Frida Kahlo

                                                                  Frida Kahlo

"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you."
- Frida Kahlo

I was a bookish, introspective child who from a very young age became fascinated with people's life stories. I read, rather unusually, lots of biographies and autobiographies and was certainly influenced and inspired by many of the artists and writers I read about.

Long before Google existed, I would read book upon book about the particular person I happened to be interested in, Dora Carrington, Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion, Patricia Neal, Isabella Blow and the beautiful Frida Kahlo.

Frida's quote above spoke to me personally, I was (and probably still am) that other strange, flawed, bizarre person she was appealing to!

Frida's art was autobiographical, her life was blighted by her physical ailments, chronic pain and scores of surgeries to put her back together again, her talents as an artist were irrepressible.

Frida was born in Mexico City in 1907, around the age of six she contracted polio and was bedridden for 9 months. Her indomitable spirit shone when she attended school,  she was known for her vibrancy and love of colourful clothes and jewellery. When she met muralist Diego Rivera who was nearly 23 years older than her, she told a friend that she would someday have his baby.

As Joan Didion famously quoted: 'life changes in an instant.' Frida was involved in an accident which would colour the rest of her life. Travelling on a bus which crashed, Frida was impailed by a steel handrail, which went into her hip and out the other side. During her long recovery Frida began painting self portraits, she said 'I paint myself because I am so often alone.'

Frida did marry Rivera, however, it wasn't a traditional union and was blighted by Rivera's infidelities and Frida's inability to bear a child. Her painting, the flying bed was a painful self portrait following her two miscarriages.

In 1953 Frida had her leg amputated as a result of gangrene, she died at the young age of 47 and remains a huge inspiration to many women and artists today.

My love of literature, art and life has meant I have always kept journals, I love writing! I also love cooking which in its self is an art form, ingredients are the notes that make the music and the words in the novel. Food is aesthetic, it appeals to the senses: smell, taste, touch and sight. To spend time eating in beautiful surroundings is akin to going to the theatre or an art gallery.

                            The beautiful dining rooms at restaurant Asador in Spain

                                           The tranquil courtyard at La Encarnacion

                        Overlooking the sea and being serenaded to boot! La Encarnacion

       Quirky restaurants filled with art, antiques and knick knacks are my favourite

Beautifully presented food is an art form, a picture on a plate. The photos are of some of the dishes I enjoyed whilst in Spain. 

'Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.'

-Frida Kahlo

'Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.'

-Ecclesiastes

Love Donna xxxxxx

Bring On The Barbecue!

In England you can never be sure when summer has arrived. Before going to Spain we had some beautiful weather, Glenn had renewed all our decking and rather prematurely as it turned out, I suggested our garden table, chairs and decorations be taken out of the shed ready for the summer.

Needless to say, two days later we were ankle deep in rain! We're now in mid May and fast approaching 'flaming June' and have yet to experience anything more than a bit of sunshine here and there. However, today remained dry, about the best we can hope for during a typical English summer, and the forecast for the weekend looks promising.

I long for an English summer of stultifying heat during the day leading into balmy nights, I love the dry heat of Spain! I can't remember the last time we sat in our garden here in England well into the night, by late evening there is always a slight nip in the air, the cardigans come out, the chimeneas and patio heaters are lit but after grinning and bearing it for a couple of hours we retreat indoors.

Nevertheless, all over England this coming weekend I suspect barbecues will be fired up, sausages will be sizzled and cold beers will be drunk, and no doubt I'll be participating although probably in my cardigan!

Men tend to love a barbie, it brings out their primeval side, originally barbecues were used by pirates who would impale a goat on a spit and roast it, or cowboys at Western cattle drives who would cook cheap, tough cuts of meat over a long period.

Nowadays people have electric or gas barbecues but the food doesn't compare, authentic barbecues which use wood or coals are the only way to obtain a smoky, barbecued flavour. Better still if you can put some woody herbs on top of your coals which add an extra perfumed smokiness.

How to make a barbecue

Put a couple of bricks on the ground
Place a solid, 8cm-deep roasting tray on top of them
Scrunch up some paper and place it in the tray, with some dry kindling wood
Pile some coal in and around the wood, to give you a pyramid shape
Light the paper and kindling, when the fire has burned down and the coals are white hot and ashy, place a metal cake rack on top of them
Start cooking!

As with any cooking, you are in control, don't cook food over leaping flames as it will burn on the outside and be raw in the middle. Turn food over regularly so that it cooks evenly and by creating a pyramid shape you will ensure good air circulation and therefore good burning.

