food glorious food

March 29, 2017 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

Family Smellie is very keen on its food and Thailand has not let us down once. So we thought it was time that we did a little hands on cooking. Rather than just stuffing our faces with the delicious food cooked by others, we would do some of the preliminary work ourselves.

Enter Toi, chef extraordinaire at Sea Dance. She was chosen to bravely steer Family Smellie through the cooking process. This is what awaited us when we arrived for our lesson.

Even if we didn’t cook it but just feasted with our eyes and noses that would have been a sensual journey in itself. But Family Smellie needed to fill its bellies so onwards and upwards.

First up, as in any good project of any kind, is the preparation. I was put on chopping duty and managed to impress Toi not only with my knowledge of nam pla but also my prowess with a mini machete!

We began with seafood salad and followed with chicken green curry and chicken and ginger stir fry. The Travellerwas not impressed by having to skin and scour the squid, but she did an excellent job.

The seafood was left to marinade in soy sauce, nampla, chopped chilli, chopped garlic and palm sugar. The Boss was in charge of chicken prep.

First up was the green curry. The curry paste was added to hot oil and the coconut cream added spoon by spoon. I am used to chucking the tin in all at once, but this way the sauce remained thick and cooked more slowly, it was thinned with water or chicken stock later.

Chicken first and finally vegetables.

The volunteer took notes.

Stir fry was down to the Traveller and she was not convinced she could do the flip so expertly demonstrated by Toi, convinced that instead she would cover the Boss with a selection of chicken and vegetables.

But she got the wrist action and managed a perfect stir fry flip with no stray veg at all.

And the finished products.

And time to eat.

A few days later I bumped into Toi in the gardens and she showed me around her kitchen garden. Many of the vegetables used in the kitchen are grown on site and Toi is an excellent gardener as well as chef. I also managed to impress her again with my knowledge of Holy Basil, there are hidden depths to me yet! She not only grows a huge range of vegetables, salad leaves and herbs for the kitchen but also a comprehensive range of herbs for the spa as well. And I can testify that the spa is as good as the kitchen!

Love Gillie x

it just gets better

May 18, 2016May 18, 2016 ~ Gillie ~ 6 Comments

I love Onya I have had their bag in a bag and their backpack in a bag for years long before anything similar appeared in the supermarkets. There are far superior to the ones you find on the high street they were originally made of parachute silk (and felt lovely too!) now they use recycled PET bottles (still lovely but not quite as lovely as the parachute silk!) and are amazingly strong, hold a decent amount (two bottles of milk, two bottles of vinegar, a large loaf, a magazine and two packs of tennis balls just this morning) and squash down to nothing. Environmentally friendly, very useful and pretty colours. They are also brilliant on holiday. I keep two in my handbag at all times

Then today this arrived. The Onya Weigh. So far looks just like the regular onya bag in its pouch.

But inside are these little lovelies.

Five ultra light transparent tulle bags for veg shopping. I avoid prepacked veg and the plastic bags for the loose veg. My onions do not need to go in a plastic bag. But sometimes I have no choice, runner beans, brussell sprouts, I can’t really avoid a bag. But now no more plastic. They can go in these.

I don’t need to go and buy and veg… boo hoo, I want to take them out for a ride!

Love Gillie

the hanging gardens of Brancepeth

May 15, 2016May 15, 2016 ~ Gillie ~ 4 Comments

I cannot take credit for these. I first saw them on a friend’s blog, it wasn’t her idea either! But now I pass them on to you, let there be hanging gardens around the world.

Quick diversion, anyone reading this who went to a PNEU school will have had a class called From Ur to Rome. It was based on a book of the same name and was tolerably interesting. However, the sections on the ziggurats and on the hanging gardens of Babylon transfixed me. I was frequently in trouble for flicking back to them and thus having no idea what the rest of the class was discussing!

You will need LOTS of plastic milk bottles (2l) or detergent bottles (the bulk 3l ones). Unless you are a family of 20 who each drink a litre of milk a day collecting these will be the hardest part. You need to raid your friends’ recycling bins.

Place the bottle in front of you sideways on with the handle on the left then cut out a square shape from the opening at the top down about 4-6 inches depending on the size of your bottle. Next attach some two by two to your chosen wall. The number you will need will depend on how long you plan on making your garden. You will need a new support every 3ft or so.

Now insert a large round hook in each support. Thread the appropriate length of dowling through the handle of each milk bottle, rest the dowling in the hook and hey presto your very own hanging garden.

We have planted salad greens, summer herbs, carrots, strawberries, nasturtiums