"If you've got drugs on you, at customs they'll do the wave for you and the dogs will let you pet them."

If you'll recall my first favorite purchase of the year was the box fan that I bought in August when I, the Galveston, Texas native, thought I was gonna have a heat stroke. When it started getting cold, my new favorite purchase was my down comforter. Well, it's gotten colder still and I'm ready for a new favorite purchase...a space heater!

I really shouldn't complain because relatively speaking it's not cold at all. I even went running today in shorts and a tank top...I'd just like to clarify it's December 13th! The problem is there's no AC/heat in my house (or in most houses here) and I've got a huge window in my room that doesn't seal very well. Couple that with the lack of carpet and that makes for some cold feet (despite that I'm currently wearing 2 pairs of socks and slippers) and thus a cold rest of the body. Sometimes I consider going outside because I honestly think it might be warmer there.






As I have been freezing lately, when I stumbled across this recipe for The Best Tomato Basil Soup I thought it would be the perfect way to thaw myself from the inside out. Good choice. It is legit. I even eliminated the only unhealthy element by substituting the heavy cream with none other than my favorite, unsweetened Greek yogurt. Also, considering that Almería is one of the most important producers and exporters of tomatoes in all of Europe, I took advantage of those fresh tomatoes (they're seriously the best tomatoes ever...I didn't like tomatoes before coming to Spain and now I eat them almost every day) instead of using canned as the recipe suggests. Cold weather getting to ya? Try this! It won't disappoint!

The Best Tomato Basil Soup
My picture wasn't as pretty as this one so I "borrowed" it from the blog where the recipe came from

Cabo de Gata is truly unique. Every time I go there, I find myself even more impressed than the time before. This Monday, since we had a holiday, Jenny, Brenna, Brenna's roommate, 3 French girls that are also auxiliares de conversación, and I decided to hacer senderismo (go hiking) in Cabo de Gata. We met up at 10:15 that morning and drove out to where we were going to leave the cars. The road up the mountain was windy and EXTREMELY narrow. Jenny had to honk going around all the curves just in case another car was coming so we wouldn't have collision. 

We got up to the top and started the hike down the mountain along a dirt road. Once we got to the bottom where the beaches started, we decided to take a more difficult route with views of the water. Since I had hiked the area once before with Endika and his sister, I told everyone it wasn't that hard and that we should do it. They all agreed and we started along the trail.

 View from the beginning of the hike                                

Group shot near the beginning of the hike
Photo by Jenny

Photo by Jenny

This picture was taken from the same beach pictured above but facing away from the sea. The contrast is incredible. Gotta be one of my favorite things about this place. It's got a little bit of everything.
Photo by Jenny

The agave plants I wrote about in my last post about Cabo de Gata
Photo by Jenny

La playa de monsul
David Bisbal, a famous Almerían pop singer filmed part of one of his music videos here, so everyone knows it as "the beach where Bisbal shot his video" instead of Monsul

Once we had passed Monsul, I knew that we would have to cross at least one more mountain before getting to Genoveses, the place where we had decided we'd eat. However, I didn't remember the route as well as I thought because as it turned out we had to cross like 3 more haha. I kept saying, "Yeah, it's just on the other side of this next one!" And I kept being wrong haha. I'm pretty sure at one point Brenna and some of the others were about ready to kill me. Every time we got to the top of the mountain and I was wrong, Jenny and I just laughed--as discreetly as possible so as not to piss off the others. 

Note the cool volcanic rock in front of us

This picture and all those that follow (minus the last one) are stolen from Jenny

This was the part where Brenna freaked out because there wasn't a "path" anymore haha
According to her, at this point we weren't hiking, we were scaling a mountain hahah
Also, the very last mountain in the background with a tiny little dot on top is where we started!

