Pizza alla Argentine. Girls just want to have fun

- Ah! so... you have been invited too! Jackie exclaimed with surprise.

- Well, no, not really, this is my house, I smiled, but wanting to laugh.

Last November my husband and I hosted a farewell party at the residence for my friend Olga and her husband Kevin, the Consul of our embassy. Their posting was ending after four and a half years. Olga knew Jackie, a Peruvian mum from San Silvestre school, and they became friends through their daughters Rafaela and Siena, who went to the same classroom as my daughter's, Aurelia.  Friends of my friends are my friends, it couldn't be more true.

Despite moving homes very often, every three years, I count on a few, but not many, marvelous friends in my life, from different countries and backgrounds. When I met Jackie during that cool evening in my house, through a simple but genuine laughter, I had the sense that that sparkle extended my short list of dear friends instantly.

A good friend is not easy to find, don't you agree? In my case, sometimes I honestly need to go beyond the language barrier and perhaps diplomatic boundaries and only when I go through those limits, I feel myself comfortable. My friend is someone who likes me just as I am. She shares my happiness  when something great occurs in my life but she supports me and helps me when I struggle.

Back to more arduous present, school holidays are eternal when you stay in town while most of your friends are away. I keep hearing comments from my mum-friends who complain about having grumpy kids, boring days and resentful mothers. I include myself.

My days are thirtysix hours long thanks to the early start of my kids who unfortunately take it from their mum. During these summer months of December, January and February I have a goal and it is to keep my three children occupied and if possible, knocked out by the end of the day - despite my efforts, I get the opposite effect, they want to keep partying and I am dead-tired by eight o'clock. I enrolled them in school camp, art, swimming classes and playdates. Sometimes, sleep overs.

Our Peruvian friends, Jackie and Rafaela, spent last weekend with us, while Nick was in Cusco looking after eight a delegation of Senior Australian politicians. We played everything that our imagination could think of. We "swam" over a slippery mat covered with soap and water; created figures with clay and houses with lego; run in the garden and jumped in the trampolin, made bubbles in a warm bath; ate homemade margarita pizzas and had a disco party with music and dance in Aurelia's bedroom.

When the children finally went to bed, Jackie and I celebrated a peaceful and relaxing moment with a bottle of Malbec. Pop! That funny noise from the cork marked the beginning of our adult PJ's party . We wanted to turn tired mothers into invigorated teenagers. Call us childish, who cares, we were girls who just wanted to have fun - and we well deserved it.

Haven't you seen Julie & Julia? Let's watch it! I suggested excited to Jackie - probably the wine was making its magic effect. I pressed play, but my friend and I couldn't keep our lips zipped.

I knew the secuences of this comedy by heart, anyway, so I soon lost track of Julie's life to follow Jackie's.We barely knew each other after all! I discovered, for example, that she was the best friend of Josefina Garcia, the daughter of the Peruvian former president Alan Garcia (his first Presidence was from 1985 to 1990 and then he was reelected in 2006 to 2011). Jackie told me amusing stories about her adventures  in palace with her friend. What interesting playdates they used to have!

From time to time, during a couple of lapsus in our conversation, with feet up and our lazy bodies laid on comfortable sofas in the tv room, I had glimpses of the screen when Julia Child decided to enrol in the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, her diplomatic posting. She was bored of the social activities that the spouses of diplomats did in those years of 1950. She was my age. Then, in 2001, Julie was also suffering a lack of professional motivation so she made the decision to write a blog about cooking all the recipes of Julia Child's cookbook - Julia graduated in the Cordon Blue in 1951 and wrote The Art of French Cooking.

A thought bothered me. My life was a juxtaposition of both, Julie and Julia's. I was writing a blog and also enrolled in a two year career of Patisserie in the Cordon Bleu cooking school. I was excited but concerned, will it be too much on my shoulders to do this intensive career, on top of looking after the children and the demands of my diplomatic position? 

I sensed a  little voice within to tell me I was doing just fine, going right at my own pace. I was wrong. That voice wasn't from my inner soul, it was from my lovely friend Jackie who suddenly squeezed my hand, reading my thoughts. Because friends are for you, in moments like this, when they mean a lot without words. 

 Pizza alla Argentine

My favorite butcher is an Argentinean and has a great shop not far from my house. When I crave chorizo parrillero I know where to go, to the counter and see through the window how the meat and spices go through the carcass in a long delicious sausage. The carcass is removed again when I get home for Diego to make pizzas. He places little amounts of the sausage meat on top of the secret tomato sauce that covers the pre-cooked pizza dough made early in the afternoon.

The recipe of the pizza dough comes from also my favorite cookbook The cook's companion, by Stephanie Alexander. I have tried many recipes in my life but this one never fails. And if it does for you, try it again - I faced a disaster when I made the pizza for Jackie and Rafaela, the base too thick and it never got crunchy - don't worry, I am sure there was a lesson. 

Cooking is all about learning and having fun, especially if you have a friend to share it with. 

Good luck!

Base dough (makes enough 2x26 cm pizza trays)

• 1 tablespoon instant dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 400g plain flour
• olive oil
• 1 cup lukewarm water

1. Mix yeast and salt with flour. Mix 1 tablespoon olive oil with the water and beat into dry ingredients using a dough hook.
2. Knead until mixture is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes (or by hand 15 minutes)
3. Grease a bowl with 1 tablespoon olive oil. 
4. ransfer dough to bowl, then cover with plastic film or a tea towel and allow to rise in a draught-free place until doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hours). Knock back dough, then fold gently in 4 and allow to rise again, covered for 35-40 minutes. 

