Land of 1000 Restaurants (and Pounds!) - Part 1

I don't have to travel often for my job and usually it is a short jaunt twice a year but the beginning of October I had occasion (my boss was delivering Congressional testimony, and I was delivering him!) to travel twice within the space of 3 days to Washington DC. Once I drove both ways, but the second time I decided to take the easy way out and took the train.  While it was a lot of travelling in a little time, the bonus was that I got to spend two nights with my daughter and son who live in Shirlington.

I grew up in Winchester VA, a town that is now a DC bedroom community, but I still love visiting Washington- there is so much to do and see and the pace is so different from where I live now.  And as a foodie, there is all manner of food to experience there. One thing I know- if I lived in DC, I would probably weigh a lot more than I do because with so many choices, I would want to experience (and consume) it all!
So, in the land of 1000 restaurants, where did I eat during my visit? The first night, I arrived on a Sunday evening (after making my way through hellatious traffic), and my daughter,her significant other (boyfriend sounds so juvenile) and my son were debating where we should go for dinner. With choices like Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Greek, French, Chinese laid in front of me, I caved in and told them to decide. The guys proposed a Spanish/Latin American Restaurant in Dupont Circle that Gavin had been to and Olu had heard good things about and so we  piled into Olu's car and headed for Lauriol Plaza.  Even though Gavin told me it was big, I was in no way prepared for the modern urban building that looked like it took up a whole block!  And even on a Sunday evening, the place was packed!  Inside, the restaurant offered multi-level dining,and just being there gave you feeling of fiesta- laughter, clinking of glasses, conversation and music- it felt like home, only louder.  I love Spanish and Latin-American food and the reviews I read while waiting for our table made me anxious to check out the menu. While we got settled, our waitress came and took our drink orders, and  delivered salsa and some of the thinnest, crispest chips I have ever had. My son, who is a former sous chef, wanted Ceviche for an appetizer, but they were out so he ordered some mussels instead. Katie and Olu ordered some sweet plantains to split.  I didn't try the plantains, but Gavin's mussels were cooked to perfection, and the broth made me want to ask for more crusty bread to soak up its goodness. When it was time to order entrees, I was conflicted- I overcame my overwhelming desire to order mole, which I do almost every time I am in the vicinity of Mexican food they offered a special of lamb fajitas which sounded amazing, but I decided on Enchiladas de Marisco,  enchiladas stuffed with shrimp and scallops in a seafood sauce with cheese. I encouraged Olu, who was feeling a bit punk,to order the special that was a shrimp with garlic broth that sounded perfect for someone nursing a cold, but he ordered a pork dish instead. Katie ordered chiles rellenos with cheese, and Gavin ordered the Santa Fe Platter that had a cheese chile relleno, a cheese enchilada and a guacamole taco.

Gavin and I have the best luck- besides the fact that his mussels were an amazing app that easily could have made a dinner itself, his combo was full of cheese and had a complexity of spices that was pleasing even to a former chef. Katie was not very happy with her entree, but mainly because it was not what she expected. It was covered in a tomato-y sauce, but when she told our server she adjusted the bill. My enchiladas were amazing! Since seafood has to be cooked just right I was worried that they might be overcooked, but my fear was misplaced because Lauriol Plaza clearly knows seafood.  The seafood sauce was delicately flavored and complemented, rather than smothered the morsels of shrimp and scallops.  I would have loved to try dessert but I was stuffed to the gills, so we headed home.  A great meal and a real dining experience in the land of 1000 restaurants!  If you are in the DC area- check out Lauriol Plaza, you won't be disappointed!

A Taste of Italy (at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg)

With my daughter in town and a week off, we were determined to do some fun and tourist-y things while she was here. Since we have season's passes to Busch Gardens Williamsburg,we decided to go there as a family and hit the roller coasters

Amusement parks no matter how good they are are not exactly known for great food (or reasonable prices!), and we ate lunch before we left so no one would be hungry, and we figured we would leave before dinner. But everyone was having a great time and the weather was awesome (warm but low humidity, nice breeze), so we decided to find something to eat for dinner and close the park down. As a park that is centered on countries of Europe, there are great opportunities for some fantastic food, however, when you are serving thousands of people of varying tastes, that can be challenging. We have tasted food at the Festhaus (Bratwurst, German potato salad, and mile-high sandwiches), at the Smokehouse where they have incredible ribs, but our favorite place to eat at Busch Gardens is in Italy, where they have homemade pasta (they really make it themselves-see picture of their chefs working, right). We always order one of the platters because there is plenty of food for two and a variety of things to try.

