Pictures from our trip

Picture on the left is the center of Obidos; the flowers were plentiful! Picture on the right has some on the flowers from the outdoor market at Caldas da Rainha.





















Above left, the castle in Obidos now is a pension; right is David braving the wind as we venture down to the water near our hotel. Big wind buy no rain at this point. We are looking at the Atlantic!

Quiet day in Portugal

I decided to spend the day close to the resort today. The wind and rain are unbelievable! As you know we're sitting on the Atlantic Ocean; with the wind today you could easily see how ships could capsize! The waves are humongous! Tomorrow we will rent a car and go north. Hopefully it will be a good sized car so it will stay on the road. Another option will be to put a sail on top and save on gas! We'll see how it goes. Just finished my second book of the trip; first was "A Spot of Bother" by Mark Haddon; second was "The Kitchen Boy" by Robert Alexander. They are both wonderful reads, I strongly recommend both of them.

Caldas da Rainha

This is an interesting city north of where we are staying. The R in the last part of the name is interesting; it is pronounced like a ch in Hebrew. It is amazing the many influences on the Porteges language CdR was a draw for me because they are the only city in the area that has an outdoor market. The day started off in a panic since I had a cab picking me up at 9:30 and I overslept until 9:50; not a fun way to start the day. I dressed and ran down to the entrance of the hotel, ate something in the car and started my adventure. The day started off pleasant enough, no rain! I strolled through the market where there were all root vegetables and fruits of the region; there were strawberries the size of small golf balls and the most Delicious color red! There were stalls with olives and cheeses; again wish I could bottle the aromas! Then I started to wander around to find some pottery stores. I knew I was pushing my luck because within minutes the rains started and this time it was like a small monsoon! I found a pottery store but they wouldn't take a credit card so had to find an ATM. Went back in the teeming rain (should I say swam back???). the woman was so happy to see me, I may have been the sale of the week. She wrapped up my purchases, went into the back and gave me an umbrella; then walked me to the door and opened the umbrella for me. Oh yes, she also wrapped my camera in a plastic bag so it wouldn't get wet! Amazing, just like home...NOT!!! I stopped for lunch before meeting my cab. Things here are so very expensive because of the weakness of the dollar. Lunch, on the other hand, I thought was a good buy. They served me a large bowl of a fish stew (that salted cod but it was not salty)that had potatoes, tomatoes and spices in it. Delicious! I asked for some vegetables; they served me a large head of broccoli that was prepared perfectly; bright green and still a little crunchy! I also ordered a bottle of water; the bill was a grand total of 7.50 euros; I thought a pretty good deal!

In the afternoon the TNS group went on an organized tour of Obidos with booklets that had questions are the area. At dinner there was a game with groups to see who had the most correct answers. We also went on a tour and tasting at a winery. From what I hear the wine was very good.

We'll see what tomorrow's adventures turn out to be!

April in Praia D'El Rey Rey, Portugal

We are in a Marriott golf resort about one hour north of Lisbon; the facility is beautiful. We are on the Atlantic Ocean (if you want to run to the beach and send us a bottled note we'll run down and get it!). the food has been plentiful, good and expensive! Actually with the dollar being so weak; everything is expensive. Today I took a cab to a small town of Obidos (the "s" is pronounced as a "sh" so it takes a little getting used to. This is a small village with a castle and surrounded with a wall that dates back to the Moors. There are two main streets and, lucky for me, this is off season. If the tourists were here I wouldn't have been able to get a picture without hordes of people! I did meet some travelers; one group from Maryland another woman from Virginia traveling alone. The only negative about the trip so far is that the weather stinks! It has rained since we got here. Most of the time it is on and off drizzle until tonight when it all time poured! The good news is the flowers are in bloom so I have pictures of Wisteria, roses, Calla lillies and orange blossoms! I wish there was a way to bottle the fragrance and bring it back. Unfortunately forgot the cable for my camera so I won't be able to send pictures until I get home. Have something planned for tomorrow if I don't get rained out!

Bridal Showers

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to a bridal shower. This shower was not the ordinary eat a filling lunch; watch the opening of endless gifts and then on to an "ok" cake...this shower was called a Kitchen Luncheon Shower! First, the weather that had been predicted to be raining and cool was actually sunny and warm (around 60 degrees), this of course added to the festiveness of the day! The home was lovely. It was in Rowayton, in a house that was totally remodelled with the most up-to-date kitchen I have seen in a long time. What was nice about it was you could see that the kitchen was used! In today's world that is a very nice thing since it doesn't seem to be the trend. I was standing next to the hostess at one point and asked her if the square stainless steel unit in the island was the microwave. No, she responded, that is the steam oven. It seems that steam ovens are used when you bake bread! Well, with everything that she had (including the full sized Wolf range) she did not have a foot pedal for her sink! Oh, these silly women, $200 and you can be a happy camper!

The "entertainment" for the day was a local woman who writes a cooking column for the Stamford Advocate, Ronnie Fein. Ronnie made spanikoptia; delicious chicken salad with Israeli cous cous, oranges, pistachios and a vinaigrette dressing. The interesting suggestion she made for the spanikoptia (Gini, sorry if I've messed up the spelling) was that for a meat meal for Passover, you could leave out the cheese, put in mushrooms and put matzo on the top. The method would be to soak the matzo in water then put it between 2 towels to dry it out and place on top of the spinach mixture. Then brush olive oil on the top so the matzo would brown and be crunchy. Once all the preparation was done you could then freeze everything before cooking. I had read a recipe from a Joan Nathan book where she made a tsimmes (mixture of dried fruit, sweet potatoes and carrots, some people put meat in, I leave mine vegetarian) and put the "batter" for matzo balls on top. I was thinking this could be interesting for the spinach since you would be able to give it more flavor than just the plain matzo. Anyway, I digress, let's continue with the Shower!

After lunch, which was the food Ronnie had prepared; we went into the living room and watch the bride open her gifts. I remember some 40 years ago at one of my showers, my mother and her friends saying now they could use a shower! Well, that's what I was thinking as I saw the beautiful gifts being opened! it seems that the bride had put chocolate brownies on her list so, one woman gave the bride a beautiful, LARGE tray with at least 4 dozen brownies! Of course we all at the decadent brownies!

Desert was divine! There was a cake called an Opera Cake that was like a richer, creamier Tiramisu. I had a little sliver and could barely eat it, it was so very rich!

BTW (by the way) don't you just love the bride centerpiece?????

Spring is coming!

Well, after all the rain we had this winter it is encouraging to know that Spring is on the way. You may ask yourself how am I so confident of its arrival? Well, here's one sure way to tell; the bulbs are pushing their little heads out of the ground and the tips of buds are coming out of them. Seeing the buds is quite an achievement since we never know when the deer will attack them. We know from previous years that the deer love nothing more than the new buds. When we moved into this house my mother gave us many bulbs from her garden. Mom used to have the loveliest tulips. I was certain there was something wrong with our soil, the exposure or, perhaps, how the bulbs were planted. One evening I came around the corner to our house and there was Bambi and all her friends, chowing down on my tulips! So, now I know, the exposure is fine it is the 4 legged critters that love the new spring shoots!