Flashback! Jessie's Baby Shower

Going to April's bridal shower yesterday reminded me of another shower for a special lady I know. In late April, about a week after I returned from Europe, Rachel and I threw a baby shower for my BFF, Jessie. We went for an afternoon tea theme, sophisticated and super-girly. It was a bit of a challenge because Jess was not only pregnant, but is also diabetic. So no alcohol, no caffeine, very little sugar; those things were obvious, but there were some other things I never would have dreamed of. Non-pasteurized cheeses, agave nectar, way more herbal teas than you'd think, even cold cuts and cured meat! The cake was a real puzzle. Turns out there's just no good way to substitute sugar for a pregnant diabetic. Artificial sweeteners are no good, and agave could hurt the baby. Palm sugar, coconut sugar, and their ilk are still sugar. What's a girl to do?

A little careful label-reading and a Google search or two sorted it all out. There's plenty of safe teas and pasteurized cheeses. We decided to forgo the charcuterie for plentyof veggies and fruit. Then there were the scones with clotted cream, lemon curd, strawberry jam, or marmalade. Those were not low sugar. Neither was the cake. Turns out just a little sugar is ok for special occasions :)

I love a chance to get out my dishes!

The tea station

A little champers for the un-pregnant!

Post-grazing

Cake!

We had a couple activities besides eating. Jake and Rachel made up a cute little "Guess the Baby Daddy" game. In case this sounds distasteful to you, understand that the choices were between the baby's actual father, Indiana Jones, Cookie Monster, and various other fictional characters. We each got a dossier of a potential daddy, and had to describe him, make him sound like the best choice, but not reveal his identity. Jessie had to pick the one that sounded like the most desirable candidate. She, of course, correctly identified Drew, and picked him, but for the sake of fun, we had her choose a runner up. I'm happy to say, she chose my candidate, Nathan Drake: video game hero and inspiration for the baby's middle name. Go me.

My favorite thing (besides eating) was decorating onesies. I bought a bunch of different onesies and some fabric paint, and had everyone personalize their own. I was so happy with the results!

Before

During. There's me!

After! My favorite one is Alyssa's at the top right. I did the two in the top left. I was going to write "Ahoy Motherf*#ker, but I decided maybe that was in bad taste.

Mommy-to-be

I did a really bad job at taking pictures, so thank goodness for Liz, who took some of these (the good ones!). 

We Skyped with Jessie's mom while she opened her presents, which was fun. It was a little buggy with my semi-dysfunctional laptop, but I was glad she got to be there for part of the festivities anyway. My mom was actually there in person, coincidentally. I was really happy with how it turned out. I'm ready to throw another one. Who's next?

Flashback! Fun with Fashion: Spain Edition

Writing the previous post about my trip to Spain made me quite nostalgic for the experience. I spent far longer than I intended looking through the photos from my trip and wishing I could go back yesterday. I am a good packer, I must say. I pack light and stylish, and this trip was no exception, only this time I had some specific style inspiration: "Volver," a film by Pedro Almodovar, starring Penelope Cruz. I love her wardrobe in this film, and how it fits in with the whole production design.

 

The color! The floral patterns! I pictured myself in this exuberant, easy glamour, like Penelope's character, only I don't have to cover up a murder. So I packed with this whimsical notion in mind.

I look like a total goon in this last one, but it's truly unfortunate how few photos there are of my without my coat or my sweater on. Sadly, the weather was not cooperating with my sartorial choices.  I think I did pretty well, but Sarah knocked it out of the park, and she wasn't even trying!

Some girls got it!

7/9/12 - Flashback! Culinary Adventures in Madrid

The Picture and the Frame had a show last night, but aside from that, I didn't do much of note. Actually, I tried Domino's new gluten-free pizza, and I have to admit, it was pretty good. I'm kind of excited about the prospect of being able to order pizza again, not that I ever did it much, but it's nice to have the option.

I also visited Jessie and Baby Grey. Always good to see my bestie and pinch that baby's fat little cheeks!

That's about it for July 9th, so we're going to flashback to April and my wonderful trip to Spain where I would still be if life was fair. I started out in London, where I met up with the lovely Ms. Sarah Fuller. We hopped a nice cheap flight to Madrid, where we spent 3 days, then we took a day trip to Toledo, and then a night train to Barcelona for the next 3 days. It was too short, but then it always is, I find. Still, in that painfully brief trip, we did so much I think I may have to reserve this post for Madrid alone. Okay, narrowing it down further: our culinary adventures in Madrid. Que Rico!

Things to know about eating in Spain:
1)You can get fresh squeezed orange juice pretty much everywhere.
2)You can eat breakfast in a bar
3)You will pay more to eat at a table than the bar, and even more to sit outside
4)You will pay absurdly higher prices for breakfast if you eat it after 9.
5)You must like olives, cheese, ham, and seafood, or at least one of those things, or you will starve.