Tomate sauce (Diego's recipe)

1. In a small saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Add 1 chopped onion and 2 garlic cloves finely chopped. Cook gently until soft. 
2. Add 450g tomato can (we blend whole tomato can into pulpa) and 100 g pasatta pure. Cook in low heat until the oil rises the surface and the sauce has been reduce and is thick, about 30 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt and black pepper.

Pizza alla Argentine

1. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 220C 
2. Grease two trays with oil. Knock back dough and press thinly onto the trays. Allow dough to recover for 5 minutes. 
3. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove them from the oven and spread a thin layer of tomato sauce. Add grated mozarella cheese, small drops of chorizo and slide the pizzas off trays onto oven racks for 10 minutes to crisp bases.
4. Remove and scatter some chopped basil.

Spaghetti with jamon serrano, sea bass and garlic prawns. If you were an expat...

It was Friday night and as I watched the Spanish movie "Atlas de geografia humana", based on the novel of my favourite Spanish writer, Almudena Grandes, I was transported to Spain. A deep forgotten part of my heart got very excited and suddenly awake.

I rented this movie, for free, from  the Spanish Resource Centre, an office that belongs to the Spanish Embassy in Canberra. Since I left Spain in 2003 and moved to Australia, alas I was officially an expat, this Spanish office was like a "bridge" between my beloved Spain and  the isolated Canberra.  

But not only this Centre became a refuge for my early days in Canberra, also the Spanish Australian club was an important part of my life in the Australian Capital, and still is - specially when there are chocolate with churros for 5 dollars served the day that Oscar comes with his van stocked up with embutidos such as chorizo, jamon, queso Manchego, and even bags of pulses, cans of sardines, pimientos de piquillo, green olives and Nenuco, a cologne of my childhood that my mum used to pour over my hair before leaving home to go to school!!-.

 Established in 1967, to gather the Spanish community in Canberra

 Oscar behind the chorizos and salchichones...the smell of this delicatessen invades the whole club! it is mouth watering for a non-vegeterian like me

Old people ordering anis con hielo (pastis with ice), quite a strong drink to have at 8am! My husband and his friend Jona had also one, just "to fit into the club atmosphere", he said under my suspicious eyes

 It needs to be updated...perhaps the news didn't get to the club yet

If you were an expat, perhaps you will will identify yourself with some of the comments of this post. Let me explain. 

More than 10 years ago, in April of 2003, I started my life in Canberra (and since then, I have been back 4 times for no more than 15 months each time). During that year I held my "spouse visa", took an English course for new immigrants in  the Canberra Institute of Technology, learnt to drive with a personal teacher called Banjo -imagine Sylvester Stallone but in the Australian version- and covered in tattoos of bloody skulls and black roses. Besides, I worked part time as a Spanish teacher during the day and as a waitress in the evening in a Spanish restaurant, Legends, which to my surprise still survives in the snobby suburb of Manuka.

Those were the months when I had terrible homesickness and felt very lonely in this multicultural society, an adjetive that the Australians are proud of it. During my first period in Canberra before I moved to Solomon Islands in 2004, I didn't understand why I couldn't fit into that society. I tried my best but it was never enough. I know the language barrier was one of the main factors, as I mentioned in my post of "Sorry, I don't understand you".  Indeed, my lack of any linguistic skills made my life more difficult in Australia and even in Solomon Islands, where the environment was in English.

Who would it thought I would be given the  Australian citizenship in 2010? Now that I am dealing with some past events of my life, it is me who is proud!

Anyway, that's a different story but it serves me as a background to explain you how I felt when I was a new Spanish expat in Australia, still very attached to my culture, and how this connection to my country has been "hidden" within the 11 years I have been away from Spain by moving and adapting myself to different cultures not quite similar to mine. 

For me, being an expat reminds you that, despite of moving around the world, there is still an essential part of who you are and where you come from. It is intrinsic to your family name, your origin, your past, your childhood and even your future. Being an expat is special, delicate and fragile.

I miss Spain, to be honest. I know many of my Spanish friends think I am lucky to live this diplomatic life. And I agree with them, I am very lucky and love it. I wouldn't change it for anything. However, I can't help it and when I think of Spain, a wave of nostalgic and jealousy for not being there gives me goosebumps. Truth be told, when you are an expat, there is a natural tendency to idealise everything. When I say everything, believe me, I talk from my own life experience. 

I am very enthusiast when I meet other Spanish people, so much that I take them as my best friends; I tend to speak Spanish very fast if I have the chance to use it with other natives -and even my sense of humour is different!!-  and of course, I am in heaven if you take me to see a flamenco show, my hands immediately start clapping and my feet moving and "taconean" shyly.

And last Friday, when I was watching the movie "Atlas de geografia humana", I had an awkward moment when I was crying and laughing at unison - a couple of glasses of Tasmanian wine also played an important role-.

That's what being an expat gives you: the pleasure of having a good cry for something that makes you really, really happy.

When I look backwards I realise that I should look forwards instead because my Spanish identity goes in my blood and into my children's. Like the roots of a robust olive tree stay strong, seeing the years pass by, from generation to generation, the same happens to your family...

Gabby and Aurelia eating churros, and said yummy in my tummy!!!!!!

This dish was based on the recipe of Neil Perri "Spaghetti with lobster and fish" but I made my own version using the succulent jamon serrano from Oscar (instead of prosciutto ) with its distinctive sweet flavour, prawns marinated in garlic and olive oil (no lobster, obviously) and I panfried the fresh fish (Neil Perri cooks it with the tomato sauce),

Let me tell you that this dish was a total winner with my fussy son Gabriel who didn't notice the fish in the pasta thanks to the tomato sauce. It is a great recipe for leftover white fish you might have in the fridge as long as the tomato sauce you use is good because it is the base, better if you make it at home.

