Life the universe and everything in between

Mum's Breakfast: Delicious on far too many nutritional, therapeutic & biologically invigorating levels.

LOL ‘Life’ ; what a beautiful chaos it can be. From the un-explanatory saucer sized bruises to the indescribably painful & liberating situations we find ourself within. Its nice to know where ever you turn you can always find yourself and a laugh for good measure. You get out what you put in i guess and in terms of food I have to point out this particular breakfast I had one fortunate day was a particularly legendary one!

The Gang; Nina, Adam, George and Chris

Ninja Day at Malarky. Need i say more, our awesomeness speaks for itself.

Also a sneak preview at Adam’s top secret “Hot” project which is in its development stages. That Sauce deserves alot of respect it is dangerously delicious in a ridiculously hot way.

Hey all

Well the weather has been delightfully warm here, infact the the most sun Hollands had in the first weeks of may! The 70 hour average has been busted by the 130 hours we have had in the last week.  so as you can see theres been alot of outdoor doing as 20-4 drgrees has been a nice temperature to be getting out ad about. I joined pieter as he starts his fitness sceme back up. i was his refreshments assistant as he ran 16km in 1hour 10mins. Had some nice photo oppotunities on the way too as you can see… With all the sunshine, we’ve recently had a brief wizz around the yard on one of Franks 4 kids motorbikes got a deal on, picniced out in the sunshine and had a BBQ at Franks with Pieters other brother & Anna ( his sister). This weather has been is a real treat before I head back to New Zealand its been super cool to be out and about in the sunshine, as i seem to be following winter around the globe. As for work; I have been assured I remain first choice of the position I applied for and as it is not currently vacant I have a primary need and want to be with my mum and be there for her until the vacancy frees up for me. Taking life as it happens.

Nin’s

Ingredients:

300ml red wine

Zest of one Lemon

Zest of one Orange

4 Star Anise

1 Cinnamon Stick

6 Cloves

220g Caster Sugar

12g Gelatine

900ml Cream

1 Vanilla Bean

Method:

On low heat combine the wine with zests and whole spices (excluding the vanilla bean) with 55 grams of the caster sugar in a saucepan. Stir until the sugar is dissolved then leave for 15mins on low heat to let the flavors infuse. Remove from heat and strain the spices from the mixture setting aside half of the wine mixture (with spices) for a finishing drizzle. Add 5 grams of the gelatine to dissolve in the remaining (strained) wine mixture in saucepan letting it cool down a little before portioning it in to 6-8 small (oiled) ramekins or tea cups. Place in the fridge to set for AT LEAST one hour.

In another saucepan heat the cream, remaining sugar and contents of the vanilla bean together until at a simmer. Remove from heat and dissolve the rest of the gelatine (7g) in the mixture stirring occasionally until the gelatine starts to take form. Then pour the vanilla cream mixture on top of the set wine and refrigerate for AT LEAST 6hours before serving.

Serving:

Ease the edges of the ramekins/tea cups with a knife and then dipping the cup surface in bowl of hot water for 3seconds. This helps to release the contents before placing upside down on a saucer and drizzling with the chilled spiced wine reduction.

Serves six

This recipe was brought to you by Nina and Pieter, kindly translated from dutch to english for your dining pleasure.

eet smakelijk !

Returning to Spain and heading toward Madrid for our flight home we had a few days in Sevilla.  I’ll let the roll over captions do most of the explaining.

Evidence here that we crossed paths with Rachel for a few hours before heading to the airport. Rach shared all her  crazy loose travel adventures with us. Shes off to Brazil now to see where her feet take her it was so enjoyable to see her.

Hi all

Heres a bit of a pictorial story again… A Coruna is on the very north west point of Spain and a stunning sea side city with delicious fresh seafood everywhere you look. We wined and dined both nights we were here and it such good food here and such a variety of seafood too. A Coruna`s speciality in Octopus.

We went on the Portugal after that as you can see, to Porto which has been a really nice city to experience. we have had lovely warm weather and have now gathered anappcreciation for traveling at this time of the year, the crowd and mass holiday-ers would change your experience of theres beautifull places an incredible amount.

 On to Lisbao now… take care everyone, miss ya.

Hi all

Ive decided to post as i go, the thought of a the task at the end of two weeks sounds like a mamoth effort so heres some pictures of what we have been up to, Temperatures have been 18-20 degrees in the day which is nice. I”ll let the captions say the rest.

Nins