In direct contrast to the last post, it is very, very quiet today at The Peaceable. Nary a breeze is blowing. We have the doors and windows open to let in the sunshine, and the only sounds I hear are the occasional hound dog bark, (and Una´s answering "uf,")a car passing on the highway, birdsong, and the clock ticking on the wall. Now and then someone sneezes, somewhere down the street.
Vewy, vewy quiet. There´s laundry on the clothesline. Tim is twitching in the kitchen, dreaming of quails.
On Monday we will get an estimate on the kitchen we want. On Friday Una came very near to killing herself. She was in hot pursuit of a rabbit and followed it under the supposedly animal-proof fence that seals off the big four-lane autopista from the Promised Land. She ignored us when we shouted for her. And yes, I stopped looking when I saw her loping happily along the right lane of the A-215, head-on with the 18-wheelers.
She changed her mind eventually and joined us back on the trail. Our hearts cannot take much more of her behavior. We will not take her back to the Promised Land anytime soon, which is a shame. We can´t trust the fence, or the dog. (Yeah, I know "there are no bad dogs, just bad owners." But I ain´t buying that.)
One interesting observation these days concerns fresh spinach.
We love spinach, and the spinach they grow around here is outstanding quality and very cheap and abundant. We make lots of meals with it, and often serve it as salad, too. And that´s where the oddness comes in: Twice in the last two months we´ve had visitors who weren´t sure what to do with spinach salads. One just kinda followed our lead, and ate it up. Another rather doubtfully tried his.
When Paddy asked him if there was something wrong, he said he´d never eaten spinach before in an uncooked form. He´d seen it sold that way, but never served that way! Holy moley. Here I thought all these international types would eat anything! And here we are, expecting them to.
Be warned, people. If and when you come here, you may be presented with a plateful of deep green leaves with roasted red peppers and chopped-up boiled egg and onion and olive oil and lemon juice on it. And you´ll probably be expected to eat it. It´s good for you. You might even like it.
Maybe you oughtta practice beforehand, at home.
Let me know if you´ve never eaten raw spinach. I will send you some spinach seeds. Life is too short to keep living that way.
4 comments:
I love fresh spinach either as a salad or cooked fresh for quiches, sides or as ingredients.
Would you please post your recipe for the roasted red pepper spinach salad? It sounds delicious! (I love freshly roasted red peppers too.)
One note about red peppers in Spain. When I did the Camino last year, while staying at the church in Granon, we cooked with the most humungous, most crimson red, peppers I have ever seen. They were the size of FOOTBALLS!
And the tiny roasted peppers at Casa Manolo in Santiago are fabulous!
Anon.. those will be Pimientos de Padron, another standby. They are simple and delicious enough to make the trek to Santiago worthwhile, even without all the other reasons.
specially if you have a cold draft beer nearby, for when you bite into the one pepper that bites you back.
Will there be any spinach in mid-June/late-June this year? I'll be headed your way!!!
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