and for the flavour 1 teaspoon coffee granules mixed with half a pot of yogurt. I used our own eggs which at this time of the year are enormous but had my eggs been smaller I would have added more yogurt. I threw in a couple of handfuls of walnuts at the end.

This recipe is very versatile and can easily be dressed up by cooking in round tins with layers of butter cream and walnut halves for decoration. I often leave it un-iced but throw over a handful of demerara sugar as it comes out of the oven. Its never going to turn heads but will hold it's own with a cup of coffee in the morning, and lasts for a few days in the cake tin.

Tomorrow I feel that I am going to have to be a bit more creative with my walnut recipe.