CASTANYADA

This year we were making panellets - any kind of marzipan cookies, that is the main desert in Castanyada festival. As one of my biggest passions is cooking, experimenting and creating dishes, so I am very happy to find out how to make panallets. I have assistant Nuria who is loves to help in cooking process. So first we make a paste of almonds, sugar, boiled potato and spices, then small balls, which we roll in egg white and then nuts or cocoa or dry fruits. The good things here is that you can use all your fantasy as much as you want and to create any kind of panallets. Then we smear them with yolk and put in oven for 5 -10 min.

Tasty, tasty, tasy. I was happy to receive so many compliments, especially making them for a first time.

The most popular panellets are the ones covered with pine nuts. Panellets usually are eaten together with sweet vine Moscatell or any other one.

Castanyada is one of the most popular Catalan festivals, and it is celebrated on All Saint's Day. The roots of this tradition are found already in end of 18th century and there are several explications about it. This time a big imporance is for food eaten during the festival - panellets, sweet potato, roasted chestnuts and sweet vine. There is also story about castanyera - an old lady who is dressed in peasant's clothes and wearing a heads craft, she is roasting chestnuts on the street and then selling them rapped in a paper of newspaper. Usually around this time is a little bit cold outside, so this makes hot chestnut sale on the streets really attractive. Usually castanyada is celebrated with friends or family having a meal together and roasting chestnuts and having nice talk and commemoration of people who have passed by. Festival also signify autumn entry. Children are very amazed of this event and it is widely celebrated in kindergartens and schools.

CAMPING IN CAMPRODON

This year my husband Pol got in his birthday fantastic present - red camping tent. Congratulations Pol in your birthday !!! You are amazing and I love you with all my heart. So let's go out to celebrate, this time in nature in Camprodon - a small inland town of Catalunya. Taking in account that autumn is here, we enjoy amazingly beautiful landscape views. As this is almost the end of camping seson the majority of campings are closed for winter time. We are lucky to have one and beside very good. For me it is a discovery, as I do it first time in Catalunya. I was really amazed how good everything was organized in a camping we overnight. So many families use campings as a summer holiday place, that seemsed quite strange for me by the way. People were very kind and talkative, so very nice atmosphere. There were also small shop and very cozy restaurant, though we could have a very nice dinner. Everybody happy, night comes, brrrrrrrr, starts to be very, very cold, in the evening temperature dropped quite a lot and in a middle of a night to 0 gr.C. As I am from north, just love this adventure. The sky and the stars were extremely beautiful that night, so vivid and wide, mountains around and peace of night. The huge contact with nature and purity - great.

Next day we make a small trip to a town called Camprodon. I love to see how much Nuria loves nature. On a way we pick up blackberries and they were so tasty, mmmmmmm, and we pass cooky factory Birba. So this is the place where biscuits Nuria come from. Camprodon is a very small inland town, but is has it's own charm, here has had borned very famous composer Albeniz, we visit his museum, I got really amazed of his story.

Feeding ducks is always a part of Nurias adventures. I enjoy seeing kids so happy giving bread to the birds and ducks even more happy. Such a perfect day. Autumn smell is in the air, some colorful leaves in the trees or falling , happy people, peace all around, laughter of children, nice.

For the full happiness of Nuria in the camping also was a small farm and among so many animals there were two ponies also available for a ride. So this was a moment of a day for my daughter.

Another fantastic weekend is over. Conclusion is clear - I really like camping.

FREIXENET

Here we are in the world of bubbles,called Freixenet. The story of this cava producing place is very long and complicate and all the numbers are really impressive, I mean numbers about volume of production and part of market all over the world.

http://www.freixenet.es/default.asp?lang=3

It's is worth to see it.

Let's go to see what happens in basements 35 m under.

Untouched bottles from 1982.

Living in Catalunya I have learned a lot not only about wines but also about cava, and honestly I have never drank so much cava before as living here. It is a part of culture which you can not resist.

WORLD OF WINE OF PERE OLIVELLA

Another season of grape harvest is here. This time we are visiting one of wineries in our neighbourood Penedès called Pere Olivella Galimany. By the way whire grapeaps are always picked up first and then the red ones. Picking up of grapes starts in the begining of September and can finish in November for the late sorts. The hostess of winery is very hospital showing us all the cellars and explaining the process of making wine and cava (that they they mainly produce). So let's see that happens behind this door after picking up the grapes in all those huge fields around.



In these huge tanks is captured the juice of grapes in order cool the juice down to 16 gr. C and to add all the necessary components to make good wine or cava. That takes only one day, afterwards it gets filled in the bottles and brought down in the cellar. Depending of the kind of wine or cava follows its life down in the cellar. The cellar is created in a way not only to be used for storage of bottles but also as guide in a world of wine, allowing us to see some antic tools and unique collection of bottles of wine and cava. The oldest which I saw was from the beginning of 19th century. As this winery is 152 years old and is a business of a family, we could hear an interesting histories how has been developed the techniques of producing wine. Now is the 5th generation which is taking care of this winery.







Every box has a label with the description of wine on it and when it is going to be ready to follow it's way. The every bottle gets it's label and gets packed in boxes. 30 % of bottles produced in this winery get exported. Our visits ends with tasting some cava and buying some bottles of wine to know better this winery. I got a lot of positive emotions as this infinite world of wine and cava is a huge discovery and makes me feel more closer to the nature.

VISCA el BARCA

If you want to know something about real passion, you should be here (in Catalunya)) when some very important football games are happening. This time I am completely involved as it is European championship and plays BARCA and Manchester Unites. All the day people were talking just about the game which is giong to be in the evening. During the game the feeling was like everybody just breaths together during the game. If somebody wants to have an excursion in Barcelona having nobody out and having possibility to walk down the streets just on your own, this is a perfect moment for that. The happiness of people was more that huge then BARCA became a champions of Europe 2011. Celebration longed not only all the night but also some days afterwards. The most funny thing was that next day a lot of classmates in Nuria`s kinder garden came dressed in BARCAS costumes. All the nation got VERY united and level of happiness and pride was undescriptive, so many people were crying tears of happiness. I can agree with all those who say - BARCA is more than just a football team!

VIA VERDE

The biking adventure life continues, and this time we are a real team – I, Pol, Nuria, Ana, Holger and Noa. The choice went for Via Verde. What is Via verde you would wonder. That is a path which is done in a trace of old train rails, and can be used for biking or walking, goes through beautiful fields and countryside towns. The one we took started in Girona and went until sea town Sant Felliu del Gissuls, totally 40 km. For our luck the weather was cloudy and a bit cool, so we could enjoy the riding and discovering surroundings.

The station building.

Let me introduce you - this is a river. Growing up near Daugava, I see it quite strange. But this is how a lot of rivers are mainly in summer time. In return here is Mediterranean sea.

Deserved bears.

Another time I can say Catalunya is BEAUTIFUL, I love it every day more and more. We were lucky to see fields of blossoming poppies, apple and pear trees.

Coming back the girls were having really sweet dreams after having so much fun.