We ordered the Mamma Stella platter that had eggplant parmagiana, chicken parmesan, and spinach cannelloni,with more than enough food for two hungry people and at $10.49, one of the best food deals in the park. So we had our Italian Olympic meal away from home and then headed for the Roman Rapids - a fitting end, wouldn't you say?! So my recipe for good eating on a budget at Busch Gardens? Head to Italy... and mangia!

Pick a Country, Any Country!

Our little parade of nations is making its way around the world as the Olympics begin to wind down. We still have a few nations in the queue - Italy, Japan, Germany - but we have several days still to fill so I am asking, you, readers and lurkers alike to suggest a country or even a recipe that we can include.Remember, we cannot make anything heavy in carbs (unless they are complex), and you can check the list (or the picture of the bouquet of nations we have on our table) to see what countries we have already done. Can't wait to see your suggestions!!



Countries already featured: Greece, China, US, France, Spain, Korea, Thailand, Great Britain, Sweden, Mexico

A Great Dinner from the British Isles

With my daughter coming from Florida, I wanted to make something festive, but was not sure what country to go to, but then I found inspiration in one of my oldest cookbooks, A Treasury of Great Recipes by Vincent and Mary Price. I have written about this cookbook before, and it is one of my favorites since it was the first gift that was given to me by my in-laws. This cookbook includes recipes from many countries and restaurants and even homes that the Prices, avid world travelers, had visited.

Since we had had so many dishes that were either Eastern or Mediterranean, I decided to make food from the British Isles. We settled on a roast beef tenderloin and Yorkshire pudding with a salad (that deserves its own post). Now I know that traditionally British roast beef is made with a rib roast, but I had a tenderloin, so we were making due. Even though the Yorkshire pudding has some flour (verboten on the diet) I thought since these end up like popovers full of mostly air, it would be okay in moderation.

The beef was coated with coarse-ground pepper and just roasted until the mooing stopped. The Yorkshire pudding was very easy to make following the advice of Vincent Price to make the batter in the blender, and I made individual portions which cooked faster and were all nice and crispy.

All in all it was a delicious meal, with only a slice or two of beef left, and every Yorkshire pudding gone!


Yorkshire Pudding (from A Treasury of Great Recipes by Vincent and Mary Price)

You must have all of the ingredients for this batter at room temperature or it will not turn out puffy!

7/8 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c milk
2 eggs
1/2 water
1/2 cup beef drippings or melted butter (or combination)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift flour and salt together, then add to blender with milk. Blend until well combined then add eggs one at a time until batter is foamy,then blend in water until batter is light and full of bubbles. Heat muffin pan in oven until hot. Add enough beef drippings or melted butter to cover the bottom of each muffin cup, and divide batter between muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees 15-20 minutes until puffy and golden brown.

Great Thai-ming!

Since last night was Friday and we normally do not eat meat on Friday (a hold-over from my husband's Catholic upbringing), besides finding an international dish compatible with the South Beach diet, it had to be meatless! I decided that Thai might be good and had looked up a recipe for a shrimp Thai curry on Epicurious as well as a Thai cucumber salad (I thought it would be fun to see the difference between the Swedish cucumber salad and a Thai version!)

I headed to Trader Joe's since I had a couple of things to pick up there that only they sell,and got caught in a severe thunder storm with 40 mile an hour winds and rain so heavy you could only crawl toward your destination. It took nearly 20 minutes to drive the less than 3 miles from my office to Trader Joe's, then I had to wait for about ten minutes in the parking lot before I could even attempt to get out of the car. Walking down the aisles with the other drenched rats, I picked up English cucumbers for the salad, some diet food, and since it was still pouring outside I wandered up and down the aisles as time ticked by.

Now you know I am not much for convenience foods,usually they are filled with sugars and salt and fats to cover up the fact that they actually have not flavor. But given Trader Joe's reputation, when I saw their Green Indian curry, I thought, "Why not?"-if it was good it would save me time and since their ingredients listed lemongrass which I had almost no possibility of purveying anywhere within a 30-minute drive, I decided to give it a try.

