Biking & Baking in Las Alpujarras

OOps, sorry - the dancing in Pitres is on Wed evening, in the square outside the Ayuntamiento.  Be there or be square!  Esté alli o sea cuadrado!???

The calendar is filling up rapidly with all sorts of musical and walking events, local fiestas and social gatherings.  As usual, Cat Jary's wonderful Musica en las Montañas is providing us with great sounds: quintets, choirs, guitars, tango...last night we heard a jazz group from Granada playing in the beautiful Atalbeitar square - 3 spaniards (piano, double bass, clarinet/harmonica), an australian (saxophone(s) and a great italian drummer.  Steve baked a few foccaccia's and I took a plate of dates stuffed with almonds, to offer  round as tapas. There must have been 60 or 70 spectators perched on chairs, on stone seating by the fountain, or just on the ground, plus occasional dogs, small children and other on/off stage events.

Tonight there is more jazz in Capilleria I think, and some dancing in Pampaneira on Sunday eve and again in Pitres on Tuesday eve.   Ferreirola era on Thurs should be classical music I believe.  Mecina fiesta is the weekend of the 6th and Atalbeitar the following weekend...when will we sleep again??!

I threw together a nice little Patatas a lo Pobre for our supper the other night, something like this:

Take 4 large potatoes, slice thinly and wash thoroughly.  Chop up a green pepper and an onion.  Crack 3 or 4 eggs into a smallish pan with a dollop of salted butter and a tablespoon of milk  and stir together, then set this aside for later.  In a good-sized frying pan, heat up 1/2 litre of decent olive oil ( a lot I know) and fry the potatoes on a high heat for 5-6 mins.  Add some salt to season them, then throw in the veg and give all a good stir.  Cover the pan, lower the heat and give everything at least 10 mins cooking time.  Check that nothing is sticking to the pan and keep cooking until the potatoes are soft.  Meanwhile, at this last stage. grab a wooden spoon, place the egg mix over a lowish heat and keep stirring  until you get scrambled eggs (the secret of good scrambled eggs is less milk, more butter, keep stirring until JUST scrambled, then serve).  Go back to your potato pan and lift out everything onto kitchen paper or drain very thoroughly, to reduce the oil content to a minimum.  Add to the eggs or vice versa - either way you want a blend of all the ingredients together.  Throw in a  handful of good black olives if you have them.  Serve immediately with some nice bread (not buttered) and tuck in.  Tastes even better with a glass of cervesa and some Eric Clapton music!!

Enjoy!!

What shall we do with all this fruit? We spread an old sheet on the ground and give the tree just a little shake - and down comes this glorious shower of purple-black natural sweeties, enough for breakfast, a fruit salad, a crumble, some in the freezer, jam...Our neighbours are generous too so we have a surfeit of apples (already!) and cucumbers/pepinos and courgettes.  Last night's supper consisted of cous-cous with chopped fried red peppers, garlic and onions plus grilled/fried aubergine and courgette slices.  Delicious!

Steve has replaced the rear inner tube to the c90 (me wobbling down the road after a puncture but only at 30kph) at the cost of 6 euros from the Salobrena motorycle store.  Some things like that are a better price than in the UK, but not often!  We thought about going to the Guadix custom bike event this weekend, but it sounds more like a beer/food fest than a proper bike show so we may give it a miss after all.  Plus there's the USA MotoGP on Sunday...hard to know whether to support Jorge and Danny, or go for Casey and the Australians!

Next decision is whether to walk or ride (on a horse) up Mulhacen in early August, for the annual pilgrimage that takes place overnight and to see the sun rise.  Steve is likely to walk but I fancy the horse option.  Getting lazy in my old age!   

Some nice comments coming in, from bikers & TT racers & other folk...it´s great getting feedback! xxx

We thought we were returning to a quiet summer in the mountains but the social calendar has filled up rapidly. We got back on 21st , dashed over to Poco Picante for a 'literary' evening plus curry on 22nd, ate tapas with friends on 23rd, market day socialising on 24th, tonight (25th) a tango milonga, tomorrow a motorbike event in Alhama de Granada (we hope) and our local choir singing in Pitres plaza in the evening...a garden warming celebration on Monday at a cortijo in the depths of the mountains...it's almost too much!

In the kitchen garden we have some early raspberries, green tomatoes and a walnut tree that has finally burst into life. My squashes look enthusiastic, as do all the onions, but the garlic is unusually quiet. Maybe it needs a bit more summer heat. Stevie and Lynne did a wondrous job with the watering and irrigation, so everything is flourishing and the flowers on the balcony too.

Steve is pleased that the VFR got us safely home after 6,500 km but reckons it now needs a new chain and sprockets and a new back tyre. 8000 miles from a Dunlop Roadsmart can't be bad. Great roadholding in all conditions and on all proper road surfaces.

On the culinary front, and because we have a cherry tree laden with fruit, I have plans to make jam, cherry eau-de-vie and maybe some pies. I want to extend my salad range, keep a fresh fruit salad in the fridge with whatever is in season and generally cut down on fatty things - all to get rid of the TT bulge! But a good idea for all of us, to deal with the heat.

Best of good news is that my younger son and his partner are coming out in July for their hols. We love seeing them as they are so much fun, play a mean hand of Texas Hold'em and make brilliant fajitas. Jo can get her suntan fix and Cam needs to beat his own hill-running record...2k of vertical road-running in 10 mins...the rest of us can barely make it, walking, in 45! Better get training!