The baking of a bundt

It all started a couple of weeks ago. Our good friends locally asked if we had the DVD of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'. Since moving to Cyprus, they had been told repeatedly that they should really see it - and more recently, had come across references to it in various books.

We did, and since it must have been about six years since we watched it, we checked with someone who was staying - he had never seen it, and was happy to see it too - and arranged a DVD evening on Monday of last week. We all enjoyed it. The film pokes fun at both Greek and American culture; living in Cyprus, we particularly appreciated the Greek family humour which is caricatured - but not much.

Then we got into discussion of the 'bundt' which was taken to a party by the nervous American mother. I produced my ring pan - and said I'd find a recipe and make one for the next cell group meeting. I did some research, and came across several recipes that sounded rather good. A bundt pan technically has sloping sides, so I was actually going to make a ring cake... but we didn't worry too much about that.

So, on Friday a week ago, since I had three apples that needed to be used up, I made a Dutch apple bundt cake. It was quite easy, and smelled good.

I didn't think there would be any problem getting it out of the pan - it's a loose-bottomed one, coated with teflon; I greased with butter and floured as the recipe told me to. And, indeed, the side came away easily. But the middle part didn't...


Since it was quite big, I was worried that trying to force it out would make it break.

However, when Richard got home from work, he was braver. He loosened it, and then flipped it upside down onto a serving dish, and shook it out:


Some of the fluted parts were a bit dented, but it looked fine.


Meanwhile, our friends called to let us know that their children were all in various stages of an unpleasant (albeit short-lived) stomach bug. Since the friends staying with us did NOT want to be exposed to it, the cell group was cancelled. And, tempting though it was to eat the ring cake, our friends (the ones staying) decided to take us out to our favourite local meze taverna to eat.

So I decided to keep the cake for whenever we next ate with our other friends. Which meant that actually I needed it on a plastic container, so that I could freeze it. So we transferred it to the lid of my Christmas cake container:


.. and wrapped it in foil, and froze it.

Fast forward a week. All were recovered from the stomach bug, and although our friends from the UK had both returned home, we were meeting again at our local friends' home for a cell group in the evening. So I got the cake out in the morning to thaw. I didn't think about the fact that it was actually upside-down - and it hardly mattered, since in fact it looked slightly better that way around.

Anyone who's seen the aforementioned movie will no doubt appreciate this photo:


Then Richard cut it into twelve pieces (even though it should theoretically have served 14). They were fairly good-sized pieces:


We all enjoyed it, including eight-month-old Elisabeth:

Busy morning

Since I went to the PO Box on Friday, I didn't need to go today, so thought I'd have a fairly leisurely morning. I thought I'd do a bit of dusting and mopping, and I wanted to prepare a beef/bean casserole to cook in the slow cooker all day as we have two visitors staying at present. And I thought I'd bake a loaf of bread for lunch, and do some laundry... really, not a lot. And I thought I might pop out to the froutaria later, for some oranges.

At 8.00 I realised that I didn't have either onions or tomatoes, both of which I needed for the casserole. So, I thought I'd go to the froutaria early. I had a card to post, too, and knew I'd go past a letter box on the way.

I arrived home with two bags of fruit and veg... still clutching the card. So I dumped the shopping bags and went back to the letter box.

Then I prepared the casserole - including chopping and lightly stewing the tomatoes before adding them, and also soaking some beans so I could boil them later and add them too.. and set the slow cooker to work. So far so good.

Then I thought I'd better get the bread on, and remembered that I needed to make some almond milk to put in it. No problem, I put the almonds to soak yesterday. So I made that, and then got the bread ingredients in the breadmaker.

Then I remembered that we'd run out of lemonade... but I'd frozen some rind and juice last time we were given a large batch of lemons, so I pulled those out of the freezer, and made the lemonade.

Then I remembered that we'd almost run out of yogurt, so I prepared another batch of that, and put in the yogurt machine.

By then, it was about 10.00. So I put some laundry in the washing machine, and put away the dried laundry from Friday that was still hanging out.

I do like my kitchen 'servants'...

I was a bit tired by then - the cough still lingers - so I sat down for half an hour with a cup of blackberry fruity tea, and read some email.

