Paella at Home

After visiting Spain and partaking in the most delicious paella I thought I should try making it at home. Now I don't have the special paella dish that you're supposed to cook it in so I cooked it in my biggest frying pan and it turned out great. Here is the recipe I used:






4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 ounces chorize sausage, cut into pieces
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes
1 (12 ounce) package uncooked Arborio rice
5 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 pinch saffron
1 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper to taste
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup frozen green peas
1/4 cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
8 slices lemon, for garnish

Heat olive oil in paella pan over medium heat. Add in onion, garlic and pepper; cook and stir for a few minutes. Add chorizo sausage, diced chicken, and rice; cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in 3 1/2 cups stock, wine, thyme leaves, paprika, and saffron. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, and simmer for 15 minutes; stir occasionally. Taste the rice, and check to see if it is cooked. If the rice is uncooked, stir in 1/2 cup more stock. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally. Stir in additional stock if necessary, up to 2 cups additional stock, 5 cups total. Cook until rice is done. Stir in tomatoes and peas. Cook for 2 minutes. Cover with foil, and leave for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the foil, and scatter parsley over the food. Serve in paella pan, garnished with lemon wedges for squeezing.

Barcelona

Last month Matt and I took a trip to Barcelona, Spain. It was my first time to Spain and I was very excited to be going. After spending four days there I have to say I did not feel like I was in Spain but rather felt like I was in just some big European city. It was somewhat disappointing. The weather was nice and we had some good food (yay for Spanish paella and tapas!). We also got to see a Spanish guitar duo play a concert in a cathedral one night which was just amazing. Other than that I found Barcelona to be a rather mediocre city for my taste. There is endless shopping and a number of sites to see (the Gaudi cathedral being the best) but it can be frustrating as it is a very expensive city. Every attraction you go to you must pay to get in whereas every other city in Europe I have been to each have a handful of things that are free.

While in Barcelona we visited the Gaudi cathedral, the Picasso museum, Mountjuic Castle by cable car, the harbour, La Ramblas, the block of discord, and two places connected with Christopher Columbus. The first was the Royal Palace where Columbus came to greet the king and queen of Spain upon his return from the New World and the other was the Barcelona cathedral which holds the chapel and baptistery where Columbus brought the Native Americans to be baptized who had returned to Spain with him. These places were very cool to see as an American. The churches and cathedrals of Spain were architecturally beautiful but more cold and dead feeling than any others that I have been in so far.

One of my favorite things to experience in Spain was the famous Spanish rice dish, paella. Since neither Matt nor I like seafood we opted for the chicken and vegetable paella and were able to have it twice at 2 different places and it was outstanding! So even though I wasn't as crazy about Barcelona as many of the other places I have been it was worth going to just to eat the paella and tapas and to hear live Spanish guitar!

Recent International Wine & Cheese Party

Two Fridays ago I went over to my Welsh friend Catrin's house for a wine and cheese party. The internationality of my circles over here never ceases to amaze me! There were 8 countries represented in this small party- Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England, Finland, Germany, Australia, and America! Hanging out with internationals is definitely my favorite thing about living in Europe. Here are a few pics from the party which was great fun...

To explain a bit- the picture to the left is my friend Catrin and I cracking up while playing the game Empire (fun game!). The picture with the fur is my English friend Clare (she sounds just like Elizabeth Bennet from Pride & Prejudice when she talks) holding a mink. The mink was left to Catrin by an Australian friend who acquired it while in Norway but didn't think she could get it through customs in Australia so she had to leave it in Dublin when she left for home. The gross mink makes frequent appearances at parties. Oh, how Indi and Sharptooth would love to get ahold of him!

Free Music at Noise Trade

I can't believe I didn't blog about this sooner! There is a website called Noise Trade that has tons of album downloads from a bunch of different artists. They are all free and legal as it is artists who are trying to get their music out there and heard. Over the past few months I have gotten several really great albums from this site. I have even discovered an artist who has become a favorite over night for me. Her name is Sandra McCracken. Have you heard her? What a JEWEL of an artist!!! There are about 150 albums on there for download right now. You can preview the album before you download. To download it all you have to do is give 5 email addresses of friends that Noise Trade will send one email to (they don't spam you or your friends!) telling them about the particular album you are downloading. Here are some of the artists on Noise Trade right now that I recommend to you:

Sandra McCracken

Derek Webb

Justin McRoberts

Waterdeep

Kate York

Kate Herzig

Matthew Perryman Jones

Matthew Mayfield

Blake Aaron Guthrie

Sojourn

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The Vault is Open!