After getting home, I made Thai green curry shrimp and Thai cucumber salad as part of our Olympic tour around the world, and I was very impressed with the trader Joe's curry sauce- it had a great melding of spices with a depth of flavor and seasoning with just the right amount of heat. And after the lengthy (and hazardous) drive, dinner was on the table in 35minutes, and most of that involved peeling the shrimp. Unfortunately for you, we are all too hungry to take a picture, so you will just have to imagine how wonderful it looked.... and tasted!

Trader Joe's Thai Shrimp Curry
1 pound shrimp, peeled
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 sweet onion cut into chunks
2/3 cup
1 tbsp peanut oil

Heat oil and toss in garlic. Cook onions until they just begin to caramelize. Stir in shrimp and toss until almost pink, then add the curry sauce and stir till shrimp is finished cooking. If you are not on a diet, this would be great over rice, but for us it was delicious as is with the cucumber salad recipe that I found on Epicurious (what else?)

Do you have a favorite Trader Joe's product that you use in your cooking when time is tight? Let me know (I might want to give it a try!)

A Taste of Spain and Serrano

Visitors to this blog may know that one of my new favorite food resources is La Tienda (thanks Veronica!), an incredible resource for authentic Spanish food that just happens to be about 20 minutes away from me. I have purchased several items from there and have shared some of their recipes, however until about a week ago, my budget had not allowed me to try their pride and joy- their Spanish hams. There are two primary types of Spanish hams- the Serrano, and the Iberico, the Rolls Royce of hams made from the famous acorn- fed black Iberico pigs. So far, Iberico ham has been way out of my prices range (I have to buy gas after all!), but recently, as a member of Club Tienda,I got an email that told me I could get some Serrano ham for the teeny price of $6.95, so with the Olympics looming, I thought this would be a great opportunity to try this ham at a bargain price. Serrano ham is aged for a full year, and has a deeper flavor and firmer texture than it's Italian cousin, prosciutto.

Now if you have children you know that no package is coming to your house in the summer without them calling and begging to open it, and in this case, since the ham was a perishable, I told them to go ahead and put the ham in the fridge. The ham was lovingly packed with two ice packs to keep it cold and the beautiful, paper-thin slices were vacuum packed. It had been a long day when I came home from work and so Spanish night was going to be a one-dish meal of spinach, chickpeas and Serrano ham, inspired by a recipe I saw on the great list of Spanish dishes that La Tienda has on its site.

When I opened the Serrano, I had to have a taste, and I have to say that it was everything that I had read and heard. I threw together a quick dish with garlic, chickpeas and spinach and added shreds of the Serrano and a bit of white wine, for a quick and delicious taste of sunny Spain that is quick, delicious, and healthy! I guess now the question is how can I go back to ham or even prosciutto now that I have had Spanish Serrano? Luckily, I won't have to find out since I have two more packets waiting for me in my fridge. Try it for yourself, it's a taste of Spain without an airline ticket (or the hairy guy next to you who burps throughout the flight!).


Spanish Spinach, Chickpeas, and Ham

2 tbsp olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, minced fine
2 bunches (or 8 ounces, or three large fistfuls, depending on the scale you like best)
1 can of chickpeas drained and rinsed
4 ounces of Serrano ham cut into strips
1/2 cup white wine
Red pepper flakes (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in heavy skillet. Add garlic, being careful not to burn. Add spinach and stir in drained chickpeas and wine. let spinach wilt and add ham and pepper flakes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with thinly sliced Manchego cheese on top.

A Taste of Sweden , Ya!

After all the food we have had so far these Olympic Games, I wanted to try something that is not normally a part of our repertoire. When I am looking for inspiration, I usually head to Epicurious, but this time I pulled out a cookbook that my sister-in-law got me for Christmas, The Best of International Food from the editors at Cook's Illustrated.

I looked through the pages, going past Greece, and Italy and checked out Sweden. I found two recipes that grabbed my attention that could be replicated without taking us astray on our diet. The first was the retro Swedish meatballs, and the second was a cucumber salad with sour cream. So Molly posted the flag of Sweden and I used these ideas as inspiration to make my own Dowd Olympic version. Both dishes were a great hit. How can you fail with meatballs?! And the cucumber salad was all consumed offering a light, creamy and slightly sweet counterpoint to the rich meatballs. In fact,the girls said that they liked this cucumber salad better than the one I usually make with vinegar and mayo as a dressing so we will definitely do this one again!

Another country down,another gold medal for Michael Phelps and another late night- another night at the Olympics at our house!

