My sourdough starter died! 🥖 With the travel to Italy and our mothers here trying to take over my kitchen, I ended up not baking for 3 weeks, and now Ryan is gone. Completely moldy, smelly and beyond salvation. RIP. 🪦
DIY Baileys
I’ve been perfecting this recipe for over a year now, and I think this version is really good. It’s so good we need to purposefully NOT make it, otherwise J. and I drink it all at once. Be warned, ABV is about 15% and calories are through the roof.
Ingredients
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
- 3/4 of the can above filled with cheap whisky1
- 30 ml shot of weak coffee
- 3 tsp of 100% cocoa powder2
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Prepare your weak coffee and while it’s still hot, add the cocoa/chocolate powder and mix well to dissolve. Add all ingredients to a blender: condensed milk, coffee + cocoa, vanilla, and the whisky. I like to use the same can of condensed milk, making sure I only fill it 3/4 of the way with whisky. Now blend on high speed for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass bottle and put in the fridge to cool down for at least 2-3 hours. It should keep for a week, but I wouldn’t know, as it never lasted more than 2 evenings here at home…
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Ideally, Irish whisky, but that’s really expensive where I live. Normal Scottish whisky won’t work because of the smoky flavour. My preferred choice is the cheapest Scottish whisky in Spain, Mercadona’s James Webb. Young, subtle flavors, no hints of smoke anywhere and only 6.15€ the 700ml bottle, this is perfect for cooking! ↩︎
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I use 100% cocoa powder (which in Spanish and Portuguese is called Cacao) as that’s what I like and have at home. If you want to use “chocolate” powders (like Nesquik, Toddy, O’Boy…), go ahead. ↩︎
“Drawing… it is the best thing that I ever do. First of all because it gets me to be so silent. To not be blurting out what I think about this or feel about that. Second, I become an open observer, jotting down visual notes about something I see. And third, it puts me in the world of praise. To be looking upon an object and taking the time to sketch it is an innocent, unaggressive, and grounding act. It is where bliss resides. It is pure being…” — D. Price, The Moonlight Chronicles.
Watched yet another inspiring video on illustrated journals by Danny Gregory and signup up for his course! 🎨 Between this and the 2 books I read this past week, my drawings have improved a lot already. I went from stick figure to cute colored doodles in a week!
Watched: Murder Mindfully Season 1 📺
Loved it! I’m fully convinced about the power of mindfulness and will get back to my daily practice, as I have many great things to accomplish! 😂 Looking forward to season 2.
Finished reading: How to Make a Journal of Your Life by Dan Price 📚
Inspiring. He can definitely draw, though his style looks deceptively simple. Loved the mix of text, sketches, photos, plants… I feel like being even more fun and free in my own journal, and less worried about how it looks.
Week 15: Illustrated Journal
- 📺 Finished season 5 of Only Murders in the Building.
- 🎨 Watched an inspiring video on illustrated journals by Danny Gregory (from Sketchbook Skool) and decided to give it a try. I’ve been very inconsistently doing bullet journals, morning pages and braindumps, a 5-year journal and a sketchbook. After watching his video, I realized an illustrated journal is probably going to serve me well in terms of fulfilling that creative itch, expressing my feelings better, and even helping me remember my days…
- 📚 Read Draw your Day by Samantha Dion Baker, super inspiring! Read on the ipad, but I’m thinking to get all drawing/sketching books on my wishlist on paper instead. I currently only buy huge photography books on paper, everything else is digital.
- 🍨 Had a great day with my mom in town. We had italian gelatto, lunch at a fancy restaurant, and some drinks in Russafa.
- 🍷 Went to Habitual again for their lunch menu. So good! The most affordable Michelin menu here in Valencia, I think.
- 🥘 Met my uncle, aunt and favorite cousin, here in Valencia! Vermut, água de Valencia, sight-seeing by night, and even a homemade paella. Loved every minute!
- 😍 Went to Madrid with my mom for a last day together in Spain, after 3 whole months. This morning she flew back to Brazil, and I took my train back to Valencia.
Finished reading: Draw Your Day by Samantha Dion Baker 📚
I saw this video by Danny Gregory on illustrated journals and now I’m on a quest to learn to draw and sketch so I can have an illustrated journal. This book was inspiring (even though I’m at stick figure level atm).
Week 14: Wild pomenagrates
- ✈️ MIL flew back to Sweden. It was great having her here for five weeks, but also somewhat stressful for me, as my daily routine and food habits change a lot when she’s around. I was honestly dying to go back to my Mediterranean diet.
