Día de Andalucía

Last Thursday--28th of February--was Andalusia Day.  Last Thursday I did a double take when I opened the door to take my puppy out for her morning walk.  I literally rubbed my eyes and looked again, just like a cartoon character--last Thursday it snowed!

I immediately ran upstairs to wake up Angelines...I thought for sure it would melt soon.  The snow stuck around for the better part of the day.  And even on Friday there were deformed snowmen littering empty lots and parks. :)

Thursday we had planned to make migas a traditional Andalusian dish of moistened day-old bread that you tear into bits and slow-fry (it's not an oximoron, I promise) with chorizo, bacon and garlic.  Then you serve it accompanied by whatever you like.  Most people accompany migas with oranges, pommegranet or fried peppers.  Whatever it is, if it's moist or juicy, it's better seeing as how the migas themselves are usually quite dry and form a sort of paste in the mouth--they're delicious, don't get me wrong...but swallowing can be difficult, sometimes. 

The plan was to make migas over an open fire--they're best that way.  Of course, with the snow and bad, weather, we weren't sure what to do.  But A and I were both up for it, so we told the family to bundle up: migas were on!  The food itself was delicious, as we knew it would be; almost moreso because of the extra smokey flavor due to green firewood.  Still, lighting the fire and getting enough coals to adequately cook the migas was a chore; and the smoke was painful.  Angelines busted out her swimming goggles to protect her eyes.  All of us were crying by the time lunch was served, and we even had to pull the food off the fire a bit early because it began to rain on us and the umbrella we brought out only trapped and concentrated the smoke--it was impossible to continue stirring the pot (a key to good migas is constant stirring).  Nonetheless, the flavor was amazing, and we stuffed ourselves silly .

My mother-in-law preparing the garlic for the migas under the careful supervision of her canine granddaughter.

Two little gnomes.

Looking good!  The fan was for the fire...trying to get things burning better...  Note the swimming goggles. :)

We finally busted out an extension cord and used the hair dryer to fan the fire.  Angelines is ingenious! ;)

Stirring despite the rain...

This one speaks for itself.  Delicious!

We had a great time, despite red eyes and freezing weather. :)  It was definitely a day to remember.  I'll post a few more pics of the snow:

The street view from our garage.

Snowy fields

Drooping palm trees...