# Cooking The Facts v Ed's Dreams



## EdofWigan (Jun 28, 2015)

OK, this is not going to be easy or simple questions to answer and to be honest, I am hoping it will roll into more of a discussion, then just a series of one line responses.

Not to tarnish the memory of MLK Jr, but _'I Have a Dream'_ a minds eye view of my life (to be) in Spain. So, I would like your experiences on a few areas. (one , two or all is fine)

I am sure there is an initial euphoria but after you have settled in, what percentage of your food is cooked or eaten alfresco? _I like my kitchen but love my garden at meal times.
_
Who has anyone settled in to the Casa-Tapas, style of eating at home (a little bites spread through the afternoon, rather than a larger UK timed evening meal) _When in Alicante I love nothing more than a Tapeo. Maybe there are Casa-Tapeos there? or shall we start some_

Has you're average weekly physical activity rate increased or decreased and by what percentage since relocation to Spain (obviously, again after you have settled in) 

I am a strong believer in 'Buy Local' and like to use local shops and suppliers for at least 50% of my general grocery shopping. What is your ratio for Local:Supermarket Chain? (in Spain)

Have you other questions that you want to add? What are they?


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

When we used our house as a holiday home (for a few years before moving over full time) I used to eat as many meals as I could al fresco. But now, not so much. Partly, I suppose, because the novelty has worn off and partly because I have acclimatised to the weather. In the colder months it feels too cold to eat outside, and at the height of the summer I now do as the Spanish do and seek out the shade. 

The same thing goes for sunbathing. I very, very rarely do it now.

Food shopping- I'd say we buy about 80% at the supermarket and 20% from local shops or markets (mostly fruit, vegetables, olives and some cheeses). We go out every day and just buy what we need that day.

I stick to 3 meals a day and avoid "grazing" as much as I can. The only time I really eat tapas is for lunch when I'd order 3 or 4 in a restaurant, not several times a day in different places.

Physical activity - I can do a lot more of that now, but that's as much due to the fact that I don't work here so I have more time to do it. I did go to the gym and swim in the UK as I do here, but often had to forego sessions because work commitments or travel got in the way. I probably do 50% more now than I could before.


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## emlyn (Oct 26, 2012)

EdofWigan said:


> OK, this is not going to be easy or simple questions to answer and to be honest, I am hoping it will roll into more of a discussion, then just a series of one line responses. Not to tarnish the memory of MLK Jr, but 'I Have a Dream' a minds eye view of my life (to be) in Spain. So, I would like your experiences on a few areas. (one , two or all is fine) I am sure there is an initial euphoria but after you have settled in, what percentage of your food is cooked or eaten alfresco? I like my kitchen but love my garden at meal times. Who has anyone settled in to the Casa-Tapas, style of eating at home (a little bites spread through the afternoon, rather than a larger UK timed evening meal) When in Alicante I love nothing more than a Tapeo. Maybe there are Casa-Tapeos there? or shall we start some Has you're average weekly physical activity rate increased or decreased and by what percentage since relocation to Spain (obviously, again after you have settled in) I am a strong believer in 'Buy Local' and like to use local shops and suppliers for at least 50% of my general grocery shopping. What is your ratio for Local:Supermarket Chain? (in Spain) Have you other questions that you want to add? What are they?


Is this about feeding your addiction? Thinking about your STICKY Addiction post. I agree forum can be addictive.


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## Horlics (Sep 27, 2011)

I tend to cook inside except when friends are visiting, when we all head for the roof terrace. I'd say 80% of the eating takes place outside. I eat 3 times a day but a lot of it is tapas-like food, e.g. ham, cheese, onion and tomato salad, alioli, etc. are eaten often.

Activity. I use an activity tracker and right now it shows I did 28000 steps over the last week, and that's what it has been like for the last 3 months while in the UK. I'll be in Spain very soon at which time the figure will be over 100,000 a week. I do much more exercise when in Spain.

We buy local but we have a medium sized masymas very close, and that of course is a supermarket chain. The true local buying (small shops) tends to be for bread or at a small deli. But the bulk of our stuff is from supermarkets because we have 3 on our doorstep.


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

Honestly it is pretty much the same old same old thing but just in Spain.
We do sit outside pretty much constantly during the warmer weather for dinner though so that is different, more bbq's too.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

I enjoy eating outside and generally being outside but then I am a newbie in Spain and perhaps the novelty will wear off but I hope not. To be able to be outside in January and not be cold is great !