'There is no real need for decorations when throwing a barbecue party-let the summer garden, in all its vibrant splendour, speak for itself.'
-Pippa Middleton

Love Donna xxxxxxx

They Paved Paradise And Put Up A Parking Lot

                                                          My garden

Funny how life changes as you get older! I grew up in a working class household where weekends were devoted to mum cooking and dad tending to his allotment, they were different times, leisure activities were no where near as sedentary as they are today.

We children would be involved, whether helping mum in the kitchen or, as I did on many a Saturday, helping dad at the allotment. The allotment made me think about food, about how it grew, when it was in season, we anticipated the first crop of rhubarb, mum would stew it and make crumbles, pies and jam. Runner beans and new potatoes doused in butter, carrots and beetroots which mum would roast in olive oil, (which she used to buy in boots the chemist.) The allotment was back breaking work but my father was relaxed and at one with mother nature and those times are cherished memories for me.

As a young adult I lost all interest in allotments, gardening and cooking, fortunately old habits die hard and when my son Bert was born I wanted him to appreciate nature, after all the best luxuries in life are experience and knowledge. I crowded the small balcony of our flat in London with grow bags and pots and grew herbs and tomatoes which Bert would water. My parents also devoted a plot in their garden to Bert where he grew wild strawberries, blackberries and legumes, with a bit of help from grandad!

When I  was growing up my family watched a programme called ''The good life' this followed couple Tom and Barbara who chose to escape modern commercial life by adopting a sustainable, simple, self-sufficient lifestyle. By stark contrast their neighbours were wealthy social climbers who inspite of all the trappings weren't happy. Without question viewers aspired to be Tom and Barbara as opposed to their snobby, materialistic neighbours, however, as a nation we have become entrenched in materialism, and social climbing. Across England gardens have been given over to monstrous trampolines, I quess it's easier to throw the kids on the trampoline than to spend time with them planting and nurturing a garden!

As I said in my previous post, I'm trying out Jamie Oliver recipes from his save with Jamie cookbook. Fortunately there is a whole chapter dedicated to veg recipes and this next recipe went down very well with my family!

BBQ beans and smashed sweet potatoes

Recipe
Serves 6
2 onions, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 chilli, sliced (optional)
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 x 700ml jar of passata
Olive oil
1 teaspoon of each: paprika, cumin and dried chilli flakes
6 sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean
2 x 400g tins of mixed beans, (alternatively you could use 1 tin of mixed beans and 1 of baked beans or butter beans, I used 1 tin of chilli kidney beans and 1 of mixed beans)
100ml BBQ sauce

In a large pan heat a glug of olive oil, add onions, garlic, chilli, carrots, paprika, cumin and chilli flakes
Cook for 20 minutes, or until softened, stirring regularly
In a preheated oven, 180c/gas 4, place sweet potatoes on a baking tray and cook for 1 hour
When onions and carrots are soft stir in passata, add a splash of water to the empty jar, swirl it around and pour into pan
Add beans and BBQ sauce, stir well, drizzle with olive oil and simmer gently for 30 minutes, adding water to loosen if needed

Remove potatoes from oven, allow to cool slightly then peel skin away

Roughly chop potatoes and add to pan

Serve in warm bowls, you could add dollops of natural yoghurt or grated cheese or you could tear up some stale bread, lightly toss in oil and bake in the oven with the potatoes until they are crispy croutons to scatter on top

Yet another very nutritious, economical meal!

'A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in-what more could he ask?
 A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.'
-Victor Hugo

Love Donna xxxxxxx

Save With Jamie.

                                                 My tasty Chinese beef and noodles

After my glorious holiday in Spain it's back to reality! Since leaving my job a year ago I've had to tighten my purse strings, ironically we've never eaten so well. Far from trading down, I source ingredients far more cleverly and economically, as Jamie Oliver quotes: 'if you look back through history, the best food in the world has always come from communities under massive financial pressure.'

My paternal grandmother had nine children and very little money, she had to be extremely resourceful as did many women of her generation. Today we have masses of choice and consequently in the UK we now waste 2 billion pounds worth of food each year..........easy come, easy go.

Supermarket chain Asda has grown into a retailing behemoth, I visited an Asda store yesterday and clearly their marketing promotions are based on price and a target market. People on low incomes can fill a trolley full of food which my grandmother couldn't have hoped for in her wildest dreams.

Jamie Oliver sparked a poverty row recently when he attacked families for living on a diet of junk food. He said: '7 times out of 10, the poorest families in this country choose the most expensive and unhealthy way to hydrate and feed their families with ready meals and convenience foods.' He also pointed out that whilst children are being fed on cheesy chips and fizzy drinks, money is being spent on wide screen TV sets and other technology. There is a great disparity between modern food poverty and that of my grandmother's era, and there is a stark contrast between us and other parts of the world- such as Italy- where economically deprived families manage to eat a healthy diet.

