Making gazpacho

Gazpacho is a very common Spanish soup. It is made with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and often cucumbers, and always served cold. It can be served with a variety of toppings, such as croutons, chopped cucumbers, jamón, or chopped hard boiled eggs. The flavor is similar to a pico de gallo salsa—very fresh, and extremely refreshing, especially on a hot day in Spain. In fact, most families in this region keep a container of gazpacho in the fridge, making a fresh batch every few days throughout the summer.

Another version found closer to Cordoba is salmorejo. This uses similar ingredients, but is much thicker because it uses more dried bread. Salmorejo is consumed either as a soup or a sauce for other dishes. A local dish using similar ingredients is arranque. This is a Rota specialty, a thick tomato sauce served with bread at many local restaurants. Arranque is made from fresh tomatoes, peeled and seeded, mixed with stale bread, garlic, oil, green peppers, and salt. It is served fresh and cold, and is a very healthy and refreshing dish!

GAZPACHO RECIPE:

3 Pounds Fresh Tomatoes, Peeled and Seeded

1 Seeded Green Pepper

2 Garlic Cloves

2 Pieces of Toast

4 Tbls. Olive Oil

4 Tbls. Sherry Vinegar

2/3 Cup Tomato Juice

1 ¼ Cups Cold Water

Toss all ingredients into the blender. Because it's a cold soup, you don't have to cook it! You just put it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight and let the flavors mix. Best served within 1 day.

 

Vacation in Pennsylvania

Last week, we took a break from packing, paperwork, and moving issues to visit my family in Pennsylvania. It was a WONDERFUL vacation! I got to see my sister, who came home briefly from Ethiopia where she is doing a year-long teaching position. And my other sister, who is working and going to school in Washington DC. And my brother, who is living in Buffalo NY but came home for a few days. We were just missing my other brother, who is in the Navy and couldn't get leave. :-( The kids had a wonderful time visiting Granny and Grandpa... and playing with their dog.

Friday night was a big Prosser family crab feast. We got a babysitter to come to the house-- our first babysitter ever! We got to spend the evening with adults, eating crabs in Baltimore. It was delightful! And apparently the kids had fun and enjoyed their evening too.
Saturday happened to be the annual Olde Tyme Days festival in my hometown. Yep, it's a very small farm town in Pennsylvania, so the central theme of the festival is... tractors. There are tractor parades, tractor shows, tractor pulls, and some good pit beef sandwiches too. :-) So we took the kids and spent the morning checking out the show, and letting them have fun pretending to race them.

Saturday night the kids stayed home and had smores and stories on the patio with the grandparents. My husband and I, my brother, and our best buddy Chris spent the evening at the Baltimore Inner Harbor. There was a Spanish tapas restaurant we wanted to visit to try some Spanish food. It is called La Tasca, and it was delicious! We had a cheese platter with Manchego and other cheeses, some figs wrapped in bacon, spicy chorizo sausage, and of course paella! Sipping sangria and watching their flamenco dancers on the outside deck overlooking the harbor was a relaxing and fun way to spend the evening. I can't wait until we can do that in Spain overlooking the Atlantic Ocean! Afterwards we checked out the new Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, which was actually really interesting and fun! Cities made out of toothpicks, beautiful artwork made out of trash, a fun mirror maze, and even a 4-D movie.

Sunday was the annual visit of my cousin who is a nun with the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, TN. Her dad had a big open house party for her, and this was the first time I had made it in a while, so it was really great to catch up. Everyone had fun playing with my little ones, especially when they started dancing in the rain. :-)

It was so nice to have a weekend to ourselves, to just enjoy being with family and friends. Once we got back, it was all catch-up and paperwork again, back to the old grind. But we did get some pretty great news: we have renters for our house! They are moving in just 2 weeks after we move out, and have contracted for the whole year! What a huge relief! Our big moving tasks are all wrapping up, and we are getting down to the little details. We are trying to enjoy the time we have left with family and friends, and not stress too much about the moving process. Wish us luck!

4 more for the Corps

Today we had the honor of witnessing my husband reenlisting for another 4 years in the Marine Corps. I missed his last Reenlistment ceremony in 2008, so I was really glad I could attend this one - with all 3 kids we have had since then! I am really grateful for all his hard work and sacrifice, and hearing the compliments from his commanders made me very proud of my husband. _I_ know he's an amazing man and an awesome Marine, but it's nice when someone else acknowledges it. And they even recognized me for my service supporting the Corps with a wife award! It was a very brief, but important ceremony. The Marine Corps has become a central part of our lives, and we are ok with that. We have been through a lot of ups and downs, but have no qualms about the next 4 years, especially since most of them will be spent in Spain!

