Entertaining!

I love hosting parties! Whether it's 4 people or 40 people, I enjoy preparing food, and having friends over.  We recently had a couple over for our new 'fish tacos' that I mentioned here.  We sat and ate and talked until the wee hours of the morning and although we had just met them, we felt like old friends.  I just love it when that happens!

On Sunday night (due to the bank holiday on Monday) we had a little get together at our home.  We invited friends from Spanish class, people we had met on the street, people in our discussion group, and our teammates.  Jeff and I spent the whole day getting the house ready and putting together snacks and small plates. 

homemade salsa

strawberry muffins

We joked and laughed together, we arranged and rearranged the living room, put together the perfect playlist, and hung garland (thanks mom!).

What a great night!  We had about 15 people in total with 7countries represented: England, Australia, Venezuela, Spain, Scottland, United States, and Germany.  I can't wait to throw another party!

*One of the best things about entertaining here (and just eating in general) is that we get to buy fresh ingredients daily from the market.  Take a look at our new grocery shopping locations:

Mercat de Santa Caterina

La Boqueria

p.s. as much as we are loving hosting and meeting new people, and making friends, we are holding to our date night once (or twice) a week.  

love

-xoxo,
daughter

Pianeta's in Truckee

Last night we had a delicious meal at a wonderful restaurant in Truckee, CA.  It wasn't our first time there but it had been a couple years since we last visited.  I had a yummy dish,  Pasta di Olio.  Garlic & olive oil sautéed with crimini mushrooms, basil & spinach tossed with fresh angel hair pasta. Topped with toasted pine nuts & Parmigiano_Reggiano cheese & fresh basil chiffonade and crumbled sausage.   The bread they serve is warm and fresh.  We both enjoyed our meals and the service so much that we went back tonight.   This time we split the House Made Italian Pork Sausage & Tagliatelle. 2 Grilled sausage links- spicy Italian fennel & mild “Luganega” served with zesty tomato sauce, fresh tagliatelle pasta & Parmesan-Reggiano.  Again a wonderful dinner.  For dessert we tried the recommended "lemon panna cotta"  It was absolutely dreamy,  Everyone working there are friendly, helpful and made us feel like we belonged there.  Pianeta's remains on our list of favorite places to visit.  I wish I had thought to take pictures of the dishes.

Life.

While we have been greatly enjoying these two: 

 

We have quite the drugstore going on in our cupboard.  Good thing the cuteness outweighs the problems. 

 

While living on a tight budget, we have been able to experience some of the local foods right here in our own home.  Chatting with local restaurant owners to get their recipes + a trip to the market =

patatas bravas

bravas sauce

arroz con salchicha

And as a special treat, we splurged on a filet of salmon and oven baked it with onions, peppers, parsley, spinach, salt and pepper.

I've been interested in language learning in a variety of ways.  I recently picked up this Catalan food magazine and found the below Spanish cookbook in the trash.  I still miss getting my monthly 'Food and Wine' which has amazing recipes but I'm working on finding a good substitute that can also help me with my language studies and shopping at the market.

mercat de santa caterina

-xoxo, 

daughter