A cool-looking dune with volcanic rock in the background

Finally, at mountain number 4, I reached the top, looked out across the field of green and saw THIS! This is Genoveses, the same beach I went to and wrote about in the old blog post I linked above. Everyone was pumped we had finally found it and with a view like this, any possible resentment that anyone was harboring against me melted away haha. We hiked down to the beach and camped out to eat before heading back towards the cars.

Lunch! The total hike time to get here was 3 hours and the total number of mountains climbed was 4! Go us!

After we finished lunch, we rested for about 20 or 30 minutes and then headed back. Instead of reclimbing all the mountains, we took the dirt road on which we had initially started. The total hike time to get back to the cars was only about an hour and a half and the path was like 80 times easier. When we got to the cars, we decided we'd make one last stop at the lighthouse which was at the bottom at the windy road we had driven up earlier. Jenny said we couldn't miss seeing El arrecife de las sirenas. I was super glad we stopped there because this is what we saw...

 
Arrecife de las sirenas, view from the lighthouse

Literally "The Mermaid's Reef," this place was named for the seals that used to perch themselves on the rocks and make noise (what do seals do? bark? howl?) which the fishermen believed sounded like the singing of mermaids. Another interesting tidbit is that this is the absolute southernmost point of Europe. Pretty cool huh? I had seen pictures of this many-a-time because it's the first thing that pops up when you Google "Cabo de Gata," but I had never actually seen it in person. It is SO cool and this picture doesn't do it justice. The same can be said for the entire natural park. You really can't understand how beautiful it is just from looking at pictures. I wish every single one of y'all could experience how amazing it is in person. So, let me know when you're coming to visit ;)

This past weekend I went to Málaga to hang out with Jose and to visit my old host parents Paco and Maricruz who I hadn't seen since last May when Hana and I went to visit them. I hadn't been in Málaga since the feria in August, so it was a nice change of scenery.











I caught the bus on Friday right after work and that night we just stayed in, cooked dinner, and then walked around a bit to look at the Christmas lights before it started raining on us. The Christmas lights downtown are seriously impressive. Even the narrowest of streets have some sort of design of lights strung up between the buildings. Calle Larios, the main drag pictured right, was, to me, bar far the most impressive. At the end of Calle Larios when you get to La plaza de la constitución there's a huge Christmas tree made of lights and a couple of elephant-sized ornaments with which everyone takes pictures. Paseo de la Alameda, the other main road which runs perpendicular to Calle Larios, reminded me a lot of America as it had all the big trees wrapped in lights as well as hanging lights. Jose told me that the City of Málaga spends a million euros every Christmas installing and maintaining all the Christmas lights in the downtown area!

The next day, we went and ate a typical Spanish breakfast, chocolate con churros at the famous Malagueñan establishment Casa de Aranda. That's right, CHURROS. Those delicious fried sticks of dough that you can only ever remember eating at Disney World or Astroworld. They may or may not have on one occasion made your mouth bleed? HAHAHAH Ashley! Afterwards we walked around some more and Jose did a little shopping. Then we went to the mercado and bought some fresh fruit and vegetables for later on that day.

After lunch we walked around again. This time we went down by the port (pictured left) where a jeque, or sheikh (AKA a super wealthy Arabic guy), has recently financed the building of a really cool park and a strip-center-like building with a ton of new shops and restaurants that face directly out to the water. He's also building a mall between the park and the strip center. I can't even begin to imagine how loaded this guy is.

After this I went directly to meet up with Paco and Maricruz who were already downtown. They asked me where I wanted to go and I told them that they should decide since I didn't really know of too many places. I sure am glad I said that because they  took me to the most incredible place. There's a hotel called Hotel AC that's right in the heart of downtown along Paseo del Parque with a restaurant/terrace on the 15th floor. They took me up there and we sat outside for 3 hours having a drink, catching up, and enjoying the beautiful scenery and sunset. The only thing missing was a little bit of Hana Morton. We missed you, Hana!

The Alcazaba or old Moorish fortress can be seen on the first hill

Downtown
I love how the city isn't just a giant grid but a maze of winding streets and different colored rooftops

Sunset over the city. Stunning.