In some ways 4 years seems like a long time. But the last 3.5 in Jacksonville have gone very quickly. We were busy with 2 deployments, 2 births, and taking care of our house. The next few years should be a little less rushed : no deployments (yay!), no babies planned, and lots of opportunities to travel and see Europe with our family! So here we go, on day one of doing 4 more for the Corps!

Celebrating Independence Day

This week we celebrated our last 4th of July in this country for the next 3 years. I'm sure next year there will be some kind of celebration on our base in Spain, but we wanted to make the most of it this year, especially since our kids had never seen a real fireworks show!

So we started on July 3rd by grilling up burgers and chicken, then taking the kids to the local church to buy fireworks. Yep, we live in the south where fireworks fountains are available everywhere! We let them stay up until dark to set them off. At first Danny was a little nervous about the popping and screaming ones, and he kept covering his mouth in a funny way. Sophie liked them, but was nervous about holding a sparkler in her hand. But they had a great time choosing which ones to light up.

On the 4th we took the whole family to the movies for the first time. We went to see Brave. It was great! They both enjoyed munching their 'small' bags of popcorn that were almost as big as them, and they loved the story too. It's a great movie! Wonderful setting and music, good story of family bonding. That evening we went to the fireworks show on base. Even though we waited a while to go, we still had to wait over an hour until dark. But they had bounce houses and snack vendors, and the crowds weren't bad, so we had a good time. The kids LOVED the fireworks! They were amazed and had such huge smiles. I was so glad to be able to share the celebration with my whole family together this year! It will be exciting to start new traditions in Spain, but some traditions, like our freedom, should always be preserved.

Cooking tortilla!

 

This is NOT Mexican tortilla bread, but delicious, moist Spanish tortilla! Tortilla is one of the most common dishes in Spain, and every family has their own style and unique recipe. It can be made simply with potatoes, onions, and eggs fried in olive oil, (which is the traditional tortilla de patatas), or you can add meat, peppers, and/or vegetables for more flavor. It is usually served as a wedge, resembling a piece of pie, or in small squares as tapas. You can also eat tortilla on a sandwich roll. Even if your first attempt at cooking it is not successful, keep trying! Once you find the right temperature and consistency, and master flipping it out of the pan, it is an easy and delicious dish to prepare.

TORTILLA DE PATATAS RECIPE:

1 Pound of Potatoes

1 Onion

4 Eggs, beaten

Slice the potatoes and onions very thinly. Start by frying them at high heat, then reduce the heat to cook them slowly. After adding the beaten eggs to the skillet, wait a few minutes for the eggs to set. Then, carefully using a large plate held firmly over the frying pan, you flip the entire tortilla on the plate, and then slide it gently back into the frying pan to cook a few minutes more on the other side. Serve warm or cold.

(This is an excerpt from the book 'Welcome to Rota.' The book concludes several recipes for basic Spanish dishes, such as tortilla, gazpacho, paella, sangria, and urta a la rotena.)

Clearing out the house

A few months ago, I felt that we didn't have that much stuff. Everything had a place and was neatly packed away in shelves and closets. Now that I am getting ready for the move, I'm wondering how we ended up with so much STUFF! I have been cleaning out closets, donating old clothes, selling furniture, and going through the garage for 2 months now. I have made over $500 from selling things, thrown out countless bags of trash, shredded piles of papers, and gotten rid of almost all baby paraphernalia. The house is getting lighter, but we still have a lot to do! This week's list includes donating books, selling outdoor items, and packing up my china for storage. Wish me luck!

Making paella!

One of the things we are excited about exploring in Europe is the amazing cuisine! We don't have much experience with Spanish food (that is not Mexican, haha!) and we want our kids to be familiar with some of the dishes before we get there. So we bought a Spanish cookbook, and last night we tried our first new dish : paella! I've eaten paella before, but never cooked it myself, mostly because of the cost of saffron. It is the essential spice to the dish, but costs $10 for a vial! It is harvested by hand from flowers, and they only get 1 tiny thread from each bloom, so that is why it is so costly. Worth it though if you are going to make the dish a lot!
Traditional paella has lots of seafood and snails, but for our first attempt I went with a meat paella that was easier and had a shorter shopping list. Chorizo sausage, chicken, and beef tenderloin in rice. True Spanish rice is a short grain called Bola, but it is not available here, so you can use arborio or even sushi rice. The meal is easier to make than I thought. Chop up peppers and meat, fry them in a pan, add chicken broth, roasted garlic, saffron, and the rice. Boil for a few minutes without stirring, then put the whole pan in a hot oven for 7 minutes. And presto: paella! The kids liked it, and the adults enjoyed it with a glass of Spanish red wine. We will definitely make it again, probably next time with seafood. :-)