Adventures in (Cooking in) Barcelona

Well, the big news is, we got our 'empadronamiento' paperwork done, so we can get on the public healthcare (OoOoh, socialized medicine!) and we have given our fingerprints to the police to get our 'foreigner identification cards'. Whee! 

We also spent a few hours at IKEA a couple of weeks ago, and added some more necessary furniture pieces to the apartment. I have a desk and a chair now (in the main bedroom), and a utility cart in the kitchen to make our countertop space more available. We will also need bookcases when our stuff shows up... I'm not used to living in places without bookshelves! The desk and chair turned out to be super useful this week, as the A/C went out at the office last week, and they show no signs of having it fixed so far. So, WFH it is. 

IKEA also had mixing bowls, kitchen tongs, and some other necessities. So I've also been cooking more, trying to get used to the kitchen, different pots & pans, knives, etc. Some of that stuff will arrive in our boxes on the boat in a few weeks, but not all of it. 

I brought a handful of my standard rotation recipes and have been remembering (or googling) others. I'm filling in my 'pantry' and spice cabinet (and learning what things are called in Spanish). Sadly, the nearest ALDI to our place is mostly geared towards students and short-term visitors, so there's not a great selection of nicer food items or fresh produce, but we are surveying the eleventy-gazillion other "supermercados" in the vicinity... and when I get really desperate, I can take our rolling cart and hike over to one of the big Mercadona supermarkets that's 20 mins away. More adventures!

In the meantime, I've made a lot of chicken+pasta+veg, some roasted salmon and brown rice, our favorite Southwestern ground beef & sweet potato skillet (though that tasted weird without our regular HEB chili powder!), and even the best turkey burgers -- once I found the right ingredients at the little Asian grocery store across the street.  

I was all excited to make cod with coriander and carrots, but I didn't realize until I took a bite that I had purchased *salted* cod. Bleh. I'll be more careful next time. At least it looks pretty on the plate. :)  

There have been lots of studies about the 'Mediterranean diet' and how healthy it is. Mostly it just feels better to eat fresh fruits and vegetables more often... and we certainly do a lot more walking than we ever did in Austin.  

One thing I miss (and I'm sorry I didn't pack into a box to ship over here) -- my Le Creuset dutch oven. At least, I don't *think* I packed it... I'll be REALLY excited if it shows up in one of our boxes!

And now for the sad news - my gut has been cranky for a few weeks, and I think it's trying to tell me that for all of my excitement eating bread and pasta over here, I may have overdone it already, and the rebellion has begun. :(  Back to gluten-free for me for a while, until I can figure out what's going on. Tragic! 

We have also gotten back into puzzling... and it turns out there's a jigsaw puzzle store four blocks from our apartment! That could be dangerous. We need to find some people to swap puzzles with to feed our habit. 

This weekend we went up to the Gracia neighborhood to check out the decorations for the Festa de Gracia. More on that in my next post!