It takes an hour to make the tomato sauce, the rest 20 minutes, including cooking the pasta. We have had it tonight, while Nick is in Perth, and I literally cook it in that time. I felt I was in Master chef with the clock going against me and three little, and anxious, mouths waiting for the verdict.

1. Make the tomato sauce: I fry quickly 4 big garlic cloves, thinly cut, in a deep pot covered with a layer of olive oil.  Add then 2 big cans of diced tomatoes, sprinkle salt and brown sugar, black pepper, stir and leave it partially covered with the lid. After an hour, you will see the oil has risen above the tomato. It is done. Pour some extra virgin olive oil and mix it through.
2. In the mean time, chop more garlic to marinate a handful of prawns, shelled, deveined  and chopped into 1 inch or so. Season the prawns. In a bowl, mix the garlic with 1/2 cup of extra-virgin olive oil. Add the prawns to the bowl and leave them to soak the flavours until the tomato sauce is finished.
3. Put the water with salt for the pasta.
4. Meanwhile, panfry the white fish, chopped and set it outside.
5. Thinly cut a few slices of jamon serrano, and keep them on a plate.
6. Fry the prawns in a very hot and smoky  pan until they are nicely cooked through.
7. Cook the pasta until al dente.
8. Put the spaghetti back to the pot, add the tomato sauce (not all of it, just to cover the pasta), the jamon, the fish and the prawns. Mix it through and eat immediately. Italians do not like to add parmesan cheese to seafood pasta dish, but I do.

Sausage rolls for fussy kids. The "F" word

In the last few days I have been using quite often a word that starts with the letter "f". It is not a rude word, if that was what you thought. I give you a clue: it means the end of something or a separation from someone or from a place; sometimes it makes you sad.

Farewells.

I don't like them much. I never did in the past, but I am used to them now. I have moved countries six times since 2003 and this will be my seventh in mid-June. I know what to expect in the next few weeks and it is not always as easy as you might think. I am upset about closing another chapter of my life, an intensive one actually. But life continues and there is always something positive to look forward.

I mentioned in my post "Detachable me" that my skin has got more resistant to the pain every time I go through the process of packing and moving homes from one country to another. With each diplomatic posting the embassy provides us a house, with furniture that also belongs to the embassy, but we call it our "home" during the length of the posting (usually three years). We make sure it is our "home" and we decorate it with our personal effects (my cookbooks, Nick's favorite paintings, children's drawings…) as we were planning to live there for good. Otherwise, indifference and apathy would give us a "temporary" feeling and would not help us to get settled in that particular country - especially  our children, who move so often that they might get lost sometimes in what "home" really means for them.

And home is not going to be Manila anymore I said gently to them, well, to Aurelia really (Gab doesn't have the maturity to fully understand the situation yet ). It will be Canberra for a while, who knows for how long. We will arrive in the middle of winter! I am looking forward to packing in one of our five suitcases my warm feather grey coat that my mum gave me last Christmas in Spain. I know I will feel cozy underneath when I take the kids for a walk around the lake on a crisp but sunny morning in Canberra.

It is an awkward feeling to live your own farewell. The situation feels unreal, kafkaesque, like it is not happening to you. I have seen many of my good friends leave and I was left behind, trying to fill up the empty space with new friendships but not always succeed. Some friends are irreplaceable. I have been in their farewells, even asked them the typical questions such as how do you feel about living? will you miss Manila? what are you planning to do next? ah, what school is she going to? do you have already a house where to live?. And now that it is me who has to answer, it is my turn to be in the other side of the story, I find it challenging, and a bit upsetting. 

However, it is also exciting thinking about the next big, huge adventure ahead of us. A new door is about to be opened. I just hope Aurelia, Gabriel and Juanan cope well with the transition. The separation of their belongs and friends could give them anxiety and that's why we remind them everyday than Nick and I, papa and mama, will be with them always, no matter what happens.

I had my very first farewell lunch with some of my good friends yesterday. 

It was funny the way it began. We were meeting at 12 o'clock in a restaurant hidden in the 3rd floor of an office building close to my house. So I left home at 11.55 to be on time (I am always late and the baby is my excuse…for now). My hands smelt strongly of garlic from the marinating of the meatballs I prepared at 11.45 wearing high heel shoes and a new Zara blue and yellow dress that I bought for that special lunch. Not even the grandmother trick of rubbing parsley in my hands would take the smell off. Never mind, let's have fun. And I closed the door of motherhood behind me.

I got to the restaurant and found the table with the "reservation" name on top. But it was empty. Humm…it is strange. Time passed by and the only people next to my table were business men having lunch but none of my friends. I had that uncomfortable smile on my face as I was on my own in my farewell lunch. Where the bloody hell are they? I thought, maybe this lunch was a joke. Meanwhile, an scene from Sex and the City television series crossed my mind, when Carrie went to a restaurant to celebrate her 35th birthday dinner with her friends but they didn't turn up. In the end, she was left totally alone and went back home, crying.

Thank goodness my friends turned up…on time, actually. It was 12.30 the lunch not 12 noon.  I was so excited about my first farewell (and my first lunch out without kids!) when I left home that I didn't pay attention to the text of my friend confirming the lunch...and to change the booking for half and hour later than the previous arrangement.

We laughed about my mistake over a beautiful meal (most of us had a bento tray of poached salmon with fried rice) surrounded by the aroma from a big bunch of white and pink lilies that my friends gave me and I placed behind my chair to hide the garlic smell of my hands. They also bought me a fantastic cookbook La cocina Latina, which is like the "bible" for the Latin american kitchen. 

