I am a big fan of Taza Chocolate and was excited to see them locally at Peregrine Coffee… and even more excited to run into them at the Fancy Food Show in DC. They have just released a new chocolate bar, with 87% cocoa. The first batch came out of the molds last Wednesday and they brought a couple.

As expect, a bar with 87% cocoa has a big chocolate flavor. They roast the nibs a little longer, which you can taste, but there is still a lot of fruitiness. Unlike all of their other chocolate, the chocolate for this bar doesn’t come from the Dominican Republic. This helps give it a different flavor profile. Had I actually taken notes, I could tell you where the chocolate was from, I think it was Bolivia. It was great to run into them and see their chocolate getting a wider distribution. If you see a bar, try the 87%; and if you are in Somerville, go on their tour!

Yesterday I attended the Fancy Food Show, which was a completely overwhelming experience. The expo is put on by the National Association for the Speciality Food Trade. It is basically how buyers from the store you like to shop at get all of the cool items you like to buy. It is fascinating to see how huge this market sector is and how little of it ends up making it to our shelves. The DC Convention center is a huge place, yet the show managed to fill it up.

The show is business to business focused and not open to the general public. Luckily, I was able to get a press pass. I guess blogging has become a little more legitimate. The show focuses on lining up producers with distributors. Some of the products here are only being distributed regionally or in very small stores and come to the show with the hopes of going big time and being distributed by Whole Foods.

There was also a larger presence from different countries trade councils. I actually only heard about the show after someone from the Italian Trade Commission reached out and let me know that the show was in town. The Italian pavilion was massive; they must have had the largest presence at the show. The most impressive thing about the purveyors/producers in the pavilion was the level of quality in the products they offered. They were clearly targeting higher end speciality shops, like Eatly or Dean & Deluca.

Here is my prediction; I think we are going to start seeing a resurgence or renaissance  of Italian products. The Italian product market is currently crowded with Importer labeled products ( Sun of Italy, Cento ) or American products with Italian sounding names (Classico). Italian products that are able to demonstrate their heritage and craftsmanship should be able to easily distinguish themselves. While I think that consumer have become much more savvy and are now very capable of picking up on subtitles, programs like the Denominazione di origine controllata should make it very easy to tell what is the real deal… assuming the D.O.C. maintains its rigor.

On the other side are legacy Italian retailers, like Vace in DC, that have been around forever and have strong roots in the area. The product lines they carry are not the most sophisticated, which is not a bad thing because they are affordable. However, what they carry used to be unique but now there is a lot of overlap between their stock and Whole Food’s, or even Safeway’s. I think there is a real opportunity for these Italian Speciality stores to expand what they carry, start stocking higher end products and do a better job of telling the stories of the products they carry. Upstarts like Eatly show there is a lot of potential here.

Of course a lot has changed since Italian food first trended and the consumer market has become much more global and sophisticated. I think Spain is putting up a pretty good fight in a lot of Italy’s product categories ( mmm… yummy Jamon Iberico ). Spanish food could just be another passing trend though. Either way, it should be interesting and tasty to see how things develop.

Expect a couple more highlights on things I saw at the Show in the next few days.

I have been working on a bit of a side project. DC has great map data online and they also have all of their restaurant inspections online. Unfortunately, the two systems are not connected… so I decided to fix that. I used the excellent software from Development Seed, TileMill, to create a custom map and overlay interactive points on top of it. I scrapped the restaurant inspection site to get all of the information from their inspections. The result is maps.cookography.com

Scroll over the different points to learn more about them and then click on the for details. If you click on the restaurant’s name in the info box it will bring up all of the records for it. From the drop-down up top you can also browse and search through lists of records. I will try to regularly update this with the latest information, but poke me if things are looking stale. Let me know how it works and if you can think of any improvements.

Where we are

Cookogaphy may not be the worlds most popular recipe site, but we are getting a decent amount of traffic. Right now we have one post driving lots of traffic to the site. Other posts get lots of traffic, but do not even come close to comparing to the French Onion soup post. Here is the crazy thing… I have no idea why it is so popular. My guess is that the Title is sort of fun: “The Best French Onion Soup (Ever!)”. For a while it was even the number 1 or 2 result in Google for French Onion Soup., but has dropped recently.

