Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label holidays

Nigella's summer crumble

How has your summer been? Has everyone around you been complaining of the weather? Summer' s so much more than just sun and heat though... fruit,  farniente , ice-cream,  apéros  and walks...reading long books, so many little pleasures. Tossa de Mar And lest we forget to turn the oven on, to warm us up... Nigella's summer crumble (from Forever Summer ) is a fantastic way to use up those less-than satisfying apricots that everyone leaves in the fruit bowl, the ones a little less red, the mushy ones, and transform them into deep orange compote under the layer of almondy crumble. Or any other stone fruit for that matter. Parc Guell, Barcelona Summer crumble, adapted from Nigella Lawson in  Forever Summer 750g apricots, stoned and quartered 75g butter 100g self-raising flour or flour with 1/2 tsp baking powder a pinch of salt 25g ground almonds 75g caster sugar 50g flaked or chopped almonds Preheat the oven at 200C. Butter a gratin dish. Layer...

More Japan photos

Golden temple, Kyoto Kyoto Pickles at Kyoto market Mini octopi Kyoto Philoophers' way, Kyoto Kyoto Big sake bottles Night lights Shinjuku Takeshita Street, Harajuku Harajuku person Harajuku fashion Extra large lenses for that manga look Architecture, Harajuku/Omotesando Golden temple, Kyoto Stone divinities, Kyoto Pocari sweat is a drink, yum Buddha in Kyoto Takoyaki Cleansing fountain Kyoto breakfast

Austria 1

We spent the past week in Austria, gratefully eating up what others cooked and trying to burn off calories by sliding down snowy mountains on sleighs and doing  a bit of nordic skiing. I do hope to learn how to ski in the future, but for now I am quite content keeping things low-key. It's not the first time I've been to Austria. When I lived in Munich I went a couple of times to Salzburg because of its proximity, and spent another winter holiday in Schladming, which is a breathtaking resort but better suited to downhill skiing -although they do have a fantastic sleighing track. This time we went to a tiny resort called Obsteig. What I most appreciated is the small scale of the place and the absolute quiet we found there. No queues for the lift, no one on the nordic tracks, it was very calming. The hotel had a great kindergarten-type place and it meant we could leave the kids there and go do some sport or just relax in the whirlpool. Bliss! The hotel cooked great...