Physical activity for us has increased greatly but thats due to lots of work to do on our land so its hard labour lol but enjoyable to see the end results. I can also walk to our local village and tend to do that rather than jumping in the car as I would have done at home because I have more time. 

I do plan to make the most of the pool with a proper swim every morning but the weather is not suitable for that yet.

In terms of shopping , I would say ours is around a 70/30 split with local shops and the supermarket.

Our eating habits have changed only really with timings , we eat lunch and our evening meal later in Spain than we did in the UK and I cook from scratch all the time as I have the time to do so.

We are in the process of building our outside kitchen as I would prefer to do as much cooking outside as possible. We have a super duper BBQ that you can roast and bake with as well as all the normal stuff so I am hoping it becomes my 'cooker' for a good part of the year , time will tell. We had BBQ food at our families house in Spain on Dec 27th , the weather was glorious so I guess when the weather allows outside cooking is great.

I think if you are working for a living then you have more choices about what you do on a daily basis and how you live. This probably changes how you do things but as I have heard many times on this forum , you still need to cook , clean , do the washing and all the mundane things to function , you are just doing them in a pleasant environment an at a time you choose not ruled by work , for me thats the great part of being here , my time is my own to do with what I wish when I wish , thats worth a lot after years of a high pressured workplace.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

EdofWigan said:


> OK, this is not going to be easy or simple questions to answer and to be honest, I am hoping it will roll into more of a discussion, then just a series of one line responses.
> 
> Not to tarnish the memory of MLK Jr, but _'I Have a Dream'_ a minds eye view of my life (to be) in Spain. So, I would like your experiences on a few areas. (one , two or all is fine)
> 
> ...


We don't cook outside. When we first arrived November 2008, we ate out on the terrace and it was great - so different from the temperature and weather in UK 



EdofWigan said:


> Who has anyone settled in to the Casa-Tapas, style of eating at home (a little bites spread through the afternoon, rather than a larger UK timed evening meal) _When in Alicante I love nothing more than a Tapeo. Maybe there are Casa-Tapeos there? or shall we start some_


Nope We still have traditional meals at traditional times. 



EdofWigan said:


> Has you're average weekly physical activity rate increased or decreased and by what percentage since relocation to Spain (obviously, again after you have settled in)


We now have two small dogs that have to be walked three times a day. We had nothing like that in an attic flat in UK so I guess that our amount of exercise has increased. 



EdofWigan said:


> I am a strong believer in 'Buy Local' and like to use local shops and suppliers for at least 50% of my general grocery shopping. What is your ratio for Local:Supermarket Chain? (in Spain)


Locally (in the village) there is a weekly market to which some villagers take their surplus produce to sell; a few houses along from us is a "greengrocer" in a garage. Other than that the shops are Masymas, Iberplus, Coviran, Dia, etc but they are all supermarket chains. We do a lot of our shopping in Mercadona and Lidl in the nearby town, in part because they carry the products that we want, e.g. lactose-free skimmed milk and many gluten-free products.





EdofWigan said:


> Have you other questions that you want to add? What are they?


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## Chica22 (Feb 26, 2010)

We never eat outside (well unless we have family visiting who always insist on sitting outside to eat meals). It now amuses me when I see the usual programmes on TV with people viewing properties in Spain and when presented with a tiny or incomplete kitchen the presenter will normally say "you won't use it all that often as all cooking and eating will be outside".

I use my kitchen far more than I ever used my kitchen in the UK. Probably due to the fact that we were busy working so used to eat out more often and rely on 'ready meals' and 'quick' cooking. Now I enjoy cooking far more than I ever did as I have all the time in the world to prepare a meal.....if I so wish.

Our meal times have changed significantly since moving to Spain, but maybe that, again, is more to do with the fact that we do not work and therefore have a choice of when we eat. We now have one large meal a day around 3.00pm, and a light snack in the evening, or in the summer go out for a walk, drinks and tapas in the evening. I never cook 'tapas' at home as, in my view, it is too time consuming cooking a selection of small dishes just for two people, but I do prepare tapas if we have family staying over

With regard to exercise, I went to the gym 5 days a week when in the UK, (which was something I loved, but due to work restrictions I had to go at 7.00am in the morning, or 7pm in the evening and it was always a rush to get back home/work. I was convinced that when I moved to Spain I would spend a leisurely 2 hours each day at the gym. In practise that never happened and I go for an hour a day, normally in the morning or the afternoon.

Perhaps I am just a creature of habit!!!!


