A Taste of Spain

Guys! I went to Spain and all I did was eat. It was amazing. The food was incredible: churros con chocolate, croquetas, jamon serrano, seafood paella and the freshest bread I've ever tasted - and that's saying something because I frequently devour San Francisco sourdough. After eating my way through Southern Spain and Madrid, I returned home with a mission - keep the amazing food coming!

My fellow Girls Team member was on board and we decided to make paella, a popular Spanish rice dish. We followed this recipe from AllRecipes.com, which included chicken, chorizo and shrimp. Although we didn't have a paella pan, we used a large skillet that worked just fine.

Our recipe for paella basically consisted of two parts: the rice and the meat. I started by making the rice portion. I added olive oil, red pepper flakes and garlic to the skillet as it was heating up. Then I added 2 cups of white rice, parsley, lemon zest, a bay leaf and saffron threads (which neither Girls Team member had even heard of until this recipe).

Next, I added 1 quart of chicken stock. I tested my patience as I waited for the ingredients to boil, and then I covered the skillet and let it simmer for 20 minutes to thicken.

As I was working on the rice, my mom was prepping the meat portion of our dish. Earlier in the day, she marinated the chicken according to the recipe, now she began to grill the chicken with the Spanish onion.  

We purchased pre-cooked shrimp, so we deviated from the recipe just a bit. My mom cooked the chorizo, chicken, Spanish onion and bell peppers together. When that was just about ready, she added the pre-cooked shrimp so they wouldn't get overcooked, but would still get some flavor.

We timed our cooking perfectly and the rice and meat portions were ready at the exact same time :) I added the rice to a large serving dish, and my mom topped with the meat and mixed it together.

After adding some freshly baked European bread from the grocery store, we were ready to eat!

Our homemade paella far exceeded my expectations. I was a little nervous that it wouldn't be as good as what I had eaten in Spain. Fortunately I was wrong! This dish was delicious. The chorizo definitely gave it an extra kick, and the rice was cooked to perfection. It was also fun to make something unlike anything we regularly make at home. Paella will definitely become a regular go-to dish in my kitchen, especially on cooler winter nights. My mom, dad and boyfriend all enjoyed it too, which made me really happy. By making this easy paella with my mom, I was able to share a little taste of my trip with the people I wished could have experienced Spain with me :)





It's Tomato Time

The weather has finally warmed up and it really feels like Spring! With my girls teammate off to Spain. I thought it would be a good time to get some tomatoes planted for this weeks Make It Happen Monday project. Since our yard is not big, I have had success growing tomatoes in containers. In the past I have used 12 inch pots, with cherry or grape tomatoes, with mixed success. But after seeing the huge crop a friend had last year, using a wine barrel for a planter, I decided to try that.

My first stop was at our new local nursery. This is such a great place. So many different varieties to choose from. I picked up my tomato plants, going with Sweet 100's, a cherry tomato variety. While I was there, I also picked up small basil and cilantro plants because they looked so great! 

I ended up finding some nice wine barrels at Home Depot. They had a nice selection there and were a little less expensive.

 Picking up the barrel and the soil I needed, is where I really missed my girls team partner, and the boys team for that matter! These were heavy! 

I managed to get it all in the car!

And into the yard!

I filled the barrel with some good soil.

Lola. Always a girls team partner. : )

I am trying two of these tomato plants in this barrel.

I added the cages so they had something to lean on right now.

I had these two empty pots in the yard. I filled them with the potting soil and planted the basil in one and the cilantro in the other.

I added some marigolds around the tomatoes because I have heard it keeps some pests away. They also look really colorful. 

Cilantro on the left and Basil on the right!

Now they just have to grow!

This is a new spot for the tomatoes this year. I have put them out on our patio in past years. This side yard has plenty of sun, so I am hoping they will thrive out there. 

This weeks project was one that I had been wanting to get done. Sometimes that is what Make It Happen Monday is about. Doing the things that you always say "we should try that" about. I sure missed my Girls Team partner this week! She really is the one that drives this team! We'll be back next week, maybe with a Spanish flair!

