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My favourite time of year! The azahar started blossoming this week and now the whole city smells like heaven. I do miss having orange trees in my street, but it’s also a good “excuse” to get out for walks. Wish you guys could smell it.
29 Thursday Mar 2018
Posted in casa azahar, seasons, sevilla
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My favourite time of year! The azahar started blossoming this week and now the whole city smells like heaven. I do miss having orange trees in my street, but it’s also a good “excuse” to get out for walks. Wish you guys could smell it.
27 Tuesday Mar 2018
Posted in animals & pets, casa azahar, cats, home
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I’ve become used to finding cat toys hidden under my pillows, but THIS is taking things a bit too far. Loki, of course! Discovered when I changed my sheets yesterday, so by my reckoning I was sleeping with a pork bone for about five nights. Ewww…
24 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in casa azahar, ipad, retail therapy, shopping
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I admit it’s not my best habit, but I almost never sit at the table when I eat. Meals at home (unless I have company) are more likely to be snacky things, eaten either at my desk or sitting in my comfy chair with feet up while netflixing. Except I didn’t have a comfortable side table for doing this… until now! And look, it isn’t even IKEA. I needed an actual screwdriver to put it together. 😉 (that’s a stock photo by the way, not my sofa or books).
Anyhow, it’s practical and even has a little slot designed to hold an iPad. Which will come in handy if I ever start reading ebooks. But that’s it for furniture now… no more space – or need – for anything else.
21 Wednesday Mar 2018
Posted in azahars kitchen, casa azahar, homecooking, sevilla
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For as long as I’ve been going to Eslava (basically as long as I’ve lived here) I have loved THOSE honey pork ribs. The flavour, the texture, the wonderful comfort food aspect of that dish. And so I decided to try making a “home kitchen” version of it. After a small glitch when my newly-installed oven refused to cooperate the other day (my landlord quickly had the problem fixed – best landlord ever!) it was time to give it a go. And well… I almost nailed it!
I had been given some tips by the owner of Eslava, my friend Sixto. But of course trying to recreate something made in a professional kitchen at home is always tricky. But the result was pretty damn fine. The flavour was perfect, just like at Eslava, but I didn’t quite get the “fall off the bone” texture of the meat. I think I know why but, again, I will have to tweak the recipe so that it works at home. Which means I’m going to have to make these babies again sometime! Not a bad prospect at all. Who wants to come over next time?
Since there is no garlic in this recipe, I decided to add some on the side, and made my first ever whole-baked garlic (delicious!). I also made some “smashed” pan-fried potatoes. Then Peter @SVQconcierge and I watched a couple episodes of David Chang’s Ugly Delicious on Netflix while we ate… food obsessed much?
20 Tuesday Mar 2018
Posted in animals & pets, casa azahar, cats, home
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While continuing to pay next to no attention to the cat tower I got them last week, the cats have been finding other ways to amuse themselves. The most annoying of these is turning the new footstool I bought at IKEA into a cat fort, usually knocking the lid and cushion to the floor, followed by the other two fighting the cat inside the stool. Usually at 3 am…
Also, there were a few fun days vying for possession of the box that the cat tower came in, until it was taken apart for recycling. I give up…