vegetarian

Another veggie restaurant – the best yet!

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

We had a wonderful lunch in Cardedeu on Sunday.
Esbio Esfera is a school of permaculture, organic gardening, healthy cooking and more

They have a large vegetable garden hidden behind an old typical Catalan house

It is right in the centre of Cardedeu which is one of my favourite towns and presently high on my list of possible places to live.

Everything was fresh and tasty and beautifully presented. The garden is lovely and the staff were relaxed and friendly.   I love it when vegetarian restaurants are stylish as well as healthy.
Dogs welcome as well.
What more could you want?

Definitely the best vegetarian food I’ve had in Catalunya!  Can’t wait to go back.

Keeping Promises

~ Kate Wilson ~ Leave a comment

As we approach the summer solstice I am reviewing some of the promises I made in January.
It’s interesting to see how many are still central to my daily life. I wonder if this is the first time I have ever managed to keep going with resolutions made at the New Year?
I did a review in February and so I’ll have a look at those first and add on the new ones.

Vegetarian
Yes this has been a very happy change. I feel happier with my diet now even though I allow myself the occasional ‘blip’.  If I want fish then I have it. And there was one day when I craved chicken in a stir fry so I had that too. No regrets. I am trusting my body.
The funny thing is that I have also changed Bonnie’s diet and she is having a mostly raw meat regime. This means that I now go scouring the butchers for animal parts which I then freeze in little manageable bags. Chicken heads and wings, livers and hearts, I am getting more used to dealing with it all!

Smoking
I have not smoked at all since October 2012 and never want to. I hope my lungs forgive me for not doing this earlier.

Coke and Tescos
Not one drop has passed my lips. Tescos will be a challenge only when I get back to Cornwall.

Catalan
Oooooooffff!  This one has been harder. I’ve been speaking mainly English at home and stopped going to my Catalan classes. I need a whole post to describe why I suddenly got resistant. I do speak it of course and can carry on conversations no problem. But I am keen to get back to studying Castellano and when I start that – I get confused and end up talking in a horrible  confused mixture.

Forgiveness and Sending Love
This has been a very helpful practice. I do it every day with the Resident Adolescent as the central pivot. I think it has improved our relationship hugely. I include other people according to which hurts and resentments are uppermost in my mind and at least it makes me feel I am doing something positive rather than turning myself into a bitter twisted old lady. There is still one person who I find it almost impossible to forgive which surprises me as I haven’t seen her for years and I never knew her well anyway. She’s my ‘bete noire’ and perhaps I should just accept it.

Kitchen Sink
This has been one of the best things I ever did. And it has grown into much more than just the sink. I am organising home with the help of the Fly Lady and it is wonderful. If you are a naturally ordered person perhaps you don’t need her but if like me things like cleaning pile up and never get done then this system is wonderful.

New Promises
These mainly come from the Fly Lady schedules so I won’t go into detail here. If you are interested in making order out of chaos take a look at her site and start with the Baby Steps.

At the moment I have started a daily routine of doing Salute to the Sun and some sit ups every morning. And I am wheat and caffeine free for a few weeks. I started at the beginning of June thinking to do a week but it’s feeling good so I have kept going.
I feel there is change in the air and somehow it is easier than ever to make decisions and stick to them.  And it seems the more little adjustments I make, the stronger is my resolve. I know I won’t give up wheat and coffee forever. It is just too much of a pleasure to go out here to a cafe and sit in the sun having a cafe amb llet and a donut. But it’s almost just as lovely to know I can stop for a while.
Lastly…. I have started drawing again. The ipad makes it so easy and opens up new possibilities.

Making Promises to Myself

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

I’ve been full of energy since the New Year began.
There are things I want to write about but I haven’t quite got them straight in my head yet.
But it’s bubbling around.  Perhaps I’ll try.

Looking back over the last year – I see how many hard things there were to deal with and how the dealing with them brought me closer and closer to finding my centre, to feeling anchored.

What won’t kill you will make you strong!

  • Trying to cope with the three dogs here in our town house
  • Increasingly ferocious attacks by Duna on Bonnie.
  • Injuring first my left hand in the van door and then my right hand when I dislocated a finger
  • Preparing my new treatment room only to spend two or three months unable to use my hands
  • Constant and exhausting problems with the Resident Adolescent
  • Changing our home life when the above came to stay permanently after his mother left.
  • Blue’s death
  • Battling with Catalan at the same time as needing to speak English – just for comfort!
  • The death of my brother

I’m not going to list all the wonderful things from the last year but obviously there were also lots of those to keep me sane and at times very happy.

However the deep lows led me directly to a path which I am still walking.
I started to meditate. I began to go to the gym and get running. I read blogs which inspired me like The Wild Elephant Project. I listened to Caroline Myss and began to explore her ideas around Sacred Contracts.  Slowly and little by little I began to feel my energy changing. I started the year  creeping down the streets of Granollers, leaking energy like an old hose pipe and cringing whenever someone gave me a disdainful stare.  Today I noticed how bouncy were my steps along that same road. The stares still happen but somehow I don’t get knocked sideways by them.

Two things help me a lot

  • When I don’t know how to react to something or someone – I send out Love.
  • When I still don’t know what to do – I try to be Present in the moment.

