Sugar Free

This morning Stitch and I had a busy old time, washing floors and doing the housework, before we attempted emptying cupboards upstairs and sorting through our belongings, yes we are moving again, so now once again the house looks like box city on top of bag city, the decorations for christmas are lined up along the upper landing and the bedding and towels are all boxed and ready waiting for the removal men who should be arriving on 21st March, tomorrow morning the movers and packers are coming for a run through of our belongings once more, it seems like I have been moving since we left the UK early in 2012, I would like to say it's fun, but really it's a pain in the rear.

We have found a lovely new house in Pareklisia, plenty of room for the little princes, and the little king when they visit, and even a granny annex for the relatives we don't like! The house sits on a mountain side and looks out towards Limassol, with a lovely pool and garden, although the garden will have to be Stitch proofed as the steps leading down to the garage also lead down to the street with only the gates to keep him in, they will have to be escape proofed some how once we move in or the pooch will be out on a jolly before we know it. Luckily the road is quiet so it won't be a case of him getting in front of traffic but he could end up anywhere as he is a one for chasing cats and I did notice a couple when we were up there the weekend for a look see. The house sits about 2.5km up the mountain from St Raphael Marina area of Limassol

and this will make quite a nice change from being as far out as we currently are, 100 yards up the road is a local bistro which we also visited the weekend and I do believe this will become our local, they also informed us they do take-out, happy days I may never have to cook again.

So getting back to today, Stitch and I took ourselves off for a jaunt around Kolossi, walking and looking at the houses just to have a nose, I do like window shopping, and I don't mean store shopping, window shopping can be done anywhere, houses along the street, gardens around the back and if I'm lucky I come across some really neat ideas for decorations, Christmas is also a great time for window shopping, looking at all the Christmas lights that people display around their homes is quite nice, especially when it can be done with the sun, or warm breeze on your back, I really don't miss Christmas UK weather one bit. One place you shouldn't window shop is when driving, I have been told off for that on numerous occasions, for safety reasons you understand.

Anyway after our walk I set about making my sugar free carrot cake, and once I had prepped all the ingredients and put them all together, I licked the spoon and threw it in the oven, the cake not the spoon, I was then ready to start the supper.  Stitch by this time was very bored and laying in his bed. 

The recipe I found for the sugar free cake was from a great site called Anecdotes and Apple Cores, the recipes all look wonderful and the pictures superb, the only thing I had to bastardise was the flour as trying to find wheat pastry flour proved impossible so I had to use whole spelt flour, but other than that I followed the recipe to the letter.

Supper turned out to be Pork fillet in apple and brandy sauce, now I was just reading recently that pork in the UK is extraordinarily expensive, well here it is cheaper than beef and a lot more tasty, so we usually buy heaps for the freezer, maybe I need to keep looking for a decent butcher for the beef because the way things are going buying beef that is funny smelling when minced and tough when topside is a little bit of a pain, the beef only works well if you put it in the slow cooker and leave it like for ever to cook.

My cake was ready and the smell in the kitchen was heavenly, luckily I didn't have to wait long to try it as my beloved arrived home just minutes after I had placed it on my lovely cake stand, so coffee and cake it was, followed by pork in apple and brandy sauce, who said you have to eat things the right way round, life can get a little boring when you follow the rules, Queenie used to get her dessert first then her main course when she was younger as this lead to a moan free meal, she got what she wanted we got peace, everyone's happy... Supper was tasty and tangy, sometimes throwing things together and hoping they work is the best thing to do, many of my best dishes have been made this way, I never have been conventional and starting now would be soooo boring.