Tapas

A special Cava tin I bought whilst in Spain

Wow! What an amazing year 2011 was! Friday 6 Jan makes it one year officially since we made the tree change to Ballarat and just over 6 months since the opening of my corner shop The Crafty Squirrel.

In the lead up to Christmas we caught up with some dear friends for a nice drinks and nibbles (as you do) and being the well-traveled lot they are the drink of the evening was Spanish Cava (Cava is Catalan for "cellar" and is produced the same way as champagne but can't be called champagne…)

Anyway…this reminded me of my fantastic trip to Spain all those years ago (before I had children) and I wined and dined my way around the country. I have always been a big fan of sparkling wine so of course Cava was often on the menu as was a selection of tapas to keep me going until I had dinner at 11pm as the Spanish like to do.

Mmm…tapas….yum….tapas….I love tapas…..in fact - I love any kind of eating that is made up of lots of different things – primarily eaten with your fingers. The kids and I call this kind of eating a ‘picky dinner’ because we all get to pick little bits of different things to eat. Yum!

Not long after our Cava evening – my husband Sam came home with a Christmas gift for himself – two Jamie Oliver cookbooks. One of the books is based around his interpretation of well known favourite foods of various European countries with Spain being first cab off the rank.

Jamie does...Spain, Italy, Morocco, Greece, Sweden & France

Croquetas were one of my favourite tapas – naughty, but so delicious you just can’t help yourself. Of course Jamie has a recipe which I am inspired to try myself and I know the addition of this tasty morsel in a summer ‘picky’ dinner - al fresco in our garden is definitely on the cards…along with another glass or two of Cava to wash it all down.

Here’s Cheers! Salud! Happy Summer everyone!