One of my friends asked me what are the things you will remember from the Philippines, besides of having had two babies here?  Well, it took me a while to respond.  Honestly, I could have done more or travelled more or enjoyed more with nights out or weekends away, but I didn't because of my personal circumstances. So I thought about the answer and I told her with teary eyes that I will take with me the memories I have shared with this great group of very good friends.

I don't have physically more time here with them, but I  know we will keep in touch and who knows, maybe our paths will cross again. I read recently that "A true friendship is not about being inseparable; it is about being separated but nothing changes"

Thank you. I enjoyed my farewell lunch as much as the three years we spent together.

PS: by the way, I also take with me a nice rock on my finger that Nick bought me in 2012 for our tenth wedding anniversary!

Healthy sausage rolls for fussy kids

This is one of the best recipes I came up with: I mix grated carrot and zucchini with the meat. Simple but delicious. The sausage rolls are also nice served with tomato chutney and a green salad.

Start the recipe the day before or at least 5 hours ahead for a more flavour mixture.

Makes  a big batch, 20 medium size rolls (2 per person)

Mixture:

• 500g ground beef (if you choose lean, the sausage will be a bit dry)
• 250g ground pork
• 1 carrot, finely grated
• 1 small zucchini, grated and squeezed the liquid
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, grated or crushed
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup homemade breadcrumbs, soaked in milk and squeezed (or substitute for cooked rice)
• 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon of each sweet paprika, white pepper and mustard powder. 
• salt and fresh ground black pepper

Rolls:

• puff pastry sheets
• To brush the rolls, egg wash: 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon of milk

1. For the meat mixture, using a medium size bowl, mix all the ingredients using your wet hands until they are evenly mixed and cover tightly with a plastic wrap. Keep it in the fridge.
2. When ready to cook (calculate 1 hour or preparation time), preheat oven to 180C. Grease two baking trays.
3. Cut each sheet of pastry in half. Lay a piece of the pastry out on a clean table and use a 1/2 cup measure to scoop a portion of the sausage mixture and place it on top of the pastry. Use your hands to form it into a long sausage that goes along the centre of the pastry, keeping the same thickness (I follow this method when I make gnoquis or croquetas).
4. The tricky part is to roll the pastry over the sausage and then fold up the bottom of the pastry to meet it; it should overlap. Carefully turn the long sausage roll over so the join is underneath (and it doesn't open when it puffs in the oven). Repeat with the remaining pieces of pastry until the meat mixture is finished.
5. Cut each long roll into equal pieces.
6. Place the sausage rolls on baking trays, leaving a little space between them. Brush the top with the egg wash.
7. Put the trays in the oven and bake until the pastry is golden and flaky (about 25 minutes).
8. When they are cooked, let them cool a bit and serve them with tomato sauce and a green salad (you can also cooked them partially, cool them and keep them in the freezer)

Challah bread pudding with Orange blossom honey. A Lego house for Jamaica in Bacolod

Last wednesday was my yaya's birthday. Her name is Jennifer and she is still young, under 30, but already has two kids, a beautiful girl called Jamaica, of nearly 7 years, and a gorgeous 6 months old baby called Jhaira. 

Don't be surprised, it is perfectly normal in the Philippines to have at least 2 or 3 children at that age, or even more. As you know, the population in the Philippines has hit more the 100 million, putting a strain in the country's resources. 

Jamaica lives with her grandma in Bacolod while Jen works in Manila. Bacolod is known by the filipinos as the "city of the smile" and it is in Negros Occidental. Indeed, Jen has a beautiful smile, even when my son performs a tantrum on the floor - though he doesn't so much anymore, thank goodness. More precisely, she comes from Hinigaran, a poor area close to the sea, and that's why Jen is a good swimmer and jumps happily in the pool with my children - not many yayas know how to swim, lucky me (I am not fond of water so much).

Jennifer lives with her baby Jhaira not too far from my house, and has a cousin-yaya to look after her during the day, until Jen comes back home from my house.

Every two weeks, Jen's salary disappears fast. From each pay date, she has to pay the cousin-yaya and send money to her province for Jamaica's maintenance and Jen's brother's scholarship. As you see, there is not much money left to open a savings account. 

Sadly, there are millions of filipino families which are separated - some 10 million of them live and work overseas, not counting those who - like Jen - are separated though they remain in the country.  It is a difficult choice but, in the end, they have to go where they can make a living.

This is a post dedicated to her beautiful daughter Jamaica and the first time she left her province life of Bacolod with her grandma, who also came with her, to spend more than a month in Manila with her mum Jen, during  the school holidays. 

The first day Jamaica came to our house to meet Aurelia, Gabriel and Juanan, was fun and interesting at the same time. She quickly released her mother's hand and held Aurelia's…and soon was dressed up as a princess or jumped on the trampoline or in the pool. It was the first time Jamaica swam in a pool.

I proudly observed how my kids welcomed Jamaica quickly as if she was already part of the family. This friendly attitude from Aure and Gab helped Jamaica to feel comfortable and happy playing with them. Well, it was not to hard to be warm to her because she was as sweet as her mum, always smiling and very polite.

They communicated with Jamaica in English but she replied in hili gaiynon or elongo, the musical dialect of her province. It was funny to listen that conversation English-elongo between them. Children have a magic way of playing and understand each other. Despite my own life experience, the language barrier doesn't exist sometimes!.

In the afternoon, Jamaica had a bath with them. She was totally absorbed in her world playing with the shampoo and the bubbles, while Aure and gab splashed water all over. She didn't like having hot water, only cold, like being in the sea. She didn't want to leave the bath even when it was obvious her skin was all wrinkled. Jen told me it was Jamaica's first bath, ever (in her province, her family uses the sea or the water from a pozo or a well).