If you haven't heard the wonderful news already brace yourself. The best Bible teacher in the world has put all his sermons online for free download. Thats right, Johnny Mac has opened the vault! You can search by title, series, Scripture, date, or sermon code. http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons

Here are a few recommends to get you started.


The Battle for the Beginning
Discernment: Spiritual Survial for a Church in Crisis
The Master's Men
Chosen For Eternity
The Birth of The King
The Doctrines of Grace
The Gospel According to Jesus
God, Satan, and Angels
God's High Calling for Women
Hard to Believe
Putting God in His Place: The Case for Sovereign Choice
Salvation Survey: Saved or Self-Deceived?
Stephen: Profile in Courage
The Tale of Two Sons
Where Did Sin Begin?

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Making New International Friends

My church over here in Dublin runs a ministry called "English Corner." Every Friday afternoon the church opens up its doors to serve a free lunch and speak conversational English with foreigners who are here trying to learn or improve their English. I am one of the many native English speakers helping out. I have been so blessed by this ministry in the few short weeks I have been involved. I love meeting people from all over the world and although speaking English with foreigners can at times be frustrating, awkward, tiring, and even scary (for a shy person like me), it is really fun! Last week I made my first friends from South Korea, a girl and two guys. The girl's English name is Jenna (most Asians will adopt an English name so westerners can pronounce it) and she is the sweetest and most joyful girl. She has been here just a few months and is a Christian. We have started meeting together on a weekly basis to read the Bible. She shared with me that she struggles with understanding Romans so we are going to tackle it together. The two guys I met, Kim and Soo, came over today to watch the Manchester United soccer game with Matt while I made lunch. I wanted to make them something they had probably never had before so I made them big old taco salads. They didn't know what they were but they seemed to like them a lot (I had to keep from laughing when I saw them eating their tortilla chips with sour cream). I also made chocolate chip and M&M cookies and sent them home with a bag. It was really fun having them over and learning about South Korea. They told me they don't eat cats there but dogs are considered healthy, a delicacy, and good to eat when you are sick! It was also fun hearing their impressions of Ireland. They think it is very strange that we don't take our shoes off when we go into someone's house and they think carpeting is also very strange.

I also met some guys from Iran this week who go to my church. They were very interesting and a bit intimidating to talk to. Halfway through the conversation I was shocked to hear them say that they love George Bush and that they wanted McCain to win the election. I really thought they were joking with me at first but they were dead serious. They told me the Iranian people all love George Bush because of the way he looks at the Iranian people. My church has a handful of Iranian members and hosts an Iranian service in Farsi every month. I hope to go next time and get to know more of the Iranians who are fascinatingly different than any other nationality I have interacted with. Praise be to God for calling his church out of every tribe, tongue, and nation!!

Putting the Election into Perspective

I stayed up watching the election the other night til about one in the morning. My prayer was for God to be merciful to the U.S. even though we don't deserve it. I prayed for his will to be done concerning which candidate would be elected and then prayed that I would be able to accept his decision no matter who he chose to put in power. I am not especially crazy about John McCain but he was my choice due to the fact that he is pro-life and I think he will do a good job with matters of national security.

I awoke around 3:30 and went out to the TV. By this time Obama was at 207 while McCain was at 141. I watched for the next 30 minutes. As soon as the polls on the west coast closed (4:00 AM my time) Obama was announced the to be the next president of the United States. Though this didn't come as much of a shock I must admit that I was sick to my stomach upon the declaration.

About two months ago Obama was asked when life begins during a forum. I watched as he replied that the answer to that question was "above his pay grade," - an ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS answer!! If he really feels this way you would think he would err on the side of caution but he has the most radical voting record in the senate on matters of abortion. He can say whatever he thinks sounds clever but it is crystal clear how he feels on the matter and God will hold him accountable.

This being said I know the best thing to do is to pray for him as our leader, to trust in our sovereign God who always does what is right, and to remember that this world is not our home.

Here are some great remarks made by John Piper to put the election into proper perspective.