I am not complaining about the posts popularity, but it would be great if things were a little more balanced. Cookography’s traffic ends up being seasonal, based upon when it is French Onion soup weather. Have other bloggers had something similar or do you have more equality between posts? Any thoughts on how to highlight other posts better?

For the most part, the majority of our posts are on recipes we have tried. We don’t really have a cool angle or a type of dish we focus on; instead we just try to document the food we cook. The result is more organic, but lacks a focus.

Going forward

I am looking to switch things up a bit and it would be great to get input from you guys on what we should do. Any hints or thoughts you can offer on any of these topics would be really helpful. The payoff? … a better Cookography!

• Types of Post – Right now we mostly post recipes and the recipes are sort of randomly selected. Should we try to find an angle or narrow our focus? Should we be doing more posts on cooking technique, equipment review, food trends, dining reviews or ingredients? Would you like to see more posts on food blogging itself; such as tutorials on food photography or blogging software?
• Layout – The design for Cookography.com hasn’t changed in a while. Should we do an overhaul? Is the Text readable, too big or small? Do you like the size of the photos, should they be bigger? Is it tough to find things? Do you want an easier way to find recipes? How would you feel about another Ad?
• Posts – So what do you think of the writing? Do you hate our terrible grammar/spelling? What do you think of the text before the recipe? Would you like to have a story about why we chose the recipe, tips on cooking the recipe and/or our  thoughts on how it came out? Do we have to much or too little writing in each post? Do we have too many photos, not enough?
• Comments – We don’t seem to get many comments… why is that? Are the posts not engaging? Is there something technical that makes it a hassle?  Is there something we should change about the design or layout that would make you want to post more? Should we be replying to more comments?
• Open Mic – Also feel free to tells us other thing that are not working. Anything you want changed or added? Let us know!

Please leave a comment and let us know what you think! Also, feel free to tell us we are awesome and don’t need to change a thing :)

Hooray! We made it to Round 3 of Project Food Blog! Thanks everyone for your help making it this far. The challenge for Round 3 is to host a Luxury Dinner Party.

When the wheels started turning on dinner ideas I thought something elaborate like Beef Wellington would be both fun to try making and luxurious. I started working out a menu and game plan, and slowly realized that this approach could be a little tricky now that we have 9 month old, Elena. Elaborate dishes with intricate and involved steps can be a little tricky when you are trying to keep tabs on a fast crawler.

Our menu

It was clear that traditional luxury would not be an option for any dinner we were hosting. After 9 months of hurried meals and opportunistic eating, luxury needed to be re-baselined. Instead focusing on time consuming dishes that would allow us to display our culinary skills with the goal of impressing and wowing our friends, I decided to focus on a meal that could be prepared in stages and dishes that could be shared with our kid. The luxuries of this meal would be simpler, they would be getting to have friends around our table and being able to share a meal that could be enjoyed by even the youngest. This is a pretty far cry from the caviar and Champagne most people would associate with luxurious eating, and 9 months ago we might have agreed. However these days, a thoughtful meal uninterrupted by fussing seems pretty luxurious to us.

Of course making this dinner a success would require inviting guests who would be of similar mind. Luckily our friends Pete and Jocelyn have a daughter, Emily, who is only two weeks older than Elena. Pete was stuck catching up on yard work, but Jocelyn and Emily were able to attend.

Working together we came up with a menu of fall foods, all which would be easy to share with the kids and could be prepared ahead of time. We decided to have butternut squash risotto as the main dish, with some sort of baked apple dish for desert. With a basic menu concept in mind, we headed off to the Farmers’ Market to pickup some apples and to our community garden to pick some herbs. To round out the menu, we decided to have a Fall salad and make a batch of Gougeres.

The more work you can get done ahead of time, the more time you will have to hang out when people actually show up. The dishes we made could be mostly prepared ahead of time and were easily broken down into distinct stages. Having distinct stages in preparation is really helpful when you only have 5 minute blocks of usefulness to work with.

The Game Plan:

Gougeres: Gougeres are sort of like French cheese balls. They are made with a buttery, cheesy dough that puffs up when it bakes. The best part about them is that the dough can be made ahead of time and kept in a ziploc bag in the fridge. When you are ready to bake them, simply cut a off the bag, pipe it onto a tray and bake.

Fall Salad: (Pre-washed mixed greens, seedless red grapes, feta and toasted pecans.) Salads are pretty easy to make ahead of time and they keep well in the fridge undressed. Also make the dressing ahead of time and simply add it right before serving. I roasted the pecans while the oven was preheating for the other courses.

