recent Lifestyle blogs
tasty tapas in malaga…

tasty tapas in malaga…

“Traditional” tapas restaurants and bars are abundant in Malaga and we’ve yet to experience one other than very good. Value is always exceptional with most providing complimentary tasters if you’re just having a pit-stop, rather than a full-on tapas session. There is...

salmon & potato bake…

salmon & potato bake…

We're doing a whole lot more cooking at home these days - as everyone is - but we're dreaming of the time we can occasionally escape the kitchen from time to time, again. Until then though, we're trying to vary what we eat and try out new dishes. Sometimes we do fall...

winter walks…

winter walks…

It's absolutely freezing in Istria at the moment. That's right, freezing. Not the wall to wall sunshine & heat we'd naively thought we'd be experiencing, all year round 😉 But, we're also just a little bit stir crazy, having not really left our village (apart from...

christmas : 2020

christmas : 2020

Well, it's definitely been a funny old year. Since returning from our Christmas road trip, back to the UK, in January, we have been nowhere. Coronavirus quickly put paid to our usual kind of year. No eating out. No mini breaks. No visitors to us, meaning that we've...

walnut pesto…

walnut pesto…

There are certain foodstuffs that we buy, that I know should be so easy to make ourselves, but for some reason, never get around to it. Either, there's something we don't have from the ingredients list, Or, I just assume it won't be as easy as I think it might. Pesto...

smoked tuna with pasta…

smoked tuna with pasta…

Almost with the flick of a switch, summer seemed to end yesterday, and autumn arrived. The temperature dropped and grey skies replaced the bright blue sky we seem have had for weeks and weeks. Although we're still hopefully weeks away from having to light the...

oprtalj : step into the past…

oprtalj : step into the past…

Our nearest town, Oprtalj, isn't really a town. At least not in the sense of what we'd regard as a town back in the UK. Oprtalj is not much bigger than Burton Road in West Didsbury, but with a couple of restaurants, a cafe bar, a school, a food shop, an interiors...

waste not want not panzanella…

waste not want not panzanella…

Waste not, want not. We're trying very, very hard to live a much more sustainable lifestyle and to really take note of what we buy. In the past, we might have popped into Manchester and come bag with bags of *stuff* that we just didn't need. We don't do this now....

cauli cheese – with a twist…

cauli cheese – with a twist…

I'm a big fan of easy-peasy dishes, which include as few pots and pans as possible. And, as little time spent in the kitchen, as possible. Summer here has been very hot and currently we don't have the luxury of air con, so our summer cooking has involved many BBQs and...

damson gin time…

damson gin time…

For the first year since we've been here, the damson trees around the garden, are absolutely laden with fruit. Maybe they have been in previous years, too, and possibly we've been too busy with summer visitors and renovation work, to notice, but we've definitely...