Family visiting us in Cyprus

 The family departed on Thursday evening. As always, we were very sad to see them go, but I think it's been an enjoyable visit, albeit shorter than the one two years ago. Just twelve days in all, but we managed to fill them pretty well. 

Before they came, we had made a list of all the places we might go to, and things we might do, including 'ice cream every day', although we didn't quite manage that. We were extremely thankful that some friends who are out of Cyprus at present were willing to lend us their seven-seater vehicle. That meant we could plan outings that needed a car easily without having to leave one of the adults behind, or borrowing an extra car and then having extensive discussions about who goes in each one...

We had also decided to have a basic, simple menu for evening meals rather than anything that would require a lot of time and effort. Last summer my granddaughter (seven and a half at the time) wrote this, as her ideal main meal menu for a couple of weeks:

I didn't follow that - I rarely cook any kind of pasta, for instance, and I don't think I have ever bought chicken nuggets. A casserole seemed an over-complicated thing to do, too, when out of six people there's one vegetarian, one dairy-free person, and two who don't like any cooked vegetables, or hot spices. 

But still, we bought some dairy-free milks rather than me making them; we bought some jarred sauces, and ready-made burgers. We even had a bag of oven chips (fries) which someone had left behind in our guest flat. Then we planned to have at least two take-aways (one of them pizza), and a meal out. 

I love being able to watch a flight path online when we're expecting visitors: 

They arrived on a Saturday evening, quite late, and were tired Sunday morning. We played some games and the children found plenty of books to read. I had put on food in the slow cooker for lunch - my slow-cooker has three separate compartments, so I could make one chicken dish with chopped onions and a little hot spice, one chicken dish without onions and with less spice, and one chickpea version (with onions and hot spice). This would account, I hoped, for all preferences. With roast potatoes.  I made sure I had cut up plenty of carrots, cucumbers and red peppers for each meal, as well as cooking other veg for the adults. 

After lunch we took them for a short walk to the newly-built local 'Salina Park':

Later in the afternoon our close friends came over - our grandchildren call them their 'Cyprus cousins' - for games and a film followed by a shared meal. They also brought their turtle, Jabba, since our  granddaughter is passionate about turtles, and wanted the opportunity to look after one. Since our friends were going away a week later, this worked out perfectly. 

We didn't go out for ice cream on the Sunday, but I had made some pineapple/coconut (dairy-free) ice cream, which was part of our dessert in the evening. 

On Monday, as described in more detail in a longer post, we went to the Camel Park in Mazatos, followed by a picnic near the Angeloktisti Church.  Then we came home to play a board game, followed by ice creams at our local (excellent) Italian gelateria. We all decided to be a little adventurous, and I selected a scoop of the forest fruits yogurt ice cream. It's one of the best I had ever tasted.

On Tuesday morning, the 'Cyprus cousins' came over, as they do every Tuesday, for a games morning. In the afternoon, we went into the town as the children wanted hats and sunglasses.  We also took them to have a look at the ice-age exhibition that was on display in Zouhouri Square:

Then we walked along the sea front, and bought some ice creams from one of the little booths. It was okay, but nowhere near as good as the ice creams at the Italian shop. 

On Wednesday we had our longest trip, to the Paradox museum in Limassol, as written about in detail in another post.  We then had our picnic in the Limassol municipal park, which was huge. 

We were all quite tired when we got home, and didn't manage to get out for ice creams. But after our evening meal, we got out our sorbet-maker, a gadget we haven't used in several years. We had bought some bags of ready-frozen fruit, and it made an excellent dessert.

On Thursday, we were invited to a cooked lunch at the 'Cyprus cousins', which was very enjoyable. And we were quite full afterwards. But after a little break, we did manage more ice creams at 'Milk and Honey' by Mackenzie sea front. 

On Friday, we had our third (and last) full morning trip out, this time to Cyherbia, as described in this post, followed by a picnic in Rizoelia park.  I don't think we went out for ice creams that day, but in the evening we finished up the ones in the freezer. 

Saturday was more of a lazing around day; we find it important not to rush around too much, and we were all quite tired after an enjoyable but quite busy week. In the afternoon we went for a walk in the Salt Lake trail, including climbing up to the bird-watching place.

We didn't see any flamingoes, but it was a pleasant walk, and we came back through the park area. Near the main park entrance where we came out is a small corner shop that sells speciality nuts and dried fruit.  Friends had told us that they also did ice creams, so we went in there, only to be told that they no longer sold ice creams. So much for eating at a different place each day - over the road is the Italian place we like so much, so it didn't take much persuasion for us to go there again. 

Sunday was another relaxing day, the one where we had planned to go out to lunch. So after some board games in the morning - nobody felt awake enough to go to one of the church services - we drove to town, and had an excellent lunch at Alexander's. It's family-friendly, the menu is extensive, and it's pretty good value. It also offers something 'on the house' after eating, and three people opted for ice cream. 