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## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

Flies can be annoying when eating outside in the summer , 

I personally love my outside kitchen , in fact am doing a bbq tomorrow , cant beat a bit of outside cooking with a pint or 2 !

We get the weekly shop from Lidl

Cheers Tony


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

tonymar said:


> Flies can be annoying when eating outside in the summer ,
> 
> I personally love my outside kitchen , in fact am doing a bbq tomorrow , cant beat a bit of outside cooking with a pint or 2 !
> 
> ...


It wouldn't be much fun with cloud swirling around and across the terrace.


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## EdofWigan (Jun 28, 2015)

Just had the most delicious pork chops in breadcrumbs (with a little Italian herb mix, salt and black pepper) pan fried (5 Minutes each side) then 35 mins in the oven. 

I will need an outdoor oven on my list, to add to my tagine and a nice paella pan for the Chicken Basque.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

EdofWigan said:


> Just had the most delicious pork chops in breadcrumbs (with a little Italian herb mix, salt and black pepper) pan fried (5 Minutes each side) then 35 mins in the oven.
> 
> I will need an outdoor oven on my list, to add to my tagine and a nice paella pan for the Chicken Basque.


You will have some difficulty getting pork chops to a thickness to which you are accustomed in UK Most meat products of that nature are wafer-thin to allow for flash-frying. I usually buy a complete loin (cinta de lomo de cerdo) cut off a roasting joint or two then cut the rest (or you could cut it all) into steaks of a suitable thickness which can be fried, grilled or used in a stew as you wish. The joints, we sometimes spiral cut and then roll with stuffing.


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## EdofWigan (Jun 28, 2015)

I have a pork Guard of Honour in the oven, as I type. A new line for Aldi and introduced for £4.99 (1.26kg) from the Specially Selected range. Cranberry, Apple and Pear stuffing, with a Cranberry and Port glaze to finish it off.

Normally it would be from the local butchers but I was in Aldi for some Senf etc... and it sort of jumped in my trolley


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

I rarely get pork here which is a shame as it was one of my favourite things.
They cut the fat of of everything, not just pork either but as baldi says the chops are not what you may be used to, they qre rubbish.
The only way I have had crackling is to get pork belly and even then they look at you silly when you say you don't want it trimmed and sliced.

That said you can get Iberico pork easy enough and that is really, really good stuff with excellent marbelling.


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## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

tonymar said:


> Flies can be annoying when eating outside in the summer ,
> 
> I personally love my outside kitchen , in fact am doing a bbq tomorrow , cant beat a bit of outside cooking with a pint or 2 !
> 
> ...


The BBQ went great yeasreday , full sun, few beers , bit of music , just luv outside cooking here.
PS , I tend to cook over wood as most of the Spanish seem to around here , ads a great taste to the food

I would like to build a brick pizza oven , may me I will get around to it this year 

Cheers Tony


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## Guest (Jan 17, 2016)

Without ever making a specific decision to so so, we have now built up an entire outside kitchen on our naya because it was too hot to cook indoors during the summer. So from about end-April to late October we cook and eat entirely outside, looking at the magnificent view. In fact, given the unseasonably warm weather and the fact that our naya gets the full daytime sun, we are still having lunch outside most days in comfort. We dealt with the problem of wasps by buying an imitation wasp's nest ()truly!) so visiting wasps think they are on enemy territory and buzz off. It really works. Flies are not generally a problem except for the plague of little ones which bothered everyone last year, indoors and out (they got everywhere). Mozzies… you use anti-mozzie protection and have lots of basil plants around. So the outdoor irritations can be managed and you weigh these against trying to cook in a dark and sweltering kitchen and eating in a dark room. 

Shopping -household items in masymas and often meat and fist but fruit and veg off market stalls on virtually a daily basis, which is much healthier as the produce is fresh, probably out of the ground only that morning. When I remember I buy meat at the local butchers (far cheaper) but it's seductively easy to include that with the main shopping. As our Spanish improves we are using small local shops more, which of course improves our Spanish. It also strengthens ties with the locals as you become a known person instead of merely someone they pass in the street. Our diet has improved immeasurably. If I eat any more avocados i will turn into one.

Exercise - daily walks into the village and around the campo. Walks to the local bars to meet friends. Walks in the mountains (less than we should at the moment). Probably more walking than when in the UK and we're not inhaling petrol fumes when we do so here. Of course, it depends where you settle but if you want encouragement to walk more, at least around here there are a number of walking groups for all levels of fitness. We also have bikes. What I do miss is an indoor swimming pool with warm water. There is one locally but it is a "council" pool and doesn't have the touches of luxury of a private fitness complex. Having said that, this year we intend to be more proactive and swim in the sea several times a week. Swings and roundabouts.