Mysterious Risotto

It was a fun and busy Easter weekend here. We colored eggs, hunted eggs, and ate eggs. We went to church, brunch and had friends over for a holiday barbecue. On top of all of that, Casey was packing and making her final plans for her long anticipated trip to Spain! : ) 

So for Make It Happen Monday this week, we decided to keep it simple. We tried a dish we had never made before: Risotto! 

After looking at different Risotto recipes we decided to try a Mediterranean Risotto.

The recipe we used is here.

After a quick trip to Trader Joe's, we started to gather all of the ingredients.

The rice you use for Risotto is called Arborio. It's an Italian short grained rice. It looked different than the rice we usually see at our house, and we see a LOT of rice. The rice eaters here are Cal rose rice fans!

Here I am using Casey's favorite kitchen tool the chopper! It really is great for onions. But now I am wondering why I was using her favorite tool? hmm.

First step. Sauteing the onions and garlic.

This was a really easy recipe. 

Once the rice was in the pan, we added the water in half cup intervals. We let the rice soak up the water before we added more.

While the rice was cooking we got to work chopping up fresh parsley and some Kalamata olives. 

The only problem we had with this very simple recipe, was judging how long the rice should cook. Once all the water was added and had soaked in to the rice, we weren't really sure how much longer to cook it. We may have been a little premature in taking it off the stove. We just weren't sure.... and we both have a little problem with patience. : )

Anyway, we then added some Feta cheese, Parmesan cheese, the olives and fresh parsley. You can check the recipe here to see the exact amounts ; )

Our finished Mediterranean Risotto

So on this Make It Happen Monday, we conquered the mysterious risotto. 

To be honest, I sort of thought (OK I did think) risotto was a pasta, not a rice. That is how much we learned tonight! It was great to make a dish that we had always enjoyed, but didn't know much about. Next time we will be more patient with the rice. But this simple recipe turned out so rich and creamy. We also loved the mediterranean flavors.

Rainbow Ribbon Jello Eggs

Spring is in the air and the Girls Team is ready for sunshine and sweet treats! This week, we made Rainbow Ribbon Jello Eggs. 


To make the jello eggs, we needed egg molds, a syringe, multiple flavors of jello and vanilla yogurt. After searching high and low for the egg molds and almost giving up the hunt, my mom discovered that a close friend owned two molds which we were able to borrow. 

For each color, we needed two layers of jello - one regular layer and one creamy layer made of jello mixed with vanilla yogurt. We chose 5 colors, for 10 layers. 

Here's our step-by-step guide to making rainbow ribbon jello eggs:

Step 1: Coat egg molds with non-stick spray to make removing the eggs easier later on. Boil water and add 1 and 1/4 cup water to jello powder.

Step 2:  Fill a clean, new syringe full of the liquid jello. Squirt half of the syringe amount into each egg.

Step 3: Place the egg molds and unused jello mix into the fridge. After 5 minutes, or when the jello mixture has the consistency of egg yolk, remove from fridge and add 3 Tablespoons of vanilla yogurt. After 20 minutes, take the egg molds out of the fridge, and add half a syringe of the yogurt/jello mix. Repeat steps 1 - 3 for each jello color. 

Step 4: After filling the egg molds to the top, refrigerate overnight. 

The next day, we removed the eggs from the mold. Using a knife, pry the mold open gently. 

Slowly open the mold, as you can see, one of our eggs already split in half. Loosely close the mold, flip over, and loosen the eggs from the other side of the mold.

More of our eggs cracked in half or along layer lines as we tried to pop them out of the mold. Here are our most photogenic eggs: 

Because this recipe makes so much jello, after filling the molds, we added each layer of jello into mason jars. 

The Rainbow Ribbon Jello Eggs are a really simple, fun dessert. However, the jello egg layering is VERY time consuming. By the time the jello layers were the complete, the Girls Team was exhausted. We started the jello eggs around 7 p.m. and finished just before midnight. 

The jello eggs are very tasty! Sweet and creamy, with an Easter flare :) Next time, we will use less colors because with less jello layers, the eggs may not be as susceptible to splitting. But, both Girls Team members agreed that these eggs are a better project for a lazy Sunday. 

We hope everyone has a nice Easter weekend! We'll celebrate by munching on our jello eggs for dessert :)