Pie Crust – and a Goodbye to Gluten-free

Well, I weighed for a while whether or not to write this post up, then decided that since I took all the pictures, and a few of my teensy handful of followers started reading this regularly for gluten-free recipes, that I may as well.  This will most likely be my last one like that, and I thought I should explain.  This is a blog about food, not my personal life (WordPress is not Xanga), but often, we cannot separate the two.  We cook for many reasons, and we love food for many reasons.

I myself am not celiac, nor on a gluten-free fad diet.  I began exploring gluten-free baking last summer, when I met a guy with celiac disease.  We hit it off, I returned to Spain, we kept talking, and we hit it off again when the economy drove me home.  But everyone who has dipped their toes into the tumultuous waters of romantic attachments knows that sometimes, though a connection may be real, sometimes time and circumstance may interfere.  To start angling back towards the food aspect, sometimes you may have gourmet ingredients, but forgot to take into account that you’re living in Colorado until your souffle deflates because of altitude issues.

New fancy pie shield from my stepmom for my birthday! It’s adjustable.

So, no more gluten-free, unless I run into more celiac people.  Which is probably going to happen.  Who knows? But I couldn’t leave this recipe out of the gluten-free chapter of my life and my blog, because of who I am.  That’s right.  We’re talking pie.

Obvious repost – of myself

Hey everyone.  I’ve managed to get some hours of work in the two weeks – from my parents.  Both jobs involve sitting for long hours in front of the computer, which does not bode well for my thesis, let alone my blog.  So I do have quite a few pictures lying around, waiting to be hussied up and stuck on this page, but they are going to have to wait until I have enough patience to sit out and think how best to entertain the almost twenty people I have somehow duped into following me.

In the meantime, I’d like to share an interesting pairing of two recipes I’ve covered in the past. All thanks to my new favorite Mexican restaurant, Poquitos.

Toffee Nut Latte Ice Cream

Well, I’m back in the US.  I’ve been back for two weeks, but between jet lag and thesis panic, I haven’t been able to sit down and write this up.  That, and all those “friend” things that I have to see again, just to double check that they actually exist in physical space and time and are not just electronic ghosts echoing in my chat program.

And of course, the best way to re-introduce myself to those people I haven’t seen for a year (or more in some cases) is with something sweet.

Roman Holiday: Tartufo

Well, back from Rome.  Tomorrow, I leave Sevilla and go back to being a US resident.  That’s strange.  Hopefully I can channel my re-entry culture shock into food impulses, as I did last year, because this time I’m staying for good.  A major economic depression can cause such upheavals… Even though I’ll be leaving Spain as a resident, I’ll be back in October for a short, education-related visit and I have been assiduously stockpiling Spanish recipes for my favorite things, as well as cookbooks.  So this blog right here will continue to have a slight Mediterranean flair.  I invite you to listen to this song when reading Spain-related entries, by the way.  It makes things more exciting.

Anyways.  In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to Rome and that I had planned to taste-test three or four “best gelato places in Rome”.  Well.  I didn’t.  I had only been in Rome for a hit and run half day before this trip, so I was all for actually getting to try out all these great suggestions people were throwing out, really immerse myself into the food culture of Rome.  But it was an absolutely wonderful trip, and we sank so far into relaxation that we said to hell with gelato shop hunting and just ate it where we found it.  And it was all absolutely delicious. We visited all of one place on our list, which was suggested both by my friend Michelle and my coworker Ana, separately. I kept the list, though.

Pesto, Pea, and Pasta Salad

Right now, at this very moment, I should be working on my thesis.  But there are only so many articles you can read about how poor our medical care is for those who need interpreters or the legislation on multilingual signage.  Also, it’s still hot.  So I’m going to turn on my fan and take a break from academia.

I’ve been traveling around quite a bit, and have had two consecutive family visits to tour around Sevilla, so I haven’t really been in my apartment to cook anything.  One of my favorite waiters and my favorite bars asked if I was working, or if the people with me were “mine”.  Tomorrow I go off to Rome, where I have three or four “best” gelato places to try.  Four days after I get back, I’ll be moving back to the Pacific Northwest (the economic crisis has completely erased any possibility of me getting a job here, and oh god it’s hot).  I do have several more Spanish recipes up my sleeve that I’ll be parceling out over the next year, but for those few of you who follow my blog: there will be a change in tone.  For one, I’ll have access to a full kitchen for a short time, until I finish up my Master’s and strike out on my own.  Again.  I’m going to do my best to keep on with this blog because I love it, but please have mercy if there are gaps (like just before I posted this).

