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

I have been living in Barcelona for two and a half months.  (It seems much longer, but in a good way.)  I am becoming more and more comfortable with and accustomed to the art of shopping at a 'mercat'.  We have also recently joined a co-op which has a very limited selection, but amazing produce, eggs, and bread.  While still trying to 'find myself' here in Barcelona and navigate cultural transition, I am working to keep creative and busy in a healthy way.  For me, that requires cooking.




I've been exploring new recipes with the ingredients that Spain has to offer.  It's wonderful learning about the Mediterranean cuisine and being so close to the sea.  Yesterday we headed to the market in the morning to pick up some whitefish to try to make ceviche and ended up buying 3 different types of fish, a bagful of fresh vegetables and fruits, and plenty of fresh cilantro!






Fridays are our 'date nights' and consist of trying new restaurants in our neighborhood, or cooking at home together.  Last night, we chose the latter.  We had a great time cooking together and ended up stuffed on blackened whitefish tacos with homemade tortillas and salsa.








We also tried our hand at ceviche and ate that for lunch today.







On another note, we have house guests coming in to town next week and it gave me a great excuse to make some granola (in bulk) to have around for breakfast and snacking.

-xoxo,
daughter

multi-function attire

Thanks mom for teaching me to sew!

I bet you didn't know that this skirt had more than one use!

-xoxo, 

daughter

my new cookbook

A couple of years ago I heard about a site called tastebook where you can store your recipes online and share them with friends.  I loved the idea and signed right up.  I've been uploading recipes ever since and now especially with an overseas move, it's making life easier.  In the past, I've lost recipe cards, stained pages of cookbooks...etc.  Now I just need a laptop or my iPod touch to complete a dish!  My photo-taking husband has been jumping in with his fancy camera so I can even upload pictures of my dishes to my site.

The best thing about tastebook is that if I could get 10 friends to sign up with them, they'd print out an actual cookbook of 50 recipes of my choice and send it to me.  I recently hit the 10 mark and they made good on their promise and in just a few days, I should  be receiving my very own tastebook book!  Here are just a few sneak peaks at my recipes:

-xoxo,
daughter

missing fall

Spain is great...don't get me wrong, but...I miss Fall!  I miss the smells of fires in fireplaces, pumpkin, cinnamon, I miss Apple Hill, Crock-pot meals, flannel sheets, leaves everywhere, comfy couches, chilly evenings...you get the picture.  And while I know it's only mid October and there still may be some of that here in Barcelona, I just know it won't be the same.  And so today, I got a wild hair and lit my 2 candles from back home: Pumpkin and Apple Spice, turned on a fan to make it chilly, bundled up in sweats, and got to work!

And here is the final project!  (Mind you, I had nothing to work with.  Just some colored pencils I snagged from my husband and some white paper)

Thanks to Jeff for making the tree and helping to cut everything out!

Oh, and then I toasted a piece of my homemade bread and buttered it, sprinkled sea salt, and ATE IT!

-xoxo,
daughter