Butternut Squash Risotto: Risotto can take a while to make, but you get plenty of breaks throughout the process. When making risotto you add a cup of broth at a time and wait for it to be absorb by the rice. This gives you a break to wrestle a kid away from breakable objects or put the finishing touches on another course. With this dish, the butternut squash can be cooked ahead of time.

Apple Galette: This is like a rustic apple tart, cooked on a baking sheet instead of a tart tin. This dish can also be prepared in a number of stages. The apples can be peeled, sliced and prepped and then placed in the fridge. The crust can be made and filled with the apples and also kept in the fridge until it is ready to be baked.

Everything we made was easy to make kid friendly with a little slicing and dicing. Not only does this mean not having to worry about preparing another dish, but it is also great being able to share the food you eat with your kid–a definite win-win.

All of this planning and preparation paid off! While there was still stuff to do in the kitchen, like stirring the risotto, Carolyn and I were able to be social and hang out. It was nice to have grown-up conversations, even though the topics were more often than not about kids.

Of course none of this would matter if things did not end up tasting good. Luckily this was not the case! Both Emily and Elena gobbled up everything we gave them and since they haven’t quite figured out politeness, this is a pretty good sign.

For us, this was truly a luxurious dinner. Carolyn and I got to catch up with friends, Elena and Emily got to “goobber” around and we all got to eat a great meal. Spending the time to prepare a large meal and have people over may seem like an indulgence to many parents, but with a little planning and some understanding guests it is a truly rewarding experience.

Note: There is a word limit for the contest, so I will post the recipes for the risotto and galette latter this week. Luckily for you, we made gougeres for Thanksgiving and already have that recipe up.

Of course I took way too many photos…babies & food, can you blame me? Here are some bonus photos:

If you haven’t figured it out by now, we sort of think Jose Andres is awesome. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to catch a talk given by Jose Andres & Vint Cerf (the guy who helped invent the internet). The talk was at Google DC, the place were Vint works, and covered everything from food policy, to the World Cup, to immigration. Having these two together on stage is really proof of how DC has transformed into a Hub for policy, culture and technology.

Google has posted a video of the talk. You should definitely watch it all the way through. Personally I think Jose represents one of the most important voices on food issues. He is intelligent and knowledgable on, but humble and realistic in a way most other voices are not. There is great bit on the Farm Bill towards the end that shouldn’t be missed. However my favorite part was the food samples we got to try after the talk…

One of my favorite dishes at Jaleo, a delicious Spanish restaurant in DC, is the pulpo a la gallega. It is a Galician dish of boiled octopus served with a generous amount of olive oil and pimenton. However, in thanks to the Soccer match predicting ability of Paul the Octopus, Jose Andres has taken octopus off the menu at Jaleo. It seems like a fitting tribute… I just hope it is not permanent!

We went to the Jaleo in DC to watch the Finals. It was a rocking party made extra crazy by the fact that it isn’t really a sports bar. Jose Andres had promised a round of champange if Spain won. We assume that happened because we had to take Elena home early and missed the winning goal by a couple of minutes. I am not a huge soccer fan, but that was the most fun I have had watching soccer… and who would have thought that that would happen at a tapas restaurant!

PS – Those rooting for the Netherlands, you can give our recipe for canned octopus a try!

Good news loyal readers… we just got a plot in our local community garden! Back we had a balcony we used to grow basil and cherry, but now the sky (or our 4′ plot) is the limit.

I want to branch out from this. My plan is to go for some herbs and other things that cost a lot in the store. Does anyone else have any better ideas? Let us know in the comments… especially all you bloggers in Adams Morgan, you might get some of the haul.

Well, the Cookography staff just grew by one. Carolyn and I had a beautiful baby girl last week, named Elena. Posts may slow down a little as we get used to this new eater and her demanding feeding schedule. We will keep Cookography going though and promise not to have too many baby food related posts.

“Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater” (Matthew Amster-Burton)

That said, I just finished a great book on the adventures of infants and toddlers. Hungry Monkey is written by a dad in Seattle who has a daughter that is an adventurous eater. It was a very encouraging read and he has great advice on foods that both you and your kid can enjoy. Basically, just try mashing up food into non-chokable pieces and see if the kid likes it. His daughter even liked hot food and sushi! It is a great story of how you can share things you like with kids even if they are very young. The copy I read was from the library but I am going to buy one because it is full of easy recipes and cooking tips for harried parents and an adventurous eater kid. He also has a great blog here, which is worth the read.

