Family Dinner

Here is a look at our Sunday night family dinner. Four of us chipped in and created a wonderful assortment of yummy foods!

This was my plate of food! Tasty!

Here we are, just going to town on that food!

The dessert plate - chocolate, chocolate chip cake and suizas con chocolate (chocolate cookies with chocolate fudge filling).

Quite a spread for only 4 people cooking!

Stephanie made a garlic cream chicken with jamon serrano and spinach. SO good!

She also made some spinach and tomato bruschetta with mozzarella on top. Quite good!

Tortilla espanola with avocado - very yummy!

Spanish rice made by me - turned out pretty good for just throwing it together!

Banana-Chocolatey-Goodness!

My crepe - I realized I forgot to post a picture and that just isn't fair! I am taking pictures of all of my food for a reason, right!? Yum! Chocolate, banana and whipped cream!

Cloudy Days, Tea, and Crepes

What's a better way to spend a cloudy Sunday afternoon than in a teteria (tea house) drinking tea and eating crepes? Few things I can think of! It's becoming a Sunday tradition for me! Sounds like a plan!

The city on a cloudy day!


The old city buildings and the new graffiti on the streets - merging of modern and antiquated.


The cathedral where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand's remains lay. Pretty fantastic architecture.
The top level of the teteria - my favorite place!
My housemates who came out with me today! From left to right, Juliana, John, Keith, and Nick.

Me with the housemates! Moroccan tea and a chocolate banana crepe - YUMMY! I need to find some recipes for crepes and a crepe pan and I am going to continue this tradition when I get home! :)

Veggie Bruschetta

No exactly a Spanish meal but it sure was tasty! I made these bruschetta from onions, red and green peppers, garlic and tomatoes sauteed, toasted crusty bread, and topped with cheese and avocado. YUM!

A Full Day in Granada!

YUM! Nothing helps relax you more than a nice walk through town and a sugary treat from an amazing bakery!

Well Saturday is traditionally my day of rest. I work hard all week and just need that mental break on Saturday so I can get my homework done, papers graded, etc on Sunday. Finally, this Saturday got back into that routine. Stephanie, Kelsey and I went out on the town in Granada to burn through some of our hard earned cash at the stores - which is awesome because of all of the after Christmas sales (rebajas) that are STILL going on and will continue through February or March! BEST THING EVER! :)

This is a famous Granada statue in one of the plazas here. I thought it was pretty amazing looking when it was all lit up. In Spanish the word granada means pomegranate so there are huge pomegranates all over the second and third levels of this fountain. It's pretty gorgeous when the water is running and the lights are on!

This is a sight that gives me a good chuckle every time I see it. This, my friends, is a pizza deliver vehicle, a scooter. :) Because the streets are so narrow, full size cars (even the tine European ones) have a difficult time navigating the streets, let alone finding potential parking. So, if you ever order a pizza in Granada, keep an eye out for the pizza delivery scooter to be arriving soon! I almost want to order a pizza just to see it really deliver my pizza! :)

This is the next best thing to heaven. As my silly housemate Stephanie innocently eats her triple chocolate cookie, you can see the window filled with delectable treats for the sweet tooth in anyone. Namely, and part of the entertainment when we eat there, is the fact that all of the chocolatey treats are placed in the window on their big trays and nearly every woman walking past this shop, instantly stops, starts pressing her nose against the glass (or nearly so), points at the treat that caught her eye, and more often than not the word chocolate is uttered. Simply perfect!

Here was my tasty treat! Chocolate palmera - delicious! Definitely on the "to make" list when I get home.

My housemate Stephanie with her mini espresso and her sandwich sampler plate. Fresh bread and everything! Does it get any better?

My tiny (jokes!) sandwich - With jamon and tomato. Pretty tasty! Excellent bread but the jamon was a little chewy for my taste which made the consistency a bit strange.

My orange Fanta (it's big here but makes me think of that annoying jingle every time I see it... "Wanna Fanta, don't you wanna, wanna Fanta.."). And my potato chips and savory bread pudding. Seems weird but it was actually really tasty. Garlic and spices made it the perfect starter.

Me next to a tiny fountain in a little, graffiti-riddled plaza. Pretty eclectic environment here!

The wide shot to see it all!

And without me there - the graffiti is pretty neat though!

The thing I love about Spain is that everyone, and I mean everyone, even the little kids, dress nicely! I haven't yet seen anyone not looking fairly dressed up or someone wearing sweat pants or looking on the scruffy side. It's pretty neat. Here was a cute example of the little kids looking so adorable!

Buildings and buildings as far as you can see!

Just one of the MANY fountains in Granada - almost every plaza has one.

A bull in a gift shop of a souvenir store on a side street in Granada. It was definitely real. And way bigger than I was expecting!

I had to get my picture with it too! He was very friendly. :)

Plaza Larga and Menu Del Dia

Plaza Larga is a smaller plaza just up the hill from our house. It is the home of one of my favorite bakeries, Casa Pasteles, but is also the site of a daily morning farmer's market. They have tons of produce, clothes, cigarettes, etc that you can buy. Plaza Larga definitely has this hippy vibe that is unmistakable.