6)Contrary to popular belief, it's not that hard to eat vegetarian. There are a number of really good veg places!
7)If you're gluten-free (like me), pack Gluten-zyme. You will need it.

I'm positively besotted with the Mercado de San Miguel. 

We went there at least twice, so I'm giving it a lot of play here.

                 Yummy olives, sangria, and vermouth on ice

Mmm, Sangria...

More olives! With cheese and with pickles. Piquillo peppers stuffed with goat cheese 

YIKES!

Sweets of every description

The biggest shrimp you've ever seen!

I had the best fresh mozzarella EVER there. EVER!
Mine had blueberry jam and lemon zest.                       Sarah's had rocket, balsamic glaze, and olive oil.






















When in Spain, you really gotta go native with their eating habits, which is a little tough to adjust to as an American who eats breakfast. Still, I think I like how they do things better. And when in Spain, you must eat tapas. No need to do it all in one place either. Madrid has tons of awesome tapas bars, the smaller offerings are right on top of the bar (under glass), and there's usually larger raciones that can be ordered from an elusive paper menu. You just wander from one to the next, having a drink and a tapa or 2 in each. The only hazard is that it can be easier to order drinks than food, since they're not big on menus and sometimes you can't get close enough to the bar to see what they have out. Sarah and I found this out the hard way on our first tapas crawl.
The first night we had a sedate dinner at a lovely vegetarian restaurant, but the next night we were ready for adventure, so with Rick Steves on my smart phone, we set out for Cava Baja.

The first stop: Txakolina Pintxoteca Madrilena. We had a glass of Txakoli at this bustling little Basque spot, but it was tough to get a look at the food, so we decided we'd eat at the next spot. I did get a good look at a pintxo covered in "gulas," which I later discovered are baby eels. No gracias.

The next stop was Taberna Tempranillo, which was my favorite spot of the evening. They had an excellent wine list, and I liked wine I had so much, I had 2 glasses. Do I remember what it was? No.

 We looked at the menu for a little too long before we finally settled on something. It's a good thing they give you a free bite with each glass of wine.

Perfect! Sarah eats the gluten, I eat the meat.

Possibly the only substantial thing we ate all night.

This is where it starts to get hazy. We went to at least 2 more bars, and I'm pretty sure we didn't eat anything else.

Tropical themed, full of kids.

 The above glasses of wine were the straws that broke the camel's backs. The next picture is the last thing we (kind of) remember before waking up in our beds in the morning.


We let ourselves sleep in a bit. Nothing opens til 10 anyway. We found a bar, and paid too much for the following breakfast. I had one of the inumerable tortilla espanolas consumed on this trip (not a particularly notable example), a green tea, and an orange juice. It set me back about 15 Euros. If we had been there an hour earlier, it would have been less than half that. They're tricky, those Spaniards. We were just too hungover to keep looking.

After vowing not to let any of this happen again, we set off to sight-see.

Conveniently located near the Palacio Real, is the famous Cafe de Oriente. We stopped in for a late lunch. Sarah had the tortilla espanola, and a very expensive Diet Coke.

I could kick myself for not photographing my cream of squash soup. It was beautiful and delicious, garnished with crispy bits of serrano ham. One of the best things I ate the whole trip.

That night we decided to rein it in a bit, and perhaps eat a bit more than we drank for dinner. We went upscale and grown up near Plaza Santa Ana. We started at Vinoteca Barbechera, which was a very hip wine bar with interesting, upscale tapas, and a great atmosphere. It was also the only place we went all day that was warm enough for me to take off, not only my coat and scarf, but also my sweater.

Check out the foreign currency under the glass table-top

 On the left we have sauteed leeks with a brie-like cheese, and on the left creamed spinach with an aged goat cheese, both on amazing bread.

The next stop was Gonzalez, a wine and cheese shop that offers table service tapas. It's a funny thing in Spain, almost every business seems to also incorporate some sort of cafe. I love it. We had to wait a bit for one of the marble tables in the market area. We had a glass of wine and some olives in the bar/hallway, while we perused the menu.

These don't look like much, but hot damn, they were good. Clockwise from the top we have goat cheese with honey, queso fundido with quince paste, and in the front, tapenade.

 I like this lil' senorita

 And this one too!

In case you were wondering where to get canned lamb trotters or quail escabeche, they have it at Gonzalez.

Another gastronomic highlight, and something you must try (but probably only once) are churros. We went to Chocolateria San Gines, where they fry them to order. These are not like Mexican churros. They're long and thin, with no cinnamon or sugar. They're served with hot chocolate, which is really more like pudding. You dip the churros in the chocolate, and purr with delight.