One of the great benefits of living in DC are all the unexpected adventures. The opening of a farmers’ market two block from my office ends up being a press event with First Lady Michelle Obama, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty showing up…along with plenty of metal detectors and trench-coated Secret Service officers. It was an odd combination of “In the Line of Fire” meets “Babe the Pig.”

This White House Market was setup by FreshFarm Markets. I walked by the market on the way to a meeting and twittered (@Cookography) about all the metal detectors being setup. The FreshFarm Folks (@FRESHFARMMktsDC) tweeted right back with the tip. Twitter is clearly a powerful tool!

It was a great event and everyone who spoke talked about the importance of sustainable agriculture and accessible good food. Clearly there is a real change a foot when you see this level of attention being paid to improving the food we eat and the way we produce it. Of course compared to the goliath Ag industry, it is a very small gesture, but hopefully it represents a real shift in the way the nation looks at the importance of food.

DC Rules!

(So there, the title really says it all. This is a simple and refreshing way to enjoy the summer. All you have to do is add some cucumber slices to a pitcher of cold, filtered water. Let it sit for a couple of hours and you have one of the most refreshing summer drinks there is. It’s like being at a spa, but in your own home.)

(Can anyone guess where we “acquired” this pint glass from? Big bonus points if you can…)

This was a great event that we were fortunate enough to attend, thanks to Foodbuzz! Cochon 555 was put together by Taste Network to promote Heritage Breed Pigs. I am going to blather on a lot and talk about how fun it was, however the one thing you should remember is that a good pig, prepared well, is damn tasty!

Before the main event there was a reception to help get things started. Market Salamander provided some great appetizers. They had a cured pork chop with melon and bacon dipped in chocolate.

Our favorite local purveyor of cheese, Cowgirl Creamery, was there with quite a spread. They even put out some pork rinds, in keeping with the theme. If you are near their store at 919 F Street around lunch time, stop by for a sandwich. You will not be disappointed.

Domaine de Canton, makers of a ginger liqueur, was there mixing up cocktails. I tried a mojitio inspired one, which was very refreshing.

Before the event kicked off there was a short run down on how things would work. There were separate stations, manned by 5 different local chefs and their team, each given a pig with which to work their magic. There was: Brain McBride from Blue Duck Tavern, RJ Cooper from Vidalia, Nicholas Stefanelli from Mio, Jamie Leeds from Commonwealth Gastropub, and John Manolatos from Cashion’s Eat Place. If you are not from DC, these are all really great restaurants! Each team would serve until they ran out of pig, so you had to be a little strategic. There was a panel of expert judges, and all the attendees got to cast a ballot…but more on the voting later, on to the food!

Oh yea, and in the front of the room Trey Massey gave a demonstration on how to break down a pig. It was actually really interesting. I wish I could have caught more of it, but I was too busy eating.

The first station we stopped at was Mio’s. They are right next to where I work, and sort of new to the scene so I was pulling for them. They did not disappoint, and used almost every part of the pig in the process. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of my favorite dish of theirs…bacon ice cream topped with peanuts. If they start selling this regularly, I know what I will be doing for lunch during the week!

The pig came apart pretty quickly; it is amazing what a pro can do.

Our next stop was at Commonwealth. It is a gastropub that opened a little ways from our house. Even though it is close, we have only made it over there once; we’re a little lazy. Jamie Leeds opened it after opening Hank’s Oyster bar, which is darn tasty.

Anyhow, they were serving up a brioche open sandwich that kicked ass. They also had a slice of head cheese on toast, which was delicious especially if you didn’t focus on where it came from.

After that we swung by Cashion’s Eat Place, which is an Adam’s Morgan institution and literally around the corner from us. They were only serving up one dish when we swung by, a spicy pork salad, but it was good. They may have had more out earlier, but we missed it. They are our home team, so I really wanted to try more dishes from them. I guess we will just have to swing by the restaurant more often.

The whole event was in a ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in DC. I gotta wonder if the room smelled like bacon afterward. The smell should liven up any business conference they hold there tomorrow morning.

Moving along we stopped by the Blue Duck Tavern table next. Carolyn had her birthday dinner there a couple of years ago and the food was excellent.

