Mercado de San Miguel

One of my favorite food places in the world is the Mercado de San Miguel in Madrid. The mercado is what I would call food heaven. After our first visit all I wanted to do is return again and again while we were in Madrid. You can get small samples of anything you can think of Spanish related. We had so much fun going from booth to booth tasting things. We ended up spending a large amount of time at the Vermut (Vermouth) and Sherry tasting booth. It is there that I discovered my new love for Vermouth. Evenings there are fun but crowded. Serious eaters should arrive earlier to avoid the lines.

My favorite was the Vermut tasting. A glass of sweet, dry or semi-sweet vermouth was great with a plate of olives.

It wasn’t until the end of our Madrid stay did I discovered that I liked Sherries as well.

One mustn’t forget desserts as well. There were plenty of those to try.

Pre-race meal

The meal from last night to prepare for this morning’s race. It seems to work out well. I think I will stick with this until I get sick on salmon. A salad with olives, tomatoes and feta was served on the side.

Poor Pineapple

I had high hopes for my pineapple but it is no more. Apparently the abundance of rain was too much for the plant and the pineapple turned yellow. I was going to leave it for a while longer but the pineapple smell was strong. I will try to cut it open tomorrow and see if we can eat what is there.
Until next time….

Salmon Orzo Salad

This is another addition of lets make a salad of whatever we have in the refrigerator. Today is was a salmon orzo Salad.
I had some orzo I wanted to finish off so I threw together a few things.

All amounts are approximate.

1 cup of dried orzo cooked according to package
1/2 of 14.75 oz can of wild caught alaskan pink salmon (the one that has the bones and skin)
2 medium tomatoes chopped
1/2 cup black olives chopped
2 medium roasted red peppers (jar) chopped
Juice from 1/2 lemon
dash dried oregano
dash dried dill
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients. If at room temperature, chill before serving.
I also added some feta cheese mixed in.
Quite tasty mid-day meal.

Bananas!

My new favorite treat is bananas and almond butter.
The recipe is simple: one ripe banana sliced and topped with crunchy almond butter (freshly made from whole foods with no extra ingredients added).
It is so sweet and so good.