At 10.30 I thought I'd just do the dusting and mopping, which I didn't think would take that long.

Then I remembered that on Sunday morning we'd woken up to find that the windows looked like this:


and the outside steps looked like this:


due to a rather blustery sandy rainstorm late Saturday night. If I'd been a good Cypriot housewife I would have cleaned them all on Sunday, but I try to take Sundays off as much as I can. I did brush the steps - not wanting sand trailed into the house - but that was all.

So I mopped the bathrooms, and the indoor stairs, and then had a go at the outside ones - I needed two entire buckets of water, and although they looked a little better by the time I'd finished, they weren't great.

Then I dusted the inside of the house, which was a bit more dusty than usual - perhaps also due to the sandstorm. Then I swept the floors, and dry-moppd them.

Then I thought I'd have a go at the windows... and that took me rather longer than I'd expected, but they did look a great deal better when I had finished. Then I cleaned the kitchen, including the sink and the area around the window.

Then I finally got to wet-mopping the floors. After that, I hung out the laundry, removed the bread from the breadmaker, and bottled the lemonade.

By which time it was 1.00pm... so I set the table for four of us for lunch.

I'm kind of tired this evening...

Heavy boxes from Holland and Barrett

I mentioned, early in January, how I had discovered that I could order some items from the UK health food store Holland and Barrett for rather less than I pay for the same items at supermarkets or pharmacies in Cyprus. The order arrived within ten days, and I was delighted.

Early in February, I realised that I was running low on my favourite green tea and blackcurrant teabags. I haven't been able to get them in Cyprus for a while, so I went back to the Holland and Barrett website. This time I had a voucher from Quidco for 15% off the order - had I actually registered with the site (as I did a few days later), I'd have had a 'cashback' too.

Holland and Barrett were having special deals with several products reduced even more than usual, if I bought two of them. I decided to get four packets of the fruity tea - at a total of £5. I wanted some more oats, but the 1kg bags were not in stock; however they had 2kg bags, with the same offer - buy two, and get the second one half price. I browsed around, looking at the things I had tagged as 'favourites', and also following some links... and it wasn't long before my order came to about £45... then, when I applied the voucher, and they added postage, it came to just over £30. Very reasonable, it seemed to me.

I did wonder, in the days that followed, how I would get the order back from the Post Office. The email they sent implied that orders over 2kg (as this undoubtedly was!) would be sent by courier... however I didn't receive any notification, and nobody phoned. I didn't go to the PO Box last Monday, but on Friday was concerned that there might be a fair amount of mail awaiting us, so as it was a nice day, I walked down. It's a gentle stroll of about a mile. In the box were two slips saying that there were parcels waiting for me inside. I'd taken a large cloth bag with me, wondering if the order might have come, and thought how sensible that they'd divided the order into two. Or, perhaps, there would be something else awaiting me...

The postmistress brought out two parcels. They were a little bigger than I'd expected. 'Wait,' she said, as she handed them to me. 'There are more!'

She returned with THREE more parcels. One large, two medium, two small. I managed to fit three of them into my bag.

For the first time ever, I did contemplate phoning Richard at the office and asking if he could spare ten minutes to come and collect me (and the parcels). But they weren't that heavy, so I thought I would probably be all right. It was a little awkward, and by the time I was half-way home I was out of breath and quite warm, but I took a five-minute break on a bench in the nearby park, and made it home.

Then I piled the boxes on the sofa to take a photo:


I then weighed them individually. They were each around 2kg in weight, with a total of almost 9kg. So, not THAT heavy, really... but still, rather more than I would normally carry for a mile.

The two smallest boxes each contained a 750g jar of molasses:


I didn't need that much molasses. I use a teaspoonful at a time when I make bread, and a 340g jar (which I can buy in Cyprus) lasts me a couple of months, usually. But 750g from Holland and Barrett cost HALF of what a 340g jar costs here... and the second was, of course, at half price.

The medium boxes each contained one of the 2kg bags of oats:


I use that for granola, and sometimes for biscuits/cookies. It will take me a LONG time to get through 4kg, so I put the bags straight in the freezer.