Swedish Inspired Meatballs
These make a great appetizer or a main dish!

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
3/4 cup grated onion
1 egg
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper

For a quick and easy (and low-carb) sauce:
1/2 jar good quality prepared alfredo pasta sauce (I know, I know...)
2/3 cup light sour cream
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix meats, grated onion and egg and spices, mix well and form into small meatballs, placing them on a cookie sheet. Bake in oven about 15 minutes. Meanwhile mix alfredo sauce, sour cream, and nutmeg. Place cooked meatballs into a large skillet and brown outside until caramelized. Add sauce and stir until warm, being careful not to boil. If you want (and you are not on the South Beach Diet!) you could serve with noodles.

Swedish Cucumber Salad
This is a deliciously different cucumber dish, perfect for summer!

1 English cucumber sliced very thin (I did not peel mine. If you use a regular cucumber you may want to peel it)
1/2 tbsp salt
1 cup light sour cream
1 pkg Sweet and Low or Splenda
3 tbsp cider vinegar
1 small onion, sliced thin
1/2 tsp dried dill

Slice the cucumbers into a colander and sprinkle with the salt. Let sit for about 20 minutes, using a Ziploc bag of ice on top to keep them crisp. After 20 minutes, rinse cucumbers, put in bowl and combine with other ingredients. Enjoy this Swedish treat!

A Taste of China in Newport News (and a Review)

My family loves Chinese food, and they are spoiled. Takeout is not good enough for them. They are used to homemade eggrolls, dumplings made from scratch, twice-fried beans, shrimp egg foo yung and a myriad of stir-fries. Some of the most dog-eared cookbooks in my collection are the ones that focus on Chinese food, so of course I was not surprised when they said they wanted to add China to our parade of nations. Luckily, I put all those cookbooks to work in trying to find dishes I could make that did not rely on sweet sauces or piles of white or jasmine rice so we could stay on our diet.

Coincidentally, I had been sent a kit for Kung Pao chicken by Wangchai Ferry to try and review, and so I decided to incorporate that into our meal planning as well. So this is what our menu looked like:

Twice Fried Beans (aka hot beans,I have posted this recipe before)
Tofu dumplings
Wanchai Ferry Kung Pao chicken
Stir fry shrimp and vegetables
Bridget's Hot and Sour Soup (actually, her recipe came from Cook's Illustrated)

Sound good? It really was. We set our coffee table and sat on the floor with pillows and ate with chopsticks for a really fun experience. "Hot Beans" have been raved about on this blog before, and Bridget's Hot and Sour soup a la Cook's was outstanding- if you have never tried making this at home, give this recipe a try (I actually subscribed to CI online initially to get this recipe!), so I will focus on the new dishes we tried.

First of all, the tofu dumplings. We usually make dumplings, but since the wrappers are made with flour, I wanted to find some way to enjoy that flavor without the carbs, and I found the inspiration in Jeff Smith's Ancient Cuisines cookbook. Using extra-firm tofu that was drained and cut into large cubes, I prepared my usual shu mei filling, and cutting a slit into each cube, I filled the tofu with shu mei filling and steamed these tofu dumplings for about 30 minutes in a bamboo steamer. They turned out great!

The shrimp stir fry included a sweet red pepper, onions, broccoli, and turned out to be a light and delicious dish with a good blend of flavors.

The big surprise was the Kung Pao chicken kit from Wangchai Ferry. Since I cook Chinese from scratch I was prepared to be underwhelmed, but was impressed when I opened the box to find whole dried peppers (we call these the devil's toenails) along with jasmine rice in the kit. I followed the directions, substituting boneless chicken thighs for the breasts called for. I have to admit that I did remove the seeds from the peppers because I thought it might be too spicy. The dish came together easily and everyone in our family really liked it-it was at least as good as the Kung Pao I had gotten as takeout. This is a great alternative to take-out when you don't have the time to cook from scratch, and I will definitely try the other kits for Spicy Garlic Chicken, and Sweet and Sour Chicken, or Cashew Chicken. If you want to give the Wangchai Ferry Chinese Dinner kits a try in your own kitchen try this e-coupon to get $1.00 off the retail price of $4.79.

If you are inspired to take a side trip to China, here are the recipes for my own dishes. Don't be intimidated by a long list of ingredients or prep time (I usually make Chinese on the weekend when I have more time), making good Chinese is as easy as falling off the balance beam!!