Since the family would be leaving before Easter, we decided to give them the Easter eggs we had bought a week early. So there was plenty of chocolate for the afternoon, and I had made some more ice cream at home for our evening dessert. So we didn't go out for any more ices that day. 

On Monday, we thought we might look at the 'Alice in Wonderland' themed Easter fair which had been advertised for Salina Park.

No times were given anywhere, but we had seen the decorations with streamers and cards and 'Alice' figures. We assumed it would be open by ten o'clock, so around 10.30 we got there. There were some deflated bouncy castles in a corner, and several closed booths that were evidently intended to sell things. But nothing open. 

So we walked a little further to the Municipal Park, which our grandchildren had very much enjoyed in previous visits.  And we knew that there was a little cafe there selling ice creams, (and other things) which we had never been to. So we bought ice creams there, and liked them very much. They were less expensive than other places we had been to, too. 

The children particularly like the zip-line, and since there were almost no other children there, they had it mostly to themselves.

We wondered if the Salina Park fair might be opened when we returned home for lunch, but there was still no sign of any activity.

In the afternoon we stayed in for more board games, and our granddaughter took Jabba the visiting turtle outside for a swim in the lid of our sand box.

In the evening, around 7.30pm, Richard and I walked back to the park, wondering if the fair was open in evenings only. Evidently something had been happening, as there were a couple of booths closing down, and a few children on a bouncy castle. We saw a caravan with an office, so he went in to ask when it was open. We were told 4pm-8pm on Tuesday, and 10am-8pm Wednesday. 

The family had been here for nearly ten days and we hadn't yet been to the beach. So we determined to rectify that omission on Tuesday. Our daughter and son-in-law went out on a lunchtime date in town, while we looked after the children, then we met on one of the local beaches in the afternoon. It was perfect weather, and although I mostly sat on my own in a shady spot, everyone else had a lot of fun.

Afterwards, we walked to another of the Makenzie beach ice cream places, Dolce. Most of them, slightly to our surprise, were closed. We all liked the Dolce ices very much, and the ambience of the cafe too. 

On Wednesday, three of our party went sailing. Our granddaughter adamantly didn't want to, and wanted her mum to stay with her. So the three of us remaining at home thought we might wander along to Salina Park; after all, we had been assured that it would be open from 10am.  Knowing that things often don't start on time, we waited until nearly 11am. 

And nothing was happening. The bouncy castles were still deflated, and the booths were still empty. Still, the playground was, for the first time, open for use:

So we spent some time there - there were almost no other children about, even though the Cyprus school Easter holidays had now started. There isn't a lot of equipment there, but enough to keep an eight-year-old occupied for fifteen minutes or so. 

Then we walked around the park again, looking at the empty booths.... 

By this stage, the bouncy castle was being inflated again, and we saw one table where someone was putting out board books in Greek.... and there was a popcorn stand open. But nothing else. And no signs of anyone else doing anything, even though it was now nearly two hours after the fair was supposedly open. 

In the afternoon, when the guys got back after a good sail, the popular vote went to the Italian place on Fanoroumeni, for the third time, for the day's ice creams. And yes, it was very good as well as conveniently close. 

Thursday dawned all too quickly, the last day of the holiday. Our son and daughter-in-law were treating us all to a meal out, at one of our favourite restaurants in town, Al Sultan (Lebanese). The four adults shared an excellent 'grand mezze' intended for two people, and the children had halloumi in pitas with chips. 

And we were all so full by the end that we decided against ice creams. There was still pre-Easter chocolate to be finished anyway before they had to be at the airport for their flight back to the UK.

It was a really good break for us all; I felt relaxed afterwards too, after time with people I love, outings to different places, minimal cooking... and lots of ice cream. 

Silvercrest Sorbet Maker

 Although I do the majority of cooking in our household, my husband is always keen on looking at small kitchen appliances or gadgets. A couple of months ago we were in Lidl, the German supermarket that’s spread through Europe. There were a variety of appliances on special offer, in their Silvercrest range. Most of them were in garish shades of green or orange, which I really didn’t want in my kitchen…

However, my husband was very taken with a machine which promised to turn frozen fruit into ‘delicious sorbet’. We live in a country with very hot summers, and I used to make ice cream regularly, but my husband is now dairy-free, and although I’ve made a few sorbets or cashew-based ice creams, they are somewhat time-consuming. He loved the idea of being able to take frozen fruit pieces out of the freezer and produce a sorbet within a few minutes. 

PURE FRUIT SORBETS

I glanced at the enclosed booklet - instructions were, thankfully, in English as well as several other languages - and there were some recipes included, most of which were, quite simply, chopped fruit. No added sugar, no egg white… just fruit. Some of the recipes also included grated chocolate or coconut, but the basic idea was to freeze prepared fruit in suitable quantities for two or three people so as to be able to make sorbets whenever wanted. 

