A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA ON " CARNIVAL SUNDAY AND ST PATRICK'S DAY "

SUNDAY 17^th/ MARCH 2019. “ CARNIVAL SUNDAY & ST.PATRICK’S DAY “

This morning I had a nice long lie in, the first this week, as Brenda told me to stay in bed! Meanwhile she took ‘ Chico & Scoobie’  out for their first walk of the day around the bottom of the village, they both slept all night on the rugs & duvet, when they returned ‘ Chico’ was collected early, as the folks had arrived home late last night, ‘Scoobie’ is due to be picked up later today.

We have another glorious day down here on the ‘ Costa Del Sol’ – the sun was out first thing and the sky is bright blue & cloudless, there is no breeze, so by lunchtime when we went out to watch the parade is was very hot & sunny, reaching 25 degs+! – sadly tomorrow it’s all change, as the next cold, windy & wet ‘ Atlantic’ front comes in, bringing with it the ‘ wet-stuff’ -  back down to 18 degs, overnight 11 degs, the rest of the week and over next weekend we are in for a colder and wet weather, with light to moderate showers, patchy clouds and hovering on the 15/16 degs mark, over the weekend going a little warmer as the front moves on, the following week is not looking much better, watch this space.

After freshening up we had a quick light breakfast of fresh fruit, toast & tea before getting this evenings supper on the go; my recipe of a traditional “ Irish Stew “  - yesterday lunchtime I made a ‘Lamb Stock’ with the bones etc, then today I seasoned the diced ‘ Leg of Lamb’ and brought is to the boil in the stock, skimming it all the time, I chopped the Onions & Shallots into ‘ chunks’- then the Carrots the same, at Brenda’s request, adding some smaller diced Celery & Leeks, as well as some chopped Parsley & Garlic, with soft, par-boiled Potatoes, to thicken the stew, all then sweated-off, in the usual way, before adding my usual dash of ‘ Lea & Perrins & Tabasco’- the diced ‘Lamb’ with the stock is then added to the pan and brought back up to the boil, before adding larger ‘ chunks’ of more Potatoes, with a little more ‘Vegetable & Meat’ stock, then left to part cook-off, under the eye of the ‘ Second Chef’- before it is transferred into the ‘Cassoulet Dish’ with lid, to go in the oven this evening to finish cooking, the ‘ Aromas ‘ are to die for! We are having just Cabbage with Acelgas with ‘ Crusty Bread’




See below my " Irish Stew " just out of the Oven! 

Meanwhile over in Everett, Ontario, Canada, Sandra & Bill have been cooking up a storm also! See below a ' Homemade Cast Iron Pizza ' for lunch and 'Apricot Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with a Honey Mustard Sauce for supper!  " Yummm " !! 

We then went up to ‘ Calle Mar’ and sat outside in the hot sunshine, with a nice cool drinks to watch the ‘ Carnival’ parade go past, see the pictures above. When we returned I then shot up to the office/studio to type/post today’s Blog, as you can see!

Just a quick update on the sports results; Valtteri Bottas dominated the ‘ Australian Grand Prix ‘ after overtaking his team mate Lewis Hamilton who made a slow start and won!  Manchester City won 2- 3 after going down by two goals, in the ‘ FA Cup’ – Real Madrid won 2-0 under their new manager, Zinedine Zidane.

At the ‘ Guinness Six Nations Rugby ’ Wales beat Ireland 25-7 as they thumped Ireland into submission and won the ‘ Grand Slam ‘ as well as the ‘ Championship’ ! Later England led Scotland at half time 31-0 and played out of the world rugby, then in the second half Scotland came back and did the same and led by 38 points to 31 points with a few minutes to go, before England scored to bring is back to a lucky draw 38-38!!

After supper we settled down to watch the final, back to back episodes of the Icelandic thriller/drama “ Trapped “ – I won’t give it away, only to say it is all very exciting and gripping right up to the end!

No Pete Black 'Film Quiz' this Sunday!

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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