Cheap convenience food is not economical in the long run, although I've always cooked I did rely on convenience food to some extent when I was working, by shopping for raw ingredients and cooking from scratch I have almost halved my weekly shopping bill!

In response to requests from his readers, Jamie Oliver has written a cookery book: 'save with Jamie' a book dedicated to great food at great value. I'm currently navigating my way through various recipes and am very impressed with the results. Naturally I've done a bit of tweaking here and there but the recipes I've tried thus far have been delicious and not hard on my wallet.

Mince is an ingredient most of us buy on a regular basis, the problem is I find myself using it time and again for Shepherds pie, spag bol or chilli. Jamie's recipe for Chinese beef and tofu appealed to me but I didn't have any tofu, I took the bones of the recipe, added a couple of different ingredients and the result was fabulous.

Chinese beef

Recipe
250g mince
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger (I used pickled ginger, ground ginger is another alternative)
Soy sauce
1 beef stock cube
1 hot chilli, finely sliced
Noodles
1 can Chinese vegetables (I had a can of Chinese vegetables, alternatively you could add frozen peas and chopped spring onions or fresh beansprouts)

Put a splash of oil in a pan and fry the beef and Chinese five spice for 15 minutes
Add the garlic, chilli and ginger
Crumble in the stock cube, add a splash of soy sauce and pour in 500ml of water
Simmer for 30 minutes until thickened and reduced
Meanwhile cook some noodles according to packet instructions
Add veg and noodles to the pan, gently stir through the sauce and continue simmering for 5 minutes

Serve immediately into warm bowls and enjoy!

This meal was more than enough for three of us, you could stretch it further by adding more noodles or as in Jamie's recipe accompanying it with rice.


'Sir, respect your dinner: idolize it, enjoy it properly. You will be many hours in the week, many weeks in the year, and many years in your life happier if you do.'
-William Makepeace Thackeray

Love Donna xxxxx

Healthy Desserts

Further to my post: 'dying from diabetes' I've been doing some research into sugar and why it has become such a danger to us. The sugar industry is financially and politically very powerful, it's a multi million pound industry that the government won't regulate, it seems the powers that be aren't interested in our health but are extremely interested in profit! Of course now we are seeing the backlash and diabetes is costing the NHS 14 million pounds a year, suddenly the government are sitting up and taking an interest because our health is hurting their pockets.

The problem is we are now a society addicted to sugar, cupcakes, cake pops, sprinkles.......sugary treats are big business, yet there is absolutely no role for added sugar to be part of a balanced diet. I like dessert as much as the next person but I think we have to wise up and set an example to the next generation, we owe it to our children not to leave them this legacy of diabetes and cardiovascular disease!

As with any addiction it's all about the craving, when you want a bar of chocolate or an ice cream little else will do. So what's the alternative? Fruit is the obvious choice but an apple doesn't quite measure up to sticky toffee pudding, however, there are ways of transforming fruits into desserts that are not too laden in sugar and certainly when I was a child most of my mother's homemade desserts involved fruit.

Dark chocolate, 70% cacao or higher and 100% organic actually has a number of health benefits, it's full of antioxidants and high in vitamins and minerals. Unlike other chocolate it is not loaded with refined sugar, artificial flavours or sweetners. I love strong dark chocolate but it is an acquired taste, paired with bananas it's divine so give my banana bites a go, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Banana bites

Recipe
2 bananas
1 bar 70% cacao chocolate
Sea salt (optional)

Slice bananas and place on a tray, freeze for at least 1 hour
Melt chocolate in a bain marie or microwave

Dip banana pieces in chocolate and sprinkle with sea salt
Place in freezer to allow chocolate to set
Remove from freezer 10 minutes before eating

'Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands.........and then eat just one of the pieces'
-Judith Viorst

Love Donna xxxxx

What's Your Poison

You'll have gathered by now that when I'm in Spain I eat very well......too much probably, nevertheless, I eat fresh ingredients on a daily basis. Back home in England it's so easy to go off track, supermarkets are swamped with convenience food, take for example onion bhaji, you can buy a pack of ready made bhajis for less than a couple of quid, stick them in the oven and 10 minutes later they're done! The fact that they are not authentic, are full of preservatives and are like eating a bathroom sponge becomes irrelevant somehow. We divert our attention away from the fact we're eating rubbish because convenience is paramount.

An onion bhaji cooked from scratch bears no resemblance to those stodgy old things you'll find hanging about on supermarket shelves. Ironically nothing could be easier than mixing a few onions with a bit of flour and water and frying the mix for a few minutes, I'll go one further and say if you put some dried chick peas in a food processor or coffee grinder within seconds you'll have your own gram flour. Suddenly a couple of quid seems rather expensive for six bhajis! Dried chickpeas are cheap, fresh onions are for most people a cupboard staple add a bit of curry powder and you're laughing, or in my case salivating.

