Braised Green Beans in Smoky Tomato Sauce —and the town of Sant Mateu
The weather has been incredibly cold and snowy this winter across much of the United States (even in Florida!). And it’s not over yet! February just ended, so there could be even some more snow and cold temperatures in store for us. In these weather conditions, there are some foods that I crave: soups, stews, and rich, filling vegetables, like this braised greens beans in smoky tomato sauce that is so idiosyncratically Spanish, it almost transports me there.
Borrull Palace, Sant Mateu
You can eat it as an accompaniment to any grilled fish, chicken or meat, but you can also have it as a hearty lunch, scooping up the delicious tomato sauce with pieces of crusty bread. Yum!
This cold winter is making me long for summer, and even though it is still a few months away (we just started the season of Lent!), I want to dream of it by writing about the beautiful town of Sant Mateu —San Mateo in Spanish, Saint Matthew in English—to accompany the recipe of braised beans with smoky tomato sauce. (more…)
If November 2024 started with a trip to London and Edinburgh, November 2025 hasn’t lagged behind in excitement, with a trip to beautiful Maui, in the Hawaii archipelago. A perfect excuse to accompany this post with a celebratory dish, beef shank with wine and pimentón sauce.
But don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying beef shank with wine and pimentón sauce should only be made for a special occasion. It’s just that it’s one of those dishes that looks beautiful on your plate and at the same time, feels comforting — the kind of dish your children coming home for the holidays are craving and will appreciate. 
While searching on my blog, I realized that I don’t have any post about the most important festival in Onteniente, my hometown, las Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos, the Moors and Christians Festival! Many recipes can be related to this post, so it was hard to choose, but I decided on coca de calabaza, pumpkin coca, a sweet torta popular in my region,
Coca de calabaza is a pretty simple coca, it includes only a few ingredients. It is eaten by itself, like a morning snack or an afternoon merienda, but I also like to eat it as a light lunch —never mind the sugar in it, the pumpkin 
Oranges and almonds for a celebratory post: Mama Ía is 10 years old!
What could be more appropriate than a roast recipe to accompany a post about the UK? Rosemary and thyme standing beef rib roast with red wine jus is the recipe and Edinburgh, Scotland, the destination!
But first, about this standing beef rib roast. Standing beef rib roast is not an inexpensive dish, I have to warn you. That is why I’m 
Thanksgiving came late this year, so as I kept basting the turkey every thirty minutes, I was already thinking of recipes for Christmas. With the aroma of the bird roasting in the oven, football on TV as the background sound and the sight of two of my children relaxing on the sofa —a heavenly picture, given that they had not been home since the summer—, my mind kept going back to …yule log!
The eggs in this recipe don’t look perfect but, who cares! They will be broken up just before serving to blend their flavor and texture to that of the other ingredients in the dish. They are huevos rotos, broken eggs, after all.
Thanksgiving will be in just a couple of months, so it is not too early to start thinking and planning for it. In my case, it means getting flights for my sons to come home! But it also means starting to think about delicious meals to prepare while they are home. I think they are going to love this chocolate and coffee mousse cake. It could be made for the big day, but also for any of the other few days they will be home, since each of those days will be precious and celebratory.
I promised in 
What a whirlwind the last few months have been. There’s been travel (a lot of it!), for celebrations, for vacation and for soccer. But most importantly, there have been milestones and “the last of” for my son David. I’ve been able to prepare a few recipes to share on the blog, but for this post, I wanted a sweet one, coca de pasas y nueces, raisins and walnuts cake, because sweet always means celebration.
I will tell you about some of the trips in future posts, but for now, I want to celebrate David. Because my youngest, the “baby,” is wrapping up his life as a minor (he turned 18 this month!) as a high school student (he just graduated!), and