Focaccia (Pizza)

Jake really likes pizza, so I'm always looking for ways to keep it from getting boring. One of the (several) really great pizzas we had in Spain was made on something like focaccia bread, and as I've never made focaccia before, I was more than happy to try to replicate it. Sigh. I really do love baking bread... Almost as much as I love bread, which is saying something.

Triple Chocolate Mousse Tart

I'm calling this a tart, because I'm not sure what else to call it. It was my contribution to my family's Mother's Day dinner last weekend and everyone there called it amazing, but I don't think Triple Chocolate Mousse Amazing is very good name for a recipe.

This dessert started out as an attempt to recreate a wonderful dessert we had at the Gran Bier Cafe in Madrid. The original plan was to make 2 small ramekins, just for Jake and I to have this weekend, but when I realized just how far the leftover shortbread dough (from TWD's hungarian shortbread) would go I figured I'd make a large one to take to my aunt's house as well. If you can't use your family as Guinea pigs to test out a new recipe, who can you use? Just kidding. That's what the individual ramekin servings were for, although I ended up eating most of those myself. That should tell you just how good this recipe was.

La Boqueria, Museo de Xocolat, Sailor (Barcelona Part 2)

La Boqueria

 

 

No post on Barcelona would be complete without mentioning La Boqueria. As Barcelona's most famous outdoor market (although it's not really outdoors in my opinion because there's a roof), we definitely had to stop by. If I didn't already want to move to Barcelona, this market would have made a convert out of me. Fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, chocolate, juice, juice popsicles, etc. It's an entire world of amazing food and insanely fresh ingredients, and if I lived in Barcelona I would go there. Every. Single. Day. I was so excited and overwhelmed by it that I decreed that I wanted to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner there. So we did.

Oh Barcelona...

Picking up right where I left off, we arrived in Barcelona on a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon and I wish I'd been feeling well enough to do more than glance out the taxi windows now and then on the way to the hotel. Once we'd checked in, Jake (being the most wonderful husband in the entire world) went out to get me saltines and gatorade--because when you're dehydrated from throwing up in a moving train, you gotta replace those electrolites. The "Cool Blue" gatorade reminded us of a non-carbonated Fresca. Most unexpected and kinda weird.

When in Madrid (and Avila & Segovia)...

 

Last week was bliss. I don't want to brag, but there's no way to sugar-coat that one. Jake and I went to Spain for a week for our 1st anniversary and it was beyond amazing.

First we flew into Madrid, which I found to be very NYC-like. People always seemed dressed to the nines (except the tourists) and the whole vibe is a little bit...business-like? Reserved? I can't really put it into words. That said, it's a beautiful city with amazing architecture and history...and food. I could write about all the cool things we did and saw (and took over 1000 pictures of), but for the sake of this blog I'll focus on the food, which did not disappoint.

TWD - BWJ #7 - Hungarian Shortbread

This project was something of A Comedy of Errors meets Murphy's Law for me. Oh yes, it really could be that bad. I made these cookies on April 22 because Jake and I were heading to Spain at the end of the week so I knew it was my last chance. In fact, as you're reading this, we're probably walking the streets of Barcelona or celebrating our first anniversary (which was yesterday) with Cava and something chocolatey.

Let's just say between packing and worrying I'd forgotten something, I wasn't really in the mood to make these. Especially when I saw that the recipe instructs you to grate the frozen dough. What the...? Ugh, fine. And I'd used the last of my all-purpose flour making a batch of Irish soda rolls a few days before, which I accidentally made with baking powder instead of baking soda, so I used white whole wheat for the cookies instead. It was just THAT kind of weekend.