It was also the first time Jamaica tried broccoli and yogurt. When I offered her a plain yogurt for dessert, she dipped her finger in it and tested it. Her expression was telling me she didn't like it much so I gave her a chopped papaya, a familiar fruit for her.  

Jamaica has been coming to play almost every afternoon since then. The days she didn't come, my children were upset and they really missed Jaica, as Gab calls her. Aurelia discovered that things that she usually takes for granted, are fascinating for her new best friend but she also tried to understand why Jamaica wasn't living with her mum in Manila, although I explained her the situation. 

When Jamaica left with Jen about 7.30pm, I found Aure playing with Lego.

- What are you building, Aure?

- A house for Jamaica in Bacolod. You see? Here, it's the bath, a big one. And here is the pool, the TV, and a playroom…Do you think she will like it?

- I am sure. You can show it to her tomorrow when she comes again to play with you and Gab. Maybe, you could build a house together and see what it looks like!

I realised that she was, is, and will be the only filipina friend Aurelia has had during our posting in the Philippines (Gab has a couple). Well, it is never too late, I suppose. (Aurelia has some filipino (boy) friends at her school, but no girls.

In my opinion, living a diplomatic life (moving around the world if you want to call it) expands your mind and enriches your life. I just hope one day Aurelia will put into practice, in the best way possible, these cross cultural experiences from meeting new people with completely different backgrounds.

Thank you, Jennifer for allowing me to write a short story about you and your lovely family. All of you will be terribly missed when we leave.

I made up this pudding-cake for Jen's birthday.  It was the first time she had shared it with her daughter Jamaica, but it is a favourite treat for dessert in my family.

The bread I used for this sweet pudding is called Challah which is a Jewish and is eaten during the Sabbat, but it is equally delicious made with Panettone and even brioche.  I like Challah bread because it is dense and absorbs the custard very well. If you want to bother to make the bread, I give you the recipe I used and it is from Charlie Brown (yes, the clothing label) whose book Cooking from the heart helped me to understand and discover the Jewish food (also Ottolenghi's "Jerusalem" cookbook is fantastic).

It is better to start the day ahead (or two if you make the bread at home). I cut thick slices of the Challah bread (or any one white sandwich bread) and place them on top of a rack overnight so they are crunchy and dried in the morning.

Challah bread (it looks like the braid of Elsa in Frozen!!!- Aurelia said excited)

• 55g caster sugar (I substitue for 3 tablespoons of honey)
• 7g dried yeast
• 60ml vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 500g bread flour
• Sesame seeds to garnish

1. Combine sugar, yeast and 250ml warm water in a bowl. Set aside in a warm place for 10 minutes or until the mixture bubbles (if it doesn't the yeast won't work)
2. Stir in oil, 1 egg, flour, and 1 tbs salt to form a dough. Knead until smooth (I used the Kitchen Aid with the hook attachment for 8 minutes). Place in a oiled bowl and set aside in a warm place until doubles in size.
3. Knead the dough briefly, then form a loaf. Rise again. Preheat oven 180C.
4. Cut in three pieces, and straight them as you were making a baguette. Do a braid (or just place it in a bread tin) and brush it with a beaten egg. Sprinkle sesame seeds.
5. Bake for 45 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Preheat the oven 180C

• Grease a 1l capacity rectangular oven dish with butter. Warm 1l of full cream milk with a vanilla pod (scrape the seeds and add them to the milk; or use 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or essence) over low heat. In a blender, add the warm (no hot) milk, 4 eggs and 2 egg yolks, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg, 30g melted butter, 1/2 cup caster sugar. Blend for 1 minute.

• Place the challah slices in the oven dish, one behind the other (like a domino game!). Pour slowly the custard mixture and press the bread to make sure all the slices are well soaked.

• Transfer the dish into the oven and bake until it puffs and a bit brown on top.

• Drizzle with Orange Blossom honey or any honey you have (or Maple syrup). Serve it warm with blueberries and extra icing sugar.

We ate it with spoon in hand, straight from the dish. No better way.

PS: If it is for a birthday, don't forget the candles!

Aurelia's chocolate pound cake. The story of "leon" and the Cacao tree

There was a time, when my eldest daughter Aurelia was two, that Nick and I dreamed of the day when she would be 10, able to sit at the table and place food in her mouth by herself and enjoy an adult conversation- or at least an uninterrupted meal without splitting drinks on the table, for example-.

Now that she is nearly 7 we realize that our family goals are constantly moving, shifting places according to our new circumstances, such as having two more children. Hence, our family dinner is still chaotic, most of the days, but we have the expectation of that day, when the five of us enjoy a pleasant and smooth meal. This is what keeps us motivated to sit down together at the table every night. I know one day it will happen, we just need to "keep calm and carry on".

As parents, we are facing three different stages with our kids: an eight month baby boy trying to crawl; a two and a half child passing through the occasional tamtruns- now I am can finally say with relief that word "occasional" instead of "frequent"- and a bit of jealousy; and a seven year old girl…who going through a transitional phase, no longer a kindergartener but not yet a worldly middler-schooler, if it makes sense.

As I mentioned earlier in my blog, my daughter has a cute soft lion who used to be her security blanket when she was little. I bought it in a post office near our apartment in Kingston- Canberra- when we got back from our posting in Argentina. 

Aurelia was sick one day with stomachache…"this lion will make you feel better because it has a very warm bag inside of him that you can gently rest on top of your tummy while you hug him".

I don't know if it made the trick but it seemed to work as her pain was replaced by a new friend. Who would it thought that "leon" was going to be her security blanket for the next few years?…

But the years passed by and "leon" was spending less time with Aurelia and more in the toy box.