- 🌎 A hit wave hit again for a few days, with temperatures of 29°C. The day after it ended, we were hit by a cold wave with temperatures as low as 5°C. Gotta love climate change!
- 🌊 Last Sunday we went for a walk at Ruta de Los Molinos, near Buñol. Sadly, the trail doesn’t exist anymore, as it was wiped out by the DANA a year ago. We did see several cars that were destroyed by the water and are still on the river bed to this day. They did not look like cars, more like crumpled paper balls.
- 💔 On the way back to the car, we encountered dozens of wild pomegranate trees. We harvested a ton of beautiful red fruit, so excited about all the salads, the possibilities, the recipes we would make… Reality hit us hard. Those horrible wild things were extremely sour and unpleasant. Now I know why so many fruits were on the ground and not even birds were eating them.
- 🍳 Made Greek kagianas for breakfast. It’s a creamy dish of scrambled eggs and tomatoes, super easy and delicious! Will make again, many times.
- 🎲 Spent an entire rainy Sunday playing Cluedo with my mom. So fun!
- 📺 Started watching season 5 of Only Murders in the Building.
- 🐶 Left for a morning walk with the dogs and Astro decided to sit on the sidewalk by our front gate and refused to move. I told him we’d go anywhere he wanted, he’d get to decide, I pleaded with him to go back home, I enticed him with snacks, I inspected the entire dog, head to toe. Where does it hurt? Is it his back? Is it his paw? Maybe it’s gases? Maybe it’s bloating?! Is it dementia??!! After TWENTY MINUTES on the street, I decided to go back inside and ask my husband to pick him up (Astro’s too heavy for me). Then he got up like nothing happened, tail wagging, that adorable/dumb golden retriever face, and we finally went for our walk.
“There is a time to go long, a time to go short, and a time to go fishing.” — Jesse Livermore
Week 13: Astro is getting old
I didn’t write my weeknote last week as I was in Italy with my family, but I’m here now, two weeks later and two kilos heavier happier.
- Rome was amazing! It was our mothers' first time in Italy and expectations were incredibly high. Of the big tourist spots, we visited only Colosseo, Foro Romano and Pantheon, choosing to spend most of our time eating delicious pasta, pizza, supplì, and drinking lots of wonderful Italian wine. Travel photos and journals coming soon! 🍝🍕🍷
- We left our dogs Astro and Luna in our favorite dog hotel, RuralCan. It’s quite far from home (4h driving roundtrip), but it’s worth it. Sadly, Astro’s osteoarthritis is making it harder from him to enjoy his vacations. He always loved to bathe in the doggie pool, but last time he was there he couldn’t get out of the water on his own. This time he was so happy to be in a dog pack in nature (seriously, this place is amazing), that he overdid a bit and on the very last day he literally couldn’t walk. The staff helped us with some support harnesses to put him into the car. It took him almost three days to recover… I’ve never seen him in so much pain before, and it saddens me, because the cause of the pain was actually joy and fun games. He’ll be 13 years old in January, and we decided we won’t travel anymore. Staycations forever. 🐶
- My mom was dying to have a comment system on her site. I was totally against, I said it’s a total magnet for spammers, those who really want can email her, threatened to not help when she’s eventually inundated by viagra ads, but she was adamant. Now her little static blog is running a free version of Commentics. 💬
- I also installed GoatCounter analytics on her blog, not without another argument. She should be happy to blog for herself, not for others. What’s the point of knowing if someone is reading or not? What’s this need to know? What’s next, a like button?! And then I turned into the world’s biggest hypocrite and installed GoatCounter on my little blog. Turns out, I want to know. 📈
- This weekend we went on a day trip to Buñol with Luna, leaving Astro alone at home. It was not easy, MIL had tears in her eyes, my mom offered to stay behind with him, but our reasoning was this: he used to be alone before we adopted Luna; he doesn’t have the strength to go for long walks anymore, much less if it involves any kind of hill; he’ll be safer and happier by staying home, taking a nap; and finally, Luna is 7 years old and still full of energy. She loves car rides, she’s curious, she wants to go out and explore. For months now, the dog walks have been boring for her as distances get shorter and shorter. I don’t want to wait until Astro is no longer here, to give Luna the quality of life she deserves. By then, I’m afraid it will be too late for her too. 🐶
- I have cameras set up to watch the dogs and the house when we’re out. As I predicted, Astro was a bit surprised/sad and he searched for us for a few minutes, but then he went to his bed and slept happily for the next four hours. When we got home, I gave him a huge carrot for being such a good boy. 🥕
- We wrapped the week up by playing Synth Riders on the PSVR2 and dining raclette and wine! The VR game on Sunday thing is starting to become a tradition!
