A Super Easy Strawberry Flan

Yesterday I prepared this super easy strawberry flan (and which was a great success) and thought of sharing it with you. I know it looks very amateurish but when you've got loads of strawberries you need to think up a few ways of making use of them.



What you need is :

• A ready made flan


• a pack of strawberry jelly


• around 300ml of tepid water


• a box of fresh strawberries


• a pack of whipped cream (such as Dolceneve)


• around 500ml of cold milk

First I prepared the jelly mixture. The trick here is to use half the amount of water shown on the pack. That way you avoid having a soggy flan.


Then I added the amount of milk required with the Dolceneve mixture and whipped it for around 5 minutes.


Next, I cut the flan in two and poured the jelly on the bottom half. Then I spread some of the whipped cream on top of the jelly.


I replaced the top part of the flan and continued spreading the cream on the top part. Finally I cut each of the fresh strawberries in halves and decorated the flan with them. Super easy and really yummy!


Here's a photo of half of my flan. I'll leave it to your imagination to guess where the other part of the flan has gone!

Strawberries anyone?

Last Sunday my sisters-in-law and I went to the strawberry festival - or as known in Maltese 'Festa Frawli' that was held in Mgarr. The square was buzzing with people who came from far away to enjoy themselves at this fair.

There were various stalls on the church parvis selling anything that has to do with strawberries. People could be seen jostling at the stalls to have their share of strawberry goodies. There were strawberry ravioli, strawberry risottos, strawberry ice-cream, pancakes, waffles, fresh strawberries, jams, cakes, chocolate-dipped strawberries..so many goodies! I made a pig of myself and had a strawberry waffle, an ice-cream followed by a Hobza biz-zejt, and kannoll- all in that order.

I got carried away with the atmosphere and bought 4 packs of strawberries. One pack at 3 euros each seemed a bit pricey but then I realized that every pack was fully packed with huge delicious strawberries. (I couldn’t even find one bad strawberry!) Their taste was incredible. They were so sweet! Today I made a strawberry ice-cream, a strawberry milkshake for my husband, and a strawberry flan.

Malta in the old days

This week a friend of mine forwarded me some beautiful photos of Malta in the past. Were it not for these photos our generation and future ones would not be able to appreciate how Malta was before we started demolishing the lovely buildings and replacing them with high ones...

The photo below depicts the tram passing through Fleur de Lys in 1912.

In the second photo the tram is seen passing through Portes de Bombes in Floriana. I never knew that the fortresses were attached to Portes de Bombes..




In the third photo one can see the train passing through the tunnels underneath the main entrance of Valletta. The train station was situated there. This photo dates back to c 1890.





An old bus..


The Alhambra theatre in Sliema which now houses the Zara complex. Been going through that shop so many times and never realised it was that old!

The Sliema coast.

In the photo below the famous chalet can be clearly seen built on a reef projecting out from the shoreline. The structure was completed in 1926 to the design of the British architect B.W. Cordwell. The two tier reinforced concrete structure was interpreted in the contemporary Neo-Liberty/Art Deco architectural style. The chalet at Ghar id-Dud was a popular rendezvous as an open air café and dance floor until the early 1960’s when it was closed down due to severe deterioration which rendered the structure unsound. Ever since its closure the platform structure support on concrete columns has suffered even further deterioration due to its highly vulnerable location exposed as it is to the elements. Today it is a derelict remnant of a by-gone age and is an aesthetic eyesore. Years have passed and yet we still use the famous Maltese expression "Mela hsibtek qieghed ix-Chalet?" which translates to : "Do you think you are at the Chalet?" We refer this question at someone who's lying somewhere very relaxed.

Tower Road in Sliema. What a difference from the present Road!

A lovely quote...

As I was going through my emails I came across this quote which really makes sense.

Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.
If you give her a house, she will give you a home.
if you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.
If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart.
She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.
So if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a tonne of shit!!

The Three Crosses

During one of my walks in my hometown of Marsascala I came across this strange monument in the Bidni area. It's got these three crosses engraved on a wall. The middle cross which is slightly larger than the other two has around what look like seven tools hanging from it. My question is who erected this memorial and for what reason? It's a pity that there is no date or inscription to explain why it was built in the first place.

Till 1615, Zabbar and Marsascala, were still forming part of the Zejtun parish. At that time a mere 650 people inhabited Zabbar. As was the practice, Bishop Cagliares established the limits of the young parish. As a matter of fact, a section of modern Marsascala remained within the limits of Zejtun, while another part which included the areas where the first parish church of Marsascala was built, fell within the limits of Zabbar. It is possible that the Three Crosses at Bidni were put up as an indication of the place where the limits of Zejtun and Zabbar met.

According to Guze Muscat Azzopardi there are three versions regarding the origin of these crosses. There were three monks who got killed by the Turks and buried here, the second version says that a man died of the plague and was buried here by the villagers of Zejtun and the last version is undoubtedly the least credible one: an elderly hermit was buried three times in this place after repeatedly rising from death.

Marsascala

This kind of spring weather makes me feel the urge to go out for walks and explore new paths in the countryside. To be honest, I do not walk much but when I do I really enjoy myself. I take my camera with me - always on the look out for old disused paths, something unusual, derelict buildings, or a beautiful scene. In one of my walks in Marsascala, I took some pictures which you will see in the coming posts.

Marsascala is a small picturesque sea-side village in South Eastern Malta that has grown up around Marsascala Bay. It also goes by the name of Wied il-Ghajn. In the past it used to be a fishing village but now it has been turned into a tourist resort. Marsascala is divided into different areas namely, Zonqor, Bidni, Siberia, Bellavista and St. Thomas area.

In summer Marsascala is buzzing with activity. Most of the people usually walk along the promenade that stretches all the way around the bay from Zonqor Point around to the ex-Jerma Palace Hotel, with stops on the way for drinks and snacks from the bars and restaurants nearby. These walks usually take place in the evenings as it's a lot cooler than during the day when its just too warm to contemplate walking, and the day is usually spent in and around the cafes and restaurants.

I was never in favour of blogs. In my opinion, they can be very revealing about one's life. But on reading other people's blogs I realised that blogs do not have to be about one's life - they can cover any topic one may fancy. It's all about what one chooses to write...