Thanksgiving

The 2013 Christmas Season was upon us. I define the Season as commencing with Thanksgiving and concluding with New Years - this attempts, but fails, to explain the inclusion of Josep Llimona's magnificent, Passion sculpture found in Barcelona's Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia - he is primarily knowns for his work 'Desolation,' one of Steph's favorite sculptures - this Passion one (name?) being my personal favorite. Within the context of said Season we were hungry for the comforts of home. These comforts came in the form of good friends and good ol' American culinary classics. How better to say "Happy Thanksgiving!" than with pumpkin cookies??

There are few people in this wide world who would drop all pre-established Thanksgiving rituals to wing their way across the blue Atlantic and join us for a slightly-contrived Thanksgiving celebration. Contrived only due to the complete dearth of pumpkins in Barcelona, and due to the holiday being kinda an American thing. But improvise we did, and the Heartys were the catalyst as they smuggled pumpkins into the country on our behalf...(okay, not really - they legally escorted one large can of pumpkin filling - but you really can't taste the difference).

The Llimona sculpture is housed within the courtyard of this impressive church, the Cathedral of Barcelona (not to be confused with Sagrada Familia)

You may recall the co-patron saint of Barcelona, Saint Eulalia, who was a Christina martyr under Emperor Diocletian in 303 A.D. This pictured chapel, housed within the Cathedral, is dedicated to her memory. The method of her torture and subsequent execution is egregious beyond belief, but the history states she was placed into a barrel full of broken glass and knives, and rolled down a street in Barcelona, only then to have her breasts cut off, then to be crucified, and finally beheaded. Don't let anyone tell you the world is getting worse and worse; it's always been a fallen and dark place.

Inspiring awe is the grandly-gothic Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia

After swallowing much history and architecture it's always time for food and wine. This go around we wanted to introduce Ben and Lauren to one of our favorite genres - pintxos - buffet meets finger-food meets the marriage of Spain & France - better known as Basque Country's pub food. Grab and devour, keep the toothpicks; you're charged a flat rate per item. (The house vino turned out to be particularly good, too - more than we can say for the typical French house wine...)

Imaginative wine labeling - colored clothes pins!

Speaking of good wines, say hello to our all-time favorite find during our Spanish tenure: Bodegas Ateca's Honoro Vera, a Garnacha from Catalonia. Drinking like a $30 bottle, it could be had in Barca - if you know where to look - for only 6eur. Upon our arrival State-side it was with a mixture of joy and devastation that I found this very label at the Alexandria Whole Foods for ...gulp... $14. Well, it's still a great buy at that price.

Those are Ben's hands, carving the gobble-gobble.

Happy Thanksgiving (Barca style) from the Redfields and Heartys!