A VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY.

SATURDAY 13^th/ MAY 2017.

We had a nice lie in this morning as the village is very quiet, no deliveries down our street, they are dragged down on Pallets, to our local shop, the gas bottle delivery man comes down later, blowing his horn and rattling the bottles, no children playing out, they are out later in the evening when it cools down, the church bells start later on a Saturday morning, we then freshened ourselves up, Brenda is washing her hair later, for breakfast we had ‘ Campo’ Fried Eggs & Crispy Smoked Bacon’ with buttered toast and mugs of ‘ PG Tips’!

The sun was out early, the clouds have cleared as the ‘Terral’ breeze brings in the warm & hot weather front across the ‘ Costa Del Sol’ – by lunchtime today it’s due to reach 24/25 degs, tomorrow even hotter and then next week is looking warm & sunny, going hotter each day, by Thursday when it will be 28 degs+! This weather will then be with us for the next 4 months, by August in the mid 30s, last year it reached 41 degs+ - the hottest place in Spain, watch this space.

This evening for our supper I’m cooking an old classic ‘ Restaurant ’ dish – “ Steak au Poivre “ – I ‘ French’ trim the Entrecote Steaks and then season them with salt and lots of crushed Black Peppercorns, they are seared in a hot ‘ Skillet – Flambe’ pan and then taken out to rest, in the pan I then make the sauce, finally chopped Onions & Shallots are sweated off with a dash of ‘Lea & Perrins’ and ‘Tabasco’ sauce, then more crushed Black Peppercorns are added before deglazing with a good slug of Red Wine, the steaks are placed back in the pan and then a dash of Cooking Brandy is ‘flamed’ before adding the double cream, re-season to taste & Chopped Parsley to finish the classic dish. 

We are having Whole Baby Green Beans and of course twice-cooked ‘ Frits’ On Sunday we are going out in the village for a light ‘ Tapas ‘ – al fresco lunch and then in the evening we are keeping things simple, ‘Grilled Chicken Wings’ with a Baked Potato and a Mixed salad.

On the sports front this weekend; over here in ‘La Liga’ on Sunday Real Madrid are at home to Sevilla and Barcelona fly to Las Palmas, meanwhile up in Barcelona it’s the ‘ Spanish Grand Prix ‘ In the ‘Premiere League ‘ over in the UK, Chelsea are the champions, Everton won 1-0 last night, Manchester City welcome Leicester City and tomorrow Liverpool are at home to West Ham.

After supper this evening we will settle down to watch the “ Eurovision Song Contest’ from Kiev in the Ukraine.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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ANOTHER GLORIOUS DAY HERE IN SUNNY MANILVA AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND;

FRIDAY 30/ th OCTOBER 2015.

No real lie in this morning as the workmen on the site made lot of noise unloading a large delivery from their lorry; then the usual Friday morning  deliveries arrived dragged down the street on pallets! ‘Scruffy’ arrived for the day just as we finished breakfast.

The sun is out and the sky is blue so we have another fine day here in sunny Manilva, sadly it will not last as the Atlantic front is coming in tomorrow and the weekend is looking colder and damp, to say the least! It still reaches 24/25 degs today but the overnight temperature’s have dropped to just 11/12 degs,time to get the next level of duvet out on the bed, especially as this year we have no ‘Winter Fuel Allowance’ thanks to Mr Ian Duncan Smith!!

Brenda has just been down to the local market by the sports ground only to find no flower stall there? This weekend is a special Bank Holiday when all the family’s go to the cemetery’s and grave yards and decorate  them with huge fresh flower displays, at great expense as the flowers all cost 2/3 times as much! She picked up some flowers outside the fish market in the village at a stall which shows up at this time of the year, but did not pay for anything expensive!

I stayed in with ‘Scruffy’ as Andy was due to come around and help me arrange a appointment for this years ‘ITV –MOT’ on line but something cropped up so he’s coming tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed that the very old ‘Ford Fiesta’ makes in through! Watch this space.

Before typing and posting the Blog I sorted out this evenings supper “ Goujons of Hake Fillet’ using local breadcrumbs from the bakery; we are having Mushy Peas and diced ‘Frits I made the Tartar Sauce at the same time. See below;

At lunchtime we went for a walk with 'Scruffy' and bumped into a couple that we met last year at a wine tasting in the Manilva Wine Centre; 'Art & Jackie now live down here after retiring and are into their wines, we had a good chat and exchanged local details - its their wedding anniversary this weekend and they are off to Portugal  - enjoy and thanks for the drinks! 

The council have on show at the top of our street their new 'Dust Cart' - ie ' En-Vironiment Cleasning Lorry'!  Very impressive and posh!! See below;

Tomorrow night on the menu is an old classic “ Beef Wellington’ for the first time here in sunny Manilva! I’m using Spanish Fillet steaks not a whole fillet so its going to be more like parcels! They will be wrapped in a ‘Mushroom Duxelles’ with Smoked Bacon after searing the steaks, then individually wrapped in Puff Pastry; we are having finely sliced Green Beans and twice-cooked ‘Frits’ I will serve the Beef Wellington on a pool of Red Wine Glaze.