I even found him in one of her drawings which I framed as part of Aurelia's treasure box.

I am sure she will be delighted in the future to open that box of memories and find "leon" again.












And then she painted him on her t-shirt during her craft class at school…It seemed that Aurelia didn't want to let him go totally.

I feel that Aurelia unconsciously wants to hide that "leon" inside of her . She wants to keep him in a safe place for as long as she wants -or needs him- which reminds me sometimes she is still a little girl.

There have been some nights though when she handled me "leon" and said :" mum, I feel weird having him in bed with me; could you take him with you to your room?". I smiled thinking that I had a seven year old in front of me, "Of course, no problem, I will make sure he is fine". And then she added :"would you mind if I give him the last cuddle?".

However, as a seven year old, Aurelia's independence is more notable but her mood's swings as well, as you can see in the way she communicates with us…through notes she hangs on her bedroom door:

One day,  I was a bit upset with Aurelia because she was in one of "those moods" and being…humm, let's call it "difficult" for no reason, apparently. She went upstairs to her bedroom, closed her door -slammed it, really- and hung another note:

Well, it is hard not to laugh but it is harder not to loose your patience.The only way I can canalise my frustration with my daughter in situations like this is in the kitchen, cooking with her. 

After her apology and a big hug, I suggested we could bake a cake, a CHOCOLATE cake, her favourite and she will be allowed to lick the bowl, and "we could have a merienda together afterwards".

She came down to the kitchen with me but didn't feel like baking a cake. She preferred to watch Frozen for the 20th time. 

She came in the kitchen finally, but in a bad mood, again.

While we were measuring the cups of flour and cocoa, with the spoon- and -level method using her small index finger, we talked, and started to laugh. I shared some of the healthy cocoa nibs I had bought at the market with her and told her the magic process of making chocolate. She realised that it doesn't come from a packet. It comes from the pod that grows out of the trunk of a tree called cacao tree. 

She also appreciated that cooking was more fun than being in front of the TV.

Cocoa nibs

-They are the foundation of chocolate and very healthy. They have a crumbly consistency of roasted coffee beans and make a great dessert garnish. I sprinkle some in my granola-.

With a warm chocolate cake cooling on the rack of the kitchen, invading the whole house with its sweet aroma, my daughter drinking a warm chocolate and me a hot glass of milk, the frustration was left behind. Hers and mine. 

We both enjoyed each other's company, I was in front of my seven year old girl again, and I thought that I forget sometimes I had once that age too…a long time ago!.

There is nothing that cooking together cannot fix.  A beautiful homemade chocolate pound cake always will. 

My husband Nick says it is the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten.

Aurelia's chocolate pound Cake

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 virgin coconut oil, room temperature- make sure it is the healthy virgin oil and not heated.
• 1 1/2 cups sugar plus 1 tbsp extra
• 3 large eggs
•  1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 unsweetened coconut flakes or almond flakes

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Butter a tin loaf, medium size. Sprinkle some flour.
2. Whisk flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat oil, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 cups sugar until pale and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. 
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating to blend between additions; beat until mixture is very light and doubled in volume, 5-8 minutes. Add vanilla.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low and add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients (remember, do not over mix or it will cause cake to buckle and split). Scrape batter into prepared pan and run a spatula through the centre, creating a canal- it helps to bake evenly. Sprinkle with flakes and sugar.
6. Bake cake until the tester inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 60-70 minutes. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes and turn it out.
7. 
   

Steak sandwich and mango roll-up, as promised. When my plane landed in Spain in December 2013

It was12.30 pm on the 27th of December of 2013, after travelling for almost 20 hours with Aurelia and baby Juanan. We left Manila the night before, heartbroken to say bye to Nick and Gab who would stay with the grandparents until our return in 13 days.

The Guardia Civil checked the luggage of all the passengers from our flight Dubai-Madrid which caused a delay for collecting bags of 45 minutes at the airport of Barajas in Madrid. This unfortunate event didn't make any happier to my eldest sister and two of her kids who were waiting for us  at the arrivals gate, for a long time.

When we  finally crossed the gates in the terminal 4, I saw a multitude of families, friends, lovers giving hugs, kisses and smiling. A typical scene of the movie Love Actually; a bit cheesy but nice to see it, why not. 

It was still Christmas time but a rainy day when we arrived. It didn't snow in Madrid during our two weeks. Poor Aurelia, she never got to see the snow in Spain as she assured, utterly excited, to her friends in Manila. She told them she would bring them a tupper ware with a snowball for them in the flight back to the Philippines. Goodness gracious me, she is nearly 7 years old and has never seen the snow except in the movies and books!

I always feel butterflies in my stomach when the pilot announces " Welcome to Madrid, the temperature is…I hope you enjoyed the flight ". I don't usually enjoy the flight, dear pilot, because I am scare of flying, but I do like the first words you said except that I changed mentally Madrid for home…but is it my home? 

It is the weirdest feeling you could imagine when you have become an expat and you return to your country for holidays. How would you describe an emotion that makes you happy, joyful, content but nervous, melancholic and lost at the same time…? I don't know, it feels like an earthquake ( and I can say it from my heart because I had been in one! ) but it shakes your inside, not your outside.

I love going back to Spain though. The family is the main and most important motivation, just being with them makes me happy and my kids too although they don't know each other very well, lets be honest. Children feel the family, you don't have to explain it. 

There are more reasons such as my friends, the food, the streets of my Madrid and in general, the whole amazing culture of a country where I belong to but somehow, one tiny part of me, it doesn't anymore…

I hope that small part that flew out of me during these 11 years it went into my children in the shape of a seed. It is my illusion to make that seed grow into a beautiful red clavel, my favourite flower since I became an expat.

