Merry Christmas

I have much to say, but I don't feel much in the mood for a long post at the moment.  Still, I couldn't let the day go by without wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. :)  Santa brought Emily an easel that she is in love with.  She really loves the chalkboard side.  The other side is a magnetic whiteboard.  Santa also brought some really nice animal magnets to play with, which she also enjoys.

Lately, coloring has become a favorite thing to do and so we thought that an easel would be the perfect gift.  It turns out we were right, though the box warns it's for 3+ kids.  Poo, on their recommendations!  ...And I can't even imagine what she'll do when we introduce her to paint! ;)

We had a very merry morning.  Angelines got up with us to see what Santa brought, then went back to bed since she had gone to sleep at 5am and is fighting a nasty cold.  We cleaned the bar with abuela and tita and then had Christmas lunch at tita's house.  Before going down for her nap, we all three watched Frosty The Snowman--a personal Christmas favorite--and this evening we made gingerbread cookies which I hope to deccorate tomorrow.  So, it's been a Christmasy day only made better by the fact that I spent all afternoon on Skype with my family laughing with them as they opened presents.  It was almost like being there.

I hope you've also celebrated with family and that Santa's brought you everything you asked for (and more).

Merry Christmas!

Long Live Leftovers!

It is a well-known fact that the very best part of a Thanksgiving day feast are the leftovers that, if you're lucky, last more than a week!  Every November I look forward to at least a week of turkey in all it's variable creative, culinary reincarnations.  And don't even get me started on the mashed potates, yams, gravy, stuffing and the pies...Oh, the pies!  Eating my second Thanksgiving feast on Friday, before the pickings get slim, requiring a bit more preparation, is my second favorite meal of the year. 

And yet, the term "leftovers" in Spain is almost derogatory.  I think I have offended more than one person in my time here by offering to prepare them a plate of sobras.  It's as if I were suggesting that they somehow weren't good enough for the "real" food.  Or perhaps it's a matter of pride?  Sobras in Spanish carries the connotation of the unwanted remnants, which isn't the case at all with the English word.  Although, pondering linguistic dilema, the English teacher in me concludes that the meaning can be similar to Spanish in cases when the word is accompanied by the definite article "the".  There is a differnce between giving some leftovers and giving the leftovers.  Grammar aside, my mind is still boggled by this cultural difference, even after ten years here, and so I wanted to briefly blog in honor of the beauty represented by a refridgerator full of leftovers!

Our bird this year was exraordinarily large: 11.5k or 25lbs.  That is a big turkey even by U.S. butterball standards; in Spain it's virtually unheard of.  I was honestly worried that it wouldn't fit in my oven.  Angelines glibly suggested cutting off the thighs and cooking them separately if it came down to it--a thought which completely horrified me, of course.  In the end I was able to tuck it together nicely and it fit on the lowest rack in my little Spanish oven scraping the sides and just missing the top by less than a centimeter.  It was a close call, to say the least.

Needless to say, this year I was much more generous doling out the turkey to our guests.  In general Spaniards refuse to take leftovers from joint meals.  It seems the unspoken rule is "host takes all".  Even when you bring a plate of something, it would be terrible manners to take what hasn't been eaten back home with you.  Usually after some obligatory heckling and repeated polite refusals I can get people to take SOME of what they've brought home with them, but inevitably I am left with much more food than I bargained for. 

My covetous, glutonous instinct as a food lover, is of course to delight in the fact that I can keep all the spoils to myself and not be seen as a stingy pig!  But this year, in light of our huge turkey, I was legitimately concerned I wouldn't be able to eat all the possible leftovers; there are only three of us, after all.  Nor do I have endless freezer space to store food for longer periods of time, so I was more insistant than ever that people take leftover turkey, etc. home with them.   

When all was said and done, I still had a large plate piled high with cuts of breast and thigh, and of course the carcass was all mine.  I always make a batch of broth with half the bones and freeze half to make more in a few months' time.  This year, I made broth and was able to divide the rest of the carcass into two parts to make broth two more times.  I am elated.  Turkey soup is perhaps the highlight of the winter months, as far as I'm concerned. 

My creativity with turkey was more limited than in past years.  Aside from our second Thanksgiving, we ate turkey soup twice in the week and a delicious turkey curry pie I made up with,you guessed it!, leftover pie crust.  But I also savoured turkey on my morning tostadas for a full week.  My only other moment of inspiration with Thanksgiving leftovers came when faced with two small bowls of cranberry relish.