For the event they were serving an amazing steamed pork bun (the only Asian themed dish we saw) and a roasted pork roll with a great purple sauerkraut. They also had a peach bourbon cocktail, topped with a bacon foam…unfortunately they ran out of the foam by the time we got there.

Our final stop was at Vidalia’s table. Unfortunately all those delicious looking plates that they were preparing were for the judges. It looked like they were racing against the clock to get everything done in time.

Since this was towards the end, they had run out of a bunch of stuff, but we did get to sample a few. One of my favorites was a bacon chocolate chip cookie. Weird, but really good.

This is how we are more accustomed to seeing a pig:

In addition to all of the pig stations, there were also 5 wineries giving pours. There was Patz & Hall, Miner Family Vineyards, Arcadian Winery, Pax Wine Cellars, and Bonny Doon Vineyards. We didn’t really do a great job of trying all the wines, but one we both liked was the Pinot Noir from Arcadian.

We also got to meet a bunch of the local food bloggers. It was a lot of fun being able to meet the people behind the blogs you read.

After all this sampling it was time to vote for our favorites. I went for Commonwealth and Carolyn went for Mio.

After a dramatic ceremony, they announced the winner…Vadalia! The samples we tried from Vadalia were good, I just wish we had gotten there earlier so we could have tried more!

Cochon 555 was a lot of fun. Having to pay full price to go would have been a little tough, since it is as much as a really nice meal. However if you think of it as getting to eat at 5 different restaurants all with great wine pairings, it is really pretty reasonable. All I know is that we spent 4 hours eating pork… really good pork!

EcoFriendly Foods provided all of the pigs and I will definitely be heading down to the Dupont Farmer’s Market next Sunday to buy some meat from them.

COCHON 555 – This should be a pork filled event this Sunday in DC. It is at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. There will be 5 chefs cooking up 5 pigs in different ways, all vying for the title Prince of Pork. More information is available here, there is an additional event in San Fran, so check it out. It looks like you can get tickets for a little cheaper here.

The National Gallery of Art in DC is having a special exhibit on Spanish art…and they are having a special Spanish menu in their cafe that is prepared by Jose Andres. Since we are such huge fans of Jose Andres we are of course going to check it out. More information is available here.

Ever since our trip to Greece we have been big fans of Greek-style yogurt. And we have always been huge fans of gifts. So when Stonyfield Farms sent us coupons for free yogurt we were super excited. Instead of hoarding all this goodness, we thought it would be nice to share. Unfortunately we are not that nice and we are going to make you work for it…

Announcing Cookography’s first contest: The Great Greek Yogurt Haiku Contest!

Simply write a haiku about: Yogurt, Vermont (Stonyfield is in Vermont, and we love Vermont), and/or Greece (we also love Greece!) It has to be a proper haiku (5-7-5) and left as a comment to this post by May 31, Midnight EST. We will award the best entry a bunch of coupons for free yogurt, and we will give the runner-up just a couple.

You only have one week, so hurry!! If no one enters we have no problem keeping all the coupons for ourselves!

If you are scared that if you win you might end up with more yogurt than you know what to do with…don’t worry! While Greek yogurt tastes great eaten right from the container, it is also great for cooking. Use it instead of sour cream when making dips or on top of Greek Shrimp with Feta.

CORRECTION (In Haiku Form):

While Vermont is swell,

Stonyfield’s from New Hampshire

Both treat foodies well

Spike Mendelsohn, Season 4, and Carla Hall, Season 5, were cooking up a pork tortilla something in Adams Morgan on Saturday. We went down for the early demo at 10:30 am. Although we didn’t get seats under the tent, we had a good view from the side and were able to get some good photos. Even got autographs. Carla did most of the cooking, and Spike did the prep work.

Unfortunately, we did not get to try or witness the make-your-own smoothie by pedaling a bike.

PS – We stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast and to try the new McCafe. Ordered iced lattes, which took forever for them to make, and ended up being regular lattes, not iced. They tasted OK, but I think the Starbucks lattes are better. We have 2 coupons for free McCafe drinks, so we will give it another try, but based on this first experience, Starbucks has nothing to worry about!

Ga-wow, this is very amazing! I just found out that you can watch all of Season 1 of Made in Spain online. If you remember correctly we are slightly obsessed and own both Season 1 and 2. However, for anyone out there who has yet to watch, give it a try!