There have been some amazing changes just from remembering to do these two things.

Pacts and Promises and Vows
I have made some promises to myself and am amazed how powerful it is to build this trust with yourself.  I started with the decision to stop drinking CocaCola.  I also stopped shopping in Tescos. Three months ago it seemed fairly easy to give up smoking and this time it feels like forever.
At the beginning of 2013 I stopped eating meat again and renewed my promise to support animals and be vegetarian.  Today I made a pact with myself to eat no wheat for 24 hours – it is a hard one for me so I find it better to take it one day at a time!
I think that the more I gain my own trust, the easier it gets to keep to my promises.

Lastly, but definitely not leastly,  I have started the Kitchen Sink Challenge.  My dear friend Tiffany put me onto this (and many other wonderful and motivational things)  For one month you promise to keep your kitchen sink clean. You are creating a new habit that you want to stick to.  That’s all – just clean the sink and watch your life change. I know it sounds crazy but somehow it brings order into chaos and sows a seed of change.

That’s it for now.  I haven’t even got onto telling you about Swing – that must keep for next time!

Lunch in Borassà

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

Before arriving in Sant Nicolau I usually go to get some shopping in Borassà.  It is the nearest village with a friendly supermarket. So friendly that this time, although we arrived late and they were closed, when they saw me trying to open the door, they let me in and waited while I did a speed shop – butter, milk, wine, dog food, chocolate.

Then we went for lunch in the village restaurant, Mas Pla,  which has a menu for 14 euros. As I usually come here alone I hadn’t been there yet so it was good to give it a try.
It’s a very traditional Catalan restaurant – what do I mean by that?

Well it is partly the decor which is old world country cosy and comfortable. It is also the relaxed atmosphere that I have usually found in these places – they let us bring Bonnie inside to lie under the table and later when families started to arrive for lunch, their children came over to talk with us and to try to talk with Bonnie. If you know Bonnie you also know this isn’t a great idea. She’s not very child friendly until after half an hour of playing ball with them.
But she was quite patient, so long as they didn’t get too close she confined herself to lifting her lip.

Back to the restaurant. The other characteristic of traditional Catalan cooking is that it doesn’t include anything vegetarian. It’s not that they don’t care about their vegetarian clients, it’s more that they aren’t aware of their existence. And I don’t help – now that I eat some meat and also fish, I never ask for vegetarian food so I am another invisible statistic.  I could have had ensaladilla russa for the first course but then what?  I really must try one day so see if they would make me an omelette to have with chips, or perhaps give me a selection of vegetables with rice.  But would this be charged at a separate price or allowed as part of the menu?  I will do research and get back to you.

So, at last, here is what we ate.
Kate
Tarta de verdures i gambas (of course there had to be something to stop it being vegetarian!)

Bonitol amb samfaina ( Catalan ratatouille)

Pep
Amenida d’advocat amb gambas

Orada al forn amb patates

Puddings -which we were so busy eating I only took one – pre-nibbled – photo

Pastis de xocolata
Pastis de Matò i poma

Bread and a large carafe of red wine included in the price, of course!
We were wondering if British diners would be happy to be presented with a whole fish like the Orada?  Personally I prefer my fish headless and when possible without bones but I am sure I am not typical.  Any thoughts?

Fideuà and Allioli

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

Here’s the recipe I made this evening

Fideuà is a Valencian dish which is now eaten all over Spain.
This is my vegetarian version with toasted tofu as the protein rather than the more usual seafood.  I don’t really like seafood so for me this is the best!

Clearly you can create this dish with the vegetables of your choice but this is what I had in the fridge this evening. I sliced because I love doing this in the new Magimix but probably it’s better to dice!

I used Fideo Number 0 but there are several sizes available and Number 2 is more traditional.

What you need
Bag of fideo No 0 or bigger
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
half courgette chopped or sliced
two carrots chopped or sliced
half a red pepper diced
slosh olive oil
slosh of tomato frigit or paste
5 cups of vegetable stock
Seasoning – I used salt, pepper and some crumbled dried chillies

In a paella pan if you have one, or a large frying pan, saute all the vegetables with seasoning in the oil, then add the tofu and after about ten minutes add the fideos. At this point you can stir but not too forcefully.
Pour in the stock so that it just covers all that is in the pan. Let this cook for about 20 minutes. Don’t stir but you can open it up a little with a wooden spoon. When the fluid is no longer obvious put the whole thing under the grill (this is where a paella pan comes in handy) and leave it until the tails of the fideos are turning upwards towards the sky. Put a lid on and serve soon with allioli on the side.

Allioli


 I used about 8 garlic cloves and smashed them in this beautiful mortar which belonged to my partners grandmother. Adding olive oil a few drops at a time you keep smashing and stirring with vigour until it is creamy and completely smooth. Traditionally menstruating women shouldn’t make allioli as the oil will not blend with the garlic. I think I proved this wrong tonight 🙂
Here is the little spoon holder that sits by the cooker and makes me smile when I see it

it roughly translates as – Keep smiling when times are hard. But today I was enjoying the kitchen and the music on iCat fm too much to need the reminder. Hope you too had a good Saturday!