Allie in the South of Spain

Although my parents have been over to see us a few times since the pandemic started, it has been almost three years since I have seen anyone else in my family. We were lucky enough to have gone to Michigan in the fall of 2019 during my maternity leave to attend my sister's wedding and then spend the holidays. We returned just in time for the world to shut down and haven't been back to visit since then. So when my oldest sister said she wanted to come visit during their spring break, I couldn't wait! My sister and her family arrived and we spent our first few days locally, seeing Seville and catching up. I sometimes forget with the hustle and bustle of everyday life just how beautiful Seville is and it is nice to be reminded of it when people come to visit and I'm able to play tourist for a while. First we headed to the Plaza de Esp a ña which is one of my favorite spots in the city. It was created as part of the Ibero-American Expo of 1929 and is a located right next to...

Jose and I have been on our Christmas vacation now for almost a week and it feels like we have taken advantage of every moment. Things have been busy to say the least. Pre-Christmas we cleaned and prepared for both the holiday and our visit with our friends, Erica and Ernie. Then we spent the 24th and 25th with Jose's family, one day with his mom's side and the second with his dad's. Santa even came to visit! On the afternoon of the 25th we stopped at the train station on our way home to pick up Erica and Ernie. They came back to our apartment where we relaxed before heading to visit Seville the next day. We went to the Cathedral, had a big lunch at one of our favorite restaurants and walked around enjoying the Christmas atmosphere. We ended our day in the best place in Seville, the Plaza de Espana. The next day we headed out to Cordoba to go to a winery because our friends really enjoy wine tasting. Ernie is basically a self-taught expert and one of the thing...

This weekend Jose, our friends, Cooper and I went to spend the weekend at a casa rural outside of Aracena in the Sierra of Huelva. We make a similar trip every year because this is probably my favorite place to visit in the south of Spain.  You can read about other weekends away here  (Aroche), here  (Aracena) and here  (Almonaster). This time we stayed in a place right near a small village called Corteconcepcion.   Casa Rural El Chaparral I love visiting this part of the mountains of Huelva because it is home to a very unique ecosystem, the dehesa which I find incredibly beautiful. The best way I can describe the dehesa is as follows: imagine a mountainous area with lots of trees (though not very tall or full) like cork trees. There is no underbrush or any bushes that cover the ground. Rather centuries ago, man adapted this area to his needs by clearing away the smaller plants to allow sun to reach the grass. This allowed them to take advantage of not on...

Ok so I know this picture is a bit blurry and I apologize but it is the final result of my having cooked chipirones a la plancha for the first time. Let me explain, chipirones are small squid and a la plancha means grilled. They are served in an olive oil, parsley and garlic sauce. At first I wasn't sold on the idea of this recipe but believe me, it is pretty awesome and super healthy. It is a really typical tapa that you can order at almost any bar here in the south of Spain. Chipirones a la plancha is usually served on a bed of lettuce or with a small side salad. Yum! Here's the how: First you need the chipirones (small squid that come with the heads and tentacles attached). I can buy them at my local grocery store in the fresh seafood section. I bought a package of 400 grams though the good thing about this recipe is that you can make as much or as little as you like. Allow me to also explain that here in Spain people tend to eat a lot more fish and seafood than...

Since I will be spending another holiday season here in Spain, I have decided to do a series of posts about holiday traditions that are important when celebrating. Some of them are similar to those back home, others are quite different. I hope you enjoy learning a bit about what we do here to celebrate the season! Sweet Festive Foods Like I think most places in the world, Spain has lots of sweet treats that only come around at Christmas time. In the U.S. we have holiday cookies and gingerbread houses. Here in the south of Spain we have equally delicious goodies to enjoy during the holidays. One big difference that I have noticed is that people don't bake as much as they do back home. It is much more common to buy your festive foods at the grocery store but that doesn't mean they aren't good! Without further ado, the food: Turron The way I would describe this is that it is similar to fudge. Turron usually comes in brick-like rectangles that you have to cut. It...

