MANILVA THIS WEEKEND.

FRIDAY 21^st / SATURDAY 22^nd / DECEMBER 2012.

Well the weather forecast for the next week and into the New Year is more of the same, sun and clear Blue skies! We are still here, the world did not end on 21/12/2012 as some believed ! – Onwards and upwards !!   On Friday morning we did the last big shop down in Sabinillas including calling into the English Butchers in Puerto Duquesa where we picked up some Gammon Steaks, Pork Sausage’s, large Kidneys for the pie, a joint of Topside of Beef ( The Forerib of Scottish Beef is too expensive) and two steaks, a T-Bone for me and a Sirloin for Brenda! After dropping the shopping off at the house we went down to the local market with Cheta and picked up some flowers and Xmas plants for presents for our neighbours ( No more Poinsettias ! ) In the evening for supper we treated ourselves to a whole Rodaballo ( Turbot ) baked in the oven with a garnish of large Gambas along with Baby New Potatoes and Garden Peas. It is definitely the ‘ Queen of Fish ’ The late film was the very moving and true story of a child prodigy and his mother, it is called “ Little Man Tate ”from 1991 and was directed by ( Her first ) and starred Jodie Foster; Adam-Hann-Byrd is the boy – get your hankies ready!

On Saturday morning on all the TV channels it was the coverage of the draw of “ EL Gordo – The Big One ” sadly we are still here, so I have put the to-do list away for another year ! We then got things on the go for dinner with Mano,Anna,Debbie and Dave later; I made the Steak, Kidney and Mushroom Pie filling with Diced Onions,Leeks,Carrots,Turnips and my secret ingredients- the Kidneys which the English Butchers got fo me were Pigs,large,the size of a Breast of Chicken and they were soft and very tasty – as was the Pie !  See the pictures below of the before and after, Brenda did plain Broccoli Florets, fresh Baby Sprouts with Smoked Bacon Sippets,Garden Peas and Baby Carrots mixed and Baby New Potatoes whilst I made ‘ Paysanne ’ potatoes, deep-fried squares tossed in Sautéed diced Onions, Garlic and Red, Green and Yellow Peppers ! We also prepared some Tapas,Chorizo,Iberia Ham, semi Corado Cheese and my special savoury Pork Sausages cut into pieces and coated in Lea and Perrins ( A La Savoy Hotel ) which we had with ‘ Kir Royal ’made with a Reserva Freixenet Cava; we served a fine Rioja Reserva Albali – for pudding we had individual Moscatal ( From our next-door neighbours Campo)  Trifles as you can see in the picture above. Debbie, Dave and me then went on the ‘ Funkin Caipirinha’s ’- its says it on the label -  made with ‘ Cachata from Brazil – Dave had two !!

Meanwhile over in England the football was good as Liverpool won,Everton won and Manchester City also in the 93^rd minute ! Later over here Barcelona won away 1-3 but Messi only scored one! Malaga beat Real Madrid 3-2 so Madrid are now 16 points behind Barcelona in ‘ La Liga ’!!

Andy has just dropped off ‘ Charlie ’as he and Maria are going to her family and home in Seville for Xmas; as I was typing this the “ Xmas Bomba Band ”came along Calle Mar so I shot up and took some pictures as you can see above.Five hours later they came down our street and stopped outside the house and wished us a Happy Xmas -I took the top picture with the mobile phone! 

Thoughts for the Day;

No road is long with good company.  Friendship isn’t a big thing – it’s a million little things.

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