Caroline’s Soup

When I first came back from my visit to Atlanta to see Caroline, I mentioned that we had many tasty food reunion moments, including wonderful coffee and my splurge purchase of a Southern cooking bible.  Today we are finally going to wrap up that visit.  This blog has indeed suffered from my good luck in finding a job, as I’ve wriggled into my brother’s home  and tried to get used to an hour-long commute – all the while feeling rather chirpy that I’m getting paid a full-time wage again.  So let me apologize by offering up Caroline’s favorite soup.

Spanish Food Parties

 

Volver = To return as well as a rather good movie.

Well, the academic year has kicked off, which means I’m back in Spain.  This year may be a little on the light side, blogwise, as I’m going to be doing a Master’s program as well as my teaching assistant job.  So to make up for it, I’m going to kick out a huge mega entry while I’m still on ‘vacation’ – I had to come back early in order to fix up my immigration status.  I do want to learn several things yet, like migas, lentils, and chocos, so I’ll do my best to carve out some time to cook and share.

Spanish food is trendy in magazines and in foodie circles but most people in the US have never had Spanish food or have a mental image limited to tortilla española and paella.  If they had indeed tasted some of the things Spain has to offer, then it was most assuredly not home cooked.  I decided to throw a Spanish food party as my own goodbye to everyone, that promptly grew into two separate food parties.  As you may have seen more than once before here on the blog, these may very well be the only types of parties I know how to put together.  I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or not.

Some of these recipes I’ve got here are dredged from the internet, but all of them have been altered or influenced by me and my friends here in Spain.  The rest have been jotted down in Spanglish (1 kilo tomato, 1 diente de ajo, trocito de bell pepper) directly from real live Spanish people.  So if it isn’t authentic enough for you…move to a tiny pueblo?

An open love letter to James Beard

I have a new lover.  And his name is James Beard.  Unfortunately, he is dead.

No, I am not a necrophiliac.  James Beard is my kitchen lover, the man who has spoken to my soul by cooking the American-style food I had feared I’d never find (outside spendy restaurants) then writing about it in a way I’ve always wanted to read and write.   He has such love for his food that it is almost a physical joy to page through his works, with just a slight aroma of pretension that only makes him endearing, because it stays within the bounds of good humor and a consistent invitation into his realm of delicious simplicity.

I had heard his name before, usually from the mouths of Top Chefs as they grappled for supremacy in the kitchen, toting up awards and culinary battle scars.  But I didn’t fully understand his impact on the American cooking scene until I committed a minor Christmas infraction by buying his book (on huge sale!), Beard on Food, while I was supposed to be shopping for others.  It’s a major no no in my family to buy yourself something once December has gotten underway.   I do not apologize.  For that day, my heart was won by this simple phrase:

“…green beans boiled until just bitey-tender…”

Ay, ¡qué buena pinta!

In return for the fabulous Sri Lankan Feast, Gabrielle and I invited Michelle and her sister Andrea over for dinner, as well as our friend Brianna (I say our friend, but really these are Gabrielle’s friends who I have slowly usurped).  I knew it would be difficult to compete, but I was also excited because Michelle and Andrea are meat eaters (Gabrielle and Brianna not so much), so I decided to make up what I’ve been wanting to eat myself: garbanzos.

Tasty face!