Here is one of the market stands. Just tons of amazing produce and since there are 2 stands, the prices are reasonable to get your business! :)

The other wonderful thing about Granada is that many (if not all) of the restaurants in Granada have what is called a Menu del Dia where you can choose from 2 main courses and a dessert with coffee all for around 9 dollars. I finally got the courage and time to try one and this is what I came out with. This was my first course alone (goodness was that filling in and of itself!). This was pasta de verduras (vegetable pasta) which is pasta, carrots, onion, and red and green bell peppers all sauteed in butter and olive oil and topped with some seasoning... YUM is the correct word to describe it!

For my second course I ordered pescado frito con ensalada (fried fish wish salad) because I love seafood and I haven't had any in a while.... well this is what I got. A couple of comments. I am a big fan of salad dressings like we have in the states, namely honey mustard. The salads here just come with olive oil and vinegar... not quite the same and not exactly my style really. Then, the fish I was imagining to be like fish fillets... wrong! I got calamari (which was awesome and super fresh!), fried sardines (kinda weird to eat because they still had a backbone and everything!), and then these bigger fish what were just fried whole. Not exactly the fillet I was hoping for.

One of the fried fish was made extra special for its future consumer by being circled around and biting its own tail before fried. YUM! Couldn't eat that one... can't even pretend.

Here's the little guy's front shot. I mean really? That doesn't make me hungry for fish at all! :)

A Beautiful Day for Tea and Crepes

Sunday is the day of rest and what better way to rest on a beautiful Spanish day than to go to a teteria (tea shop) and enjoy some tea and crepes? It's definitely hard to think of many better things in my opinion!

Talk about a gorgeous day in Spain!
Sunny yet a bit chilly! Wonderful January day!
The tea house itself is a 3 story building - you wouldn't even know it was a shop if you were walking by it because it just looks like another house. The first floor is just the entry way where you get menus and head upstairs. The second level is a small area with some cozy tables and wicker chairs. The third floor - my personal favorite - is really in the attic of the house with the slanted roof and everything! It is cozy and super relaxed up there. There is a balcony area where you have a gorgeous view of the Alhambra and over the valley but it was too packed for us to sit out there. The tables (or what you can call a table) is basically wooden blocks on the floor and you sit on pillows. It is so fun! Here is me and some new friends Alexis introduced me to. We had a great time!

YUM! My crepe filled with chocolate, peach, and whipped cream. SO good! Going to have to learn how to make these when I come home!

Here is what the "tables and chairs" look like. There is a white cat that lives there which totally adds to the hippy vibe of the place. She just comes and checks out what everyone is eating and says hello! :)

Out and About

Here are some pictures of Granada as I am out and about when Alexis came over for the weekend from Lucena where she is teaching English this year.

So this picture is the clearest one I could get but this Burger King is giant and the line (all day long) is from the counter to the door. It's sad that these Spaniards are surrounded by all of this wonderful food and they choose to eat at the BK? Tragedy.

This was hands down one of my favorite things I ate while in Spain. For whatever reason I just am head over heels for this dish! It seems strange but trust me, it's amazing! It is fried eggplant (aubergine) slices with only a thin coating of seasoned flour to not overpower the eggplant taste with a molasses syrup over the top, though honey is often substituted. AMAZING!

This is an example of a tapa that came with the drinks we ordered. In Granada, home of the tapa, you get some tapas for free for with any drink you order. Each bar or restaurant have their own specialty and some places have different things you can choose from. I know Granada is known for the tapas here (it's even made into a verb tapar - to go and eat tapas) but overall I haven't really been overly impressed with it. Since I don't drink I don't go out to bars and have these much so maybe that's part of it, I don't know. They are always good, just nothing fantastic that I couldn't live without (like the eggplant above). This was a curried pork stew with potatoes and pork chunks with bread. Not bad!

Alexis and I went shopping and literally this is what every store looked like. No one here hangs up the things they look at or refold clothes like we do in the states. You look at it, and throw it in a pile or on the floor. Goodness. It just makes me incredibly thankful I don't work retail here...

Another close up of the Cristobal Colon statue with Queen Isabella. It's a giant statue with a fountain around the base.

I know I am short but this just shows you how big the statue is! The Europeans love my red coat and most of the Americans think it's something I bought here! Thanks again, AJ! I love it!

Here is a hostel in town which is decorated with tons of little painted plates. Pretty interesting!

Long view!

Fountains like this are found all over town and you actually can drink the water that is coming out!

A special treat Alexis and I shared - the tapa plate. There is a tortilla on top (the triangle shaped wedge), patatas con pimenton (steak fries with paprika! :)), jamon, sheep's cheese (really hard but super mild and yummy!), and croquetes (basically a battered and fried ball of mashed potatoes). It was a yummy lunch for us and pretty filling!

For ordering drinks we got ourselves the house tapa from this restaurant - migas. Migas are fried bread crumbs with seasoning and finely chopped onions. Sounds crazy but it's way good!

Everything here is lemonade so I had to order one!

Up one of the side streets in Granada!

The buildings in Plaza Nueva - one of the bigger, more well known plazas in Granada. Again, shops on the bottom and apartments on top. Just so beautifully European!