Today I have had an intensive day. I slept only 5 hours, I took Aurelia to the doctor and spent 2 hours to check two types of virus she has, I came home and found Gabriel vomiting on his cot. Also there were a few men inside the dinning room ( where I was about to breastfeed Juanan ) knocking on the walls and doors with metal instruments ( and making loud noises )  to kill the termites inside of this old house. 

At 1pm I rushed back to the hospital with Juanan to put his weekly cast and came back 4 hours later, exhausted and starving. When I was in the way back I couldn't think of anything elso for dinner than a gourmet sandwich of a nice small steak fillet with my tomato chutney and a glass of Malbec. 

Well, the steak was so hard that when I tried to cut it into thin slices to fill my sandwich, the knife slipped and cut my index finger. Not kidding. The worst meat I had in a long time The way I cooked it? Maybe, I was hungry and I hurried things up, but I also think the meat wasn't of good quality ( cheap cuts are ok for braising but not for grilling or frying, I think ).

The photo looks better than it tasted. I ended having some cheese and of course, the wine. I truly wished, deeply inside of me, that the alcohol would make Juanan to sleep by 10pm after an awful week of jet lag!!!!!! yes, I feel guilty now…but he is actually fast asleep and it is 11pm! hahaha

Despite this crazy day, I  managed to make the mango roll ups for Aurelia as I promised her last weekend and in my post " When you make a promise". 

After the failure of my first experiment, my daughter gave me another chance to see whether a home-made fruit roll up was better in taste and in quality, not only cheaper, than a bought one. When she tried my mango fruit roll up she was happily convinced and I knew she liked it because she said : "mum, when the roll ups have finished, we just have to buy more mangoes!"

The texture was much better than the first time I made fruit roll-ups, it was chewy and the taste was really nice. I was amazed again how easy it was to make it from scratch and how good it turned out this second time I experimented. 

When you persist in doing something you might end adding a new skill to your repertory.

Mango roll-up

Makes 20

• Pre-heat oven 120C
• Peel and chop 7 ripe mangoes and add them to a pot with the juice of one lemon and cook all with the lid on until soft.
• Add 2 cups of brown sugar and 1 cup of puree cooked apple ( it is always handy to have in the freezer to add some to soups, cakes…). Blend it and spread it on a large greased tray ( you will need two big ones ) with a baking paper.
• Put it in the oven for 7 hours and then remove it and cut in into large stripes.

Ps: After a bad day the best thing you could ever had to make you smile again, it isn't the food this time, it is a note from your child saying   " dear mama and papa, you have gave me everything so I am giving you somting ", with a little gift for Nick and for me : a hand disinfect gel for me and some stickers she'd been given at disneyland in HK and a 20m swimming achievement badge for Nick, both presents wrapped with at least a metre of sticky tape. I don't have a clue where this thought comes from but it was so sweet that it made us smile. I had to take a picture of it. 

Gingerbread cookies. Christmas is all around in our house

Yes, Christmas has arrived and I love it. Some people don't and I wonder why. Perhaps they had a bad experience in their family and they carried it on; or someone died around that time and it brings them sad memories. Anyhow, if there are children in the world, there will be always a reason to celebrate Christmas. We become children like them for a few days!

I have been singing "I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes…"by the Troggs since the 3rd of November, just after Halloween. We have been enjoying in the Philippines the lights, the sparkle and the carols for almost 7 weeks. 

By the time Navidad has finally finished on the 1st of January and the plastic trees are back to the box until next year, you are over it. Our appetite will need a rest after so much indulging our stomaches with succulent meals and many will start crazy detox programs as one of the 2014 goals: "To be healthier". It won't be in my goals, that's for sure, but I must recognise that it is very healthy to detox your body at least once a year. I am not brave enough to starve myself.

Most of us will have one centimeter extra in our hips. Thank goodness someone invented Spandex for those who have to fit into the pre-Christmas jeans. An image of the movie of Bridget Jones crossed my mind, when she was in her bathroom getting ready for her date with her boss David, trying to pull up her Spandex-knickers with a cigarette hanging from her mouth. 

My final day of Chirstmas will be the 6th of January or el Dia de los Reyes Magos. I am extremely excited to show Aurelia her very first cabalgata in Madrid. We will miss Nick and Gabriel very much, as they have to stay in Manila, but sometimes life is about making the right and wise choices even if it hurts a bit.

How do we live Christmas in the McCaffrey- Tolmos family? With lots of enthusiasm and excitement, as it should be this time of the year. We also have a new member, baby Juanan, so another important reason to celebrate. As we have three young children dreaming of Santa Claus, presents and not quite a white Christmas, the house is fully decorated to keep them animated until the 25. 

• Farol: outside of our main entrance there is a big Filipino farol that it turns on and off some beautiful lights in orange, orange and green. The nuns of Paranaque gave me this gift last Christmas.
• My driver told me that before 1985 Philippines had just faroles for Christmas, until the Chinese started to include the tree, the lights, and all the small adorns.
• 
• Belen : we have a traditional Filipino pesebre and one from Argentina. I should go to the Plaza Mayor this December to get a Spanish belen too! I am ashamed I don't have one yet. In general, Spanish families are proud of showing a fully decorated Belen and some are alive with real water pretending is a river and real musgo. There are even competitions between families to win the prize for the best belen.

• Craft: made by Aurelia and Gabriel in   LIFE preschool, where Gab goes now.The children make lots of beautiful Christmas decorations to take home. When you come into our house,  they are displayed on the wall, around the belen and our Christmas plant. To welcome you with a nice espiritu Navideno.

