just in case...

In case you were wondering- I added the recipes for the Spanish and Venezuelan dishes I listed for my wedding menu to their posts, just click the pictures. Enjoy!

here and there...

Hope you had a good weekend...I did.

-a Friday night at a baby shower for a lovely friend, who happens to be from my adopted Mexican hometown, Querétaro, married a Galician, now lives in Santiago, and is having a baby girl who will be named Frida and speak Galician. Cute!

one of my first and favorite memories of Querétaro, from my first trip in 2006.

-A Saturday of trans-atalantic phone planning, and my first attempt at making my mom's lasagna for a birthday eve celebration for Diego and a few of his close friends (the lasagna took much longer to make than expected...but was delicious, not a single piece was leftover, yay!), and taking a early morning walk through the "huerta," a few hidden plots of land tucked between streets and with an amazing view of the cathedral framed by stars.

-and a Sunday, celebrating Diego's day with a cake filled with candles, and some much needed rest time watching the viajar channel and getting lost in dreams of our future travels.

a little greek isle-Corfu.

Menu #2

Mmmmm....I like this part, imagining all the delicious possibilities. Unfortunatly, I think the Venezuelan menu will be a little more difficult to make a reality since most of the dishes are best when just fresh from the oven/grill/frying pan. But, if I could, the Venezuelan menu would be:Arepas, mini, party sized filled with deviled ham and cheese.

Cachapas, cut into little triangles. A perfect blend of sweet corn pancake and salty white cheese.

Tequeños-flakey crusts with melty cheese inside. Way better than mozarella sticks.

Empanadas- mini sized again and filled with cheese, meat, or

Platanitos- a real possiblity!! Salty, cruchy, plantain chips!!

Menu

The weather has been so lovely and I have so many plans in my head, that the last thing I want to do is work...blah. So, to avoid planning classes I am going to share ideas I have running through my head for the weddings-well mostly the Michigan wedding- and since it's lunch time, why not share my plans for the menu.

Being a mix of cultures, the menu we serve will reflect us both...and being that I'm a fan of simple foods, I've decided that the majority of the menu will be street food inspired. Tapas-pretty much street food although they're not really eaten on the street- are the basics of Spain, and they are great. So, I'm thinking a great beginning would be: tortilla española, olives, almonds, shrimp, Pan con tomate, and bread and olive oil for starters, with a little sangria or a caña (beer) to wash it all down. Simple, delicious, and served with toothpicks.

Menu ideas from Venezuela (my roots from my mother's side) and USA coming soon...

Porto

We went to Porto, Portugal with some friends for the weekend. The old zone of the city, with winding stairs and yellow corners leading to the river was spectacular. It's only 2 1/2 hours away and there is an IKEA on the way home...the perfect escape.

Motown

It's pretty nice to be sitting in the sunshine in a cafe in Santiago between classes listening to a little motown music, makes me feel at home. Last time I went home we went to the Motown Museum in Detroit. The museum is the house where all the ideas came to life, and it's a visit that can't be missed if you're in Detroit. My favorite part was acting like Diana Ross and the Supremes with my sister in the studio where they recorded (and see Diego be volunteered by the strangers in the group, "THE SPANIARD, THE SPANIARD!",to act like one of the Temptations). And if you do go, check the world map, the pin in the northwest corner of Spain represents Diego-he got to mark Santiago! So, what's your favorite motown song??

Location, location

Now that it is mid-March, I'm starting to get real decisions made about our wedding parties (one in Spain and one in Michigan). In Michigan the party will be at my mom's house in our beautiful back yard with the lake, pond, and woods as a background.

Here in Spain with the ceremony we are thinking that Diego's best friend's parents' restuarant, A casa de Ana, in Pontevedra will probably be the place for the party. It's a beautiful traditional Galician stone house with a cute little garden hidden in the back, perfect for drinks and maybe some dancing.

Spring...fever

I've been lagging behind in my blogging lately, March is turning out to be a crazy month. This week Diego has been super sick with a fever of nearly 104 for about 3 days. He had to go to the doctors three days in a row! Pobrecillo! Today, he's feeling better. But, this week has made me realise I really should learn how to drive in case anything happens in the future that requires spur of the moment trips to the doctor.

The weather this week has been amazing too. It's like summer! The cafes have all put out their tables, women have traded boots for ballerina flats (yay!), and windows are open in almost every house I've been in. I'm excited. My fall garden has pretty much died, but I'm optimistic about starting a spring potted garden, window boxes, and fixing up the terrace! Comidas in the sun and margaritas in the moonlight will be so nice when it's finished.

My terrace, just imagine the possibilities!

little breaks

This week has been very busy, a few extra classes here and there, extra contract translations after negociations with the writer (I'm really having fun getting a little glance into the world of publishing-so different than anything I've done in my life), last minute changes to the return ticket I was forced to buy to return to Spain in December (three months have flown by!), and the possibility to translate a comic book from English to Spanish! I'm reading it over this weekend...more details to come. I love the many unexpected opportunties tha are now filling my days!

Lost in translations...

I got my first translation job!! It's translating a literary copyright contract which, using lots of legal lingo, has been an interesting way to spend the weekend. And so, I wanted to sing the praises of WordReference.com just in case you haven't found this website yet. I used it a lot in my university days as it was sometimes easier to just type in the word than pick up a real dictionary. WordReference.com provides you not only with a translation but also with examples of the word in use (you can also submit questions of your own)...it's been helpful.

Also, today is election day in Galicia and The Vasque Country. The last month has been a bombardment of campaigns everywhere-I've probably felt more bombarded that others since Diego has been covering the campaigns for the paper and nights out with his journalist friends provided non-stop political conversations. In my daily comutes throughout the city I also learned all the campaign slogans, most of which were in Galician, from the signs and postered plastered throughout the city- the constant exposure to the slogans has also given my Galician language learning a boost, even if my little Galician comes out sounding like a campain commerical!

Well, I must get back to translating.