Blog
In search of cheese – or, the Great Bulgarian (Vegan) Pizza Off
Firing up the pizza oven for the first time this year. Being the borderline millennial clichés that we are, it was only a matter of time before we started eating vegan-ish. We already ate vegetarian 95% of the time (the other 5% being a weakness for barbecue...
The ‘rona report, part 3: Where’s my head at?
At least this dude is enjoying himself. Seems we’re all a bit woo-woo, mentally speaking, at the moment. But what I don’t get is why Rob and I are affected. We blasted through the first month of lockdown feeling very pleased with ourselves for being in rural...
The ‘rona report, part 2: Freezer pleaser
This week we have mainly been drinking frozen margaritas. You? It all started with the frozen lemon slices. Before long, I was freezing pretty much anything that wasn’t nailed down... When you grow your own veg, you quickly learn to love the freezer. We make...
The ‘rona report, part 1: No scrap left behind
When life gives you lemons (and orange cordial), make (orangey) G&Ts. Then re-use the lemons. I’ve always been a bit competitive about food and drink. The number of times a waiter has looked at me in a restaurant and said, ‘Are you sure you want to order...
‘Rona rage
This end-of-March snow was an outrage. We’ve had a snowy couple of weeks here, which has lent an ‘interesting’ new dimension to the whole self-isolation thing. We’ve been indoors for almost two weeks. No spending time in the garden. No popping to the...
Get ready for Gardening Bore 2020
Another spring, another Gardening Bore entry. Christ, there’s a lot to do in the garden at this time of year, but we feel pretty on top of things this March. The veg beds have had a thorough weeding and a fresh layer of compost. We’ve sown the first seeds...
Explorking
Explorking: Verb. A portmanteau of exploring and walking. Basically a nonsense word we made up. This is what we’ve been doing with our afternoons lately. After work and a big lunch, we’ll use the last couple of hours’ daylight to go explorking the...
A trip up Vitosha
One of the many things I love about Sofia is how Vitosha mountain hulks beside it. We’ll often stroll down the streets and comment how unusual it is, in a capital city, to see a ruddy great mountain squatting at the end of the road. But we’ve never really...
Back in the saddle
White trees on a snowy walk. Happy New Year to you, dear reader. And welcome to Auntie Bulgaria 2020, which will no doubt be pretty much the same as Auntie Bulgaria 2019. Cats. Snow. Wonky stuff in the garden. The usual. So how was it for you, the whole...
Decking the halls
Thank God for martinis. It’s not been terribly Christmassy in the Auntie Bulgaria household this December. We both picked up a horrible bug that knocked us sideways for the first 10 days of December. I mean, this bug had everything: aches, shivers, sore...
Hello again
If you were wondering why I’d been a bit quiet lately, it’s because I was visiting in the UK, and then going through the customary readjustment to Bulgarian life. It’s like jet lag (life lag?), where the culture shock takes a while to wear off. Our house seems too...