Rödvinsås
Aaah, Swedish red wine sauce… Poured over oxfilé, potato gratin, or just eaten by the spoonful… So delicious. Original recipe by Karl, I made tiny changes to use ingredients easily available to me in Spain.
Ingredients
Enough for 4 generous servings.
- 1 shallot onion
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp tomato purée (also works with crushed tomatoes)
- 1 pinch of dry thyme
- 250ml red wine
- 250ml water
- 1 knorr cube
- 1 tsp maizena
- a few cracks of black pepper
Instructions
- Finely chop the shallot. Melt the butter and sauté shallot, thyme, sugar and tomato paste.
- Add the red wine and simmer for 5 minutes
- Add the water and the bouillon cube. Whisk so the cube melts away. Let it cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat.
- Strain the sauce to remove the shallot bits, and season with a little freshly ground black pepper. Pour back into saucepan.
- Mix the cornstarch with 1 tablespoon cold water and pour into the sauce. Stir until sauce thickens. Serve.
Back from Rome with my mom and mother-in-law! Their first time in Italy, rightfully enjoyed with a little sightseeing, a good amount of pasta, some aperol, a ton of pizza, and a lot of wine. Didn’t write any weeknotes this week, will get back on track next Monday :)
My climate changed hometown
This morning I read on Miraz' blog that 91% of New Zealand’s birds and 35% of its marine mammals are endangered due to climate change. Those statistics are frightening.
I wanted to leave a comment on her post, but felt I had way more than 300 characters to say. I could write pages criticizing people, politicians, religious institutions and the meat industry… I could write an essay on my frustration at the generalized inaction. It’s not like we are waiting for something to happen in a distant science-fiction future, 800 years from now. It is happening already, everywhere. It’s been happening for a long time.
I could spend hours complaining, but instead I’ll just talk a bit about my hometown. Thank you @Miraz for the inspiration for this blog post!
Recife. My hometown in the Northeast of Brazil. Eternally 28°C, sunny, coconuts, mangoes, guava trees, warm Atlantic ocean, long stretches of gold sandy beaches, mangroves. Our climate is best described as a long dry summer season, followed by a short monsoon period between early June and late July. “The Venice of Brazil”, as it is also known, is built around six rivers and only 1m above sea level.
A report by the IPCC classified Recife as the 16th most endangered city on Earth and the number 1 in Brazil. Yay.
Photo by Igor Fonseca for Diário de Pernambuco
I remember people started talking about the sea “invading” the land when I was a child, and cities in the entire Northeast started building retaining walls to stop it. That was the first sign of some kind of change.
Today, we can say with certainty those walls have failed. The sea has indeed advanced, rising about 10cm in the past 30 years, and entire neighborhoods along the coast have been destroyed. This Brazilian website has several photos from the 1930s and 1940s along with current ones, showing the changes to the famous Boa Viagem beach.
Photo by Francisco França for UOL Notícias
The rain patterns have changed too. While it is true it doesn’t rain every single day, it sure feels like that. Whenever I call my mom or my dad to talk, the city is always flooded. September? Schools closed due to heavy rain. February? Flash flood wipes away a favela. July? A crocodile shows up in someone’s backyard, dragged by the currents. Nowadays, it floods even when it’s not raining, due to sea levels and high tides.
When it’s not raining, people complain it’s scorching. It feels too hot. Weather observation data shows the average daily mean temperature in Recife has risen 1°C due to climate change, with certain areas generating so much heat, they are 6°C above the city’s average. It doesn’t help it’s a city of skyscrapers, with 43% of the buildings 20m or higher. So it’s hot, and there’s no breeze. When it is not absurdly hot, or flooding, there is a drought. Yes. From one extreme to the other. And don’t get me started on the shark attacks…
It’s not about “global warming” (so many dumbasses are stuck on this term). It’s about everything becoming more extreme, less predictable. It’s either raining too much or too little. We are sweating, we are shivering. One day you have a nice house on the prairie; next thing you know, the ocean is your pool. It’s truly about climate change. Things have climate changed in Recife.
Additional links:
Week 12: Autumn Vibes
This week’s notes are coming in two days late, on Wednesday instead of Monday. I’ve just had too much on my plate, too little sleep and didn’t feel like writing.
- We are traveling to Rome in a few days and I am super anxious and insomniac.
