Bragging Rights?

So maybe bragging about my grade in Didáctica de la lengua inglesa isn't really fair, but...  I got a perfect score on my last essay and this is what the professor commented:
"This is a great essay, which masterfully weaves together points from Nation's argument with your own experience and ideas.  Good paragraph structure and critical engagement.  Well done!" 

:)  

Of course, having a BA in English means that much less than a 90% on any essay in this class is a bad grade, but all the same, I couldn't help smiling at the commentary.  It always feels good to be praised.

...sorry, I had to brag a bit.

Tremendous Turkey!

I know you've all been waiting with baited breath to see how my Thanksgiving feast turned out. ;)  It was a success!  We had a HUGE Turkey this year.  I think it's the biggest I've ever cooked here: 8kg = 17lbs!  Not bad for a Spanish bird that's being fattened for Christmas and not late Nov; a respectable weight by all accounts.

Steaming hot turkey. :)  This year I just filled it with apples and onions like my dad always does.

This year I brined it just like last year and I also took it out of the oven a wee bit early.  I put the turkey in our oven on low at 9am and by 3pm we were too hungry to wait any longer.  They say poultry should get up to 180º F, but I took it out around 175º.  No harm done because it was definitely cooked and very moist and tender.  Everyone assured me that it was better than last year's despite looking a bit peaked because we didn't broil it long enough without the foil covering.  Still, it was delicious.  And even after divvying up the meat, I've been eating turkey in some form or other all week and still have plenty that I'll need to freeze!  Ah, the joys of leftovers!

My chorizo stuffing was a hit with my nephews as I'd suspected and the sweet potato pie came out beautifully!  I think I like it more than pumpkin!  It was obviously much easier to make, especially here where Libby's canned pumpkin doesn't exist...  and since the batter was thicker it firmed up more nicely in the oven.  The flavor was fabulous and everyone said it was better than last year's (I didn't tell them it wasn't pumpkin!). :)

I'm getting to be quite a professional turkey carver. ;)

Desserts were the only thing we had too much of... is that possible?

I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas

Just in case you were wondering what to get me for Christmas... Now you know! ;)



This is what random searches for Christmas songs will lead to on the internet.  I'm thinking ahead (or trying to) with my classes and wanted to find some easy, fun tunes for Christmas.  This one won't do, but it did make me smile. I had to share.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all stuffed yourselves silly yesterday, in true American fashion.  As you know, since I've been living in Spain I haven't celebrated Thanksgiving on the actual day.  I did, however, wear my cornucopia socks and eat lunch-meat turkey on my toast for breakfast and then again at dinner. ;)  Thursday isn't a holiday here, of course, and so we always have our feast on the weekend.  This year will be the second year in a row that we celebrate with Angelines' family.  I'm not sure they are extremely fond of turkey, but any excuse to get together and eat is always welcome.

This year we'll be cutting back on the food because last year we had far too many leftovers!  I'm making the turkey (obviously) and I'm going to experiment with chorizo stuffing.  This will probably be more popular with my meat-loving nephews.  My mother-in-law is making soup, my sisters-in-law are bringing a veggie dish, some meat and cheese to snack on and a tortilla.  I am also considering making a sweet potato pie to substitute pumpkin, seeing as how cooking down my own squash that isn't pumpkin in the first place is a lot of work!  We shall see.  I think I will probably end up making some mashed potatoes, too, even though I'm sure we'll once again end up with too much food.  Isn't that what Thanksgiving is about: left-overs for weeks?!

This morning I'm going to pick up my turkey.  I'm planning to brine it again.  Last year it was wonderfully moist and flavorful.  I think I will also make the pie crust today (bake the pie tomorrow), make the mashed potatoes, and prepare everything (ie. cube the bread, saute veggies, etc.) for stuffing.  I'm only working with one oven here, so I've got to plan this well if I want everything served "hot". ;)

Today I've also got to put a good dent in my work and class-prep for next week because this weekend will be lost to cooking.  That means I should probably stop writing now and get down to it!  Hope you all had a wonderful, happy, family-filled Thanksgiving.  I'm thankful for the technology that lets me post this to all of you and helps me feel closer to home.

Buddy Ball Time

A bit of entertainment.  My Belita with her friend Mora.

Mora is a ball FREAK, but she's also a little overweight and nowhere near as agile as my little lab.  This is a video of our daily routine since it's been rainy and muddy in the olive groves where we usually take our walks.  I get such a kick out of watching these two that I finally decided to take my camera and get a video of some of this quality buddy ball time. ;)

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  It really is a great way to start the morning--playing with my puppy.  It always makes me laugh.

Long Time, No Blog!

As usual, no blogging means I'm completely crazy with everything else in life--my apologies.  It seems lately that every time I have a free minute when I could sit down to write about things like the amazing rainbows I've seen (yes, two in one week!) or our Halloween celebrations at the bar, something urgent comes up that I must do or I'm just altogether too tired, and crawl into bed. 

The first of November is All Saints' Day so Halloween weekend was a holiday here.  Everything was closed starting on Thursday so it was a four-day-weekend.  I had thought to go to Granada and pay a visit to my family there...  Did that happen?  No.  Wednesday night we opened the bar for Halloween, which despite a terrible lack of decorations--we couldn't even find fake cobwebs at what is the equivalent to the dollar store!!--it turned out quite well, I thought.  I spent the better half of the week making 200 raspberry and strawberry jello shots (coagulated blood for your inner vampire...) ;).  And we had a little "trick or treat" drawing for some free drinks or beers.  We did pretty good business, but I was there helping most of Wednesday and then up early cleaning the place the rest of the weekend.  

The weather since Halloween has been terrible!  We've had nearly solid rain.  This week seems to have let up a bit, but it's supposed to rain again come the weekend.  That means my poor puppy is depressed once again, although we have devised a mud-free way for her to get exercise.  There's a big parking lot between the football field and the city pool that is perfect for playing with her ball and there are minimal puddles.  She seems pleased with the new routine.  As long as it's not actually raining, we go play for about half an hour in the mornings and we've been able to find another part of town that's not too muddy for a little walk in the evenings.

All this rain is needed, of course.  Until the beginning of October I think we hadn't had rain since May!  Still, people here are solar powered and quickly forget how much they prayed for rain over the past six months when the sun goes behind a cloud. ;)  The rainbows I mentioned above are the best part of these storms, of course.  I was able to get pictures with my cell phone.  Luckily I discovered the panoramic capabilities in time because both times it was a full rainbow. 

Rainbow one

Rainbow two...a little bit fainter, but still beautiful

So the long weekend wasn't much of a break for either me or A, but this past Monday we decided to leave everything behind and head to Granada for the morning.  We did some needed shopping--shoes for both of us and a jacket for me--and then had lunch with the family.  It was lovely.  Just getting out of La Roda for a few hours felt great and when we were headed to Granada and the Sierra Nevada came into view I just couldn't resist smiling.  I'm a moutain girl, what can I say?  Just seeing those huge, snow covered peaks made me feel calm, free, and right at home.