I'm lucky enough to have a Spanish friend here who goes home to Spain every so often and brings me back little food gifts! She knows I used to live there and that I miss certain things. One of my favorite things she brought back was the Cola Cao, pictured above. I can actually buy Cola Cao here in the Portuguese markets, but not the "Original" kind, which is the kind I grew up with, so she brought this back for me. I loved seeing and remembering the old container, just like the ones I used to know. :) My kids LOVE Cola Cao- it's chocolaty and you mix it with either hot or cold milk. I think it's so much better than any American hot cocoa mix. I love hot chocolate- but either make my own from scratch, from a homemade mix, or this. There are no weird ingredients. One of my sons has been having a mug of warm Cola Cao every morning lately, as it is pretty cold here right now. I'm lucky that I can buy it here, like I said- they sell the "Energy" kind here, and some other ones. The newer ones dissolve more easily that "Original". Want to buy some Original Cola Cao? Check out La Tienda- it's even on sale! :)
One Spanish treat that I can get here easily is Magdalena muffins- small, sweet and lemony muffins that are common to have for breakfast. In fact, two of my kids are loving to have a Magdalena and some hot Cola Cao for breakfast lately. So Spanish! I just found a recipe for homemade Magdalenas, which I am anxious to try.
Another treat I loved from Spain but haven't had since I lived there is polvorónes. They are little melt-in-your mouth cookies, so soft and buttery because the amount of fat (usually pork lard!) that they contain. I grew up taking an individually-packaged cookie and squishing it in my hand. Then you open the package and eat the cookie. It is soooo good- crumbly, but with a melt-in-your mouth texture. They are traditionally eaten at Christmas time. Some of them are also called "mantecados". Well, this year, my friend was nice enough to bring me back a bag of these. I was SO EXCITED!!!! I ate them pretty quickly, lol, leaving me to search the internet for recipes I can make at home.
**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com**
No comments:
Post a Comment