Sunday lunch - family quote

On Sundays I like to do a special lunch for two reasons: one, because we are all at home with time to enjoy it and two, because my eldest son, who lives away during the week, doesn't have much time to dedicate to making wholesome meals.

This weekend I made meatloaf again, with oven baked potatoes, cabbage and beans. When my son asked what was on the the menu I said, "this" and lifted up a pan lid, "this and this".

"Oh", said he, "flesh, spuds and weeds. Mmmm".

El Roc de Sant Gaietà

Often on a Sunday afternoon we go out for a walk, as many of us as can make it. On the 5th of January we visited this village, a place where you can only go in winter because in the summer it is simply too crowded!

This village is not very old, but built using different styles - Roman, Gothic, "Mudéjar"... It is full of little passages, stairways, balconies and communal patios full of plants and fountains, etc.

 

 

Isn't it interesting? I love to visit these places, they are so full of history. You can learn so much - and just a few minutes away from home.

(All of these photos are from Google images. It was almost dark when we arrived and my camera doesn't take good flash pictures.)

Breakfast with love!

The other day my husband prepared my breakfast and it was one of the best I have ever had put before me... Aw

It is often the smallest details in life which make the biggest difference : )

New Year's Eve party

We do not celebrate Christmas but we do have a party on New Year's Eve. This year we were 20 people around our table. For the past couple of years we have had a contest.  This year's theme was "pets", so we all had to make one of our own. Here are some of the contenders:

Domino, a pipe cleaner panda

Rock

Tilly (left) and Esmeralda

Lady Fibblesnork

The swans - cut from red and green apples

Eusebio, a real fish with googly eyes.

Well, none of these won the contest and I wasn't able to take photos of the winner or the other contenders, but we certainly laughed a lot!

Our holiday - Part 5

Dec. 28th
Today we split into two groups. All the young ones but the youngest went on a 30km hike from Arnes to Pinell de Brae (well almost!). Hubby, M. and I went to visit a dam (L'Embassament de Pena) where we had our last picnic and then went on to have a look at Beseit, the village.

A local we found on the way - so cuddly!

Good job we have a small car!

It's interesting how the rock has been used to form part of the dam

Beseit and the Matarranya river

 

Take a look at the doors...

...such beautifully carved wood

10 years ago Beseit had 600 inhabitants

In the evening we all dressed up posh, put flowers in our hair (the girls) and ties around our necks (the boys) and had a most delicious gala supper to celebrate, amongst other things, my husband's 50th birthday.

Dec. 29th
Today we had to get out of the house by 12.00 midday. We managed it, although everyone was tired from staying up very late the night before, squeezing the most out of the opportunities given them! Before we left the village, while it was rain/snowing, we visited an old and well preserved ice house. The owners would transport great blocks of ice and snow from the countryside around to store and sell to the villagers, for medicinal uses and food preservation. It is a very typical, dome-shaped, Catalonian construction from the XVII century.

The ice house - Arnes

This last photograph is of The Dogs Head (Cap de Gos), a very well known mountain shape from the ranges. I wonder why they call it this ; )

What a memorable week. History, geography, gym and nature studies all in one. I hope you have enjoyed seeing a little of where we went and what we saw.

Munchy Monday #27: Fruit puree

Now there is not such a variety of fruit on the shop shelves there is nothing nicer than combining the three most basic fruits together, just to make a change. The quantities given will serve 4 to 6 people, but you can vary them depending on what you have at home and how many mouths you have to feed. I usually allow 1 piece of fruit per adult + 1.

You will need:

2 Apples
2 Bananas
Juice of 2 oranges*
2 Maria type biscuits (optional)

Method:

Peel, core and quarter the apples. Peel the bananas and chop into pieces. Puree all ingredients in a tall jug or deep sided bowl.

If you are not going to serve immediately, you will need to add a squirt of lemon juice so that the fruit doesn't oxidize.

* We can buy a special variety of orange that has very thin skin and very fine pith. One orange will sometimes make a glass full of juice. You will have to arrange the recipe according to what is available where you live.

Note: This puree is baby's first weaning food here in Catalonia. Of course, what baby leaves is good for Mum to finish off!   Omnomnom ; )

Another not: to make this wheat free, just omit the biscuits!

Our holiday - Part 4

Wednesday 25th
Today we also got up pretty late and after a casual breakfast we made up a picnic, took some bottles of water, got into the cars and all 9 of us left to spend a day walking in the mountains.

 

Two vultures outside their cave

In these pools, believe it or not, I bathed my tired feet, for approximately 15 seconds! The water-was-freezing : )

Thursday 26th

Once more, we left mid morning-ish and decided to go visit the mediaeval village of Vallderoures, meaning Valley of oaks. It has a very well preserved castle and plenty of little streets and alley ways. It is built on the river Matarranya.

Here is a bunch of us. Sadly the boys had to stay home to study. The words on the wall translate "The house of the beekeeper"

The castle, built at the end of the XII century

Vallderoures from the other side of the river Matarranya

Then the group split and some went back to the house and the rest went on to visit Morella in the afternoon. We stopped at the highest point in the area to have our picnic but it was so cold and so terribly windy that we had to stay in the car and eat. (Highest point - Torremiró at 1249m above sea level)

Morella is another very old town dating back to the times of the first Iberian settlers and even before. The castle, built on an enormous rock which reaches 1000m above sea level, is of Islamic design and dates back to the early thirteenth century. It is accompanied by a convent built in the same style. On the outskirts of the town there is an aqueduct, started in 1273, which brought the town its water from a spring higher up in the hillside. This aqueduct consists of bridges and tunnels through the hillside.

 

The church doorway

This is a detail from the church door. The eight - pointed star is typical of the "Mudéjars" - Muslims who submitted to the ruling of the Christian kings.

The castle

Part 5 - Dec. 27th and 28th.