It is available on Hulu.com and you do not need an account to watch!

Watch

This year we decided to come up with a list of culinary resolutions. It is really a list of things we keep meaning to get around to, but need to publish the list to make sure we actually do.

Anyhow, I just wanted to do a quick update on how we are doing and an also update the list of our friends who came up with culinary resolutions of their own.

So far we have managed to make chicken piccata and a lot of soup (more posts to come!). We also made a wheat berry dish, so that is a good start for eating more grains. Of course we will keep at it though and, while we did finally make it to Mama Ayesha, we still have to visit more local restaurants.

A bunch of other local bloggers and friends also came up with resolutions. Check them out, maybe they will inspire you to take on some challenging dishes or try something new.

• Pete from Pete Bakes – I think I have to steal the item about visiting Thai X-ing. I am also jealous because his list got tons of comments! :)
• Clay and Zach from The Bitten Word – First off, I think they have a great concept for a blog. They also came up with great list and I am really hoping they live up to the Short Rib resolution because it is the perfect weather for them.
• Sarah from The District Domestic – Not only does Sarah have a great food website, but she also runs a custom stationary studio. One of the items she offers is a custom recipe box…very impressive!
• Shaw Girl – is another local blogger that came up with a list and it looks like she has already redesigned her blog!
• Katya from Second Dinner – Just posted her list, but it does seem impressive! Her baking is equally impressive.

FoodBuzz is an online social community of sorts for people who like food. There are recipes and restaurant reviews on their Web page. If you are a member of FoodBuzz, add Cookography as a friend. Right now we have 47 friends, which might be more than real life.

FoodBuzz also pays us a small amount of money for the ad you see on the right hand side. It is not a ton, but it adds up! I was just able to get a new camera (a Canon 50D) thanks to this extra cash. I will post a review of the camera in a little from the point of view of a food blogger.

FoodBuzz has also sent us a lot of cool things, and I thought it would be fun/dorky to get them all into one photo. So far I have gotten an apron, a silicon spatula and a canvas shopping bag. We love free things!

They have also started a program that lets you try out new products before they go to market. The first thing they sent out are new granola bars from Quaker Oats. They are called True Delights and come in 3 flavors:

• Dark chocolate raspberry almond
• Honey roasted cashew mixed berry
• Toasted coconut banana macadamia nut

So how are they, you ask? Well, the flavor names are REALLY long, but luckily they taste good. They are sort of like granola bars for adults. The banana one tastes really banana-y, but I love the Banana Bread flavored instant oatmeal so I am not complaining. They are a little bigger than standard bars, and come in at 140 calories. For me, that is the perfect size to fill me up as an afternoon snack. I don’t usually buy granola bars, but if I did, I think I would pick these up over a standard pack. They are a little more grown-up. You can get a free sample here.

The other big question is if giving out free things to bloggers is a good marketing move. I love free things, so of course I like it. Since I am not a journalist, I am not really concerned with objectivity. At the same time I don’t really have to worry about ad-sales or catchy headlines. I am very lazy, so if I actually manage to post on something it is because I actually like or dislike the product. It will be interesting to see what happens with this trend.

Last year we brought you The Best of Cookography 2007 and we wouldn’t let you down this year. Presenting: The Best of Cookography 2008! We have collected some of our favorite recipes from the last year and compiled them into a nice looking PDF. Print it out and add it to your cookbook shelf.

The Best of Cookography 2008

Web Version – 1.4mb

Print Version – 8.2mb

We have already professed our love of Jose Andres – his restaurants, his food, his TV show etc. Well, between our birthdays (November and January) and Christmas we’re pretty much set with Jose Andres paraphernalia.

Carolyn got the Made in Spain season 1 and 2 DVDs for her birthday from her brother. Then, we were watching Jose on the PBS telethon and got sucked in to giving $60, for which we received a deck of tapas recipe cards. It was wrapped up and put under the Christmas tree. Finally, Luke received the Made in Spain cookbook and 2 pounds of jamon serrano from La Tienda for his birthday. As Jose would say…Ga-wow! That is Amazing!

New favorite TV Show: Spain…on the Road Again. Watch Mario Batali, Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Bittman bounce around Spain.

Made In Spain

Made in Spain Season 2

Made in Spain: Spanish Dishes for the American Kitchen

Spain… On The Road Again