Portugal

We have arrived on the European mainland, and it's a country I've never visited, in spite of having several good Portuguese friends. On the basis of the food, this is also almost certainly a mistake.

We are going to be talking about those little tarts for months! But I'm getting ahead of myself...

It has been pouring with rain all day and we've mostly been cleaning, sorting and tidying, a perfect day in other words for a hearty Feijoada - usually a stew of beans and beef or pork - I made it vegetarian based on this recipe by Jamie Oliver, though I added some smoked tofu to add a meaty flavour. I'm not sure how authentic a recipe it actually is, most of the recipes I found on the internet describe it as a Brazilian/Portuguese casserole, and definitely laid a lot of emphasis on the meat, but in my opinion it translates really well into a vegetarian (actually vegan too) main course. I think it has earned a place in our permanent home recipe treasury, the family also really liked it.

However, the family (and me) were really won over by the pasteis de nata. We had planned to buy some from a local bakery but frankly never quite got there - so youngest and I got together and, with the help of some prepared pastry (this is supposed to be a fun little project during the holidays, not hard work!) we more or less replicated this recipe from the Guardians "how to" range. And my goodness they were good. We are definitely making these again, AND visiting the Portuguese bakery in Nørrebro.

Possibly a holiday in Portugal will be beckoning soon too.

Tomorrow we have to decide between Spain and England (or rather the UK) and it's actually kind of a funny coincidence the 2 countries will also be meeting in the final of the European football championships.

It's one of those tricky questions geographers have to tackle, what is the westernmost point of a country? In Spain it's technically the Canary Islands, which would make the country further west than Portugal, the British mainland however is far further east than the westernmost point of the Spanish mainland. However, if you count Rockall (tricky as claim not recognised by everyone) or St Kilda and Soay (also islands) or for that matter much of northen ireland, then the UK is further west than Spain. So maybe we have to see how we feel as to where we end up tomorrow?