Thanksgiving People who know me know that I LOVE Thanksgiving, that it is my favorite holiday. Why? Well, because it involves spending time with family, eating and hanging out, relaxing and NOT giving gifts. I often get stressed about about presents (how much to spend, what to get, wrapping, etc) so I prefer holidays that don't require them. Plus how can you not love a holiday dedicated to delicious food. Living in Spain last year meant I didn't cook or really celebrate at all. This year I decided to give it a try but moved our celebration to Friday instead of Thursday because of work. I had to get creative with finding all the necessary ingredients. I ended up getting a teeny frozen turkey from our grocery store. The gravy mix was something I picked up at IKEA of all places (another reason to love that place!). I made mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole. I also made stuffing out of old, crusty bread we had in the freezer. With all this in the oven and on the stove ...

Here again is another post that should have been written a while ago after Jose and I spent a weekend visiting the centrally located autonomous community, Castilla-La Mancha. This part of Spain is famous for being the setting of Cervantes' novel, Don Quixote.  It is quite flat and the drive was a bit repetitive since we traveled over a lot of plateaus and plains to arrive in Valdepeñas where we spent the night. The town plaza in Valdepeñas This region in Spain is famous for its wineries so of course we had to take a tour complete with tasting while we were there. The ArUspide bodega that we visited offered a very interesting look inside both the history and the process of making wine, topped off with quite a few samples. They even had a museum. One of the things that I remember thinking was very interesting was the fact that people would purchase entire barrels of wine when they were filled, knowing full well that they wouldn't be ready to drink for a while. Often ...

Winner, winner, chicken dinner In the last week or so Jose and I have been to two dinner events with his co-workers. The first was a benefit dinner that helped raise money for a group of students who head down to Peru for the summer to work in a small pueblo. It was held at the school and though the food was just so-so, the company (we sat with a lot of other young couples) and the subsequent raffle were great fun. A lot of parents who own companies donate items for this event and most of the time the prizes are desirable, like bottles of wine or olive oil. Last year our table was pretty lucky when it came to the calling of numbers. In fact, our friends won a T.V., the grand prize of the night. This time around we were determined that we would win something as well (even if it was all up to random chance). Our table was hot again this year. I believe that everyone sitting with us won something. The couple who won the T.V. last year won two different items this year. Jose and I...

Today is a holiday here in Spain so Jose and I didn´t have to work. We decided to have a lazy morning complete with breakfast in front of the T.V. Breakfast here in Spain tends to be pretty simple, a coffee and toast. They do NOT eat eggs, pancakes, bacon etc. For us, this kind of breakfast is reserved for when we are back home in the U.S. (though sometimes I treat Jose over the weekend). Though the same old coffee and toast might get old, I promise you that it is reallllllly good (if you do it right).  Here are the simple (and cheap) ingredients: -Bread -Olive oil -A clove of garlic -Salt -Tomato -Turkey, ham or any other kind of lunchmeat (jamon here is the best but most expensive) All you do is toast your bread and then scrape the garlic clove over it so you get a good taste/smell. Next pour some olive oil over the top. I like less than Jose, I think he sometimes drowns his toast it the stuff. We are lucky that Jose´s family works at an olive oil cooperative so we...

While visiting the mountains last weekend, Jose and I collected some chestnuts during our hike. I had no idea how chestnuts came to us naturally and was in for an education. They are just like any other type of nuts I guess in that they grow on trees (see above). Chestnuts are collected here in Spain in the fall and early winter. Then they are often sold by streetside vendors who roast them as you wait. Yum! We decided to cut out the middle man since there were so many just laying around the trail as we hiked. Here is how chestnuts are protected in nature: This is a spiky, ouchy shell that surrounds and protects the nut itself. They fall to the ground and need to be cut or broken open to harvest the seed inside. Pretty ingenious chestnut tree, well played. As we walked we found quite a few that had already escaped their shells. There were a lot of empty hulls laying about. We picked out the biggest and best looking to take with us. At home we cleaned the...