Did I Just Cheat on Italy? Part Two

Being that we were flying into Spain for free and because we were going off-season and managed to pick up a Madrid apartment on Air B and B for an insanely low price, we decided to make this trip short, sweet and focused on fact finding; kind of like meeting for coffee on your first date.  We were looking to preserve vacation time for a longer trip later in the year, so we left on the Thursday night flight of a Monday holiday weekend, flew overnight to Madrid and had a Friday through Tuesday trip that cost us only two vacation days.

Flying on an overnight flight deposits you in the country of your choice at some point in the morning (depending on where you fly to and from).  This was a process that we were familiar with from making the overnight flight from JFK to Fiumicino in Rome.  We knew that we had to do our best to sleep on the plane. A lifelong fidget, I have never been very good at this, but I usually land at my destination filled with so much adreneline, that I can hit the ground running and make it to mid-afternoon before I crash hard and need a nap. 

When we de-planed and headed through Barajas airport in Madrid, the first billboard that I saw was this, which tickled me and somehow made me feel instantly at home.  I am a sucker for a sense of humor.

We had short-listed certain foods and attractions for our five day trip and the first thing that was on our mind were churros. Let me start by saying, there are better churros and worse churros, but to me, there is no such thing as bad churros.  Our first stop was to a chain type churro shop on the way to our apartment and with luggage in hand, we rolled our bags in and got our first churro of the trip.  Maybe because we were hungry or maybe because they were actually good, we really enjoyed them.  We knew that there might be better ones in our future as we had plans to hit San Gines for their exceptionally rich and rightfully famous hot chocolate later in the trip, but we needed to break the seal on our Madrid vacation immediately.

The first churro is good, even if it's not the best churro.

We did not hold it against our first churro shop that they sell a "Pikachurro"

Being that it was January, there was not as much outdoor dining and cafe seating as there normally would be, but I give the shop owners credit for their creative approach to offering a warm place to sit outside for their hardier patrons.  Space heaters and furry blankets were a common sight.

After breakfast, we checked into our Air B&B and set out for the first sight on our agenda:  The Mercado de San Miguel.  We arrived at this beautiful glass jewel box of a market at 11:00 am and found it busy and full of people that had no qualms about having wine and vermut prior to lunch hour; we fell in line. I can easily say that this was love at first sight.  This was to be the first of three visits that we would make to the market while in Madrid. We were captivated by this place for the variety of food and drink that was available and for the sights, sounds and smells that filled the air. 

Whipped Burrata. Need I say more?

So many of the tapas that are available in the market are savory, umami-bombs that pair amazingly well with wine and vermut.

Stunning produce.

This looked like art to me.

Vermut at 11:00 am? Don't mind if I do.

On tap, as it should be.

San Miguel Market at night

When we were doing research for our Spain trip, my husband was bingeing on travel videos and I had walked through the room while he was watching one and saw the statue of "El oso y el madroño", which is a bear eating strawberries.  Seeing it quickly out of the corner of my eye, I yelled back to him, "what is that? A cat eating broccoli?".  That is what we referred to this famous statue in Puerta Del Sol as for the entire trip.  Try and get that image out of your head. You're welcome.

The "cat eating broccoli" statue that is actually a bear eating strawberries.

Since we were doing a quick trip, we felt that at least one guided tour would be beneficial, so we booked a Tapas and History Crawl with Devour Tours, which was fantastic.  I would highly recommend this tour company for their expertise and professionalism. We ate and drank across four bars until we thought we were going to burst. The tour was filled with great information and even better food.

We also learned on our trip that Madrid has casinos.  The most unassuming, quiet and elegant casinos that I have ever been in. So quiet and unassuming that they were almost not fun, but that is not what we went for.  What we went for was food, drink, art, architecture and churros.  We got all of that and more, packing in a ton of fun in a five day trip.  

Stunning.

One of several Patatas Bravas.  This one was from "Las Bravas".

Gran Via in all it's splendor.

