Bulgarian Winter Salad - A Yearly Reunion of Delight

Well it's October and the season of Autumn has gripped nature well and truly with vibrant colours galore - that is if you can find trees between Edgware and Willeseden!

The reminder of Bulgarian dishes on the dinner table is a welcome sight when coming home from work but this week has been a reunion of a long lost delight over the late Spring and Summer. Green salads it seems in the UK just are associated with Summer, not the case in our bedsit!

The simplest foods sometimes just hit the mark and this week is no exception. Having had salad almost every day throughout most of this the year based on cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and green onions as the base it is now time for change.

Bring out the Turkish cabbage, carrots and celery leaves seasoned with sunflower oil, red wine vinegar and salt and the end result is a daily salad throughout the Winter that runs a riot of enjoyment. There has never been a time that this salad has failed to excite the taste buds and the added bonus of a healthy regime of vitamins without any chemical additives!

One week's worth of this salad for under a fiver notwithstanding, the portions are massive!

Dober Apetit!

Two Tonics in One

With Galia at home starting the long haul of recovering from her operation there isn't a lot that I can do. I think she was quite pleased that she had a little rest from my attentions as I spent a night on my own on the village farm. There were lots of jobs that needed to be done, watering the seedlings that were sown last week and planting more onions and garlic and complete the pruning of the vines while the weather was fine.

All these jobs were done as I arrived back the following morning with many aching muscles and blistered hands. Somehow being in pain made me feel a bit less guilty about Galia being in pain - Strange how the mind works.

Anyway, there was Baba who has her own problems with bad legs. She was told to rub apple vinegar on them which would ease the pain slight. So, on this Baba bumbled her way to the local shop and brought back a bottle with a picture of an apple on it. It was a funny sight seeing Baba with her trousers rolled up making her way to the bathroom to rub on the 'new wave' medicine.

Minutes later there was a distinct smell of apple in the air as she returned with here trousers still rolled up and a great smile on her face, it was a smile of anticipation as she waited for the 'old wives tale' remedy to work.

Now it is well know that Baba's eyesight isn't what it used to be and we became suspicious that the aroma that was given off wasn't an acidic smell. We looked at the bottle and found out that is wasn't apple vinegar but apple juice she had bought and rubbed on! The laughter hit the roof as Baba gave a 'Nastrave' (cheers) and gulped a mouthful of the apple juice.

The laughter never died down as we went back to the shop a bought the apple vinegar version for real as Baba repeated the application once more with a definite vinegar smell in the for the rest of the night; evidence indeed that the right treatment was made.

It's funny how the story kept getting retold all evening and the laughter remained as strong as it was from the first realisation. Not only was the vinegar tonic working on Baba now but the legacy of laughter was a great tonic for Galia.