The Old Knitting Factory in Carraroe

 The Old Knitting Factory in Carraroe

Back in 2017, I spent a few weekends in The Old Knitting Factory in the Gaeltacht area of Galway in the small village of Carraroe. 

The little cottage is on the banks of Loch on Mhuillin and I spent a few different weekends there. One trip was with my twin sister and my husband while the other was with my twin sister and our best friend. It is beautiful tranquil place - at the time of my visit there was no mobile data coverage, so I was able to take a complete digital detox which added to the tranquility of the place!

It's great to hear the news and developments of what is going on in the cottage now. Best selling author Betsy Cornwall is working on setting up an artist residency for single mothers in The Old Knitting Factory. I'm excited to see it all evolve for her and how she creates her dream.

PIGSY has written a great blog all about the history of The Old Knitting Factory - click here to read it. It also gives further information about Betsy's plans for the cottage.

Saturday in the Charity Shop

Saturday Volunteering

It was busy with customers on Saturday in the Charity Shop and I did plenty of retrieving items from the window display for customers to take a close look at or try on. After a customer tried on an item of clothing, it then needed to be replaced in the window. There are two windows in the shop and one of them had a Summery blue clothes theme going on. The other window was all about white dresses with red accessories and there was also some red household glasses like a set of gold trimmed red tumblers.

Mannequin Change Up - Ella Boo

I changed out a mannequin display for this really bright dress and jacket combo. Interestingly from googling, it seems that ELLA Boo is an Irish designer and is available for sale in McElhinnys Store which is the go to place for "Mother of the Bride" wedding outfits for Irish women.

Check out some pics of it here

I accessorized the outfit with a bright orange necklace which looked great. It's a bright outfit for sure - but I think the Costa del Sol is the place to get away with wearing such a nice bright color. I reckon it was a wedding guest outfit and can visualize it with a nice statement head piece.

This outfit is now available in Cudeca in Plaza de Merced for €14.

Do you do bone broth?

Bone Broth

Have you ever had Bone Broth? 

So simple to make - you literally just bung bones in a pot and leave them simmer for 12-24 hrs and what you are left with is a pretty much a collagen rich gelatinous stock. 

At home in Ireland, on cold days I used to heat up bone broth I stored in the fridge and drink a cup of delicious bone broth which I only needed to add salt and pepper to it, to my taste. See my post about Bone Broth written back in 2015 here.

Here in Spain, I use bone broth as a base for sauces which I then bake meat in or I cover the vegetables with the sauce (really good if the sauce is cheesy!).

Here's a pic of the bone broth that I have just poured through a sieve in to a jug. It now goes in to the fridge to set. The other picture is of a cauliflower, bacon & cheese bake that I made with a bone broth that was in the fridge from yesterday - it will be served with chicken wings. Yum!

Liquid Gold

And if my post has got you curious about Bone Broth, check out the video below where nutrition consultant Dr Kellyann Petrucci talks all about Bone Broth.....or as she calls it "Liquid Gold"!

Ode to the avocado!

Spanish Avocados

Oh boy! We've been eating tons of avocados these days for two reasons. One is that we are both eating keto but the second reason is because the Spanish avocados that we have been getting here in Malaga are A-mazing!! 

I've served them along side most of the meat that we have been eating over the past few weeks and have even mixed them up with steamed brocolli along with cheese sauce. One day I fried them alongside bacon - and that sure worked well.

I got these avocados in Mercadona just off Paseo de Redding (40 minute round trip of a walk from our apartment) and they are so tasty. They are soft, buttery and just perfect - and they were grown in Velez-Malaga which is probably less than 50 miles away!!

They will make a tasty accompaniment to chicken wings this evening - all the avocado needs is a squeeze of lime juice.

Being high fat, avocados are the perfect keto food. And speaking of keto food, check out the video below of cheesy egg bites. I've made these before at home in Ireland and they come out great. I've no pan here in Spain so I will have to wait until we get back to Ireland to eat them again!

Keto Egg Bites a la Starbucks

El Meson de Cervantes, Malaga

 Art Opening Celebrations

We haven't been out in ages as we tend to cook at home and eat on the terrace which seems much safer than eating in some of the busy restaurants on the busy streets of Malaga.

However, with the successful opening of the PIGSY exposición in La Casa Amarilla, we booked in to El Meson de Cervantes for dinner to mark the event a week ago Saturday night. 