We have a local fruit stall which sells ripe fruit in small crates for a euro at a time; we sometimes struggle to use it up. So I could see that this could be quite useful; I was convinced entirely when my husband assured me that he would prepare and freeze the fruit, and would also be the one to operate and clean the sorbet maker. 

It was about twenty-five euros on offer (it was £19.99 in Lidl UK around the same time) so I shrugged, and added one to our basket. The green was slightly less garish than the orange, and I knew I could find space to store it in one of our kitchen cupboards. I wasn’t sure it would make its way out very often…

CONSTRUCTING THE SORBET MAKER

When we arrived home, my husband set to work washing and cutting up a few kilograms of peaches which we had bought inexpensively, and I peeled and froze chunks of some bananas that had started to get a bit soft.

I then read through the instructions for our new machine, most of which were standard safety ones (don’t immerse in water, keep away from children, don’t insert hands inside while operating… I suppose they have to say this kind of thing to protect themselves in case anyone is stupid enough to do this kind of thing). It also gave a useful warning not to put ice in the machine, or it might break it. 

We washed the moving parts and my husband put it together; I don’t know that I would have figured out the diagrams, but he said it was very simple. There’s a kind of funnel at the top with a removable pusher, rather like one in a food processor or juicer. Inside is a slightly vicious looking round piece with sharp metal bits protruding, forming the heart of the machine. 

I was quite pleased to find that there are sucker type feet on the bottom, which ensure that the machine won’t move around in use, and can’t easily be knocked over. 

THE SORBET MAKER IN USE

The instructions say that fruit has to be frozen for at least 24 hours, and then thawed for 10-20 minutes. Happily we had some frozen bananas already in the freezer; I tend to freeze them, peeled, when they start to go soft, and then use them when I want to make banana bread. We had also bought some frozen raspberries that morning, also on offer at Lidl.  Banana and raspberry sorbet sounded like a good idea, so we removed what looked like a suitable quantity from the freezer while we ate our lunch. 

My husband then plugged the machine in and placed a bowl underneath the place where sorbet was supposed to emerge.  He fed the pieces of fruit in the funnel of the machine, pushing them down with the supplied part, and gradually a kind of serrated stream of sorbet came out, landing neatly in the bowl. He turned it round with one hand so it didn’t simply pile up, and was finished in about a minute.

He guessed that there would be some sorbet still caught in the machine, and this was the case - he used a spoon to ease it away from the roller and the edge of the pusher and into the bowl. 

It didn’t look like a very big amount, but we found it was plenty for two of us, and made a refreshing light dessert. It tasted as one would expect frozen bananas and raspberries to taste, with a consistency that was much like a classic sorbet. 

Since then we’ve used it three or four times. I wasn’t too keen on peach and banana sorbet, but we’ve made simple peach sorbet which has worked very well indeed. It’s ideal for a quick fruity snack or dessert, with very little time needed, and it’s as healthy as eating fresh fruit. 

CLEANING THE SORBET MAKER

My husband always puts the removable pieces into soak immediately after dismantling it and removing the bits of sorbet which have not come out. This is a good idea, ensuring that fruit doesn’t dry on the parts, and making them very quick to clean properly in the washing up bowl. Most of the parts can be put in a dishwasher, but they would be a bit awkward and are so easy to clean in the sink that we haven’t bothered.

The main part of the machine, containing the motor, can be wiped with a damp cloth, and that’s all that’s necessary. 

FURTHER THOUGHTS

I’m not convinced that this sorbet maker is any more efficient than simply placing slightly thawed frozen fruit in a liquidiser or even a food processor. However, it works well and I’m happy that my husband is producing healthy food in the kitchen, so I don’t have any regrets about buying it. I doubt if we’ll use it much in the winter, but then again it’s a novelty that visitors will probably appreciate. 

The electricity usage is minimal; the box states that it uses 200 watts, and it only runs for a minute or two to produce sorbet for two people. There’s a three year guarantee with it, so I assume it will last at least that long, probably considerably more so with our limited use.  

As far as I can tell this sorbet maker is only available from Lidl stores around the world, and probably only when on special offer. But items like this tend to appear regularly, so if you like the idea of instant fresh fruit sorbets, I’d recommend looking out for it. 

2022 UPDATE

We put it away after the summer glut of fruit, and have only used it a handful of times in the past seven years. It still works. It does what it promises. But it's a lot of effort for something we rarely remember to use. It's one of those appliances that looks like a great idea, but what it does is very specific and doesn't actually make all that much. Once it's away in a cupboard, it's easily forgotten.

However for someone who grows or buys plenty of fruit, and who likes sorbets that are free of anything other than fruit, this kind of thing is ideal.