Meals - Mr Meetloaf likes three meals a day though by choice I am a grazer. In the summer, meals are minimal because it's too hot to eat much so become tapas by default.

Hope this helps in your decision-making.

PS: the outside naya kitchen consists of a microwave, an electric grill pan, a halogen oven and a few other bits and pieces. We have a chiminea in the garden for bbqs - so all options are covered. In summer, we are outdoors all the time and only sleep indoors.


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## amespana (Nov 10, 2009)

We have no problem getting thick pork chops.Just ask the butcher.


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## EdofWigan (Jun 28, 2015)

I like the taste of pizza cooked on wood and I would also like to set something up to cook Croatian style:

See attachment

Great memories, great tasting food, great friends


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

You don't have to cook in a hot kitchen in the summer if you use the right appliances - a slow-cooker and/or a halogen oven. Apart from the fact that they don't overheat the kitchen, they are very economical to run. With the exception of cooking some green veg on the gas-stove, I can cook a full main course for four on just 1.2 units of electricity with little or no waste heat.


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## EdofWigan (Jun 28, 2015)

...but today, me thinks it is not feeling like an alfresco cooking day, more alfeezing


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## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

EdofWigan said:


> ...but today, me thinks it is not feeling like an alfresco cooking day, more alfeezing


Wow , that looks cold !

but is is nice to see fresh snow ! we have to go up to the mountains to find it here!

Cheers Tony


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

OK:


EdofWigan said:


> I am sure there is an initial euphoria but after you have settled in, what percentage of your food is cooked or eaten alfresco? _I like my kitchen but love my garden at meal times.
> 
> *I would love to eat outside more, but my kitchen is on the ground floor and the "garden" is up two flights of stairs!*
> 
> ...


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

Depending on how many you are cooking for and how often, the Cobb BBQ system is fantastic, controlable and portable






Its not cheap but is very very versatile, perfect for the yard or on the beach.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

bob_bob said:


> Depending on how many you are cooking for and how often, the Cobb BBQ system is fantastic, controlable and portable
> 
> Cobb bbq roast chicken with roast veg_0001.wmv - YouTube
> 
> Its not cheap but is very very versatile, perfect for the yard or on the beach.


He wastes one hell of a load of heat while he fiddles and farts around.


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## EdofWigan (Jun 28, 2015)

Obviously, I am thinking about this as a mobile cooking method. Cooking while on the road but it could be equally used as a very thrift static cooking alternative:


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## ccm472 (Jan 6, 2016)

Our kitchen is at the front of our property. Our garden is at the back, and down a flight of stairs.
First job we did was to sort out the garden levels, and add an external power socket.

Now we have under the garden stairs a long worktop with tiled splashback, and inserted into it is a cheap 3 burner ceramic hob from IKEA. Hob is only plugged in when needed, and has stood up to 8 years of use and weather.
Beneath the worktop is a formerly hated pine sideboard that came with the furnishings, it too is weathering well.
We eat outside a lot, basically if its over 18 degrees.

For the beach we use a traditional gas bottle with burner.


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

That (ed's crock pot videos) might be fun for a bit but not really a viable cooking method long term - remember it can rain (therefore no sun) for days (sometimes weeks) on end. 

Did anyone understand the 'ancient technology' comment @ 1:40 on the first video?


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## EdofWigan (Jun 28, 2015)

^ I totally agree but it was just AN option, among many and really came about when I was thinking of cooking methods for 'On the Road' I just thought it might fit in with the OP comment about wasting valuable heat.

On rainy/overcast days on the road. The alternator surplus will do fine and the solar switch in when parked to save the leisure batteries. 

Also just a bit of fun, look at pure solar cooking methods:


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## emlyn (Oct 26, 2012)

EdofWigan said:


> ^ I totally agree but it was just AN option, among many and really came about when I was thinking of cooking methods for 'On the Road' I just thought it might fit in with the OP comment about wasting valuable heat. On rainy/overcast days on the road. The alternator surplus will do fine and the solar switch in when parked to save the leisure batteries. Also just a bit of fun, look at pure solar cooking methods:


What is the minimum power or size of solar panel on a motorhome that would be required to run this slow cooker when wild camping.


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## EdofWigan (Jun 28, 2015)

I think the video says 94 watts?


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## emlyn (Oct 26, 2012)

Thank you.


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