My aforementioned neighbour Tony rustled up a plate of hot crispy bhajis, to accompany them he made some delicious koftas. The name kofte comes from the Persian word grind, basically koftas can be made from any minced ingredients be it lamb, beef, potato or even cheese. Lamb stands up better to the spices than beef although it's popular to combine both meats. Talking of spices, where to start? You can combine as many or as little as you personally prefer, some of the more popular choices are: cumin, ginger, chilli, fennel, paprika and harissa paste. Personally I find onion is a must although it has to be grated and the excess liquid squeezed out. Mint is the perfect pairing for lamb, as is peppery parsley, a combination of any of the spices mentioned (depending on what you have in your cupboard) some minced garlic and fresh chilli make for delicious koftas. Alternatively you could opt for sweet spices: cinnamon, allspice or nutmeg. As with the bhajis, these koftas are easy to make and are a great value recipe, another great option for the barbecue!

Onion bhajis

Recipe
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon curry powder
5 tablespoons gram flour
Water and oil
Place onion slices in bowl, add a pinch of salt, garlic, turmeric and curry powder, mix well
Add the gram flour and mix adding a little water at a time until a soft dough forms

Heat oil over a high heat, drop mixture in by the tablespoon and fry until golden

Lamb koftas

Recipe
400g lamb mince
Zest of 1 lemon
1 grated onion
Finely chopped mint and parsley or coriander
And your choice of spices, Tony used a teaspoon of cumin, chilli powder, mustard seeds, cinnamon and some grated ginger

Place all ingredients in a bowl and combine well

With damp hands divide into equal portions, shape the mixture into cigar shapes and chill for at least 1 hour

Heat a pan with ample oil, cook kebabs until golden on all sides

Drain koftas on some paper towels and serve immediately

A top tip, Tony mixed a tub of Greek yoghurt with a teaspoon of shop bought mint sauce, the perfect accompaniment!

'The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison'
-Ann Wigmore

Love Donna xxxxxx

An Abundance Of Artichokes

One of the things I love about Spain is the readily available fresh and seasonal produce, Spaniards have a great respect for what's in season. Markets are prevalent throughout Spain where you will find many small proprietors stalls, each selling their speciality-meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, ham, cheese and sausage makers, bakeries and seafood.

                                                   The market in Jacarilla

Whenever I buy fresh ingredients in Spain I find that they don't last for more than a few days, for me that's a good sign. Interestingly, before I left for Spain 17 days ago I filled the fridge for Bert, amongst other things I left a sliced loaf, milk, tomatoes and apples, Bert hadn't touched any of these yet the bread was without mould and still soft, the milk hadn't gone sour and the fruit was in still perfect condition. It's rather worrying actually and just goes to prove how many preservatives are added to our everyday food!

Artichokes are abundant in Spain and quite honestly they have always mystified me! I've often wondered why anyone would go to the lengths of preparation involved for what amounts to a small portion of a rather bland vegetable. However, artichokes are an important winter vegetable in Mediterranean cultures and are eaten in various different ways. Whilst eating tapas at a restaurant recently we were served artichokes which had been cooked on a plancha and were utterly delicious. I watched the chef prepare and cook the chokes and was surprised at how easy this was.

Pan fried artichokes

Recipe
Artichokes
Olive oil
Lemon
Salt and pepper

Trim artichokes, removing hard pointed tips, rub with lemon to stop discolouring
Cut artichokes into 1/4 inch slices, remove the fuzzy choke
Heat a glug of olive oil in a pan and fry choke slices 2-3 minutes per side
When the edges are crisp sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve hot

With such an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables lots of salad is eaten in Spain, my neighbour Tony makes some delicious concoctions.

Cucumber salad

Recipe
2-3 cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced, omitting the seeds
200ml cider vinegar
2 teaspoons of sugar
A handful of sesame seeds

Arrange cucumber in a bowl
Lightly toast sesame seeds in a dry pan, keep a close eye as you don't want them to burn
In a separate bowl mix vinegar and sugar
Pour vinegar over cucumber and scatter sesame seeds on top

This salad is so simple but so utterly refreshing and delicious, you can add beetroot for a different twist

Olive oil is widely used in Spain and has a sunny, fragrant taste. Olive oil marinates meat or fish to a melting richness and can transform texture and flavour on many ingredients, enjoy a good olive oil drizzled over cheese with a pinch of salt and a scattering of herbs to compliment the above salads.

'Go vegetable heavy. Reverse the psychology of your plate by making meat the side dish and vegetables the main course.'
-Bobby Flay

Love Donna xxxxxxxxxx