Polanco: A day at the park!

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 2 Comments

I fell in love with Mexico pretty much the first time I came to visit ‘C’ almost two years ago! I don’t know if I initially fell in love with it because of the country itself, or rather because the man I was in love with lived here and it represented an unknown future– but now that I have been living here for over a year, I can say without a doubt that I love it because of the country that it is.

When I talk to my friends back in Europe and Asia, they always ask me what is it like living in Mexico? Aren’t I scared due to all the violence? How do I cope living in one of the world’s largest and most dangerous cities?

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The world’s simplest pie dough recipe

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 3 Comments

Right, so here is the world’s simplest pie dough recipe, and it never fails!!

There is a great chef in Sweden called Tina Nordström, she has become such a household name over the last decade, and is really known for her simple recipes and using very true Swedish ingredients. Plus she is a lot of fun to watch and she comes across incredibly amicable!

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Salmon and Spinach Pie

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 13 Comments

As I recently mentioned I have been feeling under the weather the past week – and as you all know, there is nothing more off-putting then food when you are feeling ill. My dad used to joke with me that when I was growing up, that there were three words that I would tell him more often than any other, and it wasn’t “daddy I love you” but rather “daddy, I’m hungry!” When I would stop eating he knew that I was really ill… and that was when my parents would start to worry!

Hence – there has not been a lot of cooking going on in my kitchen over the last week. However, I was looking through some of my pictures from the summer when I was in Sweden (yes I am still unemployed and have plenty of time on my hands), I realised that although I was not actively blogging, I was very actively cooking, and have a quite few recipes up my sleeves that I want to share with you, like this Salmon and Spinach pie.

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Everything Happens for a Reason

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 2 Comments

You know the expression ‘everything happens for a reason’? of course you do – im sure you have heard it countless times, especially when something bad happens  to you. In fact, it is so commonly used that it has this unfortunate ‘sickly Hallmark’ cliché feel to it.

I say ‘unfortunate’ because it is not only a phrase that I use very often (and I don’t consider myself a hallmark cliché!), but it is an expression that I tend to live my life by. I truly believe that everything in life does happen for a reason -both good and bad- and that the world sends you subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) messages and hints that you can either take, or ignore. Either way, the world has plans for you and sometimes they do not fit into the plans that you had made for yourself.

A perfect example of this, and a strong reminder to me, were a series of events that all culminated last week.

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Tapenade and Tomato Roast Fish

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 4 Comments

I have to admitt my photo does not do this dish justice!

I love tapenade but had never thought about putting it on fish before – so when I saw this recipe (yes, on BBCGoodFood yet again!) yesterday I just had to make it. And what is even better, it takes all of 25 minutes from the time you start preparing the dish until the time you are sitting down for dinner! This is fantastic find as at the moment I have Spanish lessons until 7.30 every evening, and hate eating later than 8.30! (when did I turn into such an old woman?)

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Black Olive Tapenade

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 2 Comments

Photograph from national geographic

Tapenade is a Provencal dish that consists mainly of puréed or finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. It is generally eaten as an hors d’ourve spread on bread, or as a dip – however it can also be used in other recipes such as the Roast fish with Tapenade.

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Cauliflower and Coconut Curry

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 1 Comment

Oh my goodness – I made this dish for dinner on Friday night accompanied with Chicken Tikka and what a success! Again I got the original recipe for the Cauliflower Curry from BBC GoodFood – they really do have fantastic recipes there, that have all
been tried and tested.

Warm Cauliflower and Coconut Curry

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A Long Weekend in Guanajuato

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 5 Comments
It was the American Labour day weekend last weekend (5th September), and one of the many perks of ‘C’s’ job is that he gets both Mexican and American public holidays off. The later is fantastic when you want to go away for long weekends here in Mexico as it means you don’t have to jostle and fight for space with the rest of the population – believe me, this makes a huge difference in terms of the traffic and your subsequent peace of mind!

This trip was a very last minute affair, as ‘C’ only realised he had the day off towards the end of last week, and he phoned me up from work and asked if I wanted to go away for the weekend? Mmm..of course!! So we quickly did a bit of research, booked our hotel and by 8 o’clock on Saturday morning we were on the road to Guanajuato.

Despite the rain, you can see the colourful houses
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20 Astonishing Holiday Complaints

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 1 Comment

I was taking a little break (procrastinating) from my Spanish revision (I have yet another Spanish test this evening) and was browsing an online travel magazine that I have recently come across called Wanderlust (www.wanderlust.co.uk). I really can’t believe it has taken me so long to find this website, it really is fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in travel, and looking at pretty pictures of far-off destinations *sigh*

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Winershcnitzel

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 2 Comments

Last Friday, ‘C’ and I had a quite night at home and decided to make Winerschnitzel for dinner. I had made it recently while I was on holiday in Sweden, and realised that it was such a quick and easy meal to put together that I don’t know why I hadn’t made it before.

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