Sidreria

Once a year, Beza's cousins from San Sebastian have a cousin gathering. They arrange to go to a sidreria (cider brewery) for dinner. It usually happens around February because cider brewery restaurant season is from the end of January to the end of March.

The breweries dedicate themselves to making cider all year round and only open the kitchen to the public for two months while the cider is fermenting. You get all-you-can-drink cider straight from the barrel and there are usually at least three or four barrels, with up to thousands of litres capacity. Apparently the menu is always the same- tortilla de bacalao (cod omelette), bacalao (cod), chuleton (fat, juicy steak) and dessert of cheese, walnuts, almond biscuits and flutely biscuity things.

I had an awesome time and ate heaps. We were a group of ten in the end because some cousins couldn't make it. Some of his cousins don't eat too much so I got to stuff myself.

I've been making lots of things recently to relieve my stress because I swear some of the kids in my classes are terrorists in training. I made a dog iTouch cover for Beza, a cat phone cover for Ana, two cheesecakes (one for us, though it made me sick from all the dairy and one for Beza's family for Saturday lunch), a tofu cheesecake (which I ate most of because it apparently doesn't taste so nice compared to a philly cheese cheesecake), a sheep finger puppet, bread rolls and random food that looked interesting.

This week I intend to attempt a pavlova and macaroons, the pretty, colourful ones. And if I have time, foccacia bread, lemon fingers, potato pizza and any other food I plan to make for my birthday.

I got my first ever Valentine's Day rose! I didn't actually get it on Valentine's Day, but I liked it so much more because it was a surprise and Beza didn't pay a ridiculously inflated price. Plus I'm an anti-Valentine's Day shrew. In my Valentine's Day presentation for my classes, I always tell the kids the true story behind Valentine's Day, about the priest who got stoned and beheaded. I also like to add some gory graphics just to be positive the kids get the message.