This evening after our fish supper we will settle down to watch what is now our regular Friday evening English TV extravaganza on BBC 1 & BBC 2!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.



Just around the corner;

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A WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY;

SATURDAY 29th/ AUGUST 2015.

A nice little lie in this morning was called for, the village was quiet and there was no workmen to disturb us,the only sound was the street cleaning machine,which you can't complain about any way! Its going to be another fabulous day with the sun out,the sky blue and just a little breeze to make it rather pleasant,

Last night we had a very nice,relaxing, al fresco Tapas supper up at 'Bar Castillo' as we sat and took in the sights & sounds of sunny Manilva; later Josie came along and joined us with her neighbour, Hugo, who we had not met before,then another neighbour of Josie's, Joe, joined us for a cool drink - nice to meet them both!

This morning Brenda was in charge of the breakfast as we had her famous 'Campo' Poached Eggs on Toast  - the Eggs were dropped off this morning by our next door neighbour, Anna - freshly laid,still warm! Then 'Scruffy' arrived for the day,only, not for a sleep over sadly,as Adrian's shift had changed Brenda is at the moment shampooing her hair as I'm typing the Blog.

So no plans for today, we are just taking things easy and will go for a walk later with 'Scruffy' & 'Chispa'' if she comes calling! 'Scruffy' is as usual under my feet in the office,he's such an adorable character and such good company.

We have just had a call from Jan asking us if we could have 'Charlie' for a 2/3 day sleep over next Friday/Saturday - no problem - this means that in 'Doggy World Heaven' over the 'Vendimia Festival' we will be rather busy as 'Freddie & Bentley' are here on the Saturday & Sunday!

Over in the UK its the 'Bank Holiday'' weekend so in the 'Premiere League' today Liverpool welcome West Ham, Manchester City welcome Watford and Everton travel down the M1 to play Tottenham; over here in 'La Liga' today Barcelona welcome Malaga & Real Madrid are at home to Real Betis. Also in England at Silverstone its the 'British Motor GP' - lets hope the rain keeps away!

Today's Stage 8 of the " Vuelta d' Espana15" goes from Pueblo De Don Fabrique to Murcia is over 188 kms with a downhill finish,yesterday's stage was the last in Andalucia as they climbed across the spectacular high 'Sierra Navada' range of mountains.

See below a spectacular picture taken on Thursday evening of the 'Bay of Colwyn' over in North Wales - it looks more like 'Blackpool Ilumination's'!

This evening after our usual 'Happy Hour' we are having for supper one of my classics from the past 'Steak Diane' but made with our 'Entrecote Steak' - I smear the steaks in Dijon Mustard and then sear them in foaming butter, they are then left to rest, the finely sliced Onions & Mushrooms are added to the pan along with a large spoon of Dijon Mustard,a dash of Worcestershire sauce & Tabasco, a slug of Brenda's Red Wine, then left to reduce, its then time to add a large glass of Brandy and stand back!!

The steaks are then put back in the pan with a large measure of Double Cream and simmered until the sauce thickens, chopped Parsley is the final touch! With it we are having some whole Baby Green Beans and as a treat some of my famous hand-cut ( by Brenda) twice cooked 'Frits' See below;

We will then catch up with all the sports round ups before finding a good film to watch.



Thoughts for the Day; See above.


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WARM AND SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY

SATURDAY 31^st/ MAY 2014.

Well Brenda has had another cough free night which is rather surprising as the bedroom was of course smelling of fresh paint; this morning it’s already warm and getting hotter later, tomorrow we have a surprise little storm with some of the wet stuff hitting us down here on the ‘Costa Del Sol’ coming in from the Mediterranean not the Atlantic as normal! We can’t complain as it’s still warm and on Monday its back to normal as it’s getting hotter for the start of next week.

After breakfast of fresh local Orange juice,Weetabix, tea and toast I’ am up in the office watching ‘BBC TV Breakfast News’ on the smaller PC and at the same time on the larger PC as you can see after catching up with the news on the WWW  I’ am typing the Blog; we have a quiet weekend ahead with no plans then next week Brenda is having her hair cut ready for our adventure on Thursday when we are going over to see Joyce in ‘Alhaurin el Grande’ where she lives, it’s behind Marbella in the hills going up towards Coin then you turn right!

Later this morning ‘Scruffy’ is being dropped off for his weekend sleep-over so we will go for a short walk later with him and ‘Chispa’ We love having him. he’s no trouble and a real character – he is going home on Monday morning.See the picture above.

Meanwhile downstairs in the kitchen my assistant/commis/vegetable chef is preparing the ingredients for this mornings ‘Ensaladilla Rusa’ – ‘Russian Salad’ – then I will also get things ready for tonight’s supper “ Steak Diane ” with twice-cooked chips and finely sliced Green Beans; the classic ‘Diane’ sauce is made with sliced Shallots and Mushrooms, the seasoned steaks smeared with Dijon Mustard and a good spoon-full added to the sauce, a dash of ‘Lea&Perrins and Tabasco, then deglazed with a slug of Red wine and finished with flaming Brandy and Double Cream – we can’ wait!

Then later after supper we are back to normal as the TV is now working, we will catch up with all the sports news then find a film to follow.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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