For those I haven't bragged to yet, here's a little more about Marbella:
My mom works for Marriott part time, which helps pay for our horse, but also has the awesome benefit of great discounts on Marriott hotels. This weekend, and last weekend, we went to Marbella, which is on the south coast of Spain and has a beach resort that we got to stay at for about a quarter of the normal price.
Madrid is on a plateau and even though it's warmer than the midwest, it's still only about 40-55 degrees this time of year. Marbella, however, is about 70 now and on the beach with palm trees and sun. It's very close to Gilbraltar and Morocco. We were thinking about going to Morocco, but we decided to have another lazy day on the beach instead.
All of the pictures under "pictures from Marbella" are of us at the resort, except for the one with the country side, which is a picture of the olive trees taken from the bus on the way down South.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The Food Post
If it seems like all we do is talk about food, it’s probably because it’s become our number one pastime. I’m going to devote an entire post to food so that it looks intentional. We cook almost every day – it’s inexpensive and fun. I’ve learned to make a whole lot of new dishes. Most have been good, and a few were terrible. Kaiyan requested more food posts, so we're justified in writing about it again!
Brownies again
Our dangerous brownie shortage inspired us to take action and try to make them from scratch. I (Anne) found a recipe online using baking chocolate, but tragically, our oven was too hot as usual and the outside quickly burned. Fortunately, my genius presented itself. I cut the brownies into a bunch of pieces according to how cooked they were, threw away the burned outside, and baked the soggy middle again. We assembled the pathetic pieces on a plate and covered everything with sauce made from the leftover chocolate bar. Before serving, we threw it in the oven for a few minutes and served it to our friends in pieces with chocolate ice cream. We told them it was ‘chocolate lava cake’. It was fantastic! No one guessed that they were really eating burned brownies.
Cookies
To celebrate Carnaval, Sarah and I decided to cook another thing we can’t find anywhere in Spain: chocolate chip cookies. We were really proud of ourselves for finding all of the ingredients, a few of which – baking soda and vanilla -- we could only get in specialty stores. Brown sugar was also a problem. Sarah cut up a chocolate bar to substitute for chocolate chips, and we were really excited. Then, they came out of the oven. I can’t begin to describe how horrible they tasted. The brown sugar here is completely different, and it’s not just an aesthetic difference like we had hoped. The vanilla is more of a syrup than anything. We were crestfallen.
But we’re optimistic again. Sugar cookies don’t call for brown sugar. Would anyone be willing to post a good recipe for soft sugar cookies?
Oh my darlin’
Clementines! Tropical fruits are abundant here, and clementines have risen in status to become my second favorite fruit (after strawberries). They’re like oranges, but adorable (about half the size) and a little sweeter. Every time I peel one and eat the mini wedges, I feel like I’m in kindergarten again and it’s time for snacks.
Wait, potato chips?
I never liked potato chips much, but they’re really good here because they’re made with olive oil. They're also about 500 calories a serving, but it's hard to figure out how big a serving is anyway, since I don't know what "25 grams" means. I figure the whole bag is most likely single serving size.
Brownies again
Our dangerous brownie shortage inspired us to take action and try to make them from scratch. I (Anne) found a recipe online using baking chocolate, but tragically, our oven was too hot as usual and the outside quickly burned. Fortunately, my genius presented itself. I cut the brownies into a bunch of pieces according to how cooked they were, threw away the burned outside, and baked the soggy middle again. We assembled the pathetic pieces on a plate and covered everything with sauce made from the leftover chocolate bar. Before serving, we threw it in the oven for a few minutes and served it to our friends in pieces with chocolate ice cream. We told them it was ‘chocolate lava cake’. It was fantastic! No one guessed that they were really eating burned brownies.
Cookies
To celebrate Carnaval, Sarah and I decided to cook another thing we can’t find anywhere in Spain: chocolate chip cookies. We were really proud of ourselves for finding all of the ingredients, a few of which – baking soda and vanilla -- we could only get in specialty stores. Brown sugar was also a problem. Sarah cut up a chocolate bar to substitute for chocolate chips, and we were really excited. Then, they came out of the oven. I can’t begin to describe how horrible they tasted. The brown sugar here is completely different, and it’s not just an aesthetic difference like we had hoped. The vanilla is more of a syrup than anything. We were crestfallen.
But we’re optimistic again. Sugar cookies don’t call for brown sugar. Would anyone be willing to post a good recipe for soft sugar cookies?
Oh my darlin’
Clementines! Tropical fruits are abundant here, and clementines have risen in status to become my second favorite fruit (after strawberries). They’re like oranges, but adorable (about half the size) and a little sweeter. Every time I peel one and eat the mini wedges, I feel like I’m in kindergarten again and it’s time for snacks.
Wait, potato chips?
I never liked potato chips much, but they’re really good here because they’re made with olive oil. They're also about 500 calories a serving, but it's hard to figure out how big a serving is anyway, since I don't know what "25 grams" means. I figure the whole bag is most likely single serving size.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