And the large box contained:


Two bags of cough lozenges, two bags of sunflower seeds, two boxes of lemon/ginger tea, and four boxes of blackcurrant/green tea.

(Which sounds like something 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' might have eaten!)

It was only as I checked the packing labels that I realised that there's still more to come. Evidently the last box was delayed, since my order also included two bags of linseeds, some echinacea/goldenseal extract, and a copy of the latest 'Healthy' magazine.

Just as well, really. I don't see how I could possibly have carried a sixth box home as well.

I hope they didn't make too big a loss on my order. There's no way that the £6.95 postal charges would have covered over 9kg of parcels from the UK to Cyprus.

Strawberries in Cyprus

Strawberries often start to appear in the shops in Cyprus in January, but are usually extremely over-priced. I generally ignore them until they're more plentiful and less expensive. So I was pleased - and a little surprised - to find strawberries in the 'pink bag' reduced aisle of our favourite froutaria about a week ago. They were still rather more expensive than they will be in a few months, but not unreasonable.. and they looked very good. So I bought a couple of handfuls.

I cut them up and we shared them after our evening meal:


They tasted almost as good as they looked. Though not quite. Strawberries are often just slightly disappointing in Cyprus. It's one of the things that the UK does a great deal better.

Why, you might ask, did I buy and photograph them a week ago, but am only writing about them today?

It's only today, for the first time in several weeks, that I begin to feel as if my cough is finally better. Or nearly so. It's been a strange three weeks, feeling physically all right, albeit extra-tired at times, but with no real energy or motivation for anything. And those horrible bouts of coughing, leaving me exhausted.

Still, I've managed to get out to the fruitaria two or three times each week - it's only five minutes' walk from our home, and I'm sure the sunshine is good for me, even though it's been cold enough to wear a jacket or fleece as well as a sweatshirt. I've kept a lookout for more strawberries, but there are only the over-priced punnets. So we probably won't have any more for a few weeks now.

Colder and coughing...

So, last week it felt a bit chilly, and I reported recovering from a cold. I did indeed continue to improve, other than continuing with the nasty cough. Just as Richard did over Christmas. I don't think mine is quite as bad, but it's lasted well over a week now, and kept me awake until very late on Wednesday night. There are a lot of bugs and viruses going around, it seems. Cyprus certainly isn't immune to them, as some people might assume.

Nor, indeed, is Cyprus immune from cold weather. Last week's 16C seems quite warm compared to today, when the weather site tells me it's only 12C currently, mid-afternoon. The sun was out this morning, but I had to walk briskly, wearing a fleece and a sweatshirt, to keep even reasonably warm when popping over to see our friends whose three youngest children are also suffering coughs and colds in varying degrees. Last night we were down to about 6C. I'm very thankful for the central heating that comes on, morning and evening, and which can be given an extra hour's boost if necessary (as it was at lunch-time today) to take the chill off the house.

I'm also thankful for fresh lemons, and reasonably priced honey, to make our favourite hot drinks in the evenings. Soothing for sore throats and coughs, and rather delicious too.

There were a few spots of rain earlier in the afternoon. The sky overhead is grey. I am reminding myself that I like winter a great deal better than summer in Cyprus... but it's still hard to get moving and motivated. According to the weather site ten-day forecast for Larnaka, we're supposed to have wall-to-wall sunshine tomorrow, with a high of 14C, then slightly warmer temperatures at the end of the week, and rain. We seem to have had quite a bit of rain recently, but apparently it's not yet enough. Every winter the officials worry about the state of the reservoirs; 49% full may be worse than this time last year, but it's a great deal better than it was three or four years ago.

For those wondering if we're affected by the riots in Cairo - the answer is: not really. We're not all that far away geographically speaking, but Cyprus is a different country entirely. There have been some evacuations from Egypt - about thirty Cypriots and a hundred and fifty Americans - and it's possible that one of Richard's colleagues and his family will get here, though we're not entirely sure where they would stay as the various guest flats we know (including ours) are all full.

So, if the demonstrations end reasonably peacefully, as we hope and pray, there is unlikely to be any real effect here.