Home made barbacoa

The weather stayed dry and we all worked hard this morning - cutting and carrying small logs and branches from the pine woods. Then, when we got home, we spread some of the wood out on the terrace so that it could dry in the sun. Even Teddi and Tobi came upstairs to help supervise that part of the task.

After the evening church service, we could enjoy the fruit of our efforts. I built a roaring fire and, once it had settled into coals, we got out the parrilla (barbecue grill) and roasted spicy chicken wings in the fireplace. Our first home-style barbecue!

Recipe of the week...

Well, the weather forecast got it almost right. It still rained a little on Friday, but Saturday afternoon turned out to be amazingly mild and sunny. As we had totally depleted all the firewood I'd stocked up since last spring, I took a trip to the pine woods to gather some more kindling for the coming week. It's to be dry again today, so - after my "ambulatorio" appointment for the injection - Ada, Gabriela and I are all planning a trip together to gather as much firewood as we can before the rains come and soak it all again. This will probably be our last chance to collect wood that's lying around (it's at a spot where they had cut down some pine trees earlier in the year) before we have to start buying firewood for the rest of the winter.

I began eating a lot of soup when the colder, rainy weather started. It's a great way to keep warm without just eating for the sake of it. Ada couldn't believe it was possible to make so many different soups. First I made carrot and coriander, then chicken and sweetcorn. Next it was cauliflower soup, cabbage and onion soup (surprisingly nice, this one), then potato and leek. Ada's favourite is cauliflower and broccoli, and I think mine's the sweetcorn...

But yesterday I tried out a new recipe that we enjoyed so much, I thought it would be worth passing it on to you. It's for sweet potato and red pepper soup. Slightly spicy, and something different from what we'd made previously. So, here we go.... recipe of the week, coming up.

You'll need a huge sweet potato and an equally huge red pepper, as well as a medium sized carrot, a medium onion and a clove of garlic. (For seasoning, you'll need ground cumin, ground coriander, paprika, and some vegetable stock cubes.)

Fry the chopped garlic and onion in a tiny amount of oil, eventually adding half a teaspoonful each of the cumin, coriander and paprika, and stirring it well until everything is coated with the spices. Then you can add the chopped sweet potato and carrot, along with a litre or so of vegetable stock. (Depends how thick you'd like your soup to be.) While all that is boiling away, you can chop up the red pepper, and add that to the pot too.

Once everything has boiled and softened, liquidise it with a hand blender, and that's basically it: a sweet, spicy soup to keep out the winter cold. You might want to add some salt and pepper, or you might find you don't even need it. (If you generally find the taste of cumin and coriander a bit strong, you might want to reduce the amount you use at the beginning.) You can serve it just as is, or stir a spoonful of natural yogurt through it when it's in the bowl. Delicious!

Blessing with Breakfast

With Christmas just around the corner, our church has been thinking about how we can reach out to bless the local community and share the love of God with them. Next Sunday evening, 19th, we'll be having a special family service with Christmas music and contributions from the children as well as the adults.

This morning we had our last outreach breakfast of the year. More than thirty ladies gathered for a Spanish-style breakfast of bread with tomato spread, and the popular Christmas delicacy of jamon serrano (smoked ham leg.) These are ladies who have been coming to the ABC for help, and receiving food packages on a regular basis; some are Spaniards and some are from Morocco or from South America.

After everyone had eaten their fill, Mariasun shared a testimony of the difference it has made knowing God for the past thirty years of her life, after living the first thirty years without Jesus. We also presented a musical programme of songs and Christmas instrumental music. Before going home again, each lady received a gift bag with a Christmas candle and a scripture card.

Some of these ladies had come to the breakfast for the first time, while others have attended previous breakfasts over the past months. We are so encouraged that a number of the ladies have made the decision to commit their life to Christ, and just this week we had the first meeting of an Alpha course - a small group gathering which is designed to answer questions that non-believers or new believers might have about the Christian faith.

How wide is your TV?

Some people measure their TV screen in inches, others in centimetres... and some measure in cats!

Teddi's on guard here to make sure we don't watch any doggy movies this weekend.

Pills, prescriptions and piercings...

