Granada! (i.e, Birthday trip part three, the end of the trilogy)

Hi again,

So, I thought it might be a good idea to finish up the birthday blogging before Mr. K turns 30. Wouldn't be nice to have warring birthday blogs...

Then again...

Nah. He's spared. Just this once.

Anyway, the last time I left you from my trip to Spain in February, we had spent the night in Abrucena  and had awoken to the sound of church bells ringing in another glorious day. What luck we had!

So, after eating the remainder of the birthday cake for breakfast, we headed out again. This time, our destination was Granada.

Along the way we passed the Sierra Nevada and maybe a few castles in the distance. This was one of my favorite shots from the back seat.

Love the Spanish castle!

We got to Granada and parked. Note to those travelling in Granada by car, there are quite a few taxi lanes and bus lanes where cars are forbidden to go. Keep an eye out for the non-existant signs and try your best to follow the locals, which strangely enough look like taxis too. Better yet, ignore the GPS and just go on instinct (like we did) and you'll survive. Parking garages are your friend.

We decided to just meander and see where Granada would take us as we walked to find lunch. Here are some of the shots from our walk.

I have no idea what building this is, but I loved the architecture and the really cool street lights.

This is a plaza where there is a statue of a burro and a man. It was pretty neat.
 I liked all the buildings as it gave you that old world feel.

This is very typical tile work of Granada.
Blue and green are my favorite colors, by the way, so this was a definite must-have photo.

An alley way off the beaten path, which actually was the beaten path due to the amount of tourist shops.
The carvings were really cool though.

Corsets! 

We came to a plaza of the large church. With the warm sun, all the musicians were out. 

This guy was really good.

 I love street shots, so when I saw the buildings and the nice old-style lamps, I seized the chance.

After all that sightseeing, we had worked up quite an appetite. So Mr. and Mrs. F took us to a great spot for falafel in a wrap. Delish! While we were eating, flamenco dancers set up 100m from us. If it weren't for the large folded umbrellas of the establishment, we would have had the perfect view. As it was, we had fun watching the umbrella come to life with the dancer's hand motions and feet tapping. Good times, good times.

The nice view and the top of the offending umbrella.

 We payed and headed out. The main plaza in Granada was just lovely. Here you can see a nice church tower and up on the hill is the Alhambra.

Just look at that tile work on the church tower!

We decided to walk along the little river before heading up to see the Alhambra.

Smile!

 Turning right, we were greeted with our next stop, the gardens of the Alhambra.

Unfortunately, the ticket to see the inside of the Alhambra had a month long waiting list, so that was why we opted to see the exterior, and frankly, it was well worth the 7 euros!

Let's not forget that it was almond blossom time. Such gorgeous flowers.

 In the midst of the Moorish architecture, there was the palace of Carlos the fifth. He basically turned his nose up at keeping with the architecture and built a square palace with a round courtyard. Needless to say, his creation fits like a square peg in a round hole.

The Moorish influence was just beautiful.

And we got to go up the tower of the Alhambra. The view from up top was phenomenal.

 We managed to get in and see the meditation gardens and still water pools before they closed for the day.

Love the carving!

Smile!

Our lovely hosts, Mr. and Mrs. F

Just a fun picture

To end the wonderful trip, we stopped off at a great bakery called Hicuri.

They had the best chocolate cake I've ever tasted and it was made with almond milk. Also, highly recommend the almond milk Cafe Bombon.
You'll be in heaven on a decadent cloud.

Thus we ended our trip and all headed back to Almeria. The last day in Almeria was not great weather for sightseeing (rainy and cold) but we had a nice time with our host and got a chance to take one last stroll on the boardwalk. We stopped into a cafe when the dark and foreboding rain clouds came in and then as we were sipping the last drops from our cups of tea, we got a chance to watch an amazing sunset, with the surf crashing gently on the shore.

Not a shabby way to end a trip, I say. Spain will remain a wonderful part of my memory and I highly recommend a visit when you can make it. It doesn't have to just be for a milestone birthday, although that makes it fun too.

Until next time,

Bisous!

Happy Pi(e) Day!!!

Hi everyone!
I was waiting to do this entry until Pi Day (which actually only works if you think of the date the American way, as in 03/14.) Sorry my European friends!

Anyway, how does one celebrate this fantastic day? Well, some discuss the meaning of pi. Some throw those pastries around, but in our household, it is a tradition to bake a pi(e) and savor it slowly while possibly contemplating how cool it is that an awesome celebration such as this just happens to fall on Einstein's birthday.

Coincidence? I think not. He was probably a big fan of the pastry if I had to guess.

So, why all this lead up? Because I made a pie for Pi Day and I'm gonna share it with you!

Sour Cream Raspberry Pie

Here's the round up:

Only five ingredients: crust, flour, raspberries, sour cream, and sugar.

I bought my pie crust this year, because I have yet to make a decent one with the French flour. Just not to my liking. If you are making this in France, you want a pâte brisée.

Sprinkle the bottom of the pie crust with 2 tablespoons of flour like so:

Try to get it all around

Spread it out so it looks like this:

Then you're going to add four cups of  raspberries right on top, this way.

Tumbling berries always make me smile.

