The BIG Spain Post!!!

Since I have been slacking on my daily Spain posts and it seemed easier than I thought to add some Spain food pics to every blog until they were all gone... I have decided to do one BIG post for you all . Let's start with me and Sean.. he is the infamous boyfriend...

This is us before we left in out NEW apt ( not quite finished decorating yet)

This is Sean in the airport in Madrid at baggage claim

This a wine store-i do love wine!
Speaking of wine here is the wine at lunch at Cafe De Oriente which was a really nice restaurant near the Palace and we had the plate of the day (most restaurants offered this and it was usually cheaper than ordering an entree and a drink because it included both plus dessert and a starter) below is my starter salad, lettuce with roasted red pepper, cherry tomatoes and fresh tuna olive oil and white wine vinegar- kind of the staple salad- and my entree: Ham with sauteed mushrooms-so good, mushrooms are in season right now in Spain so they were everywhere

For dessert I had a bite of Flan

here we are in front of the Palace we walked everywhere and so here are some of my window shopping pictures...

Ham legs and cheese, yes they really have these legs hanging- kinda gross I know.

Lots of Christmas goodies!
We got hungry mid afternoon one day and stopped by a vegetarian fast food joint, it was very good and refreshing from all the ham! I had a salad with garbanzo beans, olives, hot peppers, cucumber, fried cauliflower, tabouli, and a falafal ball on the side I of course wanted to go to super mercado and see what it was like. They are HUGE and full of much more than just food and paper towels; they have 9 floors of household goods, clothing, purses and accessories, tools, furniture, appliances and much more! Here are some things I saw in the grocery section:
Their shopping baskets are genius; first off they roll, they are smaller than the metal cart you see above and in the USA, and they are pretty cute too!
Here are a few crustaceans and other sea creatures :)

I picked up some goodies to have for snacks and breakfast- Activia in 2 flavors I have not seen in the USA; Muesli and Kiwi (the kiwi was a bit artificial tasting, but the Muesli was very tasty and had chunks of nuts and cereal in it), dried garbanzo beans (these had a wonderful flavor and the texture similar to a nut but crunchier and they became powdery when you chew them), and some dried prunes . I have never really had prunes so this was a test run and I must say they are delicious but I bet the fresh ones that you ladies discuss are better.

There were a ton of Christmas lights and trees set up in all the main squares all over Madrid

Here I am after a good day of shopping and ready to shower and go out on the town to find some good food and drink!
We all went out for dinner to a very reasonably priced restaurant with fancy decor and simple but beautiful food, here is our table before the food came-full of wine of course
this was my starter dish, it was not very tasty but it sure looks good; shrimp with green beans, carrots, tomatoes and chives in a mustard seen olive oil.

This was my moms- Salmon with brie wrapped asparagus and tomatoes, it was better than mine so I ate most of hers:)

My entree was a salad with cold cod an caviar in a white wine dressing, it was very tasty!

For dessert we all split this french toast like cakey bread pudding like dish topped with ice cream and Cinnamon and a chocolate cake dish. Sean had an Irish coffee in true Irish form-it was very strong!

Well wfewww- that was a long one! But if you can believe it that is not all, probably not even half! So I will be doing another BIG Spain post soon! And I will try to get to my eats from today before I hit the sack!

C