El Meson de Cervantes

It is a great restaurant that is normally very busy but with no tourists in town it was quiet. We were sat in a lovely corner with no one seated beside us. It was also quiet because we like to eat early compared to most in Spain and had booked the table for 7.30pm - however, we did manage to stay out until 10.30pm which is late for us!

Here's some pics of the great food. It is only "some" pics because as soon as I have a glass of wine in my hand and as the food keeps coming to the table, I quickly forget to continue taking pics!!

"I Went to Mass" by PIGSY

The original finish date of the PIGSY exhibition was April 6th but it now extended until April 20th which is great. The gallery also stayed open over Santa Semana which was also great to allow for more people to visit! 

We are now planning and thinking of where to go out for another celebration meal when the exhibition ends on April 20th - watch this space!

Siesta in the Square

I should mention that the opening day of the show, while very busy, wasn't all work. During siesta the gallery went very quite (very typical here as no one goes to shops during the long lunch) so we took the opportunity to go for a glass of wine and some cana's of beer with author and journalist Tony Bryant of the Sur in English. He's such an interesting guy and great company to hang out with. He has given PIGSY some great write ups in the paper.

Easter Sunday

I'm writing this today on a not so typical Easter Sunday for us. We didn't get each other an egg as we are both on Keto and usually we would have a nice restaurant booked (see here & here) for a special Easter lunch......but not this year. But to start the day we are heading for a stroll down the marina and will stop for a coffee somewhere to enjoy the ambiance and chill and chat!

Where ever you are in the world, Happy Easter to you and yours - have a great day!

Exciting times in Malaga

PIGSY Exhibition opening in Spain!

Well it sure has been exciting here in Malaga over the past few days.  The PIGSY art exhibition opening on Saturday after two publications picked up on the story leading up to the show. On Wednesday an article came out in The Gloss which is an Irish Times publication And then on Friday there was an article in the SUR in English newspaper here in Malaga (it is circulated in the Costa Del Sol area).

La Casa Amarilla, Malaga

The previous exhibition came down on Wednesday and PIGSY then started the hang of his exhibition in preparation for opening on Saturday. They run a tight ship in La Casa Amarilla and they have an excellent hanging system for the old brick wall in the gallery - paintings are hung on metal suspension cables away from the wall. 

Here's a pic of the window the night before opening:

PIGSY "I Went to Mass" Solo Art Exhibition Opening

Here's a few pics from the day. There was a great buzz in the gallery and a very large audience of people viewed the exhibition throughout the day from 12pm until 8pm.

Sponsored by Cervesas San Miguel

Back home in Ireland, PIGSY's previous exhibition was sponsored by an Irish craft beer maker. But here in Spain it was sponsored by San Miguel Beer!

Here's a pic of the main man and myself:

PIGSY face mask

During the exhibition, I wore my PIGSY art face mask. I'm happy to let you know about a 10% off code for face masks to mark the opening of the exhibition.

Keto Butter Chicken

Keto Indian Food

I got a hankering for Indian food this week so looked up whether there were any keto recipes. I found this Keto Connect recipe for Butter Chicken (click here) which seemed easy enough so decided to give it a go.

Here's the ingredient list

There were a few ingredients that I didn't have so I walked to Corte Ingles in the afternoon and bought them. I had to search around for the ground ginger and cinnamon but was happy to have found them and not to have to visit another shop.

I already had a big bag of chili powder so I was glad to use some of that up!

Here's my spices all ready to be mixed up with the chicken and then the next picture is of the finished dish which I served with cauliflower. There is also enough left over for tomorrow.

It was really tasty and delicious. I'm looking forward to cooking some other Keto Indian food. Let me know if you have any recipes by leaving a comment below.

Hans Christian Andersen

In other news, Bones hung out with author Hans Christian Andersen in the city today!

PIGSY Exhibition!!

And the final piece of news and perhaps the most exciting is that we begin the hanging of PIGSY's solo art exhibition tomorrow in preparation for the opening on Saturday at 12pm.

It's on in La Casa Amarilla Galerie on Calle Santos. If you are in the area hopefully you can come along.....or if you know anyone who lives near Malaga let them know about it!

Website art preview

And if you can't get to see the physical show, don't worry. He will be giving everyone a sneak preview of it on his website at 8pm on Friday night.