My mom brought me a few cans of whole cranberries when she and my dad came here for Thanksgiving the year Emily was born.  I used the last one this year.  At home, my mom always buys OceanSpray fresh cranberries and makes a mean no-cook cranberry relish...but cranberries are hard to come by in Spain, since they are not grown here and so I have learned to make a suitable cranberry sauce of my own with whatever I can get.  The first year I was here I used current berries, but since then I have always had a some shipment or hand-delivery (my favorite) from the States to help make this most typical of Thanksgiving garnishes.

I made two different cranberry sauces this year.  One more similar to my mom's with orange and walnut, and one that caught my eye on the can.  It was a sort of compote, I suppose.  Apple, onion, orange zest and cranberries simmer together until the apple is soft, then you add ginger, cinnamon and allspice--fantastic.  It was the apple-cranberry sauce gave me the idea.  After my turkey pie I still had a little extra crust and I am loathe to throw anything away if I can avoid it.  I rolled it out and put it in a mini pie tin I have, then chopped up some more apple and mixed it with the cranberry sauces to make a pie filling.  I must say, my cran-apple pie was outstanding.  I highly recommend it to any of you looking for ways to make use of extra cranberry sauce after next year's Thanksgiving.

Well there you have it, the nitty-gritty of post-Thanksgiving goings-on in my kitchen: Long Live Leftovers!! ;)

I am Thankful for...

I suppose it isn't a tradition unique to my family, but every year at Thanksgiving, we go round the dinner table and all share something we are thankful for.  Depending on the year, it can be easier or more difficult.  Since Thursday I have been thinking of everything I am grateful for--an important thing to do, and not just once a year!--and I am overwhelmed by all of it.  All of us complain about things like mortgage payments, or electricity bills, or the rising gas prices...but shouldn't we take pause and reflect on the fact that we have a house? We have electric lights and appliances?  We have a car?


And of course our gratitude should never limit itself to material things.  I am thankful for my health; for my loving, dedicated wife; for my amazing, inteligent, gentle daughter; for the friends who surround me here and the ones I miss so dearly from back home.  I am grateful for my beautiful, fun-loving sisters and as I grow into my role as a mother and parent, I am more and more grateful for my own parents whose endless dedication in my childhood and beyond has given me the confidence to be who I am.  I am thankful for my job and especially for my wonderful boss and coworkers who make going to work fun; and I am also thankful that I can afford to work only part-time so that I can be witness to my daughter's amazing growth and development.

I complain (more than I should) about skype, or patchy internet service, but I am thankful for the technology that allows me to keep in touch with all of you--my faraway family.  I complain of the distance that separates us, but I am grateful that I have means to visit you...even if it's less frequently than I would like.

I am extremely grateful that I have wonderful people--friends and family--here in Spain with whom I can celebrate this most wonderful of American holidays.  In the ten years I have lived here, I have made nine turkeys and eaten nine feasts.  In 2008, when I was home for Thanksgiving, my friends here celebrated in my honour.  It is too easy to wallow in negativity and fall into the consumerist trap of wanting more simply to have more; which is why Thanksgiving is such a beautiful holiday.  On Thanksgiving we can step back and take stock of what really matters in our lives.  On Thanksgiving we search for even the smallest thing for which to be thankful for in the midst of what may otherwise be darkness and with our gratitude bring light into our lives. 

With a grateful heart I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Terrific Two

My baby is two years old.  And her mother and I have pulled off a second fantastic birthday party. ;)  Three days later, I have finally recovered enough to sit down for a minute to blog about it.

Blowing out her candle :)

November 4th (yesterday) was Emily's actual birthday, but we celebrated on Wednesday the 2nd because that's our day off together.  It's not such a convenient day for the guests, but there was no way we could have pulled off a party on a day when either of us was working.  

