Painting it Red – Furia Roja Style

Hola Bloggies:

I have a confession to make. Yours truly has a World Cup problem. No. Really. I watched pretty well most of the matches during the last couple of weeks. This despite the fact that many took place in the middle of the day.

Crazy, eh!?

At one point the World Cup threatened to turn into a disappointment (I would have been very sad over a Germany-Netherlands final) but the Spaniards came through and fought their way to the final. To celebrate the occasion I prepared a tapas style luncheon and invited one of my co-workers to come watch the game.

 

Who said noon is too early to start drinking!! Ha! I chose a couple of Spanish wines but we ended up only opening the Rosé – it was crazy hot. Turned out to be delish.

Given the heat and the lack of air conditioning in the casa, I did my best to avoid dishes that involved too much cooking. Hence the tapas style meal.

Those mushrooms are a favourite of mine. They are kind of pickled and have a lovely texture and taste.

To make the salad I used a bag of mixed field greens grown by a local producers. There were even flowers in that bowl.

Ah…cheese and bread. How I love thee. Originally I had hoped to serve Spanish cheeses but my plans were thwarted by the local cheese selection. Instead, I opted for goat cheese, smoked cheddar cheese, and brie.

Chorizo and cured ham. Both proved a hit!

This is the only dish I actually cooked on my stove top – shrimp in a sherry, paprika, garlic, and red pepper flake sauce.

And the last item – some grilled chicken marinated in a saffron spice mix.

For the dessert I served an un-pictured dulce de leche cheesecake I purchased at a local store. Truthfully, I would have rather just eaten the dulce solo!

On the whole the game and the Cup were thoroughly enjoyable – one of my favourite teams ended up winning! Woohoo!!! Too bad I have to wait four more years until the next one!

The good news is we plan on being in Brazil in 2014 – we figure we will go and watch some games then tour the country. It will be a trip of a lifetime and I`m excited already!!!

 

Did you watch the World Cup? What were your favourite moments? If you did not watch the World Cup, what is your favourite sport?

As for me – here are my highs and lows of the World Cup.

High – South Africa scoring the first goal of the tourney

Low – France imploding in the most embarrassing debacle ever

High – Italy failing to make it out of the group stages despite being in a dead easy group

Low – The sour way the Dutch behaved after it became clear Spain would win the Cup

High – Watching Forlan play. He was clearly the revelation of the tourney and Manchester United must surely be kicking themselves now (he used to play for them)