Non-food commentary over.

He says end-daiv, she says ahn-deev.

Endives.  I still have yet to settle on a pronunciation.  I like the ahndeev idea, but I think that I would be ridiculed for being too snobby.   Luckily, I can avoid the situation currently, because here, they are endibias.   I know exactly how to pronounce that sucker. Unfortunately there is a secondary problem: both endibia and endivia are accepted spellings.

But you still say it the same. Spanish for the win.

Christmas Sephilly Cheesesteaks

If they gave awards for ridiculously belated blogging, I may actually win a prize for this one.  I am writing you today on behalf of my Christmas Eve 2011 feast.  That’s right. Deal with it. I explained before that I got eaten up by my Master’s program, and the last few miniscule crumbs left on the plate were parsimoniously eked out to my friends.  Random internet strangers who find my blog through search engines were left to rummage through my archives, if they managed to stumble across me.  To those of you who actually follow my blog (there’s like ten or twelve of you now, and you guys are awesome.  Seriously, super flattered), I apologize rather insincerely and offer up the goods, finally.

Aaaaand we’re back! Crisis Beans

Heeeeeeeeeeeey!  I missed you guys!  And by you guys, I mean the internet, that vast, echoey cloud full of kittens doing human things and the stalkery data trail I use to see if anyone is actually reading this.  Thanks, WordPress!  You make me feel less isolated.

As I mentioned in the last mini-post, I have been absolutely swamped by my Master’s program here in Sevilla, and have just recently surfaced.  I spent last week going around and reintroducing myself to some of my friends and dipping my toes into the internship world. Let’s not go there.  Right now, I should be working on my thesis – I actually just got an email with further instructions but I’m just going to pretend I didn’t see that – but instead, I want to talk about food.  Because that is what I do…well if not best, then let’s go with most often.  I promised that I’d talk about the cheese steak adventure that my friend Dan and I went on for Christmas, but I wanted to share this with y’all first.

For those of you who don’t know, Spain is submerged in an incredibly painful economic crisis that has been compared to the Great Depression and seems to only be getting worse.  Woohoo!  If you are at all interested or looking for a laugh, this comic book author sums it up pretty well.  And yes, it is subtitled.   I had to move out of my old apartment because both of my roommates lost their jobs and had to move home to their parents’ places, all of my coworkers are panicking because they may be losing their jobs because of education cutbacks, none of my students bother to study because there’s no jobs waiting for them after graduation, etc.  And for the last two months, I have been holding my breath because my bosses keep…forgetting to pay me.  So Desa of the expensive tastes is learning how to live off rice and other basic staples for that extra week of the month that appears off and on.

Oh, and welcome to my new apartment!

Extremely Multicultural Teacakes

It’s that time of the year again – cookie party time. This party/marathon of confectionery was my second abroad, though this year I was blessed with more backup: Dan and Erin, my fellow Americans.  Last year I flew mostly solo, so I didn’t take them for granted.  More important than their labor (which was nonetheless herculean)  was having my people around me to listen to Christmas music with and crack jokes in English.  Though we did take some time out for Curso dandalu (Curso de andaluz, the accent we live in now).

One and a half kilos of butter combined with only one lonely and hardworking cookie sheet can produce a shocking amount of cookies with enough time and patience.  And arm strength, since I still don’t have a stand mixer here in Spain – and probably never will since those cost upwards of 500 euros each.  I.e. most of my monthly salary.  We ended up with about 450 cookies: two batches of spritz, one batch of gingerbread, two batches of chocolate chip, two batches of oatmeal raisin (right off the top of the Quaker Oats lid, though my oats were bought from my miracle workers at the herbistoría), and of course, two batches of Swedish teacakes.

Fall Flavors

Here in Spain it is still totally fall.  So I’m sticking with this title.  And anyways, these ‘fall flavors’ are equally valid throughout winter.  What are they? Comfort food.