2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,100 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 10 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 67 posts. There were 5 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 10mb.

The busiest day of the year was February 10th with 35 views. The most popular post that day was Empanada de Atun.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, superkitchenmachine.com, brazen20au.blogspot.com, larapastor.blogspot.com, and forumthermomix.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for maggiano’s spinach salad recipe, empanada espanola, spinach and roasted red pepper salad, empanada de atun, and salad with roasted red peppers.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Empanada de Atun July 2009
2 comments

2

Spinach Salad with roasted red peppers and sweet onions November 2009

3

About Sarah and Carlos July 2008
11 comments

4

Spanish Carrot Cake July 2008

5

Vegetable Curry Quinoa August 2008
1 comment

Potato and Garbanzo Stew

It’s a very good version of a chickpea/garbanzo soup. But this is a stew. Our little one loves it.

• 1 pound potatoes
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 1 large onion
• 2 pinches saffron (optional)
• 2 large red peppers chipped
• 1 yellow pepper in strips
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup medium-dry sherry
• 2 cups canned crushed tomatoes with juice
• 2 1/2 cups chickpeas
• 3 cups chickpea broth
• salt and pepper

Picada (makes 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup almonds at 350 F until pale gold (8-10 minutes). set aside. Fry one slice of country-style bread in 2 Tbs olive oil until golden. Grind bread, almonds, and 2 cloves garlic and a pinch of salt to make a crumbly paste.

Romesco Sauce:

• 1 slice bread
• olive oil for frying
• 1/4 cup roasted almonds
• 1/4 cup hazelnuts, roasted
• 3 cloves garlic
• chile
• 4 Roma tomatoes
• 1 tbs parsley leaves
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 roasted red pepper
• 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
• 1/2 cup spanish olive oil.

Fry bread. Grind bread, nuts, garlic, and chile. Add everything but vinegar and olil and process until smooth. with machine running, gradually pour in vinegar, then the oil. Taste for piquancy and salt.

Saute onions, schafran, garlic and potatoes, over medium heat. About 25 minutes. Potatoes should be tender and firm. Add paprika, parseley and pepper flakes, and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add sherry (or any substitute, we for example used rice wine vinegar) until thick and sirope for 12 minutes. Add tomatoes, garbanzos and broth. Add salt and pepper. Covering cook on low heat, until potatoes are done.

Sprinkle the Picada and parsley at the end on top.

Blueberry Oat Scones

Oatmeal Blueberry Scones

We’re getting ready to leave California, and we’re sad. Not only because it’s very nice here, but because, we have to pack and start life again in a new place. Many people tell us our lives are really exciting, having traveled to so many places, etc. But for us, we’re looking forward to finding a stable place. Especially now that we have a little one.

Anyways, Sarah now is trying to cook with the things we have in the cupboards. We have a lot of oatmeal, from Costco (American big supermarket which sells things in big quantities), so Oat Scones sounded good. Sarah found a recipe in the book Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. It’s kind of sad, we’re transcribing this simple recipe instead of many other wonderful recipes the book has. You might see a few more from this book before we leave here.

One of the variations for this recipe it’s putting blueberries. Besides they’re yummy, Sarah has pledged to eat as many berries as she can before leaving the States. Her reasoning is that in Spain there are not blueberries and that in Denmark, they are somewhat pricy. That’s fine with Carlos, although he’s a little afraid of becoming a blueberry himself. The little one likes them too, although we cut them in little pieces for her.

This is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rolled oats, plus extra for the counter
• 1-1/2 cups all/purpose or whole-wheat pastry flour
• 3 tablespoons brown suga
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 7 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup plus tablespoons milk or cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 blueberries

Preheat the oven to 425 (Fahrenheit) or 220 (Celsius).

Mix: The dry ingredients together, then cut in the butter with your fingers or two knives until coarse crumbs are formed. Beat the egg with the milk and vanilla and stir it into the dough. Mix just enough to moisten the dry ingredients evenly. Scatter some oats on the counter and turn the dough out on top of them. Pat into a  circle about 2 cm thick, then cut into eight wedges and place each piece on the oven. Bake until good browned, 15 to 18 minutes. Serve warm. It’s a nice snack.