• Stockings: I don't remember having one when I was little (maybe because we were too many children in my family and my parents thought of the expenses...fair enough!), but I like them now. We all have one with the name embroided ( these kind of handmade luxuries are cheap to order here). As you notice in the photo,  we have 5 stockings which will be filled up with some little treats such as chocolates or stickers.

• Tree: I love lighting the tree when the sun goes down and when I get up early in the mornings and it is still dark. It is on the corner of our dinning room and it makes the whole house in a very cozy atmosphere. It has got some crystal balls in silver and red and also handmade stars, snowman and hearts that I bought in the American Women bazaar.

• Carols at the Vatican is a nice background to have and of course, the Villancicos Populares of Spain, by the children of San Idelfonso school.

And of course, two special treats to eat: 

Cinnamon, bananna and yogurt cake (I used the same recipe of my post of "Healthy banana muffins" but adding 1 cup of plain yogurt and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon). 

My driver kindly brought us 5 kg of bananas of his uncle's plantation in Bulacan. They were the sweetest bananas I have ever tried, and not only because they were naturally like that but also because Frank carried them all the way to our house, just for us. 

Gingerbread of Matthew Evans. It is the best recipe I have found, not only for rolling but also for eating, at least for me. Aurelia took 24 of these biscuits to the classroom to share but only 5 of the children liked them! I leave it to you to try the recipe or not, but in any case, it is nice to make them with the whole family involved as a part of the Christmas cliches!

Makes 20

• 60g unsalted butter softened
• 120g caster sugar
• 125g golden syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 350g plain flour mixed with 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, sifted or whisked in a bowl

1. Cream butter and sugar until pale using an electric mixer. Add the syrup, spices and 1/2 tsp salt.
2. Stir in flour and bicarbonate of soda until just combined. Add 60ml of water and knead together to make a stiff dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 190C. Working in 2 batches, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface, turning every few rolls so dough stays evenly sized, until dough is 4mm thick. Cut into shapes and lay on oven trays lined with baking paper. Bake until the biscuit starts changing colour.
4. Cool on the trays until firm, then transfer to wire racks

Note: I made two batches to have always extra in the freezer and straight into the oven for busy afternoons.

Feliz Navidad from the five of us, the McCaffrey-Tolmos family!

How to make fruit roll-ups. When you make a promise

When last Monday I told Aurelia that if she was obedient and helped me with her two brothers this week I would buy her some fruit roll-ups as a special treat, I didn't know how this suggestion would end.

If you have never tasted or seen a fruit roll-up, it is a very popular "healthy" snack, made of pectin based fruit. It comes flat and wrapped in cellophane because it has a quite sticky consistency. The costumer, usually a child, has to unwrap it.

Apparently, it has been very successful in the United States from the 1980s. As Philippines has a strong American influence, it is here too, specially in the school of ISM where Aurelia goes to.

The thing is, I completely forgot about those malditos (translation: "damn") roll-ups until yesterday afternoon when she reminded me in the car after I picked her up from the school. And again when we got home. Again when we went to the park, to have a bath, during dinner time, while reading her story before bed time...and when I WOKE UP!!!  When I went down to the kitchen at 6.30am she had handwritten on the fridge: "Mum goes to buy fruit roll-ups at S&R tomorrow" and before she left home, she added "now!".

So I had this pressure on me all day of getting the dammed fruit rollups because a promise is a promise. And also because I knew my daughter has my Spanish blood and wouldn't let me alone until she had them. She is a bit stubborn in matters related to food...although "the apple never falls far from the tree".

My inner pioneer or my ego, to be honest, decided that if I could make things from the scratch, such as pasta, ice cream, bread, ricotta cheese or yogurt, I was perfectly capable of making those fruit snacks. How hard could it be? Besides, it would be healthier than the bought ones.

But I didn't trust myself with this new experiment in my kitchen, and neither Aurelia who saw me to place all the ingredients on the counter: frozen wild berries, lemon juice, honey and applesauce. Before I was cooking the berries in the saucepan, Aurelia said :"oh, no, mum, you are going to make the healthy version, aren't you? what about if you also buy the roll-ups just in case these homemade are not good?". She had zero confidence in her mother's culinary skills. Who could blame her!

I left home at 8am with two big trays laid with berries puree in the oven, and specific instructions to my yaya to not turn it off! I rushed to S&R ( a big shop where you can buy in industrial quantities) to look for the rollups. I asked the filipino workers where to find them, I knew they didn't have any idea of what I was talking about because they smiled me back and replied : " Out of stock, ma'am".  Sometimes Filipinos are too shy to say they don't understand you, specially if you are a non-filipino so they tell you this gentle fib. No one gets offended.

With empty hands I got home, checked the fruit trays, touched them with my finger and to my surprise..it had worked! I was thrilled to make my very first rollups.  However, when I unwrapped one and tasted, it was to acidic for my liking. I felt a bit disappointed thinking that Aurelia wouldn't like them, as she predicted, and I didn't find them in the shop. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a promise.

Aurelia loved them, and Nick too. I was amazed and delighted by the healthy snack I made from  scratch. Next batch will be mango rollups, that's a promise! 

Berries fruit roll-up, 

recipe of Alana Chernila

Makes 32

• 3 pounds fresh or frozen fruit. I used frozen cranberries, blueberries, puree strawberries. 
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup of honey or to taste. These berries are very acid so you might need to adjust. I should have added a bit more.
• 1 cup of apple compote

1. Combine the fruit an lemon juice in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cook until softened, about 30 minutes. 
2. Pass the cooked fruit through a food mill. Add honey and the apple compote.
3. Preheat oven to 165F. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Spread the puree over the trays and cook for 8 hours!!! or until dry to the touch.
4. Cut both sheets in rectangles and roll them!