A Jar of Olives

Here's a modest jar of olives, with a quart bottle of milk for size comparison. The jar isn't full because we've been munching on them for several days.

Traveling in Spain, as we have frequently, we've found it common that stopping for liquid refreshment, we are served a bowl of table olives along with the drinks. These olives are always amazingly tasty.

Looking for olives like these over the past couple of years in the U.S. has been frustrating. Most of the bottled ones we have bought were from Spain, but they have invariably been acidic and salty, nearly to the point of  tastelessness.

Flashback to Spain last month. Sipping on beer or wine with daughter and son-in-law, and nibbling sumptuous olives, I was no doubt heard more than once to exclaim, "why can't we get olives like these back home?"

Flash forward to Florida not long after Fathers' Day when a huge well-packed jar of incredibly tasty Spanish olives arrived on our doorstep. Thank you Pam and James. Rest assured that we are enjoying them and will continue to do so in the weeks ahead.

Corned Beef, Red Flannel Hash, and Cabbage Soup

I have never much cared for corned beef. Tough and fatty, it is highly processed and seems the very opposite of health food. Besides, we seldom eat beef of any kind. Nevertheless, corned beef was on sale last week, as was cabbage (at 19 cents a pound!). So I succumbed and, following an old recipe, made a New England Boiled Dinner, with potatoes, beets, carrots, and of course, cabbage. It wasn't too bad.

The same old cookbook had a recipe for Red Flannel Hash, made from the leftovers of the first recipe. You drain off the liquid, chop up the meat and vegetables, and bake in a cast iron skillet lined with butter until it is brown and crusty. It was very tasty.

Some other leftovers remained, including about a quart of cooking broth from the boiled dinner and half of a large green cabbage. Skimming the fat from the cooking broth and adding chicken broth to make two quarts, I used it in my cabbage soup recipe. The taste was delightful! I'm still not a fan of corned beef brisket, but wish the recipes using the leftovers weren't one-offs.

Reheating the soup for another meal

Christmas at Russ and Peg's

We had a wonderful Christmas. It was a perfect day to take a long walk, which we did. Then we ate, opened presents, ate, played with our presents, cooked, ate, and sat by the fire enjoying the evening. We are very lucky.

Early Christmas

Pam and James were here for the weekend. We put up the tree, shopped at the Farmers Market, went to the Thomas Center Art Show and bought stuff, hiked at the Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery. All the rest of the time? We spent a lot of it eating, a lot of it talking, and some of it listening to music.

Bathroom Project Finished, Almost

The painting is done and the new toilet installed. Now I just need to find new shower curtains, towels and rugs. It ought to be the easy part. I hope it is

A Thanksgiving Week Project

Thanksgiving seems like a good time for a project. How about a rehab of the other bathroom? It was the last room with wallpaper. So very 1990s.

 

 

And now?

 Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

Let the painting begin!

A Camino Class at Santa Fe College

 We are going to teach a class about Hiking the Camino as part of the Community Education offerings at Santa Fe College. Classes will be from 6:30 to 8:00 on Thursday evenings November 1, 8, and 15 on the campus in northwest Gainesville. The College charges $24 for the course.

Registration is open now. You can call 352-395-5193 to sign up. Online registration is also available.  Go to www.sfcollege.edu. Click on Community Education and scroll down to "Register Here" the course number is NAT 0094.1F.

The class is geared for people who are thinking of walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain, or who just want to know about the nitty-gritty of going on this long distance hike. We will discuss the legends, history, and culture of the trail. 

The focus will be heavily on the practicalities, such as:

• How do you know where to start?
• How do you get there?
• Where do you sleep?
• What do you bring?
• How do you train for such a hike?
• Do you have to walk all 500 miles?
• How much time do you need?
• What does it cost?
• When is a good time of year to go?
• What do you eat?
• Are there rest rooms?
• Is it safe?
• Do you have to go with a group?
• Do you have to go alone?
• Do you meet interesting people?

If you saw the film The Way and were intrigued, or for some other reason the Camino is calling to you, come and learn more about it. It is an adventure to cherish.