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!

Big day for Mah Jongg Players!

Well, March 26th was the day this year for all the Mah Jongg players in the US...what could have happened you may wonder; its the day the new cards came out. Every year the National Mah Jongg League puts out a new card. It is a good idea since the card tell which hands you can play and playing the same hands year after year would definitely become boring. So, what did these women come up with...the idea of changing the card every year! So, for 71 years players all over the US spend the last 2 weeks in March pondering when the card will arrive. It was believed for a long time that the new card coincided with Passover (also usually the end of March). So this year there was much concern since Passover doesn't start until April 19th! Oh my, what a frenzy! The good news, went to the mailbox yesterday and there it was! Now the next ritual is to spend the first few weeks with the new card grieving over the hands that have changed; how much we miss them and mourn their loss! All kidding aside, it is a fun game and I'm happy I've become a regular player (well, as regular as I can be!).

Bratislava Book is ready!

Hopefully you were able to view Budapest; so now here's Bratislava! Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia. The good news is there were very few tourists. Hope you enjoy the book.

http://www.mypublisher.com/bookshelf/index.php

order number: M647858

Password: 1139910

It does work!

Ok, so here's how to do it! Go to the site; when the page comes up click on Book Store (upper right hand side of the page). Enter the order number (the number preceeded by an "M". After you do that enter in the Password. When the book comes up, follow the instructions on the screen to view the book. Let me know what you think!

Tried it out

Ok, so here's what you need to do; when the site comes up, look on the top and see where it says Book Store. Click on that, then on the right put in the order number; that is the number preceeded by "M". Then on the next screen you put in the password. The book will come up and then follow the directions on the screen to view the pictures. Hope you enjoy! Let me know!