We got a bit distracted today. Jobs to do outside – 4ft tall weeds – why do our outside jobs always seem to revolve around weeds? We make the fatal mistake of acting like English people rather than Spanish. We start work too late in the morning, 10am just doesn’t cut it when the Spanish would be out pulling up the weeds as soon as the sun rises at 8am. And we work on too late until 2pm, even 2.30pm, which the Spanish think is plain mad even in October. When we’ve done it, we agree with them that it’s mad. We feel absolutely drained, no matter how much water we drink. We eat bread and cheese for lunch and fall asleep inside in the cool [this is very Spanish]. By the evening, the idea of making a proper meal is beyond us: both the mental preparation and the physical energy. So we do what Nigel Slater always seems to do in his television programmes: we look in the fridge and work out what will taste good together. So that’s how we finish up eating tuna dip with bread sticks and carrot crudités. We eat it from a tray balanced on the sofa between our knees and it tastes so good we could have planned to make this from the beginning.
For our emergency tuna dip:-
one jar good quality tuna
cream cheese, either plain or the sort with mixed herbs
plain natural yogurt, thick Greek or thin healthy
freshly ground black pepper
Drain the oil from the tuna jar, tip the tuna into a bowl and break up with a fork. Add in half a pack of cream cheese, and mix, thinning with a little yogurt if required. Depending on the size of your jar of tuna, you may need to add more cream cheese and yogurt until you are happy with the consistency. Season with freshly ground black pepper. That’s it. This would also work as a starter if you have friends round to supper.
5 to remember
de improviso – impromptu
la cena – supper
una bandeja – a tray
una mala hierba – a weed
el programa de televisión – television programme