- Autumn officially started on the Equinox (Sep. 21st) and I swear on that very same day the weather changed drastically from bikini and cold beer by the pool, to raincoats and watching netflix while drinking hot tea. It’s Autumn, alright. 🍂
- In the kitchen this week: mom made a batch of chickpeas on the instant pot; I baked a loaf of sourdough bread; MIL made salmon and potatoes; I made my world-renowned, award-winning Carbonara. 🍝
- I am taking a break from Agatha Christie. Just started reading We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921) and MAN what a book!!! Only 10% in, completely hooked already. 📚
- 📺 Finished Girls from Ipanema on Netflix. Interesting story, wonderful soundtrack, all ruined by an excess of drama and poor acting (think: faces, gestures, outbursts, tears). Also, what’s with all the giant women’s nipples in our faces? Where are the men’s nipples?! C’mon!
Just finished my 47th Agatha Christie book and I’m so tired of her formula, I really need a break from this project. Decided to pivot to 20th century dystopias, starting with “We”, followed by “Brave New World”, finishing with “1984”. 📚
Week 11: Driving Theory
- We started the week by taking our mothers to Aras de los Olmos, to drink coffee and snack on sandwiches and cookies under the core of our beautiful galaxy, Via Lactea. 🌌
- I took a day off from work to go to Valencia with my mom and mother-in-law. We visited Mercado Central, snacked on jamón, olives and vermut, then stopped by Café Lisboa for a cold beer, and wrapped up at Café de las Horas, sipping on the best água de Valencia. 🍹🍊
- My MIL gave me a much needed break from cooking lunch and dinner every day for 4 people, and commanded the kitchen twice this week! One day she steaked salmon and tuna fillets, served with a summer salad. The other day she made pork ribs with potato and cauliflower gratin. Everything was delicious, but the gratin was extra nice and easy. I’m planning on making it a few times this winter!
- The TV situation at home is crazy atm. We are stuck watching Brazilian TV with Swedish subtitles, or Swedish TV with Portuguese subtitles. Then there is the issue of different tastes too… We ended up watching season 5 of Love is Blind Brazil LOL. This season, every participant is over 50 and it was bonkers. Old people are awesome and awful at the same time. Sometimes they seem so mature and determined, other times they are worse than high-schoolers. 📺
- On Friday I took my driving theory exam here in Spain and I PASSED! To make a long story short, I took my license 20+ years ago but never drove due to fear. I’ve been feeling a bit handicapped, because I live in the countryside and a car is the best (sometimes the only) way to get things done. And feeling a bit stupid too, for not getting over this ages ago… . Oh well. The best time to start driving was 20 years ago, the second best time is right now, at 41, amiright? 🚗
- This weekend we had lunch at Latte e Farina, a small Italian restaurant in the old town. Food was delicious, but portions were ENORMOUS. I’ve never had so much food in my life. 10/10 and will be back many times (but will be sharing my plate with someone or taking leftovers home). 🍝
- My mom took over the kitchen on Sunday and prepared a couple dishes from our hometown in the Brazilian Northeast. So good!!! We started the day eating corn couscous with queijo coalho, a fresh cheese that reminds of halloumi. For lunch she made beer chicken. MIL hates chicken, but she was so surprised and shocked by the flavours, she actually had two full thighs. To that I say: Brazilian cuisine is awesome and it is a shame the world doesn’t know it. 🍗
- After lunch, we turned on our PS5/VR2 and introduced our mothers to Virtual Reality! We spent four hours playing Ragnarock and Synth Riders and we had so much fun! We laughed the entire time, we made mini competitions, we gave our very best until our arms hurt, and we sweated soooo much! It was hilarious, a perfect Sunday! 🎮😍
- A mega storm hit Valencia again. I was prepared in advance and took Luna to sleep in my bedroom, but left Astro in the living room as he never cared before. The storm was so massive windows were shaking with the noise of the thunder, lightning was striking the trees in our neighbourhood, and Astro started barking in the middle of the night, in a state of panic. So I ended up moving into my office with both dogs, an emergency radio, my kindle, and stayed up all night playing calming music and giving pet massages. Once the storm calmed down, dogs slept beautifully, while I stayed awake with insomnia. 🐶⛈️
Didn’t get ANY sleep last night. A massive storm hit us, power went off, dogs in panic. I locked myself in my office with them, petting and calming music until early morning. Now the storm is gone, they are snoring and I’m here, disheveled, zombified, with a full day ahead. 🐶⛈️
Best Sunday ever, laughing and sweating and taking turns playing RAGNAROK VR2 with my husband, my mom and my mother-in-law!!! 🎸🎮🤘
Today I took my driving theory test and I PASSED! 🚗 I got my license 20+ years ago, but because of fear, never really drove. Now I’m 41 and finally ready to get over this. I want to take my dogs to nice places, to take turns driving on road trips, to visit the plant store on a whim!