Got your raspberries? Check!

You'll want to try to make the pile as flat as possible. Feel free to shuffle the berries around to suit your taste.

Mmmm....raspberries. Let's take a closer look at them, shall we?

Gorgeous!

Righty-O. Onto the next step. Sour Cream. If you're lactose intolerant, this may not be the best recipe for you. I'm not sure what you could substitute in for this one...

If you live in the United States, this is an easy thing to find. I had to substitute this ingredient with the French likeness, otherwise known as crème fraîche. For all purposes, it works, most of the time. It's a little sweeter than the tangy cream I'm used to in the USA. That said, the sweetness of the cream will work in our favor for this recipe.

Pour 1 cup of sour cream over the raspberries.

"You can light up a room with a dollop, a dollop, of Daisy..."

Ah, commercials from my youth!

Now, your pie might look like this.

Just look at that texture!

But, what it needs to look like is this.

This is where your creativity and art classes from childhood are going to pay off. And, you're going to have so much fun pushing around the cream, smushing the raspberries, and creating swirls that you might forget what your next step is.

Ah hem.

Sugar! Three tablespoons to be exact.

I chose three instead of two because I added about a half cup more raspberries than the recipe called for and my sour cream was less than a cup. You can always add less if you like a tangier, tarter pie.

One last look before we put it in the oven.

Holy Sweetness, Batman! That looks great!

Put it in the oven, preheated to 375 F (190 C ) normal heating, no convection fan, for 30-40 minutes until it's golden brown and bubbling. Then pull it out and set it to cool.

Et voilà! Your Sour Cream Raspberry Pie is ready for Pi Day!

Enjoy warm or chilled. Alone or with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream over top.

Let the festivities commence!

Until next time,
Bisous

Abrucena (i.e, Birthday part two)

Back again and boy do I have some great pictures to show you from the trip to Abrucena, Spain!

You may remember that I left you with this photo last time.

It was taken from the car on our way up to the mountains...the Sierra mountain range in Spain.

You may not know this, but a lot of the "spaghetti western" movies (from Sergio Leone) were filmed in this region of Spain: the Tabernas Desert in Almeria due to cost constraints.

I certainly didn't.

But from the looks of it, you can see why.

"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", "Fistful of Dollars", "A Few Dollars More" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", just to name a few, were filmed at this studio (Mini-Hollywood) that we just happened to drive by.

Pretty cool, huh?

Another neat thing about this region is that it is high in reusable energy. Most notably, the use of the winds of the desert region and the sun.

Most of the region is powered by the energy that's captured this way.

And up on a hill, look what I saw!

That's right.  I saw a castle! 

So pretty and we had yet to enter Abrucena.  A half hour more and we approached the small town.

Abrucena, a lovely town nestled in the mountains.

We parked the car and headed to lunch where we had awesome food. So awesome that I didn't take a photo but I can say that the stuffed eggplant and sauteed vegetables were AMAZING.

As we walked around the town, I fell more and more in love with it.

The roads were cobbled and went uphill at terrible inclines, making you feel as if you had to be a mountain goat, but the beauty of it overcame the rough parts. And to its credit, it was my fault for choosing ballet flats. They are great shoes and go with everything, except hiking in hills and mountains. Better shoes would have been the solution, I feel. My bad.

But anyway, more on the town, right?

This was what we saw from our table at lunch.

Gorgeous weather and perfect company.

Mrs. F took us all around the town.

And then she took us for a walk through a cave to see the mountains. What we didn't know until hiking was that it was prime Almond Blossom Season.

Leaving Abrucena town center and heading to the mountains

Happy photo! It was so cold as the sun began to set. I was wearing practically everything I brought with me.

My fellow photographer friend

Mrs. F brought my attention to the green and I couldn't resist this texture photo.

This is quite possibly one of my favorites.

As we came out the other side of the cave, we were greeted with this lovely site.

New Zealand might be the home of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but maybe this could be a backup.

The sun was setting fast and so we began to make our way back.

I can't get enough of them!

I call this "Lone Ruin"

And this is "Pink Blossom"

As the sun left the mountain range, I took one last shot of the town and its church.

*sigh* I like Abrucena a lot.

We made dinner and enjoyed a fantastic cookie cake to celebrate the closing to a wonderful birthday, with some help from some American imported candles.

So yummy and only three ingredients: Cookies, vanilla pudding, and dark chocolate. Layer them and chill. Serve cold.

(side note: Mr. K is turning out to be an alright photographer! He took the above shot. Makes me so proud.)

Then we gathered around the fireplace upstairs and shared stories until we grew tired and went to bed, staying warm beneath fleece sheets. We woke the next day to the gentle chimes of the church and birds chirping.

People ask me why I don't want to live in a city...and this, my friends, is why.

You can't hear the silence between the bells and the birds, which makes those sounds all the more pleasant, in my opinion.

We packed up, ate the rest of the cake for breakfast (Don't judge. It's a fantastic idea! I highly approve of cake for breakfast. Breakfast of Champions and all that stuff. *grins*), then headed out to Grenada, but I fear that will just have to wait until next time.

Stay tuned for the last part of this trilogy!

Until then,
Bisous