Can you get prescription overload? This was the question foremost in my mind as I left the local "ambulatorio" (health centre) this morning. I'd gone back to the doctor - for the fourth time in recent months - because the pain on the top of my foot seems to be getting worse rather than better, and it's getting increasingly difficult to walk and drive without pain. Last time, the doctor said it was probably tendonitis - due to the fact that I'd been walking unevenly because of the damaged ligaments in my ankle. I wasn't totally convinced of that diagnosis, as it had been two months since the ankle injury and, although it still hurt, I hadn't been limping for some weeks.

Anyway, the doctor I saw today did a much more thorough examination of the foot, and said she's concerned there's something structurally wrong (ie. with the bones, rather than the muscles) - possibly due to the same arthritis that has affected other parts of my body. But then she started to write one prescription after another; it was a little overwhelming. I have not one, but five different pills to take over the coming weeks: some are for the pain, some are anti-inflammatories, and one is something to protect my stomach from all the other pills! I've also to go back to the clinic every day over the next six days to get an injection right into the foot, and then on the sixth day I've to have more x-rays...

So the desk in my bedroom is looking rather like a pharmacy at the moment; I never imagined you could take so many different pills at the same time. I'll be so full of pills that, if I jump up and down, I'll probably make a rattling sound! However, I'm really hoping that it will make a difference to the pain that has been such a nuisance over the past three months - firstly from the ankle injury and then from this mysterious acute pain on the top and side of the foot. This has not been a good winter for aches and pains!

Talking of winter, my parents tell me that they haven't been out of the house for more than ten days because of the snow in their street. They keep emailing me photos of the front garden and the neighbours' cars, with the layer of snow getting just a little deeper from day to day. I hope it will have cleared up a bit by the time I head to Scotland for Christmas.

Meanwhile, here in Alhaurin, we seem to be having a short reprieve from the torrential rain of the past week ('though I'm not sure I believe today's forecast of a top temperature of 24 degrees! It still feels colder than that.) But the rain will be back again after the weekend, so we'll be making sure we do all our laundry over the next couple of days.

Milder weather or not, whenever I go upstairs to my room, I keep finding a strange three-headed, twelve-legged creature on my bed. Tamba, Teddi and Tobi have decided that my duvet is a nice place to take their siesta during the colder winter weather, and I regularly find the three of them intertwined and spread across the bed.... unless we have a fire in the fireplace, which is when they head downstairs and find themselves a cosy spot in the living room.

Aligning with the Book

We can see snow from our street - on the Sierra Nevada mountains - but it doesn't usually fall here in Alhaurin (although the public library does have a photo on the wall of the last time it snowed here in the town.) I was relieved to see that our minimum temperature today will be two degrees and our top temperature could be as high as fourteen if the sun makes an appearance. (Where my parents live in Scotland, it was minus fourteen this morning before sunrise.)

Today in my Bible reading, I was reflecting on the story of King Josiah (found in 2 Kings chapters 22 and 23.) When clearing out the temple, people find the "Book of the Law" which has been lost for many years, and realise - to their shock - that they've been living their lives totally contrary to what God said was best for them. In order to re-align themselves with the Book again, there are some things that they need to commit to... and some things that they need to give up.

If you or I want to align ourselves with the Bible in a deeper way, I wonder what things we should stop doing, and what things we should start doing with more commitment. Food for thought, isn't it?

December days

The rains have come earlier this year. I remember that last year I could still go outdoors without a coat at the beginning of December (though once the rains started in the middle of the month, they continued on and off till the beginning of April. We're hoping for a milder winter this year!)

Today we got a reprieve: after the non-stop downpour of the last days, the sun began to poke its head out from behind scattered grey clouds which looked as if they just might be dispersing temporarily. We made a rush on the washing machine, and did a couple of loads of the laundry that has been piling up for the last week. Hopefully things will dry on the line before the rain begins again.

The cats are finding their own ways to deal with the colder weather. Sometimes I discover all three of them curled up together on the same stool.... and Tobi's not above sneaking into my bedroom and finding a way to wriggle under the duvet - where she'd happily hide all day. Whenever I sit down to work on the computer, or Gabriela sits down to do her homework.... before long there's a purring feline snuggled on our lap.

Meanwhile, those of you who received my newsletter yesterday have been emailing to tell me that it's much colder where you are: snow in Canada, Norway and Scotland; frosty weather in Holland and France.... Only my friends in South Africa and Australia have got in touch to gloat about their warm sunny December days. Looks like the winter weather is here to stay for those of us in the northern hemisphere.