You might be wondering why I would be posting a recipe for Mona de Pascua now. In my defense, I will say that we ate the monas (also called panquemados) on Easter Monday, as it is tradition in Spain. And also in my defense I will say that Easter started on Sunday, but it hasn’t ended yet. In fact, it will not end until Pentecost, which this year (more…)
This is a very special week in my home city of Valencia, Spain, where every March, Spring and Fallas seem to arrive together. From March 12 to March 19, the city stops its daily business to celebrate this festival. In a ceremony called la plantà, the setting, 700 colorful statues are mounted throughout the city, in every square and street crossing. Fallas is the name of the festival, but it’s also the name of these statues, real works of art, built each year for the occasion. There are 368 children’s fallas and 370 full-scale fallas. These can stand as tall as 90 feet, and they portray popular characters, like celebrities and politicians. The children’s fallas represent cartoon characters. With the unusual political situation that Spain is living at present, many fallas this year portray our most popular politicians, in very humorous situations. Thick hot chocolate for La Fallas is the drink of choice, particularly when accompanying it with buñuelos, sweet fritters (click here for the recipe for apple fritters).
At the end of February and beginning of March, one week holds two birthdays in our family of five. You will then understand that some Lenten promises take a break, and we pause to celebrate. Two cakes, two special meals, and a whole week of anticipation and celebration. This year, in fact, those two birthdays are (more…)
This is not the post I was going to do for this week. In fact, this post was not even planned. What was planned, and what is almost finished, (as you will soon see), is a different recipe, of one of my favorite tapas. But Matthew came home this weekend, almost by surprise (we had known for just a few days), and we had to celebrate. Add to it (more…)
Have you noticed how, more often than not, the end of something good only means the beginning of something better? It happens to me everytime I bake: the end of a good dessert brings me inspiration for the next. But most often, it’s the ingredients, or rather, what’s left, the scraps and by-products, that are the spark (more…)
As promised in the Velvety Lemon Tart post, this week I’m also sharing the recipe for Strawberry Tartlets. The recipe for the crust is the same as the one for the lemon tart —no wonder, you’ll say, considering that I used the leftover dough from the lemon tart! However, because the strawberry tartlets will be smaller, the time in (more…)
I grew up surrounded by orange trees. Almost literally! The name of the place was El Taroncheral, and the property, an expansive orange tree grove that included a large stucco dwelling and a circular basin where rain and well water for irrigation were collected. Eventually, three houses where built: I grew up in one of the houses.
Taroncheral, by the way, (more…)
Two events mark the beginning of the Christmas season at our house. The first is the set up of the Nativity Scene. In true Spanish tradition, our Nativity Scene includes the main characters, namely Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in the manger, and the Three Kings making their way to Bethlehem. But our Nativity Scene also (more…)
I didn’t think I would be including the recipe for quince paste this early in the life of Mama Ía blog. Don’t get me wrong, I love quince paste, but I understand it might not be a dish my American friends would eat often, as it is the case in Spain. Quince paste is very popular in Spain, and it’s usually eaten with cured manchego cheese, or with fresh (more…)
I find it interesting to see how this blog thing is working out. Take this week, for instance. I had a few ideas in my head as to what to make for this week’s post. I could choose from a number of recipes that included Fall vegetables —the beautiful pumpkins, or butternut squash, sweet potatoes, delicata or acorn squash. I hadn’t made up my mind yet, waiting to see what peaked my interest. (more…)