After spending the afternoon with Paco and Maricruz I went back to Jose's and got ready to go out. Jose, his roommate Juane, Juane's two friends, Jose's cousin Kristina, and I all went out to dinner then went back to his apartment for a bit before hitting the town. I had a really good time chatting with Kristina and just being out in Málaga as I hadn't been there in a super long time. Overall it was a GREAT weekend and when I get back to Spain in January, I'll have to start planning another visit! Below are a couple more pictures I took that I thought were cool. See you soon Málaga!

The outline of the cathedral against the blue sky

A cool old tree that Jose found tucked away in a random little nook of the city

Like in the states, November is election month in Spain. Earlier this month, the reigning socialist president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (of the political party PSOE = Partido Socialista Obrero Español = Spanish Socialist Worker's Party) was replaced by the candidate of the Partido Popular (the People's Party), Mariano Rajoy. Rajoy will be only the country's SIXTH president as Spain was under the control of dictator Fransisco Franco until the mid 1970's. 

In order to teach the kids at school a little something about voting and democracy, we had a little election of our own. Our mini-election was a contest to see who could design the best logo for the school. The logo would be placed atop the letterhead on all the school's official newsletters. 

Everyone drew a picture and then two finalists from each class were chosen. The finalist's illustrations were numbered and placed in the hallway for everyone to observe. Then on Friday, a few kids from 2º de ESO (8th grade) set up the mesa electoral, or voter's table, in the entryway of the school and the kids went out class by class, presented their "Antonio Devalque Voter's Registration Cards," had their names checked off the list, and placed their ballots in the ballot box. Later, the last hour of the day, we had a short presentation and a counting of the ballots to see whose logo would be judged the winner. The winning logo is the one pictured at left, by a student from 2º de ESO.

The poster with all the potential logos.
Title: "Let's choose our logo"

2nd place...Rioja's famous bridge, books, and the nearby mountain in the background

3rd place...two McDonald's arches and a Christmas star on top? haha just kidding
The bridge, an orange tree, and still no idea why there's a star

The winner with his logo.

This is the one I voted for...super creative! Designed by a 5th grader

Two Fridays ago, the club de vehículos antiguos de Almería (The Old Vehicle Club of Almería) stopped in Rioja as part of its 22nd annual ruta de automóviles antiguos. We got about an hour and a half break from classes to walk down to the park and see all the old cars. I took a bunch of pictures but I don't really know what make any of the cars are. The only thing I really remember was that the oldest car was a restored Ford from 1926. Enjoy the pics!   

 

One guy even let the kids sit in his car. Brave guy. I wouldn't let them near anything of value. They were super excited though and surprisingly managed to not any damage.

Sorry, I've been putting off this blog because I knew it would take a long time, but here ya go!

Thanksgiving dinner was a huge success and in my opinion, much better than last year! The menu was not only healthier, but tastier too! This year's spread included:

Turkey

Stuffing

Gravy

Spinach-artichoke Dip

Deviled Eggs

Cornbread Casserole

Bacon-wrapped Green Bean Bundles

Brownies

Cinnamon Apple Crisp

and

Pumpkin Pie

As I said in my last post, I spent a lot of time preparing stuff the day before Thanksgiving so I would have enough time to finish everything by dinnertime. Even so and after pushing back the start time of the dinner from 8:30 to 9:30, I found myself running all over the place, non-stop, the entire afternoon to get everything done. Nearly everything I made had to be baked for at least a short amount of time so I had to arrange for a second oven. Juanmi, who lives like 5 minutes away from me, let me use his. Although I was reluctant to leave my precious turkey unsupervised while I made all the side-dishes, I didn't really have another option.