La Hora de Vermut, which is technically between lunch and dinner but actually all day, every day.

My first lambchop since I was about seven. Amazing.

Someone or perhaps some thousands of people have been rubbing his behind ( I see your hiney, so bright and shiny....).

We came home from this five day trip to Madrid completely satisfied and ready to go back.  Will it supplant Italy as our number one go-to?  No, but hopefully, it will serve as an add-on to a trip to Italy as country hopping is easy and inexpensive within Europe, thanks to carriers like Easy Jet.  Next time, Granada and Seville.  But first, I have to make sure that Rome isn't mad at me. I plan on some make-up pasta and a nice Brunello.

P.S. The churros and hot chocolate at San Gines were everything.  This alone was worth the trip.

Did I Just Cheat on Italy? Part one...

It wasn't really planned. It just sort of happened...or at least that's what I told myself.

After years of traveling for both business and pleasure, my husband and I finally racked up enough frequent flyer miles to book a trip outside the country; at the same time. That had never happened before, one or both of our flights were always on our dime . And it would seem like the obvious choice that we would jump on the horn to Delta Airlines and arrange what we had been faithfully doing for the last ten years; a trip to Italy. As a matter of fact, we traveled to Italy so often that when I responded to my mother's inquiry of "where are you going on vacation this year?" with Italy, she would roll her eyes and say "ugh, again?". But there are no limits to my love of Italy. There were regions still to be discovered and our favorite places, like Rome and Palermo magically offered up surprises and new experiences with every visit. So why did we plunk those miles down on a trip to Spain?

Strangely, it had nothing at all to do with Italy, which is kind of like saying "baby, it's not you, it's me". For years, our neice has been extolling the virtues of Spain, having studied there for two semesters and travelled the entire country. She knew that the wine and tapas culture of Spain was a perfect fit for us, but we had previously been in such a passionate affair with Italy, that we couldn't concieve of a plane ride that delivered us to anywhere but back to her loving arms. Honestly, I blame it on Japan (needle scratch). Yes, Japan.

In September of 2017, my husband took a two week business trip to Japan. Accompanying him on this trip was a hulking a six foot six, bald headed, goateed giant of a computer programmer named Dale, who had never left the country before. Always one to immerse in the local culture and do his travel homework, my husband took it as his duty to introduce Dale to the sights sounds and tastes of Japan. In many ways, this posed new challenges to be solved and broke him of the comfort and complacency that we felt when travelling to Italy. Shortly after that trip, he started to tiptoe into research about Spain.

It all began very innocently. A YouTube video here, a dinner at a local Spanish restaurant there. We even took another trip to Italy in Spring of '18, which provided the mileage boost that we needed to get the free tickets. Before we knew it, we were on the seven hour flight to Madrid.

Sitting here, one month post-trip, all I can think about is how and when we can go back. I am completely torn between two lovers and definitely feeling like a fool. To be continued...

New Year 2019 Post - Redux

This was originally posted on my Wix blog under the title 2019:

Oh hey, 2019. I didn't see you there. I wasn't really expecting you to be up this early. Come sit with me (pats couch cushion).

Listen, I don't want to lay any heavy responsibility on you so early in the year, but we need to talk. No, no, don't get up. Please, stay and hear me out. It's important that you hear what I have to say.

Now, I understand that you are not responsible for the sins of the years that preceded you, but I do believe that you need to be cognizant of their missteps and mindful not to repeat their more problematic actions. Yes, yes, I understand that you had nothing to do with the events of the past, but their legacy is not good and I see this as your opportunity to prove that you are not all the same.

Let's start with 2018. I know that you two are close and I don't want to speak ill of the past, but, did you see the wave of amazing people that 2018 took? Anthony Bourdain? Aretha? Don't you think it was a little selfish to take so many talented people in one year? And 2018 took one of my own inner circle, far too soon. What the hell was that about? I can't get past the way that 2018 took from us. The greed is astounding. The last three years, in fact have allowed loss from attacks of hate and terror that never should have happened. Have these years no shame in their reckless permissiveness of hate and rage?

