Olympic free zone

Well we are lax this year aren't we, I already said sorry for the lack of posting (to our loyal readers!) so will nor labour the point just crack on with a bit of news etc.

Some time has been taken up with hospital visits and tests, pleased to say everything has turned out well. The local hospital is excellent and the consultant I saw very helpful and caring.  Health care for everyone not just we immigrants has been a hot topic all year here. Spain, like many many other countries, particularly in the euro zone, has been making some difficult decisions with regards provision of care. When the dust settles the changes will hopefully enable those who need care to receive it. One thing I read that astonished me what the amount the UK pays to Spain for its Pensioners care, 3.500 euros is the figure I saw quoted. This seems so low when you consider the growing needs of older people. In fact I have contacted the UK Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley to raise the matter. I await his reply with interest.

We are having some exceptionally warm weather so the pool is getting lots of use. We stopped putting on the solar cover some weeks ago. If the water gets to hot, as it would do if we continued to use the cover, it could damage the filter pump.
Lots going on in the area, numerous land plots getting a make over and being planted, some with apricots and the lovely plate peaches and some with olives. The little house below us that was in a state of disrepair is now being reformed. This is excellent news for the adjoining property as it was a threat to the stability of the building. Here in Spain the local council can oblige a property owner to repair a  property that threats another.
Property prices are still falling so its a good time to grab a bargain, we cannot resist looking in Real Homes in Spain window to see whats happening. Always a cheering welcome there and the promise of ongoing advice holds true. Its good to have local people to assist even when there are fluent Spanish speakers in the family.
 lots of other stuff going on so watch this space I will be back and sooner rather than later and lets just say plums may well feature!

Picking The Olives

We only have one tree but it has quite a big spread , when we arrived back yesterday Bec, Quin and Jude had already starting work on picking the olives, as the tree needed cutting back quite a bit we chopped branches off that needed it and picked some of the olives like that, we were surprised to pick 3 crates full, which took untill mid afternoon today. Our next door neighbour will take them to be processed and then we will have some of our own Olive oil.

Yum Yum Caballa

We just love caballa, that's mackerel in english. We used to eat loads when John was commercial fishing out of Newlyn in Cornwall. Sometimes it was better to eat the fish than to sell them the prices where so low! Despite the amount we eat we still love them. They are plentiful here at this time of year, and well priced at around 2 euros a kilo, cannot help thinking there are some poor Spanish Pescadores getting the same bad deal John and his shipmates used to get though.
I like to cook them in the oven on the barbeque or in the electric pan. Just a bit of olive oil local salt and fresh ground pepper and a good squeeze of fresh lemon.
If we want something a bit special I have a recipe I used all those years ago in Cornwall, and crumbs now I think about it its over 30 years ago. if you want to give it a go here are the instructions.
Citrus stuffed Baked Mackerel
One Mackerel per person ( we are greedy so like quite large fish)
To stuff two fish you need:
three oranges.
2 apples.
1 small onion
2 cups of brown breadcrumbs.
a generous tablespoon of Brown sugar
butter or olive oil

Method:
Gut and clean fish, if they do this at the shop ask for the row this time of year you can saute it lightly and eat on toast.
Grate the zest from two of the oranges, peel then and chop the flesh. Squeeze the juice from third oranges.
Peel core and chop the apples.
peel and chop the onion finely
Now saute the onion, when its soft add apple then orange flesh and zest keep cooking on low heat add sugar then bread crumbs then juice, season to taste. You then remove from heat and use to stuff the fish. Wrap in foil and bake in moderate oven for around 20 minutes depending on size of fish, Open foil for last 10 minutes.
lovely hot or cold, the citrus counteracts the oiliness of the Mackerel

Tapas lunchtime

We seem to have really gotten into the local way of eating at lunch, and the local time as lunch is often sometime between 2 and 4 in the afternoon for us. Tapas is very often the order of the day. In Spain they say "eat when you drink, drink when you eat" tapas is an ideal way to do this. Lovely tasty bits of finger food, eat as much or as little as you like. Olives of course dressed with virgin olive oil and our own fresh herbs or chillies. Manchego cheese, you can put olive oil with this to, almonds and sunflower seeds. The wonderful spicy sausages chorizo and of course the air dried Serrano ham. No butter or sunflower spread on our bread these days but you've guessed it more olive oil which we often have mixed with fresh crushed garlic.