Coronavirus Lockdown Spanish Edition - Day 31 - Catching up

Easter Monday... As my mom has been reminding me all weekend long, traditionally people around here (Alicante, Valencia areas) would have family picnics and go out and eat "la mona de Pascua", another traditional Easter pastry with a hard-boiled egg on top. My mom often tells us that when she was young her group of friends would go to the beach, and the game would be to crack the egg on someone's forehead to then peel it. Of course there was always that one jokester who came with a raw egg... 😉

4 day Easter weekend. From Good Friday to Easter Monday. Yup... Not that different from the other Quarantine days! Other than not having to log into work, something that is always much appreciated on a Monday!

For the past 2 weeks I'm afraid I've been neglecting the blog. Not feeling the energy in the evenings after work. Although in my mind I was posting regularly! (pity I can't just "think" these posts into existence) I was setting aside photos or memes to share. Make note of things to write about. And then evening came around aaaand "I'll just watch this movie and then sit back down at the computer". Nope. Books and bed! 

On the plus side, I'm devouring books like I hadn't done in a long time! Unfortunately not having much impact on my humongous TBR pile because one of the books I've read has led me down the rabbit hole of picking up other books from the same author that I've read before because they're connected - and just damn good reads! The book was The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Kay Penman (I've written about her before). Honestly she should put a warning on the first page of her books "Beware - finishing this book will inexorably lead you to continue with the rest of the author's collection".

I've also been doing quite a bit of baking... Today I experimented with making a "lemon drizzle cake" following a recipe shared by a Scottish colleague. Super tasty!!! Albeit a bit on the sweet side. Mental note: less sugar next time. And thank goodness for Google to help figure out substitutes! I don't think "self raising flour" is a thing in Spain (at least I couldn't find any)... Google kindly helped me figure out how to "make" that myself (just add baking powder, duh! question was proportions).

I will be catching up with blog posts from some the missing days (between March 30th and today), because as I mentioned I had things set aside for them. Today I managed to post Days 17-18-19-30. Hopefully I'll be able to do a better job continuing onwards. Although I am preparing a fun project for the travel blog, if I can get contributors.... 😉🤞

#stayhome #quedateencasa #yomequedoencasa #restecheztoi

Coronavirus Lockdown Spanish Edition - Day 30 - Happy Quarantine Easter!

Well this will definitely be an Easter to remember... Instead of joyful family get-togethers, Easter Mass for the Faithful, joyful Easter Sunday Processions (here in Spain), we get... who knows?! I imagine everyone is doing something different... What I saw among my own friends and family in social media was quite diverse! One friend was "attending" Mass in the Vatican on TV. Others had prepared traditional Easter meals and decorations. Some of my cousins in the US and my sister in Sweden prepared Easter baskets for the kids and hid the eggs in the garden or the house (was raining in Sweden). I saw friends in New Zealand and the U.S. paint printed pictures of Easter eggs with their kids to put up in windows... In my case the only "Easter" thing I did was have "torrijas" for breakfast (French toast with thick bread, and sugar & cinnamon instead of syrup), something typical here in Spain during Holy Week and Easter, and then watch a concert in the evening. It was a grey day here, not very cheerful. But perfect for huddling under the blanket on the sofa with a book and a movie. 😎

(disclaimer: these were from a frozen food company, not from scratch! 😜)