To make sure my turkey was moist, I decided to brine it overnight using this recipe for the brine. At my brother Neal's recommendation, instead of cooking the turkey with the instructions that go with that recipe, I used those for Alton Brown's Perfect Roast Turkey. The only hitch in the plan was that I couldn't find a meat thermometer anywhere, so I had to just guess how long to leave the turkey in the oven by how much it weighed. I probably could've taken it out a little sooner than I did, but between running between my house and Juanmi's and not wanting to serve 12 people undercooked turkey, I ended up leaving it in for probably a little under 3 hours if I remember correctly. And I must say, it turned out pretty darn well!

Keeping in mind that Thanksgiving is an absolute glutton-fest and the fact that I knew I was going to eat way too much, I made an effort to find healthier versions of the traditional recipes so I could gorge myself guilt-free (ok maybe not guilt-free, but less guiltily). I came across this great blog called SkinnyTaste, from which I took several of my recipes, most importantly the desserts.

The author's recipes for Skinny Pumpkin Pie and Cinnamon Apple Crisp were absolutely fabulous. For both pies, I made my own crusts with galletas María, the Spanish cookie that most closely resembles a graham cracker. The Cinnamon Apple Crisp doesn't call for a crust, but I made one anyway because, honestly, who doesn't love graham cracker crusts? My pumpkin pie was actually half pumpkin and half butternut squash since pumpkin is quite a bit harder to find and much smaller here. I found some immediately following Halloween (guess the stores were trying to get rid of them) but didn't see any more after that. The butternut squash, the most massive one I've ever seen (pictured right...it was literally 2 feet long!), was given to me by Juanmi because apparently his mom had no use for it. I found that it was actually quite a bit sweeter than the pumpkin so my pie turned out plenty sweet even though the recipe only calls for 3/4 cup of unpacked brown sugar. With it and the pumpkin, I pre-made and froze my own pumpkin/butternut squash puree a couple weeks in advance and thawed it the night before for easy use on Thanksgiving day. I followed her recipes nearly exactly and was VERY impressed with both how easy they were and the results. I will definitely use these recipes again. 

Her recipe for "Mom's Stuffing, Lightened Up" while still good, was probably my least favorite of all of the ones I used. It was a little lacking in something, though I'm not sure what...maybe it was because I couldn't find the sage leaves the recipe calls for and I didn't replace it with anything else. I think maybe it would've been better with sausage than bacon, but who knows. Next year I'm gonna look for a different recipe.

Since having recently gotten mildly addicted to cooking, I've realized how easy it is to make healthy substitutions without losing flavor. The healthy ingredient that was the saving grace of my Thanksgiving was none other than Greek yogurt. The devilled eggs were my own creation...pretty standard but with Greek yogurt instead of mayo. The cornbread casserole is a recipe from my Mom's collection also lightened up with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I even chose to completely omit the mayo from SkinnyTaste's Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip and add extra Greek yogurt (I also used fresh boiled spinach instead of frozen).

The last dish I made was an aesthetically pleasing take on green beans as I learned from last year's regular old pot-o'-green beans that no matter how delicious the dish may be, the appearance of "strange" foods, especially vegetables, can either really encourage Spaniards to or deter them from (this was what happened to me) trying something new. These Bacon-Wrapped, Glazed Green Bean Bundles were definitely prettier than last year's batch, but honestly, I much prefer the traditional style like my Grandma Mac always made. And the lesson I learned is that while more beans were eaten this year than last year, Spaniards simply do not find them appealing in any way. Oh well, more leftovers for me!

My friend and fellow American Brenna arrived right before dinner bearing gifts of the most delicious and richest brownies I've ever had, and just in time to save my gravy! I was too lazy to try to scrape the fat and juices out of the bottom of the turkey pan so I made it just from the chicken stock that I had made the day before and it ended up tasting more like flour than anything else haha. Brenna came to my rescue and added the turkey juices and I don't know what else, but I'm glad she did because otherwise people would've walked away thinking that gravy was gross when it is in fact, one of the most delicious parts of Thanksgiving dinner.

