All about food

So, apparently everything I do lately seems to be related with food… I’ve been experimenting with new recipes, painting watercolor images of food and at the same time restraining my food intake to achieve the 70-kilo mark by July (I’m currently at 81, so still a long way to go…)

I read a psychological theory many years ago that explained that at a certain age women start feeling an urge to plant and take care of trees and plants because they approach the point of their life when they are no longer fertile so they need to feel somehow productive, and they do it through making plants bloom and produce fruits and vegetables… I do not judge those people. I admit that I have been one of them for many years now. Even when I am still fertile – but not willing to exercise my capacity to produce any more offspring, please, no!

You guys know how happy I feel every time my tomato plants yield their juicy products – to be honest, I already placed my first seeds of the season to germinate. When the first plantlets show, they will be transplanted and very likely displayed in this blog, he he he – but I was wondering if the same applies to the “let’s feed my tribe” sort of attitude I have adopted lately. Honestly! My Instagram feed makes it look as if I had a baking business. And some of my friends and family members have told me I should consider a career change, but let’s be honest… it is not as convenient and profitable as my current job, which I also love, to be fair.

So, many pictures will be included in this entry – the watercolor paintings I have been producing since October because I will prepare a cookbook that someday perhaps my children can use, with some of the recipes I have come up with myself, or that I have adapted from other people’s recipes to make them my own.

The last picture I uploaded of something I baked, was a focaccia bread that was absolutely delicious, I must admit, and my very good friend Araceli Morales asked me to share the recipe, so guess what? This is the post where the recipe gets shared.

It is super simple and quick to make, and my children enjoyed it a lot! If you have an hour and a half to spare – nobody does, let’s be honest – but if you could fit 10 minutes of preparation amidst your daily activities, you will enjoy this one, I swear.

Ingredients:

400 grams of flour

30 grams of yeast

250 milliliters of water (temperature room)

5-8 grams of salt (a teaspoon)

5-8 grams of sugar (a teaspoon)

40 milliliters of extra virgin olive oil

Rosemary

Sea salt

Preparation:

Take the flour, the salt and the sugar, and mix them together. Then take the yeast and dissolve it in the water. Next, mix the wet and dry ingredients, and add about 10 milliliters of the olive oil (a spoonful) to the dough, and mix it until it has an even consistency. Place the dough on a flat tray where you will afterwards bake it. Let it rest (once extended on the tray) for an hour, and let it rise.

An hour later, use your fingers to poke the dough (being careful not to perforate it all the way down), add the sea salt and the rosemary to the surface and place the tray in the oven that you will have pre-heated to 250°C. Bake it for 10 minutes. Then remove the tray from the oven, spray the remaining 30 milliliters of olive oil onto the surface of your bread and bake for 10 more minutes, and that’s it! Fresh, warm and delicious focaccia ready to be eaten and shared. I told you it was fast and easy…

Let’s see if next time I get to write about something other than food. Not that it is bad, but as they say, variety is the spice of life – see what I did just there? ;