Emily's birthday came as the pinnacle of a very long weekend for me.  November 1st, as you may know is All Saints' Day and a public holiday in Spain.  That means that I didn't have to work, but my dear Angelines did.  Since Tuesday was a holiday, most schools and my academy in Estepa took Monday off, as well.  So I didn't "work" Monday-Wed of this past week, but do not be fooled into thinking that I was well-rested come Thursday!  I was thoroughly exhausted, but in the most delightful way. ;)

Monday we got an early start on the day in large part thanks to the time change!  We cleaned the bar in preparation for Tuesday and then got our things together to head to the indoor pool in Campillos (about 20 min away).  After about 50 minutes at the pool we quickly did some last-min. shopping for birthday ingredients at the supermarket and then raced off to meet friends for a picnic barbeque in a park we've been wanting to take Emily to.  

 

We had wanted to play with her in the autumn leaves that  were sure to be littering the grass, but I guess this prolonged summer is taking it's toll because there were no leaves on the ground and most of them were still quite green on the trees.  I guess we'll just have to go back. Lunch was delicious and Emily had a great time (sans leaves) riding around on her pink motorcycle, swinging, drawing in the dirt with sticks and going down the slide again and again. Around 4:30 we headed home to get Emily into bed early (no nap for her!) and snuggle in on the couch with a good movie.  It was a very busy, but productive and fun day.

Tuesday was dedicated almost exclusively to the cake.  I had been racking my brain for over a week as to what kind of cake to make.  Last year I made a simple yellow cake with an oreo buttercream layer and chocolate ganche on top.  It was delicious, but Angelines said it was too sweet...  This year I wanted to make something equally decadent without going overboard on the sugar.  I consistantly halve the sugar in standard recipes as is, but with buttercream frosting I couldn't see a way to get around using loads of powdered sugar.  I decided that perhaps whipped cream was my answer.  

After investigating and even getting some long distance advice from my best friend's friend (we were talking via Viber and she was simultaneously texting her friend!--sometimes I love technology), I decided that whipped cream would be an okay layer, but not an adequate outer frosting.  And it was also clear that I would have to wait to assemble the cake until the day of the party since whipped cream can weep, melt and otherwise loose fluff over time.  

Emily and I baked the cakes together.  She has a great time in the kitchen with me.  As she gets older she enjoys "helping" me more and more.  Her new favorite job is peeling carrots.  She liked dumping the flour, sugar, etc. into the mixing bowl, but was grossed out by the eggs.  Slimy things disgust her. ;)  We made a double chocolate cake and substituted the cup of coffee the recipe called for with cinnamon tea.  

My long distance consultation had given me a few ideas for different frosting recipes and I decided that once Emily went to bed I would do a trial of a few different frostings.   At midnight I finally hit the hay after deciding that I would make buttercream frosting but with a different recipe: you make merengue and then whip the butter into that, thus avoiding the problem of too much powdered sugar.  The next day I halved the sugar in the merengue and after adding the coacoa powder to make it chocolate, voilá, I had a perfect, glossy, not-too-sweet frosting!  

Wednesday was a rush of cleaning, cooking, and last min. cake decorrating.  Once again we celebrated in our garage.  This year Angelines asked the boy who sometimes lends a hand at the bar to come and help with the balloons and set-up...and it's a good thing because I didn't step out of the kitchen from about 9am until after lunch at around 3 o'clock.  And once Emily was down for her nap I was back at it again.  The party wasn't until 6:30, so we had time to get everything in order, but for me it was non-stop washing and dirtying dishes.

The party itself was a hit and lots of fun.  At kids' parties in Spain, and I suppose this is often true in the States, too, it is customary to give out little bags of candy.  I don't let Emily eat candy and so I thought it was ridiculous for us take up this unhealthy tradition.  Kids get enough sugar at birthday parties, they don't need candy on top of it all!  Angelines was adamant that this was a deal-breaker...that our daughter would become some kind of social paraiah if we didn't go along with custom, "You're going to make it so kids won't want to come to her birthday parties!"  I told her that if I went to a party where they DIDN'T give out junk food and candy to my kid, I would be appreciative, which only provoked the response, "You're not like the mom's here!"

I am against the candy for health reasons, obviously.  I didn't want Emily to eat it, but if I was giving it out at her party, I couldn't very well not allow her to have any!  I thought of giving some other little trinket as a party favor...but I am also very against cheap toys like party blowers or key chains...or other things that just break or get lost or thrown away after a matter minutes or days.  Most of those things come from China where they are probably made in factories by children just a few years older than Emily! (Okay, I may be exagerating here, but you see my point)  

I find it ridiculous and actually amoral to just give something (which ammounts to ANYTHING--consumerism at its ugliest) only because we are expected to do so.  That follow-the-heard mentality is certainly not something I want to instill in my daughter; but I could see that it was very important for Angelines that we give some kind of gift to the children attending.  After thinking it over some, I came up with a compromise: a take-home craft.  