2019, you need to be the year that makes a shift away from hate, that stops freight train of negative emotion that is fueling our national discourse and making us mistrustful of others and of one another. It sits squarely on your shoulders to see that we make a move toward kindness, toward unity and toward inclusion. I know that it is a big responsibility, but I am confident that you can do it. My greatest New Year's wish is that you find the confidence in yourself to make it happen. Now go make me proud and if you find yourself having moments of doubt, just come sit with me again and I'll talk you through it. You can do it. Prove me right. Please?

Holiday 2018 Post Redeux

This was originally posted on my Wix blog, under the title "Turkeys, Elves and the Definition of Insanity":

Almost every year, I find myself hosting Christmas for my large, extended family. Either by my own hand or by my husband generously electing me to the post of party queen, every December plays out like the last. Part of my problem is that I hate uncomfortable silences and when the question of who will be hosting Christmas starts to get thrown around in the months leading up to December, the silence of the response is usually deafening. I find myself twisting uncomfortably in the silence and when I no longer take the cricket-song that I hear through the hollow void of replies, I blurt out my bid for it. This has resulted in me winning 27 out of 27times, uncontested. Tell them what I won Johnny: Announcer voice: You've won five days of cleaning, seven trips to the grocery store, nine hours of cooking, three days of decorating, two trips to the liquor store, a beer run, a trip to the party store and two insanely swollen feet!

Luckily, the same does not hold true with Thanksgiving. My sister-in-law loves to do Thanksgiving and I would go as far as to say that she has a lock on the holiday. Thanksgiving is the one holiday of the year that I can guarantee that I can be a guest and that my feet won't swell and throb like two Smithfield hams at the end of the day. It's a holiday where I get a job or a few jobs and I am joyful in the execution of these jobs. You want a sweet potato casserole? I'm your girl. What's that you say? A Chocolate Cream pie? Why of course and I'll throw in a Lemon Pound Cake for good measure.

This year, I was so blissful in my guesting duties that I made a pie, a cake, the Serious Eats Hassleback Potato Gratin (you MUST! Really!) and I had energy leftover to throw together a spur of the moment cranberry sauce. It's easy to be a sport when you haven't been washing floors, scrubbing toilets, vacuuming, dusting and pulling the gizzards out of the ass-end of a giant bird for the last 48 hours.

The burden of hosting is something that is not completely understood by my husband, who seems to think that hosting consists of making a beer run and having the freedom to start cocktail hour earlier than would be socially acceptable on any other day of the year. Every year he looks at me on the morning after a Christmas soiree in almost complete confusion, as I sit with my feet up, on the verge of tears, with a combination of bewilderment and exhaustion on my face over having survived the hosting of another family Christmas celebration. Every year, it pushes me to the brink and every year (like the definition of insanity), I do it again, expecting a different result. The need for change is clearly on me.

So this year, I will wait in discomfort for someone to throw their Santa hat into the ring. I am not going to volunteer, no matter how deafening the silence becomes. I will duct tape my own mouth closed, if need be. I will be resolute in my decision to stand down. But...you might want to check my feet on December 26th. If they are spilling out of my shoes and pulsating like a defective neon sign, then my resolution wasn't worth the Christmas wrapping it was written on.

March 17 2019 P.S. - I did not cave. Man, my feet feel good!

Sooooo...Turns Out Wix is Not For Me

I tried, really I did.  But, having my own domain name was not worth all that I sacrificed by being on the Wix platform. Without going into a litany of all the things that I did not like, suffice to say that the platform and interface were not for me.  So, I'm back.  Back where it all started years ago and back from my cookbook inspired mini-hiaitus from blogging.

I am going to port over the postings that I wrote on my Wix blog and share them here with a giant glass of "I was wrong" and a side dish of "Mea culpa".

The things you learn when you strike out on your own (SMH)...