Tofu Dumplings

1 block extra firm tofu drained and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 lb lean sausage
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sherry
A quarter-sized slice of ginger chopped fine
3 scallions in fine slices
1/2 of a small beaten egg

1 tbsp of soy sauce for brushing

Mix all the ingredients except the tofu cubes together in a Ziploc bag. Close the bag and massage the ingredients together. Cut a slit in each cube, being careful not to cut all the way through, and fill with a small spoonful of filling. Place in a bamboo steamer in a single layer, brush with soy sauce and steam for about 20-30 minutes (I sometimes steam my dumplings on top of the pot I am cooking my rice in). Serve with a sauce made of 1/4 cup soy sauce with Chili-garlic sauce added to taste.

Stir Fry "Drunken" Shrimp
1 lb shrimp peeled and deveined
1 red pepper cut into chunks
1 onion cut into chunks
2 cups fresh broccoli florets
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger

1/2 cup rice wine or sherry
1/4 cup soy sauce
dry red pepper flakes to taste
1 tsp sugar or Splenda

peanut oil for stir-frying

Marinate the shrimp in the rice wine or sherry while you chop vegetables. Put oil in pan and heat till just smoking. Add garlic and ginger and stir quickly, then add the rest of the vegetables. Stir for a moment or two until the sides of the veggies just start to caramelize, then add drained shrimp. when shrimp start to turn pink add soy sauce, sugar or sweetener, and dry pepper flakes. Stir until shrimp are just cooked. If you are not on a diet you could serve this with rice or noodles.

Countdown to the Olympics- One World, One Dream

One of the reasons that I started this blog was to encourage families to use food as a way to bring them together, to make occasions out of everyday events. I have written in this blog about football Sundays and Chinese New Year's Eve, and now, as the Olympics approach, while the athletes are training and the broadcasters are putting together vignettes on the athletes, the Chinese government is trying to clean up the air for the games, and the torch is making its way to the Bird's Nest Stadium, I am collecting Olympic Trivia and looking for new recipes for the Dowd version of the Olympics! I started doing this years ago when my children were young and now, even though they are older, they look forward to the Olympics as a family event.

What makes this so special? Each night of the Olympics we have food from a different country. Our tradition is to begin on opening night with Greek food, paying homage to the site of the first Olympic games, and we always end the games with the food of the country of the next Olympic games. Between these two we choose a country for each night including the host country. It is a great way to experience different cuisines, to learn about different cultures, and make an evening of TV viewing into a family event. We post the country by flag each day of the Olympics on the refrigerator, and we have contests throughout the games- questions about Olympic sports, the ancient Olympic games, geography, history and culture of the host country, with the winners getting small prizes that I get. We each post our predictions for the country bringing home the most gold medals and predictions for the number of US medals in the games on a chalkboard that hangs in our kitchen. I makes for a fun time and often attracts friends and neighbors who want to be part of the Olympic dream (without the intense training and sore muscles!)

Sound daunting? It needn't be. Have pizza or spaghetti for Italian night, hamburgers and hot dogs for American night, order out Chinese to honor the host country, or bring home sushi for Japanese night. Fussy eaters? Choose traditional foods and translate your menu into a foreign language using one of the many internet translation tools. Eat with chopsticks, open fortune cookies, make curry, and boboti, and quiche, and souvlaki. There is a world of dishes and you can pick something challenging and complicated or something simple- it is all about the experience.

This year our Olympic fest is a little more challenging since my husband and I are on the South Beach diet. Our normal Greek meal has in the past been pastitsio made from the Jeff Smith book on three ancient cuisines (a great source of recipes, by the way). I love pastitsio because of its no-nonsense combination of pasta,meat and tomatoes topped by a creamy custard with a hint of cinnamon. This Friday though, we are shunning pasta and will have a dish of marinated lamb served with tzatziki, and a Greek Salad. And for each night after that we will be making our way around the world in both food and sports. I will try to post recipes and pictures throughout the games and I hope you will be inspired to join in the Olympic spirit as well. It is a great way to bring your family, and the world, together on common ground. One World, One Dream.

A Spanish Pantry ...and La Tienda Inspired Tapas

As I browsed the shelves at La Tienda, there were so many delicious and beautiful things to choose from I hardly knew where to start (and that is nothing compared to what you have to choose from on the website!). Since we often have tapas at our house, I wanted to select some items that would allow me to make some of the recipes on the La Tienda website and to recreate the tastes of Spain that Don Harris introduced me to. So I started by asking Don what items you should have in your pantry as a foundation for a good Spanish meal.