Emily and I made salt dough ornaments with cookie cutters that the children could paint and take home with them. I didn't feel the least bit guilty about this idea.  It was cheap, and all the materials were bio-degradable.  Plus, I did think it was important to have something for the kids to DO at the party.  As I hatched this "crafty" plan, memories of my mother's elaborate scavenger hunt birthday parties came to mind and I had to smile. :)

Emily got loads of gifts.  Many fun clothes, but also some great toys.  Her auntie gave her a big, stuffed Mickey Mouse which she loves, and friend gave her a babydoll that cries!  She is adorable with the baby.  She spent almost an hour this morning giving it its bottle and pacifier when it cried, then giving it "foffee" from her mug and offering invisible food on one of her plastic spoons.  She swaddles it and rocks it.  She is a little nurturer, as an aunt of mine says.

There are still baloons up in the garage, but the birthday cake is finished, and things are getting back to normal now.  As you can imagine, I was completely wiped out come Thursday, but it was the good kind of exhaustion; the kind that comes when you've really been productive.  Yesterday I went to sleep with Emily at 10pm and today I had a nap.  I am fighting off a little cold, which may just have begun as a result of all the running around and lack of sleep this past week.  Needless to say, this weekend we are planning to lay low and take it easy.  Although tomorrow is the Feria del Jamón in a nearby town and I do think we'll drive out for a bit to partake in some meaty goodness. ;)

Hope your November is off to an equally good start!

On My Home Turf

Late September I got a call from a woman at the city hall informing me that somebody had asked her for my number to offer me a job teaching.  She hadn't felt comfortable handing out my number to a stranger so she passed the woman's contact on to me saying that she had warned her that I was already working and the woman had insisted that this was a very low time commitment and to please have me get in touch...  As usual, the number sat around on my kitchen table for at least a week before I called.

I was in no hurry.  I have a job and I'm quite happy there.  I didn't really see any reason to call, except that the kind lady at city hall had gone out of her way for me, and I appreciated that she didn't just give out my number.  When I called, I discovered that this is a contracting company that hires English teachers in different towns and cities.  They had been hired by the parent-teacher association of La Roda to put together classes (mainly for primary students) here in town.  They wanted a native speaker who was available once a week for a maximum of five hours of teaching.  I would be given a full contract and paid quite well by the hour.  I told her I'd think about it and get back to her.

After discussing with Angelines, we decided that this was a great opportunity to supplement income with very little extra stress.  I wouldn't have to travel to classes.  I could teach Thursday afternoons, which is a day I usually only work in the morning and a day that's pretty slow at the bar.  Angelines could just open a bit later, and then take Emily with her to the bar for a few hours until I was finished.  It seemed like an ideal opportunity, so I didn't take but a day to get back to the woman and accept the position.

Yesterday was my first day of classes.  In the weeks and hours leading up to the start of these new classes I have many time wondered if this was the right choice to make. I have a tendency to say "yes" too easily to these kinds of things and then suffer from burn-out.  More stress is the last thing our household needs--it can be trying just to juggle the schedule that we have worked out and still satisfy Emily's needs and our needs for some family time together.  Over the phone I was assured again and again that this would be a very low time commitment.  I would be given all the materials, books, etc. that I needed, and my classes were to be more conversation/game focused rather than too grammar heavy. By this time I have quite a stock of games and materials of my own, so I decided it was a safe bet; but even so, I was wondering in the back of my mind if these classes wouldn't end up being a mistake.

As four o'clock Thursday afternoon rolled around, I reminded myself that we needed the money, and that it was only a contract through May, then I gritted my teeth and headed out with my bike to cross town with my laptop slung over my shoulder.  No more did I step through the door, than I was greeted with hugs and kisses by children and parents alike.  I would say except for the oldest group of students (14-15 yrs), 90% of each class is made up of my previous students.  I felt immediately at ease with them.

