Last May I took my niece to Barcelona as a gift for her high school graduation.
I took a zillion photos. In Barcelona, they speak Catalan.
The word for "red" in Catalan is "vermell".
Barcelona was a magical city.
The food, the Mediterranean light, the architecture and the way people live their lives outdoors.
In 8 days we barely scraped the surface of this amazing place.
I can't wait to go back
We took a cooking class one day and made this red pepper (ñora peppers) with bacalao (dry cod, rehydrated), olive tapenade and fried cod skin. I can almost taste it as I write that.
Iberico ham is similar to prosciutto. It's everywhere in Barcelona, we had it on bread for breakfast. This is a photo from the famous Boqueria market just off Las Ramblas.
Mariquitas (ladybugs) - chocolate of course.
Above the city is Parc Güell designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí in the early 1900s. His work is characterized by mosaics, this is one on the wall near his house in Parc Güell
La Boqueria, someone's dinner.
Rooftop view
Bougainvillea on a fence
A window on the way up to Parc Guell
My feet, sitting by the Mediterranean sea
Roy Lichtenstein sculpture near the beaches
I have this weird thing for graffiti. I liked this one with the red on the side and black in the middle
I took a break from sewing this weekend to take the first of three Artisan Bread Baking classes I received as a Christmas gift from my parents! It was a wonderful class and I came home with a French baguette, a sourdough boule, a half loaf of cinnamon swirl bread as well as dough for another baguette, another boule and 1/4 cup of sourdough starter! And all the recipes. We had lunch halfway through the class, with wine. Mmmmmm. Next week's breads are: Brioche Rolls, Challah, Pain de Campagna, Foccacia, and American Dinner Rolls.
I really like to cook. My first job out of college was working in gourmet shop and school called The Pampered Pantry, in St. Louis, MO, which sadly, went out of business long ago. I was required to read an inch thick book on cooks tools which is where I first began my cookware snobbery. I may not have a big kitchen or a lot of cookware but what I have is high quality, most of it at least.
My absolute dream trip would be this European Tour through Cook Street School of Fine Cooking where I'm taking this class. It's part of the professional chef program, but for a mere $6,495, not including airfare, anyone can join the tour! This movie shows the Italian part of the tour (WARNING: food porn)