Besides the turkey which EVERYONE liked, of all the dinner items I think the thing that got the most compliments was the cornbread casserole. Even Brenna was impressed with it as she's from Philly and the standard southern cornbread doesn't make it that far up north onto the plates of our Yankee friends. As far as desserts go, the brownies were the only thing to fully disappear. While even I will admit they they were quite literally the best brownies I've ever had, I was disappointed in how unadventurous people were in trying the pumpkin and apple pies. What can I say, Spaniards are not much for trying dishes when they know they contain strange ingredients. I've learned to make people try my creations BEFORE I tell them what's in them. While I was bummed some people didn't try my pies, I was NOT bummed about how much pie was leftover for me! I sent some home with Brenna (I could really only rationalize sending my leftovers to an American who I knew would truly appreciate the wonder that is Thanksgiving leftovers), and kept the rest for myself! I would even go so far as to say that I enjoyed my Thanksgiving dinner more the second time around!

More blogs coming your way soon since I fell behind this week! We've got a holiday Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of the following week, so I'll get y'all all caught up on life over here! Have a good Friday!

Alsoooo, I'd like to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD AND NANA!!! Love y'all and see you in less than 2 weeks :D

Today I'm hosting my SECOND ANNUAL THANKSGIVING DINNER IN SPAIN! It's going to be an international affair with 4 countries represented haha...the USA (obviously), Spain (also obvious), France (my friend Jenny who is a French auxiliar de conversación--same job as me but in French), and Holland (my roommate JuanFra's girlfriend was born in Holland but has lived in Spain her whole life...that counts right?).

This year I found a butcher shop to actually sell me a whole turkey! Welllll at least that's what was supposed to happen. On Tuesday, the butcher told me that I could come on Wednesday afternoon to pick up the turkey that he would have for me. However, yesterday at 6 when I went to pick it up, he informed me that instead of bringing him a small turkey as they usually do, they brought him a huge one...an 18-pounder. So, since he had estimated the day before that it would be about 4 kilos (about 9lbs), he had sold half of the big bird to another woman who had come by looking for turkey that morning. Sooo, I've got half a turkey. Last year I only had turkey breast and this year, half a turkey. Let's see if next year I'll be able to conquer a whole turkey, wherever I may be at that time.


I started preparations for the dinner last night and was up until 3am in hopes that today I won't be as rushed and I'll be able to dedicate more time to making sure the turkey comes out right. It's been soaking in a brine (a salt solution with a bunch of herbs) all night so it should come out really moist. I have already boiled and peeled a dozen eggs for deviled eggs, made the spinach-artichoke dip (only have to bake it), made 2 healthiER homemade pie crusts for the pumpkin pie and cinnamon apple crisp, made homemade creamed corn for the cornbread casserole since you can't buy canned creamed corn here, and started on the gravy by making stock with the turkey neck (that I personally had to cut off), the gizzards (I think I only used the heart and maybe the liver but it was hard to tell as I've never had to clean out or even seen the inside of a turkey before), and fresh chicken bones that my new friend, the butcher, gave me after I explained to him why on earth I needed a full turkey.

The remaining menu items include...

stuffing 

bacon-wrapped, glazed green bean bunches

and possibly 

either 

mashed potatoes or corn on the cob

depending on how much time I have.

Also, my American friend Brenna is bringing homemade brownies! I have only permitted Americans to make/bring food for the purpose of making the event more authentic. 

Should be quite the feast! I'm anxiously awaiting the end of this work day so I can get home and start cooking! I'll post more tomorrow on how it turns out.

Thanksgiving is a hard day to be away from home, family, friends, and America in general, but making a big meal and sharing the celebration with people here makes me feel a little more at home. While nothing can truly substitute for a good ol' American Thanksgiving celebration, I'm excited to share that I'll be home in EXACTLY 3 WEEKS! Until then, I miss y'all and...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and HAPPY COOKING!

Everybody knows the good ol' Christmas song about "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" but how many people have actually tried roasted chestnuts? I hadn't until this past Friday, but I can now count myself among the lucky few that have.

