Food & recipes
131. Gluten high (or, how we built a pizza oven)
You know what marks the official start of spring for us? Is it the first spring flowers? No. Is it the first sighting of a stork? Nope. Working outside in a t-shirt? Blossoms on the fruit trees? The Game of Thrones trailer being released? No. Non. Ne. For us,...
122. How to eat out in Bulgaria (and get more than chips and shopska salad)
Yes, it’s snowing again here in Bulgaria, and we’ve reached that point where the snow is no longer pretty white fluffy stuff, but big clumps of brown icy shite. But, let’s ignore that for now and focus on a happier topic: food. Over the years, I’ve had a few...
116. Important cider news
There are about 37 other bottles lined up in our hallway waiting for shelving space. It's a sight to warm the cockles. I’ve been remiss in updating you all on the cider progress. Bad Auntie Bulgaria. Bad. We finally got around to bottling the cider around about...
113. Seasons and cider
Isn’t autumn the best? I love the change in temperature, clothes and food. I get strangely excited by getting out my favourite jumpers, wearing woolly hats again, the first lighting of the woodburner, harvesting squash, making toad-in-the-hole. It’s like living in...
109. Tomato? Tomato.
When I was a student, I read a play called Blue Kettle. I don’t remember much about it except the words ‘blue’ and ‘kettle’ began to randomly replace other words in the dialogue until, by the end of the play, ‘blue’ and ‘kettle’ were the only words left. Literally...
73. Ten things we’ve eaten next door for breakfast
Our neighbours are our surrogate Bulgarian parents. We love them, they make a big old fuss of us, and we have coffee with them most mornings. Trouble is, they are such feeders. If I should dare turn down a second slice of cake or pie, Svilen shouts at me and...
71. Obsessive (gluten-free and dairy-free) almond and plum cake
I’ve been on a gluten-free bender for a couple of months now. Not, like, religiously or anything. If I go out to a pizza restaurant, I’m going to eat the pizza, not some lame salad. But, on the whole, I’ve cut down on wheat (mainly bread, pasta and beer). I feel...
61. A tale of two vegetable patches: Part two
A little while ago I wrote a post comparing our (first ever) veg patch with our (very experienced 64-year-old) neighbour’s veg patch. Needless to say, the comparison wasn’t kind. Svilen’s veg patch is glorious - regimentally organised rows bursting with huge fruits...
56. A tale of two vegetable patches
On a break from gardening... Our neighbour’s garden is entirely devoted either to raising animals or growing food. Every inch is maximised and, in a garden the same size as ours, he has sheep, a donkey, chickens, turkeys, and enough vegetables to feed two...
50. Neighbours. Everybody needs good neeeeeeeighbours
Being in a village (as opposed to the middle of a field) we have actual neighbours. Obviously this is marvellous, especially when they are as lovely and helpful as Svilen and Penka. They are in their sixties and, as their sons no longer live at home, they...
48. Autumn in Bulgaria
Okay, so we had a freak snowstorm in October. Yes, October. Thankfully it happened a few days after we got our heating fitted so we stayed nice and warm. Apparently it’s pretty unusual for the temperature to drop so much in October. Although, saying that, we were...
37. Village Life, Part 2
Word must have spread around the village that the English had arrived. On our last evening, a local guy and his son stop by touting for work. The son speaks a bit of English and explains that his dad is a “maestro with wood”. It’s a big old village, a few...