When I originally accepted the job last year at the academy outside town, I had been very sad to say goodbye to the children here.  Many of my older students had been with me since they had been in preschool.  All of them had been loyal students year after year.  In such a small town, it's unavoidable to grow quite fond of one's students.  As is always the case, there were some children who were more trying or who often misbehaved and disturbed class, but even they were sweet and admiring when I'd see them on the street over a weekend.  Although I have been repeatedly thankful for the job I have in Estepa, it is true that I often think about and miss my students here.  And when I first took that job, I couldn't help feeling a bit like I had betrayed them.  It was quite redeeming and a very beautiful thing to see that the affection I feel for my students here in La Roda is mutual. 

My five hours of classes went by relatively quickly.  Of course, these first classes were a bit difficult just because we have no books yet, nor had we had a chance to previously scope out the facilities to know what would be needed to give, good quality classes.  One of the women who hired me (the one who convinced me over the phone to take the job) stayed and observed my first two classes and then approached me during a short break to give me a run down of all the things she thought would be useful for me to have for future classes, and ask me if there was anything else I could think of (!).  I was very pleasently surprised to feel so supported from the very first day and we've arranged to get a projector and speakers to hook up to my laptop, plus some crayons and basic materials for the children to use.

When I locked up at 9:10pm, I had a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart and a smile on my face despite the fact that I was quite tired after my first ten-hour day. :)  I rode my bike to the bar, hopped in the car and drove off to my sister-in-law's to pick up my baby who was contentedly reading on the couch with her auntie when I arrived.  In the end, I think this may just be a great experience.

The Rain

Wednesday it rained.

Emily was shocked.  I am sure that she doesn't remember rain.  She was thrilled when I showed her how to open her hands, palms up to the sky, to catch the drops.  Though the weather lost all enchantment when we told her she couldn't ride her bike because it was raining!  Some rainboots and a raincoat are in order for her so we can let her run around without worrying that she'll get soaked.  Of course, for all it rains here, she'll very possibly only be able to use them once or twice all winter!

We were in desperate need of the rain, and although this little storm was welcome, we really need a whole lot more before anyone with olive crops can breathe easily.  The drought has been intense.  This time of year is when they harvest the still green olives for table olives... but this year many farmers are leaving them on the trees and waiting for them to rippen in hopes of getting more money for the deep purple, oil-destined olives.  If we don't get more rain, I'm affraid some will choose not to harvest at all.

The cloudy sky and fog shrouded hills around La Roda were a sight for sore eyes.  The sun's heat and intensity seems only to increase at the end of such a long summer when the calendar reads October and all you want is to need a sweatshirt and long pants, or an extra blanket on your bed.  Instead we are still scrambling to find shade as we walk along the streets in flip-flops, tank tops and shorts.  It seems like a cruel joke to feel the need to wear SPF 50 sunscreen to go for a morning walk in mid-October!  But so is life in Southern Spain.

I don't think any of my friends or family in the Pacific Northwest can truly appreciate the rain and clouds the way I now can.  Yesterday was intermittenly overcast, but without much precipitation.  The air was crisp and cleaner than it's been in months--all the summer dust hanging in the air was washed away.  The trees were a new green, rinsed of their coating of dirt.  Everything seemed to sparkle in the sunlight that slipped out from behind impressive storm clouds.  And the smell after the first rain is always the best.  The world smells fresh, vibrant, clean.  I found myself near hyperventilation for the huge, deep breaths I couldn't resist taking in through my nose.  Indeed, it was sensory overload.

I am so grateful.  And also so contented to be snuggled in a sweatshirt as I type this.  Happy Fall, y'all!!

A Baking Day

The weather has cooled to a chilly 80º and so I thought it was safe to do some baking today.  In the heat of summer the last thing anyone wants to do is turn on the oven!  Chocolate chip cookies were in order.  It's been ages since I made a batch.  I made up the dough while Emily was sleeping, but she helped me put the spoonfuls of dough onto the sheet for baking. 

Although I am a huge fan of cookie dough... I am reluctant to let my daughter eat it.  Memories of my childhood best friend's father singing "Sal-mo-ne-la, Sal-mo-ne-la" to Händels halleluja chorus, come to mind. ;)  Of course, Em inevitably did suck a little bit, but when I told her not to eat it, she contented her self with kissing the dough ball saying, "Love you, cookie!"

Now we're munching cookies and sipping milk.  It's beginning to feel a bit more like October around these parts.