Spanish Thanksgiving

Suzy:

So Thanksgiving turns out to be my favorite holiday. Unfortunately, of course, the Spanish don't celebrate it, so I had to work. :( But, it was worth it because today... Miguel Angel's mom made us paella!!!

Oh man, it was a feast. First, we had a table full of appetizers: jamón serrano de pata negra (Spanish cured ham--the expensive kind, fed on acorns and free range), ajo blanco (a garlic dip the consistency of hummus), tortilla española (potato omelet), ensalada (salad), fresh bread, queso manchego y nueces (manchego cheese and walnuts), pulpo frito (fried octopus), and a Spanish red wine that, from my understanding, is even better than the wine from the Rioja region-- "Ribera del Duero." Then we had the main dish: paella. It's a rice based dish typically made with seafood and lots of saffron. Ours had mussels, prawns (big shrimp), calamari rings, and fried octopus. It was friggin amazing. It rivals the paella that Cayetana's mom made us the last time we were in Spain. To drink, we then switched to a white wine to match the seafood. It was extremely nice; it was clean and crisp with just a touch of sweetness; think of a Vignoles but half as sweet. I've forgotten the name of it; I'll ask and post it later. Then, after all of that, we had dessert: homemade natillas (pudding). She served it with a cognac soaked cookie on top. To drink, spearmint tea from Morocco, and then as a digestive shot (a typical Spanish practice, actually does help digestion), fig liquor. What a feast! I am so full I'm practically rolling down the street. It's not turkey and pumpkin pie, but...

Greg and I are trying to host a typical Thanksgiving for some colleagues tomorrow. But it's kind of hard when you don't have an oven... a local chicken roaster had originally agreed to roast a turkey for us but it seems that plans have fallen through... apart from that, some ingredients are impossible to find here, like pumpkin, molasses, graham crackers, sour cream, etc... which not only makes desserts more difficult but nearly impossible coupled with the missing oven dilemma... We'll work on it and let you know how it pans out.

Hope everyone had a good one yesterday! You're all in our thoughts. Now, it's siesta time.