Tortilla

 One of my resolutions was to learn to make a tortilla. A tortilla española - the thick, potato-laden omelette that has just a few ingredients (eggs, potatoes, olive oil, maybe some onions) and defies reason with its simple deliciousness.

Tortilla can be found everywhere here, in casual ventas and traditional restaurants, I've even had it at fancy events cut into small squares and served as hors d'oeuvres. If you're on the go, you can grab a slice of tortilla stuffed into a small baguette. Yes, potatoes and bread all in one meal. Side note: Carb-phobic diets have not taken hold in southern Spain. And the people here are gorgeous. 

There is a venta nearby (El Nene, for any Porteños or Roteños) that makes an amazing tortilla. A phone call, 20 minutes, and €6 ($8) is all it takes for us to get our hands on a giant, deep dish, pie-sized tortilla that will feed us for days. But I started thinking about how one day in the future, when we have to leave España (nooooooooo!) there probably won't be anywhere to get a tortilla. Unless I make one myself...so, one of my resolutions was born. And it was the first one crossed off of my list, because let's be honest, food is a great motivator for me.

My amiga, Pia, is Spanish, and when I mentioned recently that I wanted to learn how to make tortilla, she said she could teach me. Although, like every Spanish woman I've talked to about cooking, she said "but my mother is a much better cook". 

On Saturday, Graham and I went over to her and her husband's casa for a little cooking and eating party. And I made a tortilla ! watched Pia intently as she cooked a perfect little tortilla, while I sipped wine and snapped some photos. She is so sweet that she even wrapped it up for us to take home and eat, along with some roasted red peppers and garlic, then made another tortilla for her family.

Either her mama is a ridiculously good cook or Pia is lying, because the tortilla was amazing, and the peppers went along with it fantastically.

Now I have no excuse but to try to make one on my own. When I do (as long as it doesn't turn out to be a hot mess), I'll be back with some step-by-step photos and a recipe. 

Any certain food you want to learn to cook? My next challenge will be paella!

Our Christmas

from Meghann:

This was our second Christmas in España and the second year in a row that we celebrated with just the two of us and no other family (well, besides Chloe and Cora, of course). We still miss our families, the big dinners, opening gifts together, but we've gotten used to and learned to appreciate our simpler, more relaxed holidays. And we know how lucky we are to be able to spend Christmas together, when so many others cannot. Our family might be small (and 50% four-legged) but we can still be festive!

 Our Christmas was filled with food - some traditional dishes, along with some Spanish favorites. For both of us, food helps us feel closer to home, especially during the holidays. So there was plenty of cooking, baking, canning, eating, and drinking.

We canned homemade cranberry sauce on Christmas Eve.

And I used it to make cranberry coffee cake, which we ate on Christmas morning.

Another lovely thing about Christmas in Spain - the weather was gorgeous. Christmas Eve was sunny and warm.

You can see some people in the water in the background (for the record, we didn't think it was that warm, but people come down from the North over the holidays, so maybe it was warm to them...?).

There was a lovely Spanish sunset...