Friday afternoon we celebrated la fiesta de las castañas, literally "the chestnut party." It really wasn't much of a party, but it was cool to get to see a bit of local culture. All the kids brought their chestnuts to school on Thursday, and Friday morning a bunch of mom's showed up at the school with their little grills and got to roasting. With all the windows open in the classrooms, it smelled like fall all morning and I was excited to finally get to try the legendary roasted chestnuts.

Everybody knows the good ol' Christmas song about "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" but how many people have actually tried roasted chestnuts? I hadn't until this past Friday, but I can now count myself among the lucky few that have.

Friday afternoon we celebrated la fiesta de las castañas, literally "the chestnut party." It really wasn't much of a party, but it was cool to get to see a bit of local culture. All the kids brought their chestnuts to school on Thursday, and Friday morning a bunch of mom's showed up at the school with their little grills and got to roasting. With all the windows open in the classrooms, it smelled like fall all morning and I was excited to finally get to try the legendary roasted chestnuts.

At 11:30 during the break, all the kids and teachers went outside and got their chestnuts. Some of the kids actually ate their chestnuts while I think the majority used theirs as ammo in a chestnut throwing war. Yolanda, Valeria, Jose Luis and I, on the other hand, huddled around the trashcans and peeled and ate our chestnuts as the kids all ran wild around us.

At noonish the kids broke up into 3 groups and we started the second part of the party--the game. I had no idea what the game was all about. I only knew that it involved a trompo (pictured right) which is wooden top that you wrap a string around and then strategically chunk to the ground so that it spins on its little metal tip. I quickly learned that the game was not at all complicated. There was a square drawn on the ground with chalk and a pile of chestnuts in the middle. The object was to throw the top into the pile of chestnuts and get it to bailar (literally "dance" but in this context meaning "spin") so that it knocked as many chestnuts as possible out of the square. Some of the older kids were actually pretty good at it, but the little ones were awful. Most of them couldn't even get the top spin so they were essentially just hurling the top at the pile of chestnuts as hard as they could to knock them out haha. Not gonna lie, I couldn't get it to spin either...it's not nearly as easy as it looks.

After school, I came back home and started looking for info about the game on the internet so I could blog about it. Much to my surprise, I couldn't find anything. I guess this is only a traditional game in Rioja. Getting to see little pieces of local culture like this is one of the coolest things about my job and just about being in a foreign country in general. Also, a perk of working on Fridays is that I get to be a part of all the parties that I didn't get to participate in last year.

This Wednesday at school we had a guy come and give a really cool presentation to the whole school. I'm not exactly sure of who he was, what sort of business he came from, or where he gets the money to do what he does, but it was cool. 

Again, I'm unsure as to exactly how this all went down, but I think this guy donated little flower pots, dirt, and pine tree seeds for every single one of the students and teachers at the school...that's like 170ish! He handed out the stuff, gave a short presentation on how to correctly plant the seeds, and then the kids planted their seeds the following day after the seeds soaked overnight in water.

Following this part of the presentation, we left the school and walked over to the nearby sports complex. On the walk over, the guy stopped us to look at some trees. He then explained to us that his organization had been in Rioja 17 years before in 1994 and that they had planted these trees. He showed us the before picture of him standing next to the trees when they were newly-planted...

And here's the same trees (and the same guy haha) 17 years later...

Pretty cool, huh? But anyway, after that we continued over to the other side of the soccer field and we proceeded to plant a new tree that he donated...this time a granado, or pomegranate tree. One representative from each class as well as the principal, the mayor, the town's one policeman, and some others got to shovel dirt into the hole to help plant the tree. In response to chants of "ALI! ALI! ALI!" from the kids, I too got to participate. CLICK HERE to see more pictures from the tree planting and/or to learn more about this guy's organization (if you can read Spanish). Now let's see if I can get my little personal pine tree to grow...