Don Harris of La Tienda makes these recommendations:

� Spanish extra virgin olive oil- La Tienda sells several artisan olive oils, and even if you have had fine Italian extra virgin olive oil, you owe it to yourself to give these artisan oils a try. I had sips of two very different oils in Don's shop each with completely different character.

� Sherry vinegar- The very best sherry vinegar comes from Jerez and it has a depth and complexity that adds layers to any dish.

� Chorizo - This is a Spanish sausage. Some of the sausages at La Tienda (like those in the picture of the previous post) are red from the addition of pimenton or smoked Spanish paprika.I bought the little chorizos and they were leaner than any chorizo I have had before. They are great in eggs and cooked with garlic and wine.

� Serrano or Iberico ham- These are both famous Spanish hams and have only recently been imported into the US. These are both served sliced paper thin. Iberico hams are from black acorn-fed pigs giving the meat a unique taste that makes it a prized Spanish delicacy.

� Manchego cheese- A delicious sheep's milk cheese from the La Mancha region of Spain, great in thin slices.

� Pimenton (smoked paprika)-This is one of the ingredients that made the biggest impression on me at La Tienda. Donhad me smell the bittersweet pimenton and it had a depth and richness that made me think of about a hundred ways I could use it. Pimenton comes in sweet, bittersweet and hot.

� Calasparra rice- This is a special Spanish rice used in paella. For a good paella, Don explained,you need a rice that can absorb lots of liquid without disintegrating, and that is where Calasparra rice is unique.

� Olives- We left with a can of olives stuffed with anchovies, neither of which I am crazy about, but Don assured me "These are not the salty hairy nasty anchovies you see on pizza", and when they found their way to our tapas table, they were truly incredible!

� Spanish saffron from La Mancha- I know this is an embarrassing confession, but saffron is not something I have had in my spice cabinet. I learned a lot about this precious spice from Don, and if you can't make the trip to Toano you can benefit from Don's expertise as well.

� Canned bonito tuna-Spanish canned tuna is not chicken of the see and bonito tuna at La Tienda is line caught and packed in oil

Armed with many of these staples I couldn't wait to incorporate then in a tapas meal. I used La Tienda's recipe link to find some new dishes and I did a little experimenting on my own for what was a wonderful tapas menu:

Anchovy-Stuffed Spanish Olives
Green Gazpacho
Shrimp and Chorizo
Artichokes with clams
Magdelena strawberry shortcake

Green Gazpacho- I am posting this as this week's entry to Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Cate of Sweetnicks

This recipe is adapted from a recipe on the La Tienda index and relies on the complex flavor of the Spanish sherry vinegar. Use watercress as a base and play with what herbs and greens you have in your CSA or farm market and each time the dish will have a different nuance.This a delicious and refreshing salad that you should add to your reperatoire.

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

2 bunches of watercress (you can also add or mix other greens such as dandelion, fennel,etc.)

1 bunch of mint (I also added some fresh thyme and sage from my garden,almost any fresh green herb would be good)

1/2 head lettuce shredded

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons Jerez sherry vinegar

Sea salt

Cold water

Preparation:

This gazpacho should be eaten immediately after it is made, so that it is crunchy and refreshing.

Remove the stalks from the herbs, rinse and drain them. Finely chop them and place them in the large bowl. Add shredded lettuce. Add them to the bowl and mix them with the herbs so that you get a uniform mixture of flavors, textures and colors.

Place the garlic and salt in the mortar. Pound them together until you have a smooth paste. Slowly add the oil so that it emulsifies and then the vinegar and a little cold water. When it is clear, continue liquefying for a few more seconds and then pour it over the vegetables and immediately add the remaining cold water. Serve immediately.

This "liquid salad"is reminiscent of the Andalusian countryside, and is a fresh, delicious and light dish that your family and friends will love.You can scatter edible flower petals on top for an even more festive look.

Shrimp and Chorizo

This was a quick and easy invention to showcase these delicious ingredients, and it was a big hit (Eaten before I could get a picture!)

1/2 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 pound chorizo, cut in bite-sized chunks
5 cloves garlic,chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon sweet pimenton
1 tbsp olive oil

Cut each shrimp in two. Saute garlic in olive oil, add chorizo. Saute for about 5-8 minutes. Add white wine and sprinkle pimenton on top and stir together until wine is reduced by half. Stir in shrimp, and cook until it just turns pink. Salt to taste and serve with crusty bread.

Magdalena Strawberry Shortcake

Angel food cake and biscuit-based shortcake, move over! The spongecake magdalenas provide the perfect base for the seasons freshest berries soaking up the juices.

For each serving cut a magdalenas in half. Cover with fresh sliced strawberries that have been tossed with just a touch of sugar and cold water and bruise the berries to release the juice. Top with whipped cream, and enjoy!

A Trip to Sunny Spain...via Williamsburg VA

When you think of cured Spanish olives, or sun-dried saffron, or thin-sliced Iberico ham,Toana, Virginia wouldn't normally spring to mind, but the truth is, it should. Nestled a mere twenty minute drive from me is little bit of Spanish heaven in the form of La Tienda, Don Harris and his family's living tribute to the flavors of Spain. Prompted by a post from fellow Virginia blogger Veronica of Veronica's Test Kitchen, I discovered that this internet purveyor of the very best Spain has to offer was in my own backyard, and I was immediately intrigued. If you have been reading my blog, you know that at our house Wednesday night is tapas night, a Spanish tradition of eating"little dishes" and so having the very best of Spain available was very exciting. My visit there was so enlightening and interesting that it fueled an article in the Taste section of our local paper the Daily Press, and I will be posting multiple entries here to capture it all for you.

I started by checking out the La Tienda website where I began to see not only the wonderful foods and other products that Don Harris imports from small farmers and producers across Spain but the love and respect that Harris and his family began cultivating from the time he was a Navy chaplain and was stationed there. By the time I had read some of the articles on the site, his product guides (which are an incredible resource) and Don's Reflections, I wanted to make a trip to the La Tienda retail store as much to meet him as to see and experience the tastes and sights and smells Spain here in Virginia.

I called ahead and made an appointment so that I could talk to Don and learn the story behind the foods he imports, how he became enthralled with Spain, and how he ended up locating his business in Toano. And of course, I was anxious to check out the products that I saw online. As I was ushered into La Tienda's corporate offices, I was impressed right away. I had to sign in and be issued an ID badge since they have very stringent rules for monitoring anyone who might come in contact with the food they import. Don explained that this was important to comply with Homeland Security regulations and ensure standards of safety for all the products they sell. I am not sure what impressed me most about Don Harris, his warmth and congeniality or his skill as a story-teller. This is clearly a man who has his priorities straight."I fell in love with Spain right away", he says,"It just felt like home" But what was it that attracted Don? He explained that he was impressed with the way Spanish life is focused around children. Not only one's own children, but all children are cherished, and family is everything. Don goes on to tell me that he was stationed in Spain during his time as a Navy Chaplain and that his oldest son was born there. When he retired, he wanted to use the contacts he made in Spain to start a business and began by importing tiles, but found that they often were broken and were hard to ship,so he began by importing some Spanish foods that he became familiar with. He built a clientele, and started polling his customers, many of whom are Spanish expats or people who have travelled to Spain for business or pleasure and want to recapture their experience there, about their interest in buying Jamon Serrano or Jamon Iberico, the famed hams of Spain. The response was overwhelming and Don began a ten year mission to import these unique hams that for years have been banned from import into the US. His business has expanded over the years, outgrowing first his basement, then a storefront, then warehouse before locating in his current facility.

As we wandered through the retail store, Don had a story for almost anything in his catalog. While his business has grown, one thing has not changed at La Tienda. The Harris family works with small producers and farmers all across Spain to bring the very best of Spain to his customers. It is something he is very proud of. He had me smell the deep rich scent of bittersweet pimenton, smoked paprika that is a staple in the Spanish kitchen. I tasted artisan olive oils,one with a peppery finish and another that was rich and buttery. He explained that the redness in his chorizo was from the addition of pimenton. The more he shared his enthusiasm and love for Spain and the products he hand-selects for his customers, the more I wanted to learn. I gathered up items from the store to make in my home kitchen, and reluctantly said goodbye to Don and La Tienda, ready to take what I learned from him, about food, life and family back to my own kitchen. And the best part, is that no matter how far away you live from Williamsburg, VA